Cocktails at Pam’s
written and directed by Stewart Lemoine
40 years after its premiere production at the 1986 Fringe and 10 years after its last revival in the inaugural season of the rebuilt Varscona Theatre, Stewart Lemoine’s ultimate 1960s party of a play returns with an all new cast of 11. Pam was always the perfect hostess. Until the night there were more flowers than suitable vases… until the divorcée didn’t like her canapé… until… charades… (Content warning: Mirth!)
Starring
Shannon Blanchet - Pam
Rachel Bowron - Sara Black
Kendra Connor - Denise Powell
Belinda Cornish - Estelle Washington
Cathy Derkach - Rita
Oscar Derkx - Leon Bandelier
Mathew Hulshof - Virgil Black
Bella King - Cynthia Dallas
Andrew MacDonald-Smith - Julius Cochrane
Kristen Padayas - Lily Johnson
Troy O’Donnell - Max Powell
Creative Team
Director - Stewart Lemoine
Production Manager - Tiana McLean
Stage Manager - Christine Daisy Leroux
Set Designer - Chantel Fortin
Costume Designer - Leona Brausen
On the Varscona stage
July 10 - 26, 2026
Preview: July 9th
All Performances take place at VARSCONA THEATRE - Learn how to get to the theatre here
Evening performances start at 7:30 PM
Sunday Matinees start at 2 PM
Varscona Theatre lobby opens 45 minutes before the start of the performance
75 Minutes, no intermission
Run Time
Discover Teatro’s special ticket offers and themed evenings - from discounted previews to Pay-What-You-Can Tuesdays, dinner packages, and more!
Special Experiences
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Thursday, July 9th, 2026 at 7:30 PM. ALL tickets cost $25 each (our lowest ticket price!)
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A PWYC performance means you choose the ticket price! We recommend $20 per ticket, but we happily accept less or more!
The 39 Steps PWYC Performances are:
Tuesday, July 14th at 7:30 PM
Tuesday, July 21st at 7:30 PM
Please Note: PWYC tickets are available at the door only.Our Box Office opens at 6:45 PM and we accept cash, debit, and credit.
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On the 1st Wednesday of every run, be treated to complimentary wine and cheese at intermission (or post show if there is no intermission)! Generously hosted by our Board of Directors with wine provided by Dwayne Bayda with Marc Anthony Wines and Cheese and crackers provided by CKS Legal Technology Law.
Wine and Cheese Night for Cocktails at Pam’s Wednesday, July 10th
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Teatro is inviting you on a date . . . with BOXER Kitchen and Bar!
Make your evening of sparkling entertainment complete with a delicious pre-show dinner or charcuterie, courtesy of our neighbours at BOXER KITCHEN AND BAR.
We have two packages:
Dinner Package: One Teatro ticket + your choice of starter & main (5:30 PM seating) - $67
Charcuterie Package: Two Teatro tickets + wine & chef’s charcuterie (6:30 PM seating) - $98See the package dinner menu here
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Step into the spotlight with The Teatro Drama Club - a free night of theatre just for junior high and high school students!
Each event includes a fun pre-show workshop, snacks, and a post-show chat with the cast, all built around a Teatro play at the Varscona Theatre. Led by our Club Facilitator, Mel Bahniuk, Drama Club nights are your all-access pass to the magic, mischief, and creativity of live theatre!
Teatro Drama Club performance is our matinee performance on Sunday, July 19, 2026
Learn more and sign-up here
CREATIVE TEAM
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Shannon is delighted to be hosting Pam’s party for the very first time. She’s also pleased to be returning to Teatro where she made her professional acting and directing debuts with Stewart Lemoine’s Evelyn Strange in 2006 and 2022, respectively. Her numerous appearances with the company include The Importance of Being Earnest, A Rocky Night for His Nibs, The Salon of the Talking Turk, The Euphorians, and Whiplash Weekend. She toured internationally with Catalyst Theatre’s Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, and she made many appearances with Die Nasty: The Improvised Soap Opera. Shannon is currently an Associate Professor of Voice and Acting at the University of Saskatchewan’s School for the Arts.
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Appearing as the tart-tongued Sara Black, Rachel is thrilled to be stepping into Leona Brausen’s (figurative) shoes. “I’ve worn Brausen for years, but this is a whole new bowl o’ nuts.” says she. Rachel made her Teatro debut in 2011 as Oiseau in The Hoof and Mouth Advantage, and has since appeared with the company in Eros and the Itchy Ant, Barefoot in the Park, A Lesson in Brio, Caribbean Muskrat, Love is for Poor People, The Oculist’s Holiday, and On the Banks of the Nut. Her other local credits include Clue, The Garneau Block, and The Candidate/The Party at The Citadel Theatre, and she’s also been seen at Shadow Theatre and at The Mayfield Dinner Theatre, where she’ll return this fall for The Marvelous Wonderettes.
