It’s part escape room, part live theatre, and part history lesson. On June 7 and 10, a new kind of interactive experience is descending on the Doukhobor Discovery Centre in Castlegar. The event is free and open to all ages and attendees can expect to work with their group and the actors to try and solve clues and complete selected tasks.
“In Time” is a promenade-style mystery show put on by Live History, a Canadian touring theatre company that has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award. It offers shows around the world and in June it will be travelling to Castlegar to do an event specific to Doukhobor culture. To book a time slot for you and your family, call the Doukhobor Discovery Centre at 250-365-5327 or email the Centre’s director Ryan Dutchak at ryan@doukhobor-museum.org. The event is free for attendees but donations are welcome.
“This is the first time the museum has done anything like this and we’re excited to see the results,” Ryan says. “Everything is being tailored to our site and the Selkirk Weavers will be here too. Every half hour our so the show manager will send groups across the museum lands and they’ll be tasked with solving the mission by interacting with the actors. It will take about an hour.”
The show’s promotional material reads: ““The clock is ticking. The sand is slipping through the hourglass. History could be changed. The whole world rests on your shoulders, and time is running out. Will you be in time?”
Ryan says the show was originally lined up for 2019 but because of the pandemic, it was put on hold until this year. He says it couldn’t have happened without the financial support of Castlegar’s Sunrise Rotary and “it’s definitely going to be the biggest event at our museum for the first half of the summer.”
Originally from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Ryan is of Doukhobor descent on his mother’s side and has a personal connection to the region: his great-grandmother was born in the community of Blueberry, just south of Castlegar. He received his Masters in History at the University of Saskatchewan and wrote his thesis about doukhobor culture. He took over the directorship of the Doukhobor Discovery Centre just before the pandemic and so he says he’s excited now that things have opened up and he’ll be able to host large gatherings at the site again. “The loosening of restrictions has been nice,” he says. “Our employment team has grown already and I think it’s going to be a busy summer for us. In fact, it’s already been busy.”
The Doukhobor Discovery Centre is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 4pm.
