A strong contingent of Canadian content took over the Lyric Theatre's stage this past week during the 10th-annual Chautauqua Festival.

Four of the five performances throughout the three-day event were productions from western Canada, with one of them written by a local artist.

"From what I've heard from the people that came to the plays, they were really impressed with the Pink Unicorn (play), they said it was really touching and hit close to home," said Keely Williams, Chautauqua committee chair. "The comedies people loved. Wendy's play and the Half Hour Hamlet, people thought they were absolutely hilarious. There was a lot of good reaction from the crowd."

Swift Current playwright Wendy Lockman featured one of her own scripts Saturday night called 'In the Box,' which captivated the local crowd on hand.

"That was really exciting and Swift Current really supported that play," Williams said. "It's nice that we can support and show people that Swift Current does have all of these different cultural talents and artistic talent, so you don't have to go to the big city to see professional live theatre."

The performing arts festival included acts from Fire in the Hole Productions out of Saskatoon, an improv group from Lethbridge, Patrick Hercamp from Los Angeles and WP Puppets from Calgary.

"We try to grow the festival every year," Williams added. "We had the patio again this year with live music, to give people something to do between the plays. We are trying to grow the festival and see what we can add. This was our first year of having a local playwright, so hopefully, we can get a full-length show from Lockman for next year, that would be great."

Attendance numbers aren't in yet, but Williams said it went really well. She was also surprised by the strong turnout on Thursday night, which is typically the quietest night of the festival.