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Portraying charades enthusiast Denise for the first time, Kendra made her Teatro debut in 2008 in the double-bill of What Gives?/Revenge of the South Sea Bubble and she returned in The Infinite Shiver, Whiplash Weekend, The Hothouse Prince, I Heard About Your Murder, Skirts on Fire, and Far Away and Long Ago-go. She also appeared in Teatro’s annual holiday presentations of It’s a Wonderful Life and The Nutcracker Unhinged. She’s also worked locally with The Citadel Theatre, Edmonton Opera, The Mayfield Dinner Theatre, Theatre Network and Plain Janes, and most recently Northern Light Theatre in How Patty and Joanne Won High Gold at the Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition. Kendra has been the Varscona Theatre’s Executive Director since 2021.
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Delivering Estelle’s celebrated tirade on the subject of a particular unripened capsicum, Belinda will no doubt be drawing on her many years experience as a voluble and passionate leading lady of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. She made her Teatro debut in A Grand Time in the Rapids in 2005, and subsequently appeared in Witness to a Conga, The Exquisite Hour, Vidalia, Evelyn Strange, and Private Lives. Her Teatro directing credits include Fever Land, A Grand Time in the Rapids, The Oculist’s Holiday, and The Odd Couple. She was also Co-Artistic Director with the company from 2020 through 2023. She’s appeared frequently at The Citadel Theatre and The Mayfield Dinner Theatre, and produced numerous productions with her own company Bright Young Things, including No Exit, The Real Inspector Hound, Our Man in Havana, and The Bald Soprano.
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Given that she has Teatro credits ranging back 38 years, it might come as a surprise to many that Cathy hasn’t ever appeared in Cocktails at Pam’s before now. “I’m as shocked as anyone.” is her on-the-record response. Cathy debuted with Teatro in Neck-Breaking Car-Hop/Swiss Pajamas in 1988 and her other acting credits with the company include The Oculist’s Holiday, Fever Land, The Bad Seed, The Finest of Strangers, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Rocky Night for His Nibs, and all three productions of Eros and the Itchy Ant (in two different roles). She’s also served as musical director for Teatro’s productions of The Infinite Shiver and Far Away and Long Ago-go. In her four decade career she’s appeared with almost all local companies, including most recently Theatre Network, The Citadel Theatre, Edmonton Opera, and Shadow Theatre. She also works as an accompanist and vocal coach for MacEwan University’s BFA Theatre Program, and is a two-time Sterling Award winner.
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Preparing to play Leon, a sketch artist of questionable skill, Oscar is only mildly apprehensive at the prospect of drawing badly in front of live audiences. “It could be quite freeing, or it may be a career ender. Either way, I’m all in.” Oscar made his Teatro debut in the 2015 production of The Hothouse Prince and has since returned in Evelyn Strange, The Oculist’s Holiday, The Odd Couple, and the video streaming presentation Lost Lemoine: Parts One and Two. He’s also been seen recently at Bard on the Beach and The Arts Club in Vancouver and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. Locally, he’s worked for Freewill Shakespeare Festival, Concrete Theatre, and Punctuate Theatre, and he won a Sterling Award for his performance in The Citadel Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; the 70s Musical in 2025. You might also have seen him in numerous commercials for The Brick.
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Mathew was last seen on the Varscona stage marrying Rachel Bowron’s character On the Banks of the Nut, so it seems fitting that he returns as her husband in this production. He made his debut with Teatro in Mrs. Lindeman Proposes at the 2011 Fringe, and has subsequently appeared in The Euphorians, The Nutcracker Unhinged, Hey, Countess!, For the Love of Cynthia, I Heard About Your Murder, A Lesson in Brio,A Momentary Lapse, The Margin of the Sky, and The Oculist’s Holiday. He’s also appeared locally with Theatre Network, The Citadel Theatre, Shadow Theatre, and Bright Young Things, and won a Sterling award for his work at Concrete Theatre. Earlier this season he played Thomas in Casey and Diana at Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops, and in 2024 he appeared in a staged reading of Chekov’s The Three Sisters with Alchemy Theatre in Paris (France!). Mathew currently resides in Toronto.
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Like Cynthia, Bella is newest to the party, having made her Teatro debut in 2023 in Everybody Goes to Mitzi’s. She subsequently returned in On the Banks of the Nut and I Meant What I Said. She’s a 2018 graduate of Theatre Arts at MacEwan University, and recent credits include The Rocky Horror Show (Grindstone Theatre), Cinderella, and Fun Home (Plain Jane Theatre) High School Musical (Uniform Theatre), and The Capricorn Cabaret (Conwitz Prod.). Her Fringe credits include Scoobie Doosical, [title of show], The Last Five Years, Assassins and Final Girl.
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Fresh from his run in the one-man extravaganza Fully Committed, Andrew is pleased and a little relieved to find himself onstage with so many tangible corporeal people. He was Teatro’s Artistic Director from 2023 through 2025, after previously serving as Co-Artistic Director with Belinda Cornish from 2020 to 2023. Andrew made his company debut in the original production of The Salon of the Talking Turk in 2005, and his other credits include Witness to a Conga, Vidalia, A Grand Time in the Rapids, The Odd Couple, and Fully Committed, and he was Jack Vail in the 2012 and 2024 productions of Pith.
He’s also appeared at The Citadel Theatre, The Mayfield Dinner Theatre, Shadow Theatre, and Edmonton Opera, and he’s a two-time Sterling Award winner. This spring he directed a production of Into the Woods for MacEwan University Theatre Arts, and next season he’ll be directing Peter Pan Goes Wrong at Theatre Calgary, and appearing in Intrepid at The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg.
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Kristen made her debut as a Lemoine leading lady wearing a memorable red dress in The Addlepated Nixie at MacEwan University in 2009, and is excited to be donning vivid orange as Lily in this production. She made her Teatro debut in On the Banks of the Nut in 2010, and subsequently returned in The Scent of Compulsion, A Grand Time in the Rapids, and the streaming presentation of A Fit, Happy Life. She’s a South Asian/Portuguese theatre artist and she’s a graduate of MacEwan Universities Theatre Arts Program and the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting Program. She’s been seen locally at The Citadel Theatre, Skirts AFire, and Concrete Theatre, and in Calgary, she’s worked with Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, Downstage Theatre, and Vertigo Theatre. She is also an Associate Producer with Chromatic Theatre in Treaty 7 and a Co-Artistic Producer with Impossible Mongoose.
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This production marks Troy’s Teatro Live! debut, and he’s pleased to be arriving in full evening dress. A founding member and Artistic Associate with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, he has appeared in many of their productions, including As You Like It, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night. Other theatre credits include A Christmas Carol, Little Women, and The Royale (The Citadel Theatre); As You Like It (Grand Theatre); Dance Nation (SkirtsAfire); Marjorie Prime and The Clean House (Trunk Theatre); The 39 Steps (Mayfield); It’s a Wonderful Life, Ten Lost Years, and A Christmas Carol (Theatre Northwest); The Umbrella and Le Paraplouie (Quest Theatre); The Baffled Blossom, The Early Bloomer and Smokescreen (Concrete Theatre); Anxiety, Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, and The Righteous Woman (Theatre Yes); An Inspector Calls, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Rosebud Theatre); and The Falstaff Project (Thou Art Here).
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Stewart has been writing and directing for Teatro La Quindicina since the first Edmonton Fringe in 1982. His most recent works premiered by Teatro include I Meant What I Said, Love is for Poor People, A Likely Story, A Lesson in Brio, The Finest of Strangers, I Heard About Your Murder, and For the Love of Cynthia. In recent seasons, Teatro has also presented revivals of his On the Banks of the Nut, The Noon Witch, The Oculist’s Holiday, Pith, The Exquisite Hour, The Margin of the Sky, Evelyn Strange, A Grand Time in the Rapids, and Fever Land. In 2023 he collaborated with Andrew MacDonald-Smith and pianist Frances Armstrong on an original cabaret show entitled Andrew MacDonald-Smith: My First Hundred Years, presented by Edmonton Opera. His published work includes A Teatro Trilogy, At the Zenith of the Empire, and Witness to a Conga and Other Plays, all from NeWest Press. Stewart is a ten-time winner of Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards for Playwriting, and in 2008 he was the winner of The Tommy Banks Award, presented by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. He’s a recipient of both the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and in 2010 he was inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame.
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Leona has worked regularly with Teatro as a performer and designer since the company’s inception at the first Edmonton Fringe in 1982. Her appearances include such classic Teatro shows as Cocktails at Pam’s, and The Vile Governess and Other Psychodramas, and Pith. Leona has been Teatro’s principal costume designer for four decades, and her recent company costume credits include I Meant What I Said, The Odd Couple, On the Banks of the Nut, The Noon Witch, The Woman in Black, Private Lives, The Oculist’s Holiday, Pith, Everybody Goes to Mitzi’s, and Deathtrap. Her other recent credits include Clue and Jersey Boys at The Citadel Theatre, and Where You Are and An Iliad for Shadow Theatre. She’s worked on many shows for The Mayfield Dinner Theatre including Flashback Fever and the recent The 90s: It's All Coming Back to Me Now, and she designed costumes for the feature film Before I Change My Mind, directed by Trevor Anderson. She was honoured with a 2020 Edmonton Artist’s Trust Fund Award from the Edmonton Arts Council, and she’s a three-time Sterling Award winner for costume design.
