After nearly 25 years as an industrial designer in the Toronto area, Hagan, who originally hails from Galt, is bringing his life-long passion for painting, photography and the Grand River to the Edissi Fine Arts Gallery in Kitchener next month with an exhibit called “Grandiose,” a visual exploration of the Grand River watershed.

“Last year I decided to abandon the world of industrial design and pursue my painting career,” explained Hagan. “As a kid I canoed on the Nith River, so I decided I was going to take this past year and canoe, hike, (and) bicycle all over the Grand River watershed, up in Grand Valley right down into the Brantford area, exploring the rivers again and taking pictures.”

Hagan uses those photos as the stepping-stones for his painting, a style known as abstract-contemporary.

The paintings aren’t your typical scenes of farmer’s fields or trees and riverbanks, either.

“It’s more about catching the feeling and the idea of the river,” he said.

He uses a combination of acrylic paints, lacquers, and enamels to create his artwork, and relies on visual cues – such as colours or visual landmarks – in his photos as inspiration.

“They’re abstract-contemporary paintings, usually with a component that you’ll sort of recognize, whether it be tree limbs or something. But I’m not actually trying to capture the image of the river in the sense of a realistic painting.”

One of Bill Hagan’s photos of the Grand River near Winterbourne. His exhibit opens Sept. 9.

Hagan grew up in Galt, and graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1982, where he studied industrial design. Despite the fact he’s lived out of the region for so long, he has maintained close ties to the area.

“I look at Cambridge (and) Galt as my home town – my Mom is in Ayr, my mother-in-law is in Kitchener, brothers in Guelph. I don’t live there, but it’s still my roots.”

Hagan thought the past year was going to be one of relaxation and leisure: canoeing the Grand River, taking photographs, and painting.

Instead, it’s been one of the busiest years of his life.

In addition to painting and planning for his upcoming exhibit, Hagan also offers photography workshops to teach the basics of digital landscape photography to those who are unsure of the new technology.

“The workshop is all about the fundamentals and getting them to go out and do a little bit of a photo shoot, and talk about how they can hang it in their house or share it with friends through email.”

He hopes his exhibit can help reinvigorate interest in the Grand River, and introduce the public to a river and region he enjoys so much.

“It’s my goal to get people a little more involved and get them off the highways and on the back roads … it’s all about getting people to rediscover something.”

It didn’t take Hagan long to rediscover his love for the Nith River, either. He is amazed how after more than two decades, the river and much of the surrounding area has remained basically the same as when he was a child.

“It’s funny how things outside of the river environment change all the time – whether it be subdivisions and highways – but once you get back on the river, other than the occasional new bridge here and there, really not much has changed. It is like coming home again,” he explained.

Opening night for “Grandiose” is Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Edissi Fine Arts Gallery, 907 Frederick St. in Kitchener. The exhibit will run until Oct. 1. Admission is free. For more information or to contact the gallery, call 1-877-727-8001.

Since its debut in ’96, Rent has struck a chord with young people, drawing huge crowds of those not usually associated with live theatre. It’s a natural fit, then, for a group that offers intensive workshop training for young people, a two-week grind that culminates in performances before an audience.

Andy Stimpson (Mark), Sonja Malton (Maureen), Laura Larson (Maureen) and Gavin Tessier (Roger) are part of a cast of some 50 young performers preparing to stage the musical Rent under the direction of Elmira's Gord Davis.

“The young people were really eager to do this one. When I got them together, I asked them why; for some it was the music, but most of them said, ‘It’s about us. It’s about real people … about issues important to us,’” said Davis, who’s had plenty of experience working with young actors.

He’ll need all that savvy to work into shape some 50 performers – 13 to 22 years of age – in just 10 days. Having started on Monday, he has until next Friday to prepare them for what’s coming. He’ll put them through their paces via intensive workshops that get them up to speed quickly, just like what would happen with a professional production.

“My goal is to give them that feeling of how a professional show is put together.”

The goal is to foster young talent, performers who might like to pursue a career in theatre, perhaps. The Singer’s Theatre program is hard work, but it pays off in well-polished productions, including past stagings of Les Miserables, Titanic, Parade, Jekyll and Hyde, Cats and Rags.

Inspired by Puccini’s La Bohème, Rent is a joyous and often bittersweet musical that celebrates a community of artists as they struggle between high hopes and the tough realities of today’s world.

