Full Circle debuts new holiday double feature at West Village Theatre

Full Circle Theatre is premiering a holiday double feature it hopes will become a new annual tradition – – and it all began with a happy accident.

The company applied for a five-day slot at West Village Theatre and unexpectedly got it.

Actor, playwright, and producer Megan Baldrey says it wasn’t the right moment to stage any other part of their season for only five days right before Christmas, so the team had to come up with something fresh, on the fly.

“We took the space and we’re like, ‘What do we do with this?’ And then that’s where the holiday show came from, because we know it’s really busy,” she says. “So at least if we do like a holiday cabaret with fun cocktails and two Christmas shows hopefully some people can come out and share it with us.”

The result is A Very Full Circle Holiday Show a double bill featuring a new holiday episode of Riverona and an original rom-com written by Baldrey herself.

For the uninitiated, Riverona is Full Circle Theatre’s ongoing reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, told through a fast-paced, comedic lens. The name comes from a mashup of Riverdale and Verona, the setting for several of Shakespeare’s plays, including Romeo and Juliet. 

The company drops Shakespeare’s characters into different genres and formats, keeping the core relationships but playing with tone, setting, and style.

Riverona continues that tradition as a holiday “special,” bringing back fan-favourite characters with a Christmas twist.

The second half of the night is Holding, a rom-com Baldrey has been developing for years inspired by her real-life experience working as an extra on Alberta film sets. And what happens during the  long hours spent in “holding,” the room where background performers wait between takes.

“It’s an exploration of liminal spaces… places where you’re stuck and you can’t leave for an indeterminate amount of time,” she says.

The story follows two people who meet while doing background work on a Hallmark-style Christmas movie: an actor picking up shifts between auditions, and a tech worker who signs up purely for the novelty.

It’s a world Baldrey knows well — and one that many Albertans know, too.

According to Calgary Economic Development, Alberta’s screen industry now supports more than 3,200 workers and contributes roughly $450 million a year to the provincial economy, making holding room culture a very real part of how film gets made here. And that kind of work can attract a certain type of person.

“Extras love to talk about other times they’ve been extras… it does kind of drive me crazy,” Baldrey adds.

Full Circle’s holiday show runs Dec.17–20 at West Village Theatre, including a matinee on the 20th.

It marks Baldrey’s first solo-written play produced by the company — and the first time she and her husband will perform in both shows on the same night, which she admits is pure lunacy.

“The household is crazy… I need support, not judgment,” she says.

Whether this becomes a new Calgary holiday tradition depends on audiences, but Full Circle is betting there’s room for a festive night that isn’t a kids show, isn’t a classic, and definitely isn’t trying to be polished. 

More information and tickets here.