A sound as changeable as the weather

If you happen to catch The Bad Bongwater Boys in action more than once, chances are you’ll see a different show each time.

From country to bluegrass to old school rock ’n’ roll, the local band, primarily a six-man unit with a rotating cast of guest stars, plays anything its individual members are into.

“We can play for any type of crowd,” said Dave Soehner, guitarist, vocalist and one of the leaders of the band …Read more

This musical’s got a (razor’s) edge

There’s no truth to the rumour ponchos will be necessary for audience members in the first three rows taking in the JM Drama production of Sweeney Todd, says the director.

Nor, for that matter, is anyone likely to be asked to volunteer his neck to The Demon Barber: there’ll be enough blood already …Read more

Elmira plays host to WODL Minifest

Just as no two snowflakes are alike – although it’s July, a snowy analogy seems apropos this “summer” – no two interpretations of the same play are the same. Make that no six interpretations, because that’s exactly what’s in store next week as the Elmira Theatre Company hosts the Western Ontario Drama League (WODL) Minifest.

Six theatrical groups will be performing Return to Sender by Stratford playwright Joan Veldman, an exercise in creativity, skills development and having a whole lot of fun.
“The idea is to help new directors, new actors and new tech people – sets, lights and such – get some experience in a friendly, non-competitive manner,” said Bev Dietrich, who’s spearheading the ETC effort.

Over two days, the participants – Galt Little Theatre, Kincardine Theatre Guild, London Community Players, Theatre Kent (Chatham), Theatre Sarnia and Thistle Theatre (Embro) – will take part in a workshop-format event led by Brian Van Norman.

Van Norman brings more than three decades of theatre experience to the role. He has worked with schools, universities, amateur and professional theatre companies, serving as a teacher, director, writer, adjudicator and producer.

He’ll be providing feedback to the participants, as will the playwright, who’ll be in attendance.

Audience members can expect to see six distinct takes on Veldman’s one-act play, with each performance running about 35 minutes, said Dietrich.

“You wonder how you can watch the same one-act play six times, but you can. You’re going to see six different versions of the play – everyone has their own take on it,” she said, noting that at past Minifests, groups have performed varied versions of the featured play, from operatic to completely off the wall.

This year’s offering, Return to Sender, tells the story of a young woman who gets angry at her boyfriend and decides to take out a personal ad to meet other men. A naïve soul, she is unaware of what all the short-forms and acronyms in the ads really mean, and so ends up conversing with some “interesting” characters. Comedic episodes ensue.

Complications arise when the boyfriend, realizing that he really does love her and wants her back, enters the café where she works in a variety of disguises as her would-be suitors.
As a happily-ever-after story, reconciliation is soon in the air.

Short and sweet, each presentation of Return to Sender will require a great deal of behind-the-scenes work for the ETC crew. As host, Elmira will not be entering the festival, but is responsible for organizing all the details.

Unlike a full competition where each theatre company brings its own sets, props and lighting, everything will be provided by the host company, putting some 30 local volunteers to work, Dietrich explained.

This marks the first time Elmira will host any of the WODL events. While the group is too small to run the large competition held in March, its new facility on Howard Avenue is just right for the Minifest, she added.

A grant of $2,000 from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund helped seal the deal, allowing ETC to go ahead with its plans. With some 80 overnight visitors – the Best Western Hotel in St. Jacobs is the official accommodation spot – and some 100 daytrippers expected July 24-25, Minifest should be a boon to the local economy, Dietrich argued in seeking the funding.
With the festival now ready to go, performances by Galt and Embro, the two closest groups, will open the event on Friday night. The other four groups take the stage on Saturday. All shows are open to the public.

“We’re hoping Elmira people will come to check it out … along with the groups that will be attending.”

Tickets are $10 for the two plays July 24, and $20 for the four plays on Saturday, including a lunch. Weekend passes are $25 for all six plays and Saturday’s lunch. Tickets are available at the door or by calling (519) 669-3230.

CITS’ new season reflects economic times

Recognizing the economic realities, the Centre In The Square has pared back its offerings in the 2009-2010 season, details of which were announced this week.

Having expanded into double-digits, this coming year’s series have been reduced to seven, billed as The Magnificent 7 …Read more

There’s no stopping the music

A few years back, Lynn Russwurm’s bandmates decided it was time to put down their instruments and retire, but Russwurm wasn’t ready to sit in the audience just yet.

“They knew when to quit; I didn’t,” he chuckled.

Russwurm got word that a bluegrass band called Crossover Junction was looking for a bass player and joined the group. Now, at 78, he’s producing the band’s self-titled debut album.

Russwurm grew up listening to his father’s collection of old 78s and started playing guitar when his was in his teens. At 19, he moved from the family farm near Hanover to Kitchener, where he got a job at B.F. Goodrich. He formed his first band, the Pine River Troubadors, and played the local bar circuit. At 21, he had his own program on a Kitchener radio station.

In the 60 years Russwurm has been making music, he’s seen a lot of changes in the business. Back in the 1950s and ’60s, he used to correspond directly with artists; that was how his songs ended up on the albums of country stars like the Mercey Brothers, the Lewis Family, Carl Smith and Hank Thompson.