Johathan Larson’s updated tale introduces us to a group of hip, young urban friends struggling to come to terms with their little slice of the world, dealing with drug addiction and AIDS (the plague of the day that replaces La Bohème’s tuberculosis).

Mark is a documentary filmmaker and ex-boyfriend to Maureen, a performance artist now dating Joanne, a neurotic human rights lawyer. Roger is a depressed HIV-positive musician, and Mimi is an HIV-positive exotic dancer and drug addict who works her way into Roger’s heart. Collins, a friend of Mark and Roger’s, starts a relationship with Angel, an HIV-positive drag queen.

Mark and Roger are being evicted by their former friend-cum-landlord, Benny, to make room for a digital, state-of-the-art cyber-arts studio.

This is not your grandfather’s Puccini.

The updated story, filled with rock music, reveals to us real people that audiences – particularly young people who don’t usually go to live theatre – can relate to.

While some productions bring a loud, ringing rock-show vibe to Rent, Davis is looking to focus on the singing – not drowned out by the music – and the story.

“We’re being very careful to make the story very clear,” he said, noting he’s working on the assumption people in the audience won’t be overly familiar with the musical.

“I told them I want [their] grandparents to be able to come and to enjoy themselves,” he said of his young charges.

All of the young performers have seen the movie version; others have seen theatrical versions or the DVD recording of the last Broadway production. They’ll draw on that for inspiration.

The Singer’s Theatre production of Rent runs Aug. 20 (8 p.m.), Aug. 21 (2 and 8 p.m.) and Aug. 22 (2 p.m.) at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly the King Street Theatre Centre) in Kitchener.
Tickets are $21, available at www.ticketscene.ca or at the door. Visit www.thesingerstheatre.ca for more information.

Oliver Pavia is the Emcee and Laura Harding is Sally Bowles in the JM Drama production of Cabaret. Joining them at the Kit Kat Club are Sloane Pukarowski and Fran Roque.

The scene is Berlin – 1931, before the war but with National Socialism on the rise. We’re introduced to the Kit Kat Club, the center of seedy decadence on which the growing tide of Nazism eventually intrudes.

Based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel “Berlin Stories” and John Van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, Cabaret follows an English nightclub singer, an American writer, a German landlady and a Jewish shopkeeper who find their destinies linked and their futures uncertain on the eve of the Third Reich.

First staged in 1966, the story is most closely linked to the 1972 movie starring Liza Minnelli as the young British singer Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the Emcee. Where the movie skips over the subplots outside the Kit Kat Club, the stage production retains the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor.

Resolving the differences between the theatrical and movie versions makes for an extra layer of work for director Cheryl Ewing.

“It’s always a bit frightening to do those types of shows where the audience has certain expectations because of the movie versions of the story,” she said, noting the film essentially saw Minnelli become Sally Bowles.

“The stage version is different – this is not the Liza Minnelli Cabaret.”

Of course, there are many parts shared by both versions, including the rousing score that features “Willkommen,” “Maybe This Time,” “Money, Money,” “Don’t Tell Mama” and that familiar title tune, old chum.

The cast JM Drama has assembled have put their own stamp on the performances, the director noted. That includes Oliver Pavia in the role of the Emcee, Laura Harding as Sally Bowles and Brett Roberts as Clifford Bradshaw.

Having selected Cabaret because she “wanted to do something that’s a little edgy,” Ewing said the musical is especially apropos today because of the similarities between the economic and political situations then and now.

“There are parallels to our time. The [musical] gives you a glimpse of how those times impact on the lives of individuals – political movements touch people in a personal way.”

Beyond the message in the play – we see how the rise of Nazism creeps into the characters’ lives – there’s a whole lot of what musicals do best: infectious fun. There’s singing, there’s dancing and there’s laughing.

“We’re having fun doing this, and we want people to have the same experience. We want the audience to come in and be transported for a couple of hours to another time,” she explained.

In the confines of the Registry Theatre, the feeling of being in the Kit Kat Club is easily achieved – some of those attending performances will be right in the thick of it.

“We’re making Cabaret very intimate. The first two rows of seating are cabaret tables, and the audience there is part of the cabaret.”

The JM Drama production of Cabaret runs Aug. 12-14 and Aug. 19-21 at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $18-$22 ($30 for cabaret seating), available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com.

Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist, was killed – some say murdered – on Mar. 16, 2003 by an Israeli Army bulldozer as she and some colleagues tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. Her death made headlines worldwide and inspired more than 30 songs, two plays, and a documentary, raising questions about the Arab-Israeli conflict that are hard to answer, and perhaps even harder to ask.
Her story, from an idealistic young girl in Olympia, Washington to her exploits with the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza, unfolds in the play to be presented next week at Kitchener’s Registry Theatre.

Majdi Bou-Matar's MT Space theatre group is not one to shy away from the controversy surrounding My Name is Rachel Corrie, to be staged next week at the Registry Theatre.

With words taken from Corrie’s journals and e-mail messages, noted actor Alan Rickman and British journalist Katherine Viner bring to life the young woman’s take on the longstanding conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

The play has been contentious since it was first staged in 2005, both because of the issues it tackles and the debate over how Corrie died (the Israelis called it an accident, while witnesses say otherwise). The controversy is not an issue for Majdi Bou-Matar, who runs the Multicultural Theatre Space (The MT Space) in Kitchener. The group in known for such productions as The Last 15 Seconds, which looks at terrorism, and Seasons of Immigration, which tackles the trials and tribulations of settling in a new country.

Having read the script, he was eager to welcome the production by Burlington-based Tottering Biped Theatre.

“It’s a phenomenal play because of how sincere it is,” said Bou-Matar. “When I read the play, I couldn’t put it down.”

Given the attack by Israeli commandos on a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza in May – nine people were killed – the conflict in the region is once again in the spotlight.

“We think this is an immediate, urgent issue – a highly politicized topic,” he said.

Part of Bou-Matar’s fascination with the story was the international coverage about a young American woman being killed contrasted to the muted reaction to the fact Palestinians are killed on a regular basis.

“What’s the value of a human life? Some seem to be more valuable than others.”

Corrie’s story, however, serves to focus a spotlight on the region. The language and imagery are compelling, said Trevor Copp, artistic director of Tottering Biped Theatre.

“Rachel Corrie is a vital way ‘in’ to the Middle East crisis for North Americans because the play focuses on the entire life of a young American woman. She is familiar and her path to the Middle East is recognizable; we are or know someone who would do this; we admire her. This is why her tragedy strikes us acutely,” he said.

“The experience of occupation that Palestinians face is quite unknowable for most Canadians; but through her we have a way to realize the enormity of the suffering there. Her suffering becomes our own.”

The controversy, and perhaps the association with Rickman, might prove helpful as MT Space offers a summertime show for the first time. My Name is Rachel Corrie also represents a departure from staging only its own productions, which Bou-Matar hopes to do more of.

“We’re planning to start presenting more work from others,” he said. “We present our own shows about every two years – they take time to produce – so this is a way to keep the momentum going.”

My Name is Rachel Corrie will be performed July 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre. Tickets are $20, available by calling 519-585-7763 or e-mailing tickets@mtspace.ca.

Live music will be presented Sunday nights starting July 4 and running through the Labour Day weekend.
To fill the schedule, the Floradale resident had only to turn to the long list of artists he’s worked with over more than 60 years in the music business. The lineup will feature bluegrass, gospel and country acts.

Floradale's Lynn Russwurm will be busy on stage and behind the scenes as the summer concert series kicks off July 4 at the bandshell in Elmira's Gore Park.

The concert series opens and closes with Crossover Junction, the band Russwurm recently joined, producing its first album last year. At 79, he’s not tired of any aspects of the music industry.

Other acts on tap include those from around the region such as Maryhill’s Paul Weber, but extends to bands from Woodstock, Mount Forest and Hanover.

“I know all of them personally. These are entertaining musicians,” Russwurm said.

Having played one of the shows at last summer’s concert series in the park, he said the mix of musicians will fit right in with the audience who turns out at the bandstand.

“When we played there last summer, there must have been more than 200 people. They were having a great time.”

Often drawing an older crowd, the concerts ideally provide the kind of music they can sing along with, or at least clap and tap their toes in time with.

“These are the songs that many of us grew up with.”

For the Crossover Junction shows, for instance, many of the songs will be old gospel standards such as those featured on the band’s debut album. Of course, they’ll also play some of the tracks penned by Russwurm himself; he’s been writing since he was a teen, and many of the hundreds now in his catalogue have been recorded by other artists.

