The Citizen, 1994-03-02, Page 23E ntertainment
Band brings good-time
music to Memorial Hall
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2,1994. PAGE 23.
‘Imagination’ ends season
It's hard to just sit still and listen
to the music of The Michael
Mitchell Band which will perform
in concert at Blyth Memorial Hall,
March 19 at 8 p.m.
With a program of original and
traditional songs, blended with
stories and anecdotes about this
country, Michael Mitchell has been
called "The Roger Whittaker of
Canada". Others say there is a hint
of The Irish Rovers in Mitchell's
good-time music that makes people
want to hum and sing along.
Michael Mitchell has performed
in both English and French at the
national Canada Day Celebrations
in Ottawa as well as in over 600
community concerts, 25 folk and
multicultural festivals and was a
featured performer at Expo '86 in
Vancouver. He's a former co-host
of the CTV children's television
‘Pirates’ to appear
on Stratford stage
The Gilbert and Sullivan musical,
The Pirates of Penzance, opens
Wednesday, June 1, at the Festival
Theatre. The Pirates of Penzance
will be directed and choreographed
by Brian Macdonald, with musical
direction by Berthold Carriere,
design by Susan Benson and
lighting design by Michael J.
Whitfield.
This production will feature
Barbara Bryne as Ruth, Douglas
Chamberlain as Major-General
Stanley, Aggie C. Elliot as Mabel,
Bradley C. Rudy as Sergeant of
Police, Karen Wood as Edith,
Robert Yeretch as Frederic and
Colm Feore as The Pirate King.
Previews begin Monday, May 9,
and performances continue through
to Saturday, Nov. 12.
Gilbert and Sullivan's light
hearted operetta, which debuted at
‘Wingfield’ comes home
Walt Wingfield is coming home!
Jim Betts announced recently that
Letter From Wingfield Farm will
be a part of Theatre Orangeville's
inaugural summer season.
Letter From Wingfield Farm is
one of Canada's most successful
and most popular plays. Written by
Dan Needles, and starring actor
Rod Beatty, it is the first of a
trilogy of plays about the trials and
tribulations of Walt Wingfield, a
transplanted city dweller whose
attempts at farming are met with
limited success.
Jim Betts, artistic director of
Theatre Orangeville, Canada's
newest professional summer
theatre, is particularly excited by
the fact that Letter From Wingfield
Farm was written about the people
and places of Dufferin County,
Theatre Orangeville's new home.
Based on an award-winning series
of newspaper columns begun by
Dan Needles almost 25 years ago,
this stage version has gone on to
become one of the most performed
and beloved series of plays in
Canadian theatrical history.
Dan Needles, still a local
resident, wrote these columns while
he was editor first of The Shelburne
Free Press and then The Orange
ville Citizen.
Letter From Wingfield Farm will
be the final production of a "Main
Season" that also features the
Victorian melodrama The
Drunkard (or The Fallen Saved),
series Storytime and has been a
composer and recording artist for
Sesame Street. After he performed
at a United Nations function one
UN delegate stated: "You have
opened my eyes to the richness of
this country of yours which I never
before realized. Thank you for
making a stranger feel so welcome
to your land."
Michael Mitchell grew up in a
small town north of Montreal and
pursued a dual career in music and
the armed forces early in his life,
learning to appreciate traditional
Scottish music while with the
Royal Highland Regiment of
Canada. Later he also fell in love
with the music of the Maritimes.
Tickets, at $17 each, are still
available for the concert by calling
the Blyth Festival Box office at
523-9300.
London's Royal Bijoux Theatre on
Dec. 30, 1879, celebrates love,
honour and camaraderie. The
Pirates of Penzance has been
mounted on two previous occasions
at the Festival, in 1961 and in 1985,
at the Avon Theatre. This is the
first time a Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta has been produced on the
Festival stage. The 1994 production
of The Pirates of Penzance marks
the fifth time that Susan Benson
and Brian Macdonald have
collaborated on a Gilbert and
Sullivan musical at Stratford. Mr.
Macdonald has been invited by
Artistic Director Richard Monette
to be an Associate Director for the
1995 season. Colm Feorge, who
received a Genie nomination for his
recent performance in 32 Short
Films About Glenn Gould, will
play The Pirate King.
the adventure play The Mystery Of
The Oak Island Treasure and the
musical A Fairy's Tale. Other
Theatre Orangeville presentations
throughout the summer include a
stage version of Robert Munsch
stories call Murmel, Murmel,
Mortimer, Munsch, and a concert
series "Broadway On Broadway."
