Jennifer Roberts as Wilma-May in Broad Minds Productions latest show, Wilma-May and Her Tight White Socks

A touching act of love sparked Jennifer Roberts's latest one-woman show, Wilma-May and Her Tight White Socks, by Broad Minds Productions.

Roberts was inspired by her grandparents, who were together for more than a decade, split up for 25 years, then got back together again. "On one occasion, my granddad drove from Edmonton to Calgary, after getting off work at midnight, just to give my grandmother a long-stemmed rose. I wanted to do a tribute to that story," says Roberts.

Wilma-May and Her Tight White Socks was conceived during One Yellow Rabbit's summer lab intensive in 2004. The play follows the title character over a 12-week stretch of her life. Wilma-May is afraid of everything from giraffes to tight white socks. So afraid, in fact, that she locks herself in her apartment and decides never to go out again. However, she runs out of light bulbs. And guess what? She's afraid of the dark. She then joins an online support group to work up the courage to leave her apartment and get more bulbs. (Audience members are also in group therapy with Wilma-May.)

During the 70-minute show, Roberts also embodies Wilma-May's grandmother, who dispenses such words of wisdom as, "The opposite of love is not hate, but fear."

"When you say you hate something, you're using hate to mask what you really feel, which is fear. If you let that rule you, then there's no room for love to come in," says Roberts. "I hope people who see this will think about their own fears and how fear can control their lives.”

The play runs until February 9 at the Pumphouse Theatres (2140 Pumphouse Ave. S.W.).

STAR-CROSSED LOVERS

The Shakespeare Company will host its opening night gala of Romeo and Juliet on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14 at the Arrata Opera Centre. Director Iam Coulter has whittled the text down so the action fits into two hours. Don't expect any trendy interpretations in this play. "Romeo and Juliet is a timeless love story. The minute you put it in a decade, you're trapping yourself," Coulter says.

She says her launching point into the production was looking at "the passion of love and hate and where those cross within each of us — those points where passion annihilates reason.”

"Romeo and Juliet appeals to young people so much, because it tells the story of people who are so consumed with their passions that they're not thinking about the consequences,” she adds. “That's what sets teens apart from adults. I want people to experience the play in a way that awakens the 16- or 17-year-old they once were, when they would have done anything for love.”

The Shakespeare Company hired not one but two fight choreographers to ensure the sword-fighting scenes are particularly dazzling. The famous balcony scene will actually unfold on a balcony, and the Arrata Opera Centre's stained-glass windows and vibrant acoustics should add to the overall feel of the show. "The audience will feel they're inside the action. It's a ride, as opposed to just witnessing it," says Coulter.

Romeo and Juliet runs until February 23 at the Arrata Opera Centre (1315 7 St. S.W.).

PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES

Workshop Theatre follows its latest production of To Kill a Mockingbird with some lighter fare, Richard Harris's Stepping Out. The play covers the trials and tribulations of an adult tap-dancing class in England in 1985. As the show progresses, bits of the characters' lives are revealed to the audience.

Longtime Workshop Theatre member Mike Hughes is directing the new show. "It was a challenge to incorporate tap-dancing into a British comedy. About half the cast came from an acting background and about half came from a dancing background, so we had to meet somewhere in the middle, " he says.

Enter Calgary's Joyce Reddy of Joyce Reddy Dancers. She got the non-tappers tapping and did the show’s choreography. Stepping Out marks the first dance-based show Workshop Theatre has done in its nearly 40-year history. (Hughes estimates that about 35 per cent of the show is dancing.) Audiences can also look forward to a variety of well-known tunes played by an onstage pianist.

Stepping Out runs February 1 to 9 at the Pumphouse Theatres.

WIRED WORLD

The implications of today's wired world — cyber-bullying, Internet luring, online predators, virtual reality — are the focus of Centre Stage Theatre's upcoming production, A Most Dangerous Game. "I found it disheartening that, with all the advances in technology, teens were getting disconnected from each other and their families," says playwright and director Bonnie Gratz. "However, they're still naive about how technology is used to manipulate them, because of their limited breadth of life experience."

The title comes from the 1924 short story of the same name. Gratz says she sees some parallels between that tale of a big-game hunter who discovers he's actually the hunted, and kids and technology today.

A Most Dangerous Game follows the lives of three teens, each of which has an intimate relationship with technology. One guy spends all his time alone and online. Another character uses the Internet to try and find a boyfriend while overlooking potential prospects around her, and another uses technology to bully others, which eventually backfires.

Gratz says she's not trying to be patronizing to kids. "It's less a cautionary tale, and more a discussion of how much fun it can be to get out there and meet each other and make one-on-one connections," she explains.

In keeping with the teens and tech theme, the production features an onstage DJ spinning an original hip hop score combined with ambient noise to give the audience a sense of place.

A Most Dangerous Game runs from February 1 to 3 in the Engineered Air Theatre (Epcor Centre).