Putting love into words

A truly great love story, says Stefanie Webster, requires that that the people don’t end up together. With characters separated by geography and circumstance, A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters fits the bill to a T.

Webster and her husband Justin are performing the play at Theatre Three-Eleven in Listowel, reprising the roles from their first-ever production at the venue they launched 10 years ago.

Called one of the best plays of the ‘80s by Time Magazine, Love Letters was first performed in 1988. It has since become a favorite of audiences and actors alike. Love Letters centers on the dutiful and staid Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the eccentric and lively Melissa Gardner. The play unfolds as the two actors read the characters’ letters. The audience experiences Melissa and Andrew’s unique, 50-year friendship and romance through the notes, postcards, letters, and holiday greetings they wrote one another starting at the age of seven through boarding school, college, military service and beyond.

“We were both exposed to it in our theatre schools. We loved it right from the beginning,” said Webster of the play. “It’s a very authentic love story. You don’t expect it to draw you in because it’s just some letters being read on stage, but everyone who sees it does get drawn in to their lives.”

The story finds Andy and Melissa sometimes fighting, sometimes flirting, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying.  However, the one thing that cements the two souls who, for most of their lives find themselves at great distances from each other, is the letters that persevere even through their darkest hours.

“There are lots of humorous bits, some poignant moments and some good arguments,” she said, noting the audience in essence grows up with the characters as their relationship grows.

Moving to Broadway in 1989, Love Letters shows us the ups and downs of Andrew and Melissa’s lives. Their aspirations, their successes, their failures, and their innermost feelings for each other are revealed through the letters and cards that they exchange over the decades.

They are two very different people, but they are forever connected by that one important ingredient, said Webster: love.

“Their relationship shows you can have a soul mate in a completely different person.”

It is ultimately the tale of unrequited love between two soul mates, meeting her criterion for a great love story, even though people in the audience find themselves rooting for Andrew and Melissa to finally get together.

“The play’s words carry the performance and actors performing it are strictly instructed by the playwright to not ‘mess with the text.’ It is to be performed simply and truthfully and this is likely why the play’s effect is so moving.  Sometimes the best love stories are those that are pure and simple.”

Given that the play has two actors on a simple stage reading letters, you have to have some pretty fine writing to keep an audience hooked. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989, Gurney’s script certainly qualifies. The story is simply captivating, said Webster.

“It brings you in. It makes you think about love,  the importance of finding someone that you can really connect with. It makes you think about how you treat the people you love.”

Love Letters runs until May 14, Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $17.50 for adults, $12 for students under 18, available by phoning 519-291-2033 or 1-877-455-0552 or by emailing info@theatre311.com. The theatre is
located at 311 Main St. E., Listowel.

Going to great lengths to avoid spinsterhood

Two middle-aged sisters live in the swampland of central Florida, outcasts due to the fact their moonshining father was accused of accidently killing 14 participants in the Miss Teen Sugar Bean Beauty Queen contest. Both are looking to escape their fate, one via a returning spaceship.

Yes, the latest Elmira Theatre Company production is a comedy. A black one, with some moralizing about the nature of good and evil … wrapped up in a farcical layer.

The Sugar Bean Sisters runs Apr. 29 to May 14.

“I’m so excited about this play. I’ve been working on it for a year now, and it’s still fun,” said director Ken Harkes of the production that finishes off ETC’s season.

Billed as a Southern Gothic comedy of romance, murder and alien abduction, the Sugar Bean Sisters transport us to the swamps of Sugar Bean, Fla., home to Willie Mae Nettles and her sister Faye Clementine. Both are looking to avoid spinsterhood – Willie Mae by going to Salt Lake and finding a good Mormon husband and Faye by hopping on the spaceship when the “space people” return for another visit.

We meet Faye and Willie Mae as they return home to their ramshackle swamp dwelling after a disastrous daytrip to Disney World, where Willie lost her prized Eva Gabor wig on Space Mountain. Having witnessed the landing of an alien space craft some 25 years ago in her daddy’s sugarcane field, Faye prepares for the return of her celestial visitors on this night, the
very anniversary of that fateful day.

A disturbance in the sugarcane field lures the sisters outside to investigate, and Faye recalls how their infamous daddy claimed to have witnessed dead folk walking through Sugar Bean on a similar night many years before. A strange bird-like woman suddenly appears out of the darkness of Buster Swamp, setting in motion a chain of extraordinary events. Lies begin to unravel and the truth is revealed as the sisters hatch a diabolical plot to ensure the space people’s return.

While obviously heavy on the farcical moments, the play does have some melodramatic tendencies, said Harkes, noting we all have demons to wrestle with.

“It’s a black comedy bound in the idea that there’s good and evil in each of us.”

From their father’s bad batch of hootch that ended badly to the imminent arrival of aliens – Faye’s obsession making Willie Mae’s fixation on a much-younger Mormon bishop seem almost normal – there’s no shortage of out-there moments in the play, which fires off one-liners like there’s no tomorrow … which just might be the case if Faye’s to be believed.

“Their life has been like living inside a supermarket tabloid except that, for them, all the headlines are coming true,” said Harkes.

The play, first by Nathan Sanders, premiered off-Broadway in 1995. More than 75 productions have been staged since that time.

The Elmira Theatre Company production of Sugar Bean Sisters runs Apr. 29-May1, May 5-8 and May 12-14 at 76 Howard Ave. Show times are 8 p.m., except Sundays (2:30 p.m.). Tickets are $18, available at the Centre in the Square box office in Kitchener by calling 578-1570 or 1-800-265-8977, online at www.centre-square.com.

Get Back to The Beatles at Registry shows

In performing the music of The Beatles, there’s no problem filling out a two-hour show. The challenge comes in sifting through the catalogue and paring down the set list: there are just so many great songs to choose from.

That exercise fell to local guitar virtuoso Kevin Ramessar in the run-up to this weekend’s concerts at the Registry Theatre, Get Back to The Beatles: The songs of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.

“When you really look at it, you realize just how many great songs they wrote. I narrowed it down to my top 100, then 50, then 25,” he said with a laugh. “It was hard.”

Classics such as ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ are among those that will
be in the spotlight.

As with his extremely popular presentations of the music of Paul Simon, Ramessar plans to put his own spin on the Fab Four. The concerts are also an hommage to popular music’s finest songwriters, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Some of the songs will be straight-ahead versions, while others will be given a more personalized treatment.

“We are taking the same sort of approach at last year’s Paul Simon evening. We will be reinterpreting classics, experimenting a bit, while trying to honour the songwriting by these great artists.”

The Beatles’ music lends itself to reