Pumpjack Players

After months and months of twice-weekly practices following auditions back in January, Pumpjack Players’ children’s play hit the stage last weekend. Twenty-five area youth participated in Press Start, a new 8-bit musical which follows popular video game characters through a song and dance fundraiser so they can collect gold coins and keep playing. Created by Beat By Beat, written by Denver Casado and Brian Dawson, and directed by Brigette Moore, the show featured some well-known faces with a slight twist. Characters included a pair of Italian brothers who love stomping on mushrooms and smashing bricks for points to save a princess, a blue creature known for his ability to go fast, and an old-school round character known for running from ghosts through mazes. Though each character had slight variations to their name, so there wasn’t a copyright issue, the characters were obvious to the audience. Pac-Ann anyone? How about Speedy Hedgehog? They even had Connor McDavid in the cast because, why not? The Saturday and Sunday shows at the Whitecourt Community Center were well-acted, hilarious and full of beautiful singing by the actors. The sidekicks, villains and heroes of the gaming universe would be proud.