The goal for each of the concerts this summer is to get people out to enjoy live shows, music at its most infectious.

The showcase series runs Sunday evening, 7-9 p.m., in Gore Park.

Now, all that remains is keeping his fingers crossed for good weather this summer: “I hope the Sundays at least will be OK,” he laughed.

• July 4: Crossover Junction
• July 11: John Doerr & Greenwood Hill
• July 18: Richard Holm & The Old Country Mishaps
• July 25: Gerald Davidson & The Country Versatiles
• Aug. 1: TBA
• Aug. 8: Country Ways (Laverne Ferguson)
• Aug. 15: Lynn Russwurm’s anniversary jam
• Aug. 22: Maryanne Cunningham & The Red Rascal Band
• Aug. 29: Variety night with Paul Weber
• Sept. 5: Crossover Junction

The kickoff was Monday night’s gala opening of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by the festival’s artistic director, Des McAnuff.

Tony Award-winning actor Brent Carver is Jacques in As You Like It, the production directed by Des McAnuff that was the first in a series of openings this week at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

With that, the festival’s 2010 season runs until Oct. 31, featuring As You Like It; Kiss Me, Kate; The Tempest; Dangerous Liaisons; Evita; Peter Pan; The Winter’s Tale; Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris; For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again; Do Not Go Gentle; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; and King of Thieves.

This week’s openings saw productions get underway at three of the festival’s four stages.

“This is one of the most exciting offerings we’ve had in a long time – there’s something for everyone,” said Ann Swerdfager, the festival’s publicity director.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with what we’ve produced for 2010,” said McAnuff in a statement. “We have an unbelievably gifted company of actors who never cease to inspire and amaze me. All of these talents combine with the work of our outstanding artisans to create a theatre-going experience that I hope will be one of Stratford’s most memorable.”

The opening play, As You Like It, features Ben Carlson as Touchstone, Brent Carver as Jaques, Paul Nolan as Orlando and Andrea Runge as Rosalind.

Shakespeare included a fair amount of music in this play. While the original score is long gone, Stratford commissioned Justin Ellington, cousin of the legendary Duke Ellington, to write a 1920s-style jazz score for its production, Swerdfager noted.

Following that opening, it was a busy week of firsts. The musical Kiss Me, Kate opened Tuesday at the Festival Theatre. Directed by John Doyle, the Tony Award-winning director of Sweeny Todd, the production features Juan Chioran and Monique Lund.

“It’s a highly entertaining show. It’s just a lovely, sweet tale that leaves everybody smiling,” she said, adding it’s one of her personal favourites, having already seen it four times.

On Wednesday, theatergoers moved to the Tom Patterson Theatre for the late Shakespearean romance The Winter’s Tale. Directed by Marti Maraden, the production features a cast led by Ben Carlson as Leontes, Yanna McIntosh as Hermione and Seana McKenna as Paulina.

The following day marked the opening of the festival’s first rock musical, Evita, at the Avon Theatre.

Featuring Chilina Kennedy in the title role, the production is directed by Gary Griffin – together again after the success of West Side Story in 2009. Kennedy is joined by Juan Chioran, who plays Juan Perón, and Josh Young, who plays Che.

The Tony Award-winning Brent Carver was busy again on Friday in Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. He is joined in the ensemble by Jewelle Blackman, Mike Nadajewski and Nathalie Nadon. The production is led by internationally acclaimed Canadian director Stafford Arima.

Today, the week of openings culminates in the performance of Peter Pan at the Avon Theatre, directed by highly respected British director Tim Carroll. The play features Michael Therriault in the title role.

Comedian Seán Cullen appears as Smee and Tom McCamus is Captain Hook.

“If you’ve got kids, it’s a great way to introduce them to live theatre – it’s a beautiful show,” said Swerdfager.

The Studio Theatre season will begin on July 13 with the opening of Do Not Go Gentle, featuring Geraint Wyn Davies.

One of this year’s premier attractions, however, will be The Tempest, with Christopher Plummer in the role of Prospero. It opens June 25.

“He’s unbelievable – he really is something else to watch on stage live.”

The mix of offerings should help boost ticket sales, which topped 500,000 last year. The festival brings some $150 million in economic activity to the area, a major component in the tourism industry.

