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Coming off a record-breaking season that was honoured with five nominations at the 2017 Capital Critics Circle Awards, the Classic Theatre Festival in Perth is gearing up for its 9th season of staging professional productions of hits from the golden age of Broadway and the London Stage. The 2018 mainstage season will open with a rediscovered gem by the author of I Am a Camera (the basis for the musical Cabaret) and Bell, Book & Candle. John Van Druten’s There’s Always Juliet is a story rich in the dialogue and atmosphere that characterized many a 1930s comedy featuring the likes of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard. This tale of love at first sight follows the relationship of a British woman who meets an American businessman at a London tea party. Sparks fly, but how far will things go when the desire to find the perfect mate must face the obstacles of social mores, geography, and our sometimes overprotective sense of discretion? It’s followed by an eagerly anticipated production of George Bernard Shaw’s wicked satire, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, the ultimate mother-daughter conflict story in which a young woman starts to question the source of her mother’s wealth. Filled with the warmth, humour, and unforgettable comic characters found in Shaw’s best writing, this play was banned for almost a decade by Britain’s Lord Chamberlain, but was celebrated throughout the 20th-century as an insightful and still relevant skewering of gender relations and the limited choices available to women in the workplace. The season will close with the annual mystery thriller, a nailbiter called Angel Street (also known as Gaslight), by Patrick Hamilton. It’s a psychological thriller that became the source of the term gaslighting (when someone plays with your mind and tries to make you think you are going insane). A 1944 film version, directed by George Cukor, starred Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and a 19-year-old Angela Lansbury. The Festival will also produce a new version of its morning walking play, Perth through the Ages, this time focused on tales of Perth during the Second World War. The Lonely Ghosts Walk will also return with a brand new walk through the ghostly spirits of Perth’s past. Festival fans can also look forward to a surprise new show addition which will be announced in January. The Festival’s annual holiday sale – theatre lovers can enjoy 25% savings and purchase vouchers now and pick their dates next year – is on until December 31, with tickets available at ticketsplease.ca or 1-877-283-1283. Continue reading

At a lavish National Arts Centre gathering last week in Ottawa, the Classic Theatre Festival’s Roger Schultz was honoured with a Best Technical Set Design award for his work on the professional Perth theatre’s production of the mystery thriller I’ll Be Back Before Midnight. “It could just as easily have been any of the three sets Roger designed last summer at the Classic Theatre Festival,” enthused veteran critic Iris Winston. Some of Canada’s top theatre reviewers had honoured the Classic Theatre Festival with a record-breaking five awards nominations in the professional theatre category for the 2017 Capital Critics Circle Awards. In an emotional acceptance speech, Schultz praised the whole artistic team behind those productions – director Laurel Smith, costume designer Renate Seiler, lighting designer/production manager Wesley McKenzie, and associate producer Matthew Behrens – and saluted the Festival as “the little company that could.” Schultz’s innovative designs  for the thriller, along with his work on the Shaw comedy Candida and the Bernard Slade comedy Same Time, Next Year, produced a “wow effect” for audiences entering the theatre, which produces hits from the golden age of Broadway and the London Stage. For Artistic Producer Laurel Smith, the critical attention being paid to the Classic Theatre Festival – which last year racked up four award nominations – is “a tribute to the remarkable talent that puts these plays on every summer. We are so privileged to host some of this country’s finest talent both onstage and behind the scenes, and I really believe these award nominations speak to the team effort that is required to put on the shows, whether it is stage management, lighting design, costume design, set design, the front of house folks who do such a great job making our guests feel welcome and at home, and the young people in our theatre training program who are at the forefront of what it means to be a Perth ambassador.” Smith is busy planning the 2018 summer season which, in addition to three golden age of Broadway and the London stage classics, will also include a brand new morning walking play, a new ghost walk, and a show surprise that will be announced in December. Advance Super Savings Flex Passes are now on sale for the 2018 summer season, providing guests a 25% discount and the flexibility to pick their dates next year. Those are now available at www.ticketsplease.ca or 1-877-283-1283.   Continue reading