The Classic Theatre Festival has announced its upcoming 2017 season, one whose programming will dovetail with Ontario and Canada 150th anniversary celebrations while building on the strengths of seven successful summer seasons. In addition to adding a Tuesday matinee at the mainstage, the Festival will also be doubling the number of ghost plays. A professional company that produces hits from the golden age of Broadway and the London Stage (a period roughly from the 1920s through the 1970s), the Festival will highlight the two most successful Canadian playwrights during its mandate period, opening the mainstage season with Canadian Bernard Slade’s comedy Same Time, Next Year (June 23 to July 16). Slade, from Beamsville, Ontario, played a significant role in the development of the post-war Canadian theatre, radio, and television scenes before hitting Hollywood, where he developed The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family before penning his epic Broadway hit. Same Time, Next Year ran three years and became an Academy-Award nominated film starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. It’s the story of two people, each married to someone else, who get together for an annual weekend over 26 years, sharing the ups and downs of their lives from the early 1950s through the mid 1970s as the world rapidly evolves around them. The other Canadian work is the season’s annual closing thriller mystery, by Peter Colley, an acclaimed Canadian playwright whose latest work, a musical about Terry Fox, opened this fall. I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (August 18 to Sept. 10), originally produced at the Blyth Festival in 1979, has since played in 30 countries, become a Hollywood film, and was celebrated by The Globe and Mail as the most successful Canadian play ever. It’s a Hitchcock-styled thriller about a young Toronto couple who purchase an isolated country farmhouse with a mysterious history. Sandwiched in-between will be another production of a George Bernard Shaw classic, the romantic comedy Candida (July 21 to August 13). Building on the applause for the Festival’s celebrated 2016 production of the Shaw comedy Arms and the Man (which won a Best Actress Award from the Capital Critics Circle for Lana Sugarman, in addition to nabbing a Best Director nomination for Laurel Smith as well as a Best Production nod), Candida will remind audiences of how fresh and fun Shaw’s stories can be. In this instance, the title character must choose between the affections of a passionate young poet and her clergyman husband in this skewering of Victorian notions of love and marriage. When first produced in London, the show generated such audience enthusiasm that the press coined the phenomenon “Candidamania.” Mainstage shows will run Tuesday to Sunday at 2 pm, with 8 pm shows every Wednesday and Saturday. The very popular Pre-Show Talks will continue to occur a half hour before every performance. The Festival’s highly praised theatrical walking plays will returns in 2017 as well, focused on characters and stories from Perth around the time of Confederation. Perth through the Ages will run Wednesday to Sunday… Continue reading

The Classic Theatre Festival, the Ottawa Valley’s only professional theatre company, last week picked up a Best Female Lead Actor Award at the prestigious Capital Critics Circle Awards, which annually recognize outstanding artistic achievement in the National Capital Region. The winning performer, Lana Sugarman, who played Raina in the Festival production of Arms and the Man, was unable to attend the ceremony, as she was performing in a Toronto benefit that evening. Nevertheless, she says, “The win was delightful! It feels very rewarding to be recognized for a role that allowed me to grow and expand as a performer. To be able to work on such strong classical text is a gift, and the award is a reflection of the talent of my cast mates and creative team.” Sugarman’s victory was a fitting follow-up to a highly-praised show that also won nominations for Best Director (Laurel Smith) and Best Production, which Sugarman says is a tribute to fellow performers Catherine Bruce, Scott Clarkson, Rachel Fischer, Alan Lee, Alastair Love, and Lindsay Robinson, as well as a production team that included set designer Lois Richardson, costume designer Renate Seiler and lighting designer Wesley McKenzie, with stage manager Alison Muir and assistant stage manager Emily Richardson. ”I loved playing Raina in all her feisty, stubborn, romantic, and vulnerable glory,” recalls Sugarman. “And I loved being in Perth last summer, because it offers such a sweet reprieve from the city. The environment feeds creativity and allows for a real immersion in the world of the play.” The Festival also received a Best Actor nomination for William Vickers in the role of Herb in the production of Neil Simon’s comedy I Ought to Be in Pictures. “It is great to receive this kind of recognition from some of the country’s most respected theatre critics,” says Smith, who notes that other companies included in the annual awards gathering included the National Arts Centre, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, and St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. “It is also great for the Town of Perth, because the Festival plays such an important role as a summertime destination for people seeking quality, professional entertainment along with all that complements seeing a show with us, whether that’s a great meal and an overnight stay at one of our heritage accommodations or the unique shopping opportunities and natural attractions that bless this area.” The Festival’s mainstage shows for 2017, in keeping with the Canada and Ontario 150 celebrations, will feature a majority of Canadian playwrights who made it big on Broadway and beyond: Bernard Slade, who penned the beloved comedy Same Time, Next Year (which ran over 3 years on Broadway) and Peter Colley, whose thriller I’ll Be Back before Midnight is considered the most successful play ever staged in Canada, with performances in over 30 countries abroad. The season also features George Bernard Shaw’s romantic comedy Candida, which pokes fun at Victorian notions of marriage and romantic triangles. For more information, contact us at info[at]classictheatre.ca or 1-877-283-1283. Continue reading