His parents, Wendy and Brian, were friends with the band members and had been bringing him to their shows since he was five, smuggling him into bars over the supper hour. Jonathan had a natural talent on drums and one night, while playing in St. Clements, they brought him up on stage for a song.

Second Wind became a band that spans generations when Jonathan Sauder, third from left, joined Daniel Kramer, Darrel Martin and Howie Brubacher.

When he was done, Jonathan climbed in his mother’s lap and said “Mommy, I’m shivering but I’m not cold.”

“That’s called a buzz, honey,” she said.

They’re called Second Wind, but the band has gone through three or four metamorphoses – this time with Sauder behind the kit as the regular drummer.

The founding members of Second Wind – Darrel Martin, Howie Brubacher, Daniel Kramer and Grant Snyder – are childhood friends who grew up in St. Jacobs and went to the Mennonite church, where they learned to sing harmonies.

In 1971, they formed a band called Pharaoh, rehearsing in somebody’s basement. They cut their performing teeth at the Grand Union Hotel in Kitchener, a dive bar that prepared them well for playing and touring across Ontario for the next two years.

One by one, the band members fell away. But four or five years later they reunited and started playing again, mostly on weekends as they had young families by that point. A friend suggested that they rechristen the band “Second Wind.”

Over the past decade, they played a few times a year, at weddings and parties. They picked up a fifth member along the way: Willem Moolenbeek, who plays harmonica and saxophone. In 2007, they finally got around to recording an album with the help of 40 or 50 friends who pitched in to cover the recording costs.

Not long after the CD was released, Snyder was diagnosed with cancer. He died last November, and the band didn’t play for a few months.

“Grant was, in some ways, the heart and soul of the band,” Kramer said.

Before Snyder died, the band members visited him in the hospital and he encouraged them to keep playing. Inviting Jonathan to take over the drums felt like the natural choice. Jonathan had learned to play on Snyder’s first drum kit, and Grant had asked that his drums go to Jonathan when he died.

“We wouldn’t have tried to find another drummer. This just felt natural,” Brubacher said.

Despite the generation gap between them, Sauder has slipped easily into playing Second Wind’s mix of classic rock, blues and country rock. They stir a few original songs into the set list, and they’re adding some new pieces to their repertoire – joking a song has to be at least 30 years old to qualify.

The Sauders’ basement is now the rehearsal studio as the band prepares for the Wellesley Lions Club’s annual fundraiser June 19. The chicken barbecue and dance at the community centre will raise funds for a new kindergarten playground at Wellesley Public School.

Harmony – and not just the vocal kind – is important to any band, Brubacher said. If it’s just five musicians playing together as individuals, the magic is missing. Friendship and the love of music has kept Second Wind going.

“Not many bands last this long,” Martin said. “We just like what happens when we get together, and we keep doing it.”

Tickets for the dinner are $12 or $6 for children. Dance tickets are $10, or you can get a ticket for both dinner and dance for $20. For tickets, call Jamie Reid at 519-656-3147.

“We have this back-and-forth thing that we do,” laughed Scarlett down the line from his Toronto home.
His shows are said at times to resemble finely executed pieces of theatre (albeit, sometimes, the theatre of the absurd).  His patter includes entertaining and topical commentary on the foibles of the world – perhaps introducing the ‘Sheik of Araby’ with a dissertation on oil prices.

Mose Scarlett has been performing for more than 40 years, many of them with Ken Whiteley, who'll be joining him on stage at the Registry Theatre May 8.

Scarlett’s eclectic repertoire includes Broadway classics like ‘I Can’t Get Started’, raunchy blues like ‘Fool’s Paradise’, and nearly forgotten gems like ‘The Moon Is A Silver Dollar.’ A jocular tent-show ditty like ‘He’s In The Jailhouse Now’ will bump up against a mellow, jazzy ‘Sweet Lorraine’ and be followed by a raucous jaunt through ‘Somebody Stole My Gal,’ or by the turn-of-the-century sentimental favourite, ‘Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nellie.’

There’s a certain casualness to the show: there’s no set list, for instance, as Scarlett prefers to let the mood of the evening wash over him when he hits the stage.

“There’s usually no decision on that (set list) until we decide to play it on stage. Sometimes we might have an idea of a couple of tunes that we want to do … but I don’t usually decide in advance.”

