Get ready to laugh, get ready to cry, and get ready for nine days of some the best on-stage shows B.C. has to offer.

Emerald Pig Theatrical Society is hosting Mainstage 2009, a festival that brings together community theatre groups from around the province for an entertaining week of performances and workshops.

“It’s going to be a heck of a party,” said Sharon Malone of Maple Ridge’s Emerald Pig. “Mainstage is so exciting, and it’s fun to be hosting it again this year.”

Emerald Pig’s duties include hosting a Mainstage Performance every night of the event, featuring the top nine community shows from around B.C.

Theatre B.C., an organization that supports community theatre in the province and runs the event, held regional competitions earlier in the year to select the nine contenders vying for top honours at Mainstage.

Emerald Pig participated in the Fraser Valley zone competition in May, performing William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Its Bard on the Bandstand show runs July 23 to 26 in Memorial Peace Park.

Malone and fellow Emerald Pig member Kathleen Hatley will take the spotlight as MCs for the week’s activities, giving the local community theatre group a greater opportunity to get involved and enjoy the festival.

“Kathleen and I will be performing, we’ll be welcoming the groups and adjudicators; and we’ll be doing most of it in costume,” said Malone.

She said the event is a gathering of more than 300 actors, a family of community theatre performers, who will spend their July long weekend in Maple Ridge.

“This is such a great opportunity for everyone in the community,” she said. “There’s a huge benefit in terms of tourism. ... They take this week as their theatre holiday. This is a wonderful community to come and get out and enjoy.”

Maple Ridge played host to Mainstage in 2006, and Malone credits the community for the success of that event.

“We have such a great community here who’s really supportive of the arts,” she said. “We hope to match that success [from 2006] and have an even greater response this year. We’re pretty optimistic.”

The nine Mainstage Performances, running nightly at 7:30 p.m.: Brooklyn Boy (Surrey Little Theatre); Rabbit Hole (Stage North Theatre Society); Biloxi Blues (Courtenay Little Theatre); Vincent (Serious Moonlight Productions); Eleemosynary (Get Real Theatre); Spoon River Anthology (Asparagus Community Theatre); Down the Road (Revelstoke Community Theatre); Table Manners (Theatre West Van); and The Cemetery Club (Lady Smith’s Little Theatre).

Table Manners will be performed as a Saturday (July 4) matinee at noon, while The Cemetery Club evening performance will be pushed to an 8 p.m. start.

The festival will be adjudicated by Ted Roberts and Andrew McIlroy, two B.C. actors with extensive on-screen and on-stage experience.

New to the festival this year are three workshop plays, A Year of Winter, A Dying Family Tradition, and Aspartame and Blue Lace, which are full-length plays cast, rehearsed and performed over festival’s brief run.

“That’s going to be a very interesting process watching them perform these plays having never worked on the script, never worked with each other and never worked with the director,” said Malone.

There are also backstage courses throughout the festival giving insight into certain technical aspects of performance.

“These are going to be fun. There will be workshops on scenic painting, acting, directing, fire safety – which is kind of important in theatre, stage fighting, accent workshops,” said Malone.

“It’ll be lots and lots of creative and fun skills development to take back to your community. It’s a way to develop the craft.”

Although community theatre has a reputation of existing primarily as a fun outlet for local talent, Malone said the week’s shows are sure to be filled with top-notch performances.

“There’s a lot of high level talent in community theatre groups,” she said. “And I think this is a great opportunity for the public to see really high quality theatrical productions. There’ll be some comedy, some drama; there’s something for everyone this week.”

• Tickets for the Mainstage Productions are available for $16 each, or $99 for all nine shows. Contact Emerald Pig at 604-466-1157 for more information, or to volunteer for the event.