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Chantel made her Teatro debut with Cocktails at Pam’s in 2016 and her subsequent set designs for the company include The 39 Steps, On the Banks of the Nut, The Noon Witch, Private Lives, The Oculist’s Holiday, Deathtrap, Shockers Delight!, and Witness to a Conga, the last of which earned her a Sterling nomination. She also designed the sets for Teatro’s 2021 streaming project Lost Lemoine: Parts One and Two. She’s a freelance scenic artist and prop master who’s been working in film and theatre in Edmonton for the past 19 years. Her other set design credits include Our Man in Havana for Bright Young Things, Going to St. Ives and Mesa for Atlas Theatre, and Shadow Theatre’s Fly Me to the Moon. She’s also done scenic painting and prop work for Workshop West, The Citadel, and Edmonton Opera. In other media, she was the production designer for the Government of Alberta’s Mr. Covidhead commercials, and she did the art direction for music videos by singer Roya Yazdanmehr. She also served as production designer for feature length films produced locally by Northern Gateway Films under the Hallmark banner, and for Dept. 9’s most recent feature Souls Road.
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Christine is so thrilled to be joining the team at Teatro Live! for this incredible production! Her past credits include: Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer (The Globe), Made in Italy (Theatre Persephone Theatre, Arts Club Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Thousand Islands Calgary, Mirvish Productions, Playhouse, RMTC, Western Canada Theatre) As You Like It (The Grand) Serving Elizabeth, Meet My Sister, The Best Brothers (Western Canada Theatre). All my love to Leon and Charlie! Enjoy the show!
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After doing Scenic Construction/Carpentry on numerous Teatro shows in recent seasons, Tiana is now the company’s first official Production Manager, and as of last season, she is the Varscona Theatre’s Director of Production. A graduate of Grant MacEwan University’s Theatre Production program, Tiana has spent the last two decades working in Edmonton Theatre, where extreme weather, fire, illnesses, broken scenery, aggressive prop handling, and squirrels have taught her much about problem solving and remaining calm in a crisis. Past credits include working as Production Manager for Freewill Shakespeare Festival, Head of Lighting and Carpentry for Theatre Network, and Technical Director for Alberta Musical Theatre (formerly Alberta Opera). Her favourite show experiences include doing scenic construction for AMTC’s Pinocchio and Northern Light Theatre’s Monstress, and building the tricky/scary sets for The Woman in Black both at Theatre Network and Teatro Live!
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Victor is a Mexican-Canadian actor, designer, and technician, who is excited to be working and creating on Treaty 6 territory. He is so happy to be making his Teatro Live! debut and is excited to continue to work in the Strathcona area. Recent technical credits include Assistant Lighting Design for The Citadel Theatre’s Life of Pi, Lighting Design for Mump and Smoot's production of The Exit at Theatre Network and at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, and Dogbite Theatre's production of TELEVANGELISTS. Recent acting credits include ECOS (Diaspora Diaries and Common Ground Arts). He would like to thank everyone in his life whose trust, support and encouragement are invaluable in this process!
Teatro Live Recipe Corner
RECIPE #1: SPINACH AND CANNELLINI BEAN DIP
A particularly memorable moment in Cocktails at Pam’s is sparked when one of the guests registers a particularly vehement objection to an ingredient on one of the proffered hors d’oeuvres. We’ll not name the offending fruit/vegetable, but for this one detail: It’s green!
So you’re now wondering if serving green food at a cocktail party is just not done, and to this we say decidedly “No!” It’s just a matter of choosing the right ingredients, and to prove the point, we’re pleased to provide a recipe for a greener than green spinach dip, that’ll be a hit at your next soirée and won’t likely trigger a meltdown in even one of your guests. Bonus: this is a spinach dip that actually tastes like spinach and requires no cheese or dairy of any kind. Bon appétit!
RECIPE #2: GATES OF HELL COCKTAIL
One of Julius Cochrane’s go-to libations is the mysterious Hell Cocktail, whose ingredients he resolutely refuses to divulge. We know what they are, since we have the 1928 edition of the The Savoy Cocktail Book, but out of respect for the affable Julius we’re not going to spill either. But we have found a similarly named concoction that is delightful and provocative in its own way, and we’re happy to share that instead.