This week, St. John’s welcomes about 150 international actors and theatre delegates for STACON 26, the 36th annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association.

This year’s event is being hosted by Shakespeare by the Sea and will open with the ShakespearED company of Western Australia’s version of Twelfth Night.

Melissa Merchant of Perth says their arrival in the province wasn’t without its own drama.

“Unfortunately, one of our actors, who also happens to be my husband, wasn’t able to get his paperwork in time, to come across to Canada, so we’ve had to invite Dave (Walsh), a local actor to come and join our troupe.”

Merchant says their style of performance allows for two quick rehearsals before they take the stage, so having a local actor join at the last minute shouldn’t affect the performance.

She says in Shakespeare’s time, time was money, so they didn’t have long rehearsal periods. “The style that we’re doing, it really allowed us…even though one of our actors couldn’t come over, it allowed us to actually bring in somebody else.”