“You can’t get to artists personally any more like you could back then,” he said. “You could knock on doors and go somewhere.”

These days you need connections, the kind of connections Russwurm has built up over the years. When the band decided they wanted to cut an album, Russwurm knew the people to get it done.
…Read more

A short step from bows to bowls

As a professional violin bowmaker, Trevor Ewert is used to working with exotic woods like pernambuco from Brazil and snakewood from Guyana. These days, he’s cultivating a taste for common species like the Manitoba maple.

Ewert is building a business making wooden bowls turned on a lathe. While there are tropical hardwoods that make beautiful bowls, he decided to focus on using local species, which he says can be just as eye-catching.

“When I got into the bowl making, I realized … what we have growing in a 50-mile radius of here is equally beautiful and sometimes even more exceptionally figured than the most exotic, sought-after woods of the world.”

Ewert got into making violin bows 15 years ago, with no inkling of it turning into a career. After finishing a degree in violin performance at the University of Western Ontario, he spent a year studying historical violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. There, he learned about historical instruments and equipment and was inspired to try making his own baroque bow.

His first attempts were clumsy, but soon he was …Read more

It’s time again to get medieval

In another week, Gibson Park in Elmira will be a scene of merriment, some mayhem and plenty of the medieval.

The ninth annual Robin in the Hood festival will see the park transformed into Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, with knights in armour, maidens and jesters.

The brainchild of DJ Carroll, the festival is a family-friendly event offering a glimpse of life in the Middle Ages. There will be games, stage shows, musicians, jugglers, tournaments with knights, birds of prey, siege machines, archery and merchants offering period wares.

Now director of promotions and advertising, Sarah Heppler has been involved with the festival since the very beginning. She was recruited by Carroll because she was a community actor with experience doing interactive theatre. …Read more

Local musicians set to rock all day

Five dollars will get you 12 hours of rock n’ roll at the Central Tavern in Elmira May 9.

Organized by the people behind the regular open jam nights at the tavern, the weekend event is a fundraiser for Woolwich Community Services (WCS) and will feature the music of eight local bands.

“We picked [WCS] because we wanted to give back to the community and we wanted to make sure it stayed in town because it’s been so supportive since we started this,” explained Christina Robinson, member of the headlining act Soul2Soul, and the organizer behind the weekly sessions.

Soul2Soul, a three-piece ensemble playing rock covers, will be joined by seven other bands: Highway, Champagne Social Club, Zed, Wishful Thinking, Cofield, Roehr Trio, and Blunt Truth.

Highway’s saxophonist Vladimir Ragula said there’s bound to be some good tunes next Saturday.

“There’s going to be quite a variety of music,” Ragula explained, noting that there will be musicians young and old performing throughout the day. Each band will …Read more

Students rhyme and have a good time

“After all those years of being stuck on a page, did you ever think you’d see me on stage?”

There will be no question in the minds of the audience, as the Cat in the Hat struts in front of them in living colour and three dimensions.

St. Jacobs Public School is bringing to life the Cat and a troupe of other Dr. Seuss characters in their spring performance of Seussical Jr. The musical is a mash-up of the plots of several popular stories combined with Broadway-style show tunes and dance routines.

“It’s kind of like you took all the stories, put them in a pot and stirred them together,” explained music teacher Lisa Shuh.

The play is a one-act version of a Broadway show that debuted in 2000 and spawned two national tours. The original version incorporates 18 Seuss books, including Horton Hears a Who!, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Oh the Thinks You Can Think! and The Cat in the Hat.

Shuh said fans of Seuss will see a bunch of their favourite characters, including Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, Mayzie La Bird, Jojo, the Grinch and of course the Cat in the Hat.

The plot is loosely centred around Horton, who discovers the people of Whoville living in a speck of dust and attempts to protect them.

It’s been several years since St. Jacobs PS put on a play, simply because of the work involved. This year, the teachers felt …Read more

ETC ready to set the stage on fire

For the next couple of weeks, there’ll be no place safer than the Elmira Theatre. That’s because you can expect to find a sizable contingent of township firefighters taking in The Fire Inside, which runs Apr. 23 to May 9.

The play, written by Baden’s Teresa Brown, is a two-act drama about volunteer firefighting in a small town.

The plot follows the rookie John McConnell (Joe Brenner) over the course of one year as a volunteer firefighter. He joins not knowing what he’s getting into, and indeed soon discovers that the job is not entirely what he expected. Increasingly, John is torn between excitement and boredom, triumphs and frustrations, camaraderie and horror, and he begins debating whether he’s “got it in him” to do the job.

For the Elmira Theatre Company’s Deb Deckert, whose son is a third generation firefighter in Linwood, the script had an immediate resonance. When reading it, she laughed at times in recognition of how true-to-life the scenarios are, situations that will be recognized by firefighters and their families.

The reality reflects the fact the playwright’s husband is a longtime volunteer with the fire department in Baden.

Taken with the story, Deckert was a little hesitant about the technical requirements of staging the play, but eventually overcame those concerns. Audiences will experience the drama of the rescue calls through radio dialogue as images flash on the back wall.

It’s the first time ETC will be using this kind of projection, she said, adding the productions she directs are known for taxing the technical and acting range of the company.

“I always want all the bells and whistles,” she chuckled. …Read more