Letter From Wingfield Farm will
play for one week only from Aug.
30 to Sept. 3. Ticket voucher
packages are available until May 1
from Theatre Orangeville for as
little as $7 a ticket.
HAPPY BELATED
BIRTHDAY
DEBBIE PIERCE
FEB. 26
Love, Terry, Jen, Brendan,
Mom, Paul, Dan, Shelley
and Dave
The 1994 Undergrand: Theatre of
Choice season winds up in the
McManus, downstairs at The
Grand, with the presentation of
Susan G. Cole's heartwarming
comedy, A Fertile Imagination.
Previewing March 2 and 3, A
Fertile Imagination opens Friday,
March 4 at 8 p.m. and continues
through March 19.
It stars Brooke Johnson, Alisa
Palmer and Alison Sealy-Smith.
The production is directed by Kate
Lushington, with the set designed
by Christine Plunkett, costumes
designed by Elaine Ball and the
lighting designed by Elizabeth
Asselstine.
A Fertile Imagination charts a
lesbian couple's attempt to have a
baby through alternative
fertilization. As Del and Rita (and
their midwife, Zee) ride the
emotional roller-coaster or
prospective parenthood, they
collide with the militant courier,
Marge, the chilly lawyer, Ms
SUITCASE DANCE
Beat the Winter Blahs
Saturday, March 5,1994
Lucknow Community Centre
Dancing 9 -1
Music by: Ultimate Sound
Two Trips to be won
-Benmiller Inn
-Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas
Tickets $12.00 each
Sponsored by Lucknow
Kinsmen
Proceeds to Wheels Away
Tickets Available from
Lucknow Kinsmen
or Call 528-2279, 357-1392
or 357-1440
PAUL J. PICKERING
TRUSTEE IN BANKRUPTCY
AND FINANCIAL CONSULTING
(,'</// /or FREE Consultation!
Days, Evenings, weekend
appointments available.
CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-561-7451
J. Paul Aitken,
Manager
3 Rattenbury St. East, Clinton
CLINTON: (519) 482-1241
HEAD OFFICE:
111 Waterloo St.,
LONDON, Ontario
40th Anniversary
Dance
The family of
LAWRENCE & JEAN
PLAETZER
invites friends, relatives and
neighbours to join them
AT THE BLYTH COMMUNITY
CENTRE
MARCH 5, 9TO1
Best wishes only
Martel and the very pregnant Erica.
It's a situation loaded with laughs.
This smash hit comedy puts a new
spin on reproductive choice and the
trials and joys of fertility.
Brooke Johnson, Alisa Palmer
and Alison Sealy-Smith all make
their Grand Theatre debuts with
this production, along with free
lance director Kate Lushington. Set
designer Christine Plunkett returns
to the McManus, where she
previously designed the
presentations of Snowsuits,
Birthdays and Giants and Liars and
the costumes for last season's
Mainstagc presentation of A Moon
For The Misbegotten. Elaine Ball's
costume designs last appeared in
the McManus production of I Ain't
Dead Yet in 1991. Lighting
designer Elizabeth Asselstine,
whose previous credits include
Cecil and Cleopaytra and
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COMING SOON:
ACE VENTURA
STARTS MARCH 4
Fri. & Sat., 7 & 9 pm
Sun.-Thurs. 8 pm
Phone 357-1630 for 24 hour movie informationMM! GERARD DEPARDIEU
£ 4 Father* A^TteHero
dfappy 25tfi Anniversary
Jerry & Beth
Love, the Gang, Steve & family
Hosanna, also returns to the
McManus.
Huron County
£ Federation of
Agriculture
MEMBERS MEETING
Monday, March 7
8 p.m. at
East Wawanosh Public School
Belgrave
Come and Hear:
Alvin Runnails. 0FA Executive Director
Dave Armitage, OFA Research
Department on:
"A New Approach to Land-Use
Planning
trom the Ministry oi Municipal Affairs
...deadline lor consultation and input
to the Sewell Commission is
March 31. 1994.
OFA wants to hear your Concerns!1
Come out and bring your questions!!
Countv Rd. #20....1/2 mile west of
Belgrave, north side oi road.
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