Local productions have Ursula Surtees to thank

DEAR EDITOR:

My mom shared this article last night telling of the passing of one of Kelowna’s cultural icons.

My very first experience designing costumes was for my high school production of “A Christmas Carol” at Kelowna Secondary School in 1992.

My drama teacher put me in contact with Ursula Surtees who had a basement full of costumes, including some layered, heavy velvet Dickensian carolers costumes that weighed a tonne but were very effective under stage lights.

At least that’s what we told ourselves as we sweated buckets singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Coventry Carol.”

Those heavy velvet layers came in handy years later when I was in the early days of my freelance career and my former drama teacher hired me to costume his annual promenade version of “A Christmas Carol.”

This production took the audience, scene by scene, through Kelowna’s newly branded Cultural District, through all manner of ice, snow and freezing temperatures.

Back to Ursula’s I went for the velvet carolers costumes. While the other cast members shivered and chattered through their lines, the carolers strolled along contentedly in their bright and bulky layers, weighed down but warm.

I remember Ursula as being warm and witty, and very patient as my assistant (i.e. my mom) and I dragged those costumes in and out of her place winter after winter.

I confess I had no idea of her many accomplishments until reading this article. The earthy, apply smell of the the Laurel building brings me back to other early jobs in the arts with the Kelowna and District Arts Council and the Kelowna Pride Society. I am grateful to her for its preservation, and for her many other legacies.

God bless us (and U.S.), everyone.