Category: Uncategorized

Every Tuesday evening this summer, the 2018 Classic Dinner Theatre and Michael’s Table present the hilarious G.B. Shaw comedy, Overruled – about two couples confronted by an unconventional challenge – along with a sumptuous three-course, home-cooked meal. Performed by some of Lanark and Renfrew Counties’ most talented up-and-coming performers – including Mallory Brumm, Katie Irvine, Connor Lyon, and Connor Williamson – the brand-new dinner theatre experience represents an extension of the annual summertime Classic Theatre Festival, which already features three mainstage professional productions, as well as a morning walking play and an evening ghost play. “Our mandate period of performing classics from the golden age of Broadway and the London Stage is perfectly suited for dinner theatre,” explains Artistic Producer Laurel Smith. “I also think it’s something that’s primed for a comeback in an age when there’s only so much binge-watching people can do at home before they start to long for the connection of a live performance experience like this one.” While dinner theatres sprung up across North America after World War II and reached their heyday in the 1960s and 70s, they have been enjoying a resurgence as companies like the Classic Theatre Festival and Michael’s Table come together around shared values of artistic and culinary excellence. “It’s a great opportunity to tickle your funny bone, please your palette, and create a memory you’ll enjoy long after the final curtain,” Smith says. The Classic Theatre Festival decided to launch the new dinner theatre based on audience feedback about additional activities they would like to enjoy while attending a mainstage show. Given that 80% of audiences are tourists, a key request was getting home before sundown, and with a running time of 5 to 7 pm from June 5 to August 28, that should pose no problem for travellers coming from as far as two hours away. The Michael’s Table menu will be offering four special entrees, with soul and salad and dessert and coffee or tea. Tickets for the experience will be $48 (which includes all box office charges, taxes and gratuities.) With limited seating and strong advance word of mouth, seats are already selling fast. To reserve dinner theatre seats – and to enjoy the Festival’s early bird offers, which expire May 15 – contact 1-877-283-1283 or visit ticketsplease.ca Continue reading

One of Canada’s leading women’s rights educators and advocates, Julie Lalonde, visited Perth last week to meet with members of the Burning Passions Theatre youth troupe. Lalonde is acting as a primary consultant for a new play on the #MeToo movement exploring the aftermath of sexual assault, Every Friday, that tours Lanark County schools and youth centres for the last two weeks of April. As someone who for 15 years has been active on the front lines of ending violence against women, the Governor General’s Award-winning advocate, who frequently appears in the national media as a go-to person for her expertise on such violence, shared important lessons with members of the youth troupe. Lalonde chronicled a remarkable history that included leading a seven-year effort to establish the first sexual assault centre at Carleton University. It was an uphill battle, she recalled, because the administration refused to recognize the extent of rape culture on campus, claiming that to acknowledge the problem might hurt the school’s reputation znd discourage prospective students. In response, Lalonde and a group of like-minded colleagues wrote petitions, held a town hall where the need to provide such a service was made obvious, and started an 18-hour-a-day support line that existed for years as the political struggle went on. While Carleton brought in a football team and built a new arena, it always claimed there was no funding available for a sexual assault centre. “We heard horrible stories,” Lalonde says, often from women who had never before had their experiences framed within the context of naming the violence done to them as sexual assault. “We were hearing stories like ‘my abuser goes to the same class, what do I do?’ and “my teaching assistant is abusing me.’” In the era before Facebook and Twitter, the group got the word out about their hotline by placing flyers on car windshields and putting up posters at 4 am that were quickly taken down by staff. Each individual staffed the phone for four-hour shifts, 365 days a year. The tireless Lalonde has also worked for seven years on a provincial campaign to end violence against women, training over 10,000 people while speaking in different communities some 200 days of the year. She has also, unfortunately, been the focus of repeated internet trolling and harassment, including death threats, many of which amplified after she spoke to cadets at the Royal Military College on recognizing and ending such violence. For a number of years afterward, she could not speak publicly without a police presence, which she said was supremely ironic given the national “awakening” then unfolding on sexual violence in light of allegations brought forward by a group of women against former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi. Lalonde has also played a key role in working to improve safety for riders of OC Transpo while also shepherding a group called Hollaback Ottawa, which challenges street-level catcalls and harassment. A lot of people have yet to come to the terms with the fact that, she says,… Continue reading