It all started with The Shadow Box and Chaucer.
While Derek Rein and Wesley Eccleston were acting in The Shadow Box, Trent Scherer was assistant director. All three were in Chaucer class taught by a TRU professor, Connie Brim. It was November 1996 when the play was produced and as the rest of the Chaucer course continued through the year, the three men began to talk… in class. Connie decided to christen us the 3 Men of Sin because we were shit disturbers as the three men in Shakespeare’s The Tempest were.
As April approached, the three men came up with an idea that the three actors would submit themselves to the direction of Scherer in a play over the summer. Now, all they needed was a script and a name. The name came very easily thanks to Connie affectionately naming them the 3 Men of Sin already.
The play they decided on was David French's Of the Fields, Lately. It was a 3 men, 1 woman play which brought onboard Matt Chenoweth and Jessica Cook. Thanks to the generosity of the head of the theatre department, David Edwards, who was also a bit of the mentor to many of his students, they received the use of the theatre for cheap. Thus with $500, a small theatre company was born.
August 22nd, opening night, came fast. The play was a great success for a bunch of college kids with enough gumption to produce a full two act play, do it well, and actually make enough money to pay the bills and save enough money for another show next summer.
While they were producing their show another smaller show was being directed and produced by Coby Fulton, a UVic theatre student home for the summer. Over the next year, they began to email Coby and asked him to join 3 Men of Sin.
Fulton brought a number of ideas to 3MOS such as doing small vignette plays in a small coffee house/bike shop called JavaCycle in the downtown core of Kamloops. Three short plays were presented over an hour and a half period allowing time for refills of Java. The first of many evenings at JavaCycle, it was a great way to not only make a bit of money – passing around the hat – but also a great way to introduce some non-theatre goers to what live theatre really feels like. So at the end of May in 1997, Caffinated Shorts was to help make money to contribute to 3MOS's full length production of Screwtape. The summer of ’97 was a creative time for 3MOS. After the success of Screwtape and an offer to perform at Sun Peaks Ski Resort for their Apple Blossom Festival, they decided to do another set of vignettes titled Mocha Latte Shorts. A month later, 3MOS produced two one act Daniel MacIvor plays What About Bob and Wild Abandon.
As the summer ended, Fulton returned to UVic to continue his BA and Eccleston went off to UofA for his MA. Rein and Scherer continued producing coffee house shows with Used Coffee Grounds in October, Coffee Shop Material in December, Caffeine Fix in January, and Another Night of Theatre in March. By this time, 3MOS had created a solid following with their last coffee show packing a coffee house with a maximum capacity of 44 with over 120 audience members.
After Another Night of Theatre, David Ross, the Artistic Director of Western Canada Theatre, approached the Men and offered to produce a compilation of the best of their coffee house shows. In May of 1998, Refill: The Best of 3 Men of Sin was hosted at the Pavilion Theatre bringing together a number of actors from previous shows together with mainstream and not-so-mainstream audiences.
The summer brought Daniel MacIvor's The Soldier Dreams in June followed by another coffee house show Aromatic Shorts. In August, 3MOS presented Edward Albee’s one act play The Zoo Story. Though their performance for the ski resort the year before was outdoors, The Zoo Story was the first real time 3MOS produced a show in a found space. Since the story takes place in a park, they placed a bench in the commons at TRU and began the play one hour before sunset.
In late fall of 1998, David Ross approached 3MOS again and asked if they would be willing to produce a number of TJ Dawe’s shorts as an accompany piece to Dawe's Tired Cliches. In the spring of 1999, they returned to JavaCycle with three shorts featuring all women called Women of Sin. The summer brought the return of Fulton and Eccleston and a grant from the City of Kamloops. The first show was Scherer's second play Trust which was followed by Daniel MacIvor’s Here Lies Henry 3MOS hosted. With the success of last year’s outdoor production, 3MOS presented Tough! By George F. Walker. Mid-August brought about a monumental show called Newhouse by D.D. Kugler and Richard Rose. As part of his Masters, Eccleston needed to produce the show to prove parts of his thesis. Newhouse was a Western Canada Premiere and its third production since its creation in 1988. As a repayment for use of free televisions for the show, the providers of the TVs wanted 3MOS to do a show for Valleyview Days which was an outdoor weekend long event. Unfortunately, certain churches threatened to pull out of the event if a company called 3 Men of SIN were involved with it. Since they had been rehearsing already for two weeks, they decided another coffee show would be a great idea: they entitled it Recycled Collage. In October they were privileged to host the production of Shannan Calcutt’s Burnt Tongue: A Clown Piece. The men followed it with Norm Foster’s Office Hours performed in the Old Court House now an Arts Centre. At the end of October, 3MOS joined the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra in presenting a dramatic reading of L’Histoire de Soldat. With all four of the 3 Men of Sin back in town, they managed to produce 10 shows over the year.