Both performers are steeped in the storytelling tradition of roots music, folk, blues and gospel.

A fixture on the Canadian scene, performing throughout the country at festivals, clubs and theatres, Scarlett has also toured widely through the United States, as well as in England, Scotland, Germany and Australia. Besides having performed solo or, more often these days, with various accompanists, he also appeared, for 20 years, in a well-loved trio with Whiteley and the late musical legend, Jackie Washington, all three of whom were nominated for a 1993 Roots and Traditional Juno Award for their first recording together, entitled ‘Where Old Friends Meet.’

A prolific songwriter, Whiteley is one of Canada’s most respected roots musicians. Drawing on a rich background in blues, gospel and folk styles, he’s a seven-time Juno Award nominee. He has played at virtually every major folk festival in Canada and performed and recorded with such legends as Pete Seeger, John Hammond Jr., Tom Paxton, Blind John Davis, The Campbell Brothers and Stan Rogers.

Whiteley is also a busy producer, having worked on more than 80 albums. His productions have resulted in 11 gold or platinum albums, 22 Juno nominations, two Juno winners and two Grammy nominations, with total sales in excess of eight million copies. He has written the music for a number of films and television programs.

Whiteley is one of the principals behind the Borealis label, home to their collaborative efforts and solo albums.

For Scarlett, those solo efforts are just that: efforts. He admits new recordings are sometimes slow in the making.

“I never feel like making one. One day … it pops into my head. I have a concept in mind, and then I’ll get to work,” he said of the process.

With a deep catalogue and more than four decades of performing under each of their belts, Scarlett and Whiteley will have many songs to draw on when they hit the stage in Kitchener next Saturday. Given the venue, it’ll be an up-close-and-personal experience, which is just the way they like it.

“Things catch on when people are closer together in the audience. With the people right up front … the people behind them react to the ripples.”

Mose Scarlett and Ken Whiteley take the stage May 8 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Tickets are $16 ($18 at the door), available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com. For more information, check out www.folknight.ca.

Fred Brandenburg is Captain Jennings and Tracy Biggar is the titular Captain Bree in the ETC production of The Lady Pirates of Captian Bree, which opens next week.

As you can well imagine, the musical story of The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree is entertainment, pure and simple. And that’s just what director Deb Deckert has in mind as she prepares the cast for next week’s opening of the Elmira Theatre Company production. Since it’s a pirate story, there’s plenty of room to play it for laughs, in a cartoon-like manner.

“I told them all to go right over the top with it. We’re having such a good time,” she said of the actors who’ve been rehearsing the show since January. “It’s been a lot of work, but we’re always laughing and having fun.

“We don’t do musicals all that often, but every now and then we like to do something with music. It’s fun, and it’s a chance to get more people on stage.”

The nature of the show demands a large cast, in this case 37 people ranging in age from 16 to 60s, including newcomers to the theatre company. There are also many family groups involved, including Deckert and her daughter Danielle.

With such a large cast, there’s been a great deal of work getting ready for this one, Deckert noted. Not just learning lines, but singing and dancing too. And, because this is a musical about pirates, the actors have to learn to handle a sword – stylized sword fighting in time with the music.

To make that all possible, she’s relied on ETC stalwart Heather Morris to act as musical director.

“I couldn’t do it without her. The sound that she gets out of people is amazing – she gets quality out of them.”

And because it wouldn’t be a play about pirates without a pirate ship, the crew has outdone itself in building the set for this show, Deckert noted.

“It is amazing what they’ve done. People come in here (the theatre) now and they just smile – it’s a great set.”

The ship that takes sail on Howard Avenue is home to Captain Bree, who steers her vessel to intercept the Kayla May, causing most of the crew to jump ship upon sighting the pirates in the distance. The second ship’s commander, Captain Jennings, is left with a makeshift crew of motley prisoners and Fergus, a sailor who can’t swim, to protect his wealthy passengers, the Prescots, from the pending attack.

The  music and laughs begin as the lady pirates take over the defenseless Kayla May. Along with Captain Bree’s hearty crew of mean and nasty mates (and a couple of new recruits in training who keep forgetting to be rough and tough), you’ll find the haughty Professor Bidwell and the pretentious Madam Prescot constantly battling for special treatment and respect from the pirates, Samuel Prescot masquerading as a girl to avoid becoming shark bait, and Julia Prescot bursting with desire to join the lady pirates – much to her aunt’s dismay.

