Slipping from Summer into Autumn

So the second Annual Water Buffalo Cheese Festival has come & gone. It seemed like it was over in an hour or two...

SFT had a small table on the Farmer's Market side of the event, and handed out brochures, a few bottles of water, and free theatre tickets! Congratulations to Hilda Dean of Belleville, who won a Family Pack to the family version of our 2010 Panto, HANSEL & GRETEL, and also congratulations to Nancy Boersma of Stirling and Michael Medgyessy of Frankford, who each won a pair of tickets to see SUDS, the rockin' 60s musical soap opera!

It was wonderful to meet so many people who had such lovely things to say about the theatre, the shows they've come to see and enjoyed, even the show or two they didn't have such fond memories of! That's also important for us to know. If we don't hear back from you, for good or for bad, we can't be sure that we're providing the very best programming you want to see. So please, if you loved THE LAST RESORT or DRIVING MISS DAISY, or any of the concerts we've brought to you so far this year, then tell us. But also, if you had issues or challenges with those shows, or anything else that happens here at SFT, then please tell us that, too.

Coming up next for the Stirling Festival Theatre is SUDS, Sept 9 - 16. And on September 18th, The Commodores are in concert with a fundraiser for the Community Cupboard, the local food bank. The concert will be preceded by a roast beef supper, with fresh, local veggies... and again, the proceeds from this supper will go to the Community Cupboard. Please call 613.395.2100 to order your tickets today!

Love You Forever...

So these are the people who brought to life our production of LOVE YOU FOREVER... AND MORE MUNSCH.

We've had two full houses, filled with children who love this show, who love hollering at the dragon, who laugh at the lady with 17 cats, who giggle with delight when Mortimer keeps making noise! And we have the moms who get a little misty eyed during the LOVE YOU FOREVER part of the story.

Luisa Appolloni has directed this amalgamation of five of Munsch's most-loved stories with joy and finesse, finding the delight in tiny details and the life in the big moments. Bridget Bezanson, Stuart Constable & Brianne Tucker get to be silly and wise and noisy and charming, often at the same time, and wear cool costumes while doing it! Our resident technical genius, David Vanderlip, scored again with a great, simple set design and beautiful, simple lighting design, and then he & Donna Moorman & Nancy Garrod found all the bits & pieces to dress the set so it's all these wonderful books in one go. Donna Carlisle did much the same thing in creating a paper bag dress, or two, and working with (resident technical genius) David Vanderlip and the amazing FANCY PANTS KIDS company to put together a superior dragon. Kudos to two kiddos - Travis Whiteman & Bronson Kozdas - for their efforts all summer long, with & without compen$ation. Stefan Patterson again created a great sound for the show and Darrell Nelham is brilliant at painting posters - no, really, painting posters! We have our own little Tolousse Latrec in house! And Mare Lawrie has managed to keep her sanity and the show running by apparently giving up anything else that might be of interest to her; we understand that the daisies & the weeds in her garden are in a duel to the death but knowing Mare, we expect the daisies to win out!

Speaking of Nancy Garrod, as I was a minute ago... I love volunteers who want to have new experiences. Bless 'em all, those volunteers, because we could do nothing without them but especially thanks to those who want more from their volunteer experience and want to give more to it in return. That's Nancy...

Our ushers for this show have been young people - kids ages 13 - 18 or so. I think that's just plain cool. I really do. For them, to get some work experience to add to their (currently) slender c.v. but also for the youngsters in the audience. A bit of an easy-to-imagine role model working right in front of them.

Had a very tiny little boy stand in line for about 10 minutes yesterday to get autographs of the cast and as he was leaving, I asked him if there was anything about the show that he especially liked. He nodded his head, and his mother encouraged him to tell me what. So he did: "Ev'thing!" His mother said it was his first live theatre production, and she expects to take him to lots more now that he had such a good time with this one. Yea!!

More kids, more young adults, more boomers, more cotton tops... theatre needs you all, so come out and have fun, enjoy the experience, share the moment with friends.

And say hello to me coming & going... I'm almost always around.

LOVE YOU FOREVER... AND MORE MUNSCH runs August 24 - 28. Adapted by Stephen Colella & Sue Miner, directed by Luisa Appolloni, starring Bridget Bezanson, Stuart Constable & Brianne Tucker. Call 613.395.2100 for more info & to buy tickets.

Cleavageable

IN THE PHOTO ARE SIOBHAN RICHARDSON & J.P. BALDWIN. She's winning.

There is a new word here at the Stirling Festival Theatre.

Cleavageable.


Given how many Naughty Pantos and how many lacy bits of lingerie we've seen over the years, I am most surprised that the word has not been invented before... but there you go.

Cleavageable. As in, a device or procedure to adjust one's blouse or dress top in order to better display what your mama gave you, without crossing the line into bad taste or reality television.

Please feel free to spread the word.

And do come see how we apply it in THE LAST RESORT, running August 11 - 14 and August 17 - 21.

THE LAST RESORT, by Leslie Arden (music & lyrics) & Norm Foster (book), directed by Luisa Appolloni, musical direction by Charlene Nafziger, choreography by Christina Gordon. Starring J.P. Baldwin, Allan Gillespie, Christina Gordon, Jon-Alex MacFarlane, Siobhan Richardson, Ian Simpson, Bruce Tubbe, Viviana Zarrillo. Marilyn Lawrie, Stage Manager & Brittney Vandersel, Apprentice Stage Manager. Set & Lighting Design by David Vanderlip. Set Construction Darrell Nelham, Carol Robertson & Travis Whiteman. Sound design by Stefan Patterson. Foley Effects by Bruce Tubbe. Prop & Set Decoration, Donna Moorman. Donna Carlisle, Costume Designer.

This Close to Opening

It's opening week. It's frantic around here - in a controlled sort of way. There's an undercurrent of excitement, a little bit of nervousness, a little bit of satisfaction that everything is in place, or close to it.

Oh, I love this feeling.

And I'm not even in the auditorium for more than a few minutes at a time!

Catching moments of rehearsal here and there since I attended the first read through (and hearing even more of the singing parts of the show), I know I'm not getting anything like a real sense of this production, but I have seen enough to know that everyone involved is working their hearts out to create an incredible production. And you need to know that some really big hearts are involved in creating this show.

We have a volunteer named CAROL ROBERTSON who is a really gifted carpenter. I mean, this woman loves to have a hammer in her hand! Besides loaning us a few set dressing items for DRIVING MISS DAISY, she worked very hard with Darrell Nelham on building the set for that show and for THE LAST RESORT. When you come into the theatre, and have a chance to absorb our fabulous set, do note the "reception desk" for the Last Resort. David Vanderlip's design, but Carol Robertson's execution. She has, by the way, told David either don't design curves again, or only give her squares & triangles to work on.

I don't believe her, but we're humouring her for now.

We also want you to know about LEONARD WIGGER from Springbrook Restaurant who has the most weirdly wonderful collection of... stuff at his place. You're going to love the boat/case! And we hope Leonard loves the chandelier.

Kudos to David V & Donna Moorman (Original Donna we call her now) for their shopping and set dressing skills. David thinks we should offer a prize to the person who guess exactly how many ducks are on the boat/case.

We're getting ready for the Tech/Dress, so I'm going to close now. But do plan to come see this show... it's wicked good fun!