2000 began with a historical event called Original Sin, three plays written by actors who had worked with 3MOS. It was again a coffee house production… and the last one at JavaCycle before it moved and then closed a year later. Keeping busy, 3MOS produced Morris Panych’s Lawrence and Holloman. It was swiftly followed by James McClure’s Laundry & Bourbon. Once again, the guys managed to obtain another grant from the city which allowed 3MOS to produce Michael Healey's Kicked and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Two weeks later in a newly opened downtown café called Elements Café, 3MOS produced Elemental Four-Play: A Quartet of Comic Scenes.
With the coming of fall, Fulton moved to Korea resigning from 3MOS. September hit the Kamloops theatre community hard as they lost a close friend Jessica Cook who had been working with 3MOS since its inception. November saw Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. With Elements Café’s closure Kamloops no longer had a coffee house in which to present small shorts and 3MOS continued with one act and two-act plays instead. In February of 2001, they presented Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. Unfortunately, 3MOS changed again as Derek Rein left the company. Stephen Sawka filled out the ranks with Scherer and Eccleston. With Scherer leaving to do his Masters, he decided to do an ambition play entitled The Bar Off Melrose: a 38 character play with 24 actors. The largest cast 3MOS had ever used. It was placed in TRU’s pub that usually closed for the summer. It sold out everyone night… and why not when you can see a play and drink a beer at the same time.
As Eccleston was busy as a TRU professor and Sawka teaching at the secondary level no plays were produced until Scherer’s return in August 2002 with Daniel MacIvor's House a co-pro with Mad Jack McMad. Along with his return, they decided to produce a full season with pamphlets and publicity, something 3MOS had never planned out before. Beginning the season was John Mighton’s Possible Worlds. In November, the company had the pleasure of producing the North American Premiere of Vaclav Havel’s version of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Preformed in a small hall outside of town as Havel’s version had been produced thanks to the censorship of the time, it was well received by those who took the journey. The next play was by The Women’s Theatre Group & Elaine Feinstein entitled Lear’s Daughters - a revisionist take on why Lear’s daughters grew up as they did. 3 Men of Sin’s final production of the season, Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. Directed by Scherer, it was the last production that the Clocktower Theatre would see as the theatre program moved into its new theatre space. Human Remains was taken to TheatreBC’s Ozone competition where it won Best Supporting Actor – Tim Williams, Best Ensemble and a special This Show Ain’t Gonna Beat Me Award for the lighting designer, Bronwyn Bowlby. Human Remains was the final show that 3 Men of Sin produced.
3 Men of Sin and the plays they produced brought a lot of joy to those involved and those who witnessed it all.
While Derek Rein and Wesley Eccleston were acting in The Shadow Box, Trent Scherer was assistant director. All three were in Chaucer class taught by a TRU professor, Connie Brim. It was November 1996 when the play was produced and as the rest of the Chaucer course continued through the year, the three men began to talk… in class. Connie decided to christen us the 3 Men of Sin because we were shit disturbers as the three men in Shakespeare’s The Tempest were.
As April approached, the three men came up with an idea that the three actors would submit themselves to the direction of Scherer in a play over the summer. Now, all they needed was a script and a name. The name came very easily thanks to Connie affectionately naming them the 3 Men of Sin already.
The play they decided on was David French's Of the Fields, Lately. It was a 3 men, 1 woman play which brought onboard Matt Chenoweth and Jessica Cook. Thanks to the generosity of the head of the theatre department, David Edwards, who was also a bit of the mentor to many of his students, they received the use of the theatre for cheap. Thus with $500, a small theatre company was born.
August 22nd, opening night, came fast. The play was a great success for a bunch of college kids with enough gumption to produce a full two act play, do it well, and actually make enough money to pay the bills and save enough money for another show next summer.
While they were producing their show another smaller show was being directed and produced by Coby Fulton, a UVic theatre student home for the summer. Over the next year, they began to email Coby and asked him to join 3 Men of Sin.
Fulton brought a number of ideas to 3MOS such as doing small vignette plays in a small coffee house/bike shop called JavaCycle in the downtown core of Kamloops. Three short plays were presented over an hour and a half period allowing time for refills of Java. The first of many evenings at JavaCycle, it was a great way to not only make a bit of money – passing around the hat – but also a great way to introduce some non-theatre goers to what live theatre really feels like. So at the end of May in 1997, Caffinated Shorts was to help make money to contribute to 3MOS's full length production of Screwtape. The summer of ’97 was a creative time for 3MOS. After the success of Screwtape and an offer to perform at Sun Peaks Ski Resort for their Apple Blossom Festival, they decided to do another set of vignettes titled Mocha Latte Shorts. A month later, 3MOS produced two one act Daniel MacIvor plays What About Bob and Wild Abandon.
As the summer ended, Fulton returned to UVic to continue his BA and Eccleston went off to UofA for his MA. Rein and Scherer continued producing coffee house shows with Used Coffee Grounds in October, Coffee Shop Material in December, Caffeine Fix in January, and Another Night of Theatre in March. By this time, 3MOS had created a solid following with their last coffee show packing a coffee house with a maximum capacity of 44 with over 120 audience members.
