The Citizen, 2015-04-16, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015.
Festival casting for 2015 a mix of new and familiar
Mark your calendar for the event
of the season as Almost Famous
Players celebrates its 11th year in
showbiz.
This year’s theme “Because I’m
Happy” offers something for every-
one, from the young to the young at
heart. Come experience the Players’
fancy footwork, timely twirls and
colourful costumes. Share the joy,
passion and immense talent guaran-
teed to get your hands clapping and
toes tapping. Let the Almost Famous
Players put a smile on your face and
a song in your heart.
Experience entertainment for all
ages that includes numbers from the
Big Bopper, Lady Gaga, Kesha,
Kenny Chesney, Elvis Presley,
Pharrell Williams and many more.
The group will be welcoming guest
appearances from the Carry On
Cloggers and Chrisinda Louther.
Invite your family, friends and co-
workers to this event on Sunday,
May 3 at 2 p.m. and on Tuesday and
Thursday evenings, May 5 and 7 at
7:30 p.m. All three performances
take place at F.E. Madill Secondary
School in Wingham. There are no
tickets to buy, but donations are gra-
ciously accepted at the Victoria
Street entrance door, which
opens one hour before each perform-
ance.
The Almost Famous Players will
also be performing two community
shows at the end of May on Sunday,
May 24 at 2 p.m. in the Teeswater
Town Hall (contact Jane McQuarrie
at 519-392-6433) and on Sunday,
May 31 at Clinton United Church at
2 p.m. (contact Don Jewitt at 519-
233-3133).
So get ready for a spectacular
show filled with special performanc-
es and musical favourites. Be pre-
pared to laugh a lot, cry a little and
come away with the feeling that all
is right with the world.
This year’s Blyth Festival season
will feature a theatre company that is
equal parts veterans and newcomers,
featuring a lot of talent that has
Artistic Director Gil Garratt pretty
excited.
The 2015 Festival season will
begin on Friday, June 26 when the
curtain goes up on Seeds, written by
Annabel Soutar and directed by Kim
Collier.
At the heart of the play are two big
starring roles – the first, a smart and
determined farmer named Percy
Schmeiser and the second, a young
and curious playwright determined
to tell Schmeiser’s story. For the two
big-time roles, Garratt has cast two
big-time actors: David Fox and
Severn Thompson.
Fox is no stranger to the Festival.
He was first in Blyth for The Farm
Show in the early 1970s and then for
many Festival seasons thereafter,
including last season, performing in
the Garratt-penned St. Anne’s Reel.
Thompson, the daughter of The
Farm Show director Paul Thompson,
was last in Blyth as the director of
2013’s Beyond The Farm Show.
Now a star of the SyFy Network
show Helix, Thompson has spent
years acting at a number of different
Canadian theatres including the
Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival,
Theatre Passe Muraille and the
Tarragon Theatre.
Since Garratt was a teenager he
has held Fox in high regard, saying
that Fox is one of the best actors in
the country. With that in mind, he
said, he knew he needed an equally-
gifted female lead to match wits
with Fox on stage, and Thompson
fits that description.
Tracey Ferencz, who has per-
formed at the Festival before in pro-
ductions like When The Reaper
Calls and Filthy Rich, will play
Schmeiser’s wife Louise. The Seeds
cast will be rounded out with new-
comers Keith Barker, Jeff Irving and
Rachel Cairns, and Jason Chesworth
who has been in Blyth for the previ-
ous two seasons for Dear Johnny
Deere and Stag and Doe.
Cairns and Irving will lead the
way in the season’s third show,
Fury – a musical that will premiere
on the Memorial Hall stage on July
31. The pair will play a young cou-
ple in love and Garratt says the
musical talent that will be on the
stage at the same time in Fury is
amazing to behold.
Cairns, while young, has a wealth
of experience in the world of theatre.
She has performed at Bard on the
Beach in Vancouver, western
Canada’s largest Shakespeare festi-
val. Irving has over a dozen Shaw
Festival credits to his name, but this
will be his first time on the
Memorial Hall stage.
In addition, Fox, Chesworth and
Barker will all take on roles in
Fury – a show written by Peter
Smith, composed by Samuel
Sholdice and directed by Micheline
Chevrier.
Sean Dixon’s The Wilberforce
Hotel, which opens on July 3, will be
Almost Famous Players to sing
What a performance
The Blyth Festival Singers presented “Songs of Wartime and Peace” at Memorial Hall on
Sunday afternoon. The tribute concert commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of
World War II. (Vicky Bremner photo)
Londesborough
United Church
35th Annual
SONGFEST
Sunday, April 19
7 pm
Featuring:
The Firehouse Five
The Honey Sweethearts
The Snell Family
Mark & Laurel Mitchell
Londesboro United Church Choir
Admission: $10.00
12 years & under Free
Refreshments to Follow
Buck and Doe
for
Brad
Hodgkinson
and
Ashleigh Shaw
Saturday, April 18th
at 9 pm
at the
Wingham Knights of
Columbus Hall
DJ, prizes, late lunch pro-
vided
Tickets $10 available
at the door
Old Tyme
Country Breakfast
Sunday, April 19
8 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
at Londesborough Hall
• Eggs • Bacon • Sausage
• Pancakes and Homefries
Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.00
Children Under 12 . . . . . . . . . $3.00
Sponsored by Londesboro Lions Club
Proceeds for community betterment
Buck & Doe
for
Anna Gremm
&
Trevor Wilson
Saturday, April 18
BM&G Community Centre
8 pm to 1 am
$10/person
Games and Door Prizes
Breakings News!
Stag & DoeStag & Doe
Friday April 17, 2015Friday April 17, 2015
(NEW DATE!)(NEW DATE!)
Lucknow ArenaLucknow Arena
(NEW VENUE!)(NEW VENUE!)
Conor MiltenburgConor Miltenburg & Heidi Spink& Heidi Spink
(Same Couple!)(Same Couple!)
9p.m. - 1pm DJ - Games, Prizes9p.m. - 1pm DJ - Games, Prizes
Age of MajorityAge of Majority
Bus Pick-UpsBus Pick-Ups
Bus # 1 - Clinton 8:30Bus # 1 - Clinton 8:30 (Libro Bank)(Libro Bank)
Blyth 8:55Blyth 8:55 (Foodland)(Foodland)
Auburn 9:15Auburn 9:15 (Stickers Restaurant)(Stickers Restaurant)
Bus # 2 - Goderich 8:30Bus#2-Goderich 8:30 (Walmart)(Walmart)
Thompson’s 8:50Thompson’s 8:50
Kingsbridge 9:05Kingsbridge 9:05
Brookeside 9:15Brookeside 9:15 For more info check FB or call 519-529-7640
✠✠✠✠✠✠ ✠✠✠✠✠✠ ✠✠✠✠
Entertainment StopsStopsStopsStopsStops
a l o n g the wayalongtheway
A VISITORS’ GUIDE TO HURON COUNTY
stopsalonglakehuron.com
Look for
entertainment ideas
on our
Stops Along the Way
website at...
430 Queen Street, Blyth, Ontario
226-523-9720
Specialty Coffees &
Espresso Bar
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
April 18th
12:30 - 2:00 pm
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 20