After the pirates send Thomas, the cabin boy, out to sea with a ransom note demanding gold from the British in exchange for the Prescots’ lives, they amuse themselves by auctioning off the male prisoners to do their dirty work and showing Julia the ropes of pirating.

The story – and hijinks – build to a climax with the arrival of the British fleet.

“This is a lot of laughs,” said Deckert. “It’s a family show. You can bring your grandma, you can bring your kids – what kid doesn’t love to dress up as a pirate? – and everyone is going to have a good time.”

The ETC production of The Lady Pirates of Captain Bree runs Apr. 28 to May 15, Thursdays through Sundays. All shows are at 8 p.m., except for the Sunday matinees (May 2 and 9) at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $18, available through the Centre In The Square box office by calling 519-578-1570 or online at www.centre-square.com. A limited supply of tickets will be available at the door. All performances are at 76 Howard Ave. in Elmira.

“I think the saxophone chose me – it was a mutual love affair,” said the K-W native who’s called New York City home for the last three decades.

Saxophone legend John Tank, a K-W native who has called New York City home for three decades, makes a local appearance to play at Kitchener's Registry Theatre Saturday night.

He’ll be making a homecoming Saturday night (Apr. 17) to perform at the Registry Theatre, a show that will include guest pianist Bernie Senensky.

That concert will feature the old-school jazz – think Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane – that Tank has become known for.

That New York sound is a long way from that made by a five-year-old taking lessons on the Hawaiian guitar. He stuck that out for about a year, but it wasn’t until his teens that he came back to music lessons. He considered the guitar but was introduced to the saxophone through a friend, which would prove to be the defining moment in his musical career.

Starting on a $3-a-week rented saxophone, along the way he encountered high school music teacher Michael Bergauer, the legendary mentor for many regional musicians. Bergauer had an eye for real talent and knew from early on that Tank was special, having him concentrate on the tenor sax. With Bergauer’s support, he began to play in local dance bands. It did not take long for Tank to realize that he wanted to make his life in music.

“Music is great. It did a lot for my life. I was a young lad who had no direction – when I found music, it just consumed me,” he explained.

Beginning in 1961, he sought out the great Canadian saxophone player and teacher Paul Brodie, himself a student of Marcel Mule, Director of the Paris Conservatoire and considered the world’s greatest classical saxophonist.

“Paul Brodie taught me that you have to put everything you have into it.”

Following two years of intensive study with Brodie, Tank attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music. He returned to Canada and played the Toronto scene in the early ’70s before settling in the heart of the jazz world, New York City, and has lived in Manhattan ever since.

Tank has released three CDs and also appears on recordings by the iconic bassist Charles Mingus.
For Saturday’s concert, Tank will be playing six new compositions, tunes that he’s never performed before, along with some standards. It will be a classic jazz show, with the focus on the instrumentalists rather than the voice-heavy jazz that is prevalent today.

He’s been in the scene long enough to know that jazz’s popularity is cyclical. The current success of jazz and jazz-tinged singers is a double-edged sword, however.

“I’m not really pleased with the way the so-called jazz field has evolved: we’re awash in singers,” said Tank, noting the popularity of jazz singing means fewer opportunities for players. “They’re not getting a chance to have their music heard.”

Other genres of music – pop, rock, R&B – are completely dominated by vocalists, but jazz was the one real outlet for instrumentalists. Today, however, about half of what you hear in the genre is vocal music. This gives him pause, especially when considering the future that awaits young jazz players. In New York there are thousands of young kids learning jazz – but what kind of music scene will they find then they get older? he mused.

It’s already a tough market given the economy.

“There are three million musicians and three jobs,” he joked.

So we won’t expect him to break into song, then?

“I tell people, ‘just so you know, I’m not Lady Gaga,’” he laughed.

For this show, it’ll be the instruments front and center. And in the intimate confines of the Registry, it’ll be their natural sound, without amplification – “The sound is much better acoustically.”

John Tank will be joined by Bernie Senensky (piano), Jim Vivian (bass) and Ted Warren (drums) for the performance that takes place Apr. 17 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener.
Tickets are $18, available at the Centre in the Square box office by calling 578-1570 or toll free 1-800-265-8977 or online at www.centre-square.com.