After Another Night of Theatre, David Ross, the Artistic Director of Western Canada Theatre, approached the Men and offered to produce a compilation of the best of their coffee house shows. In May of 1998, Refill: The Best of 3 Men of Sin was hosted at the Pavilion Theatre bringing together a number of actors from previous shows together with mainstream and not-so-mainstream audiences.
The summer brought Daniel MacIvor's The Soldier Dreams in June followed by another coffee house show Aromatic Shorts. In August, 3MOS presented Edward Albee’s one act play The Zoo Story. Though their performance for the ski resort the year before was outdoors, The Zoo Story was the first real time 3MOS produced a show in a found space. Since the story takes place in a park, they placed a bench in the commons at TRU and began the play one hour before sunset.
In late fall of 1998, David Ross approached 3MOS again and asked if they would be willing to produce a number of TJ Dawe’s shorts as an accompany piece to Dawe's Tired Cliches. In the spring of 1999, they returned to JavaCycle with three shorts featuring all women called Women of Sin. The summer brought the return of Fulton and Eccleston and a grant from the City of Kamloops. The first show was Scherer's second play Trust which was followed by Daniel MacIvor’s Here Lies Henry 3MOS hosted. With the success of last year’s outdoor production, 3MOS presented Tough! By George F. Walker. Mid-August brought about a monumental show called Newhouse by D.D. Kugler and Richard Rose. As part of his Masters, Eccleston needed to produce the show to prove parts of his thesis. Newhouse was a Western Canada Premiere and its third production since its creation in 1988. As a repayment for use of free televisions for the show, the providers of the TVs wanted 3MOS to do a show for Valleyview Days which was an outdoor weekend long event. Unfortunately, certain churches threatened to pull out of the event if a company called 3 Men of SIN were involved with it. Since they had been rehearsing already for two weeks, they decided another coffee show would be a great idea: they entitled it Recycled Collage. In October they were privileged to host the production of Shannan Calcutt’s Burnt Tongue: A Clown Piece. The men followed it with Norm Foster’s Office Hours performed in the Old Court House now an Arts Centre. At the end of October, 3MOS joined the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra in presenting a dramatic reading of L’Histoire de Soldat. With all four of the 3 Men of Sin back in town, they managed to produce 10 shows over the year.
2000 began with a historical event called Original Sin, three plays written by actors who had worked with 3MOS. It was again a coffee house production… and the last one at JavaCycle before it moved and then closed a year later. Keeping busy, 3MOS produced Morris Panych’s Lawrence and Holloman. It was swiftly followed by James McClure’s Laundry & Bourbon. Once again, the guys managed to obtain another grant from the city which allowed 3MOS to produce Michael Healey's Kicked and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Two weeks later in a newly opened downtown café called Elements Café, 3MOS produced Elemental Four-Play: A Quartet of Comic Scenes.
With the coming of fall, Fulton moved to Korea resigning from 3MOS. September hit the Kamloops theatre community hard as they lost a close friend Jessica Cook who had been working with 3MOS since its inception. November saw Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. With Elements Café’s closure Kamloops no longer had a coffee house in which to present small shorts and 3MOS continued with one act and two-act plays instead. In February of 2001, they presented Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. Unfortunately, 3MOS changed again as Derek Rein left the company. Stephen Sawka filled out the ranks with Scherer and Eccleston. With Scherer leaving to do his Masters, he decided to do an ambition play entitled The Bar Off Melrose: a 38 character play with 24 actors. The largest cast 3MOS had ever used. It was placed in TRU’s pub that usually closed for the summer. It sold out everyone night… and why not when you can see a play and drink a beer at the same time.
As Eccleston was busy as a TRU professor and Sawka teaching at the secondary level no plays were produced until Scherer’s return in August 2002 with Daniel MacIvor's House a co-pro with Mad Jack McMad. Along with his return, they decided to produce a full season with pamphlets and publicity, something 3MOS had never planned out before. Beginning the season was John Mighton’s Possible Worlds. In November, the company had the pleasure of producing the North American Premiere of Vaclav Havel’s version of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Preformed in a small hall outside of town as Havel’s version had been produced thanks to the censorship of the time, it was well received by those who took the journey. The next play was by The Women’s Theatre Group & Elaine Feinstein entitled Lear’s Daughters - a revisionist take on why Lear’s daughters grew up as they did. 3 Men of Sin’s final production of the season, Brad Fraser’s Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. Directed by Scherer, it was the last production that the Clocktower Theatre would see as the theatre program moved into its new theatre space. Human Remains was taken to TheatreBC’s Ozone competition where it won Best Supporting Actor – Tim Williams, Best Ensemble and a special This Show Ain’t Gonna Beat Me Award for the lighting designer, Bronwyn Bowlby. Human Remains was the final show that 3 Men of Sin produced.
3 Men of Sin and the plays they produced brought a lot of joy to those involved and those who witnessed it all.
