A new play being staged by Langley seniors next week pokes fun at the snobbery and egos within the professional performing arts world.

Langley's Eleanor Ryan has penned The Last Act of Regina Marlow, a play within a play about a prima donna actor, the acquiesing director who must wrangle the assorted oddballs and egos within his theatre troupe, and the untimely death of the leading lady.

Ryan said she wanted to show audiences the "backstage things that go on.

"It's funny the things that do go on, and do go wrong, when you're putting on a play," said the senior with a long history in the performing arts scene.

So she created Regina Marlow, the haughty and occasionally sober star who alienates everyone in the cast and crew but is a star whose name will pull in an audience for the turgid drama A View from the Mirror.

Regina ends up dead just before the show is set to open and The Last Act of Regina Marlow is about whether the star was killed by someone connected with the show, or whether she died related to something she learned about the Mirror and its script, written by one of the cast members.

Within the cast of nine, Diane Gendron gets to sink her teeth into a role completely unlike herself - the unabashedly arrogant lush Regina Marlow.

"It's a lot of fun and you get to let loose," Gendron said of playing Regina.

Gendron grew up in Langley and has a history of performing.

"I started singing at three in recitals," she recalled.

As well she enjoyed being in many school productions and community theatre before taking time off to raise a family before returning to community theatre.

Beebe Fleming, Pat Caffery, Joe Tenta, Kate Major, Ron Savoy, Darlene Smith, Diane Giesbrecht and Joyce Douglas make up the diverse cast.

As Ryan segued into seniors theatre, she took to writing plays because she wasn't finding material with which she was satisfied. Ryan rejects the notion that all seniors characters have to be dottering fogies on the verge of dementia.

"They don't portray people over 55 the way that they are today," she said.

Pat Bird has taken on the task of whipping the Langley Players into shape for when they perform the show for the community (Sept. 1 and 2) and when they compete at the BC Senior Games in the one-act play theatre contest.

Bird spent many years with the Langley Footlight Players, where she developed a love of the stage and found she wanted to try her hand at the many different jobs required to bring a production to the stage.

"I sort of learned without realizing I was learning," she said.

The Autumn Thespians of Port Coquitlam will be visiting Langley for the Sept. 1 and 2 shows, despite the friendly rivalry that exists between the two seniors theatre companies which compete annually at the BC Senior Games.

"We're always neck and neck," Ryan quipped.

PoCo's production is Twin Oaks, a mystery/comedy written by director Phyllis Mohr. In it, the character Earl has summoned his four sisters to meet him on the plateau overlooking their family home.

Because of their abbreviated formats, both plays will be staged each evening, separated by an intermission.

Each evening features a social hour at 6 p.m. with the show at 7 p.m. Tickets ($10 apiece) includes intermission refreshments. They are available in advance at the Langley Seniors' Resource Centre, 20605 51B Ave., which is where the shows take place next Wednesday and Thursday. The two theatrical companies than perform at the Senior Games Sept. 15-18 in the Comox Valley, representing the Fraser Valley Zone.

hcolpitts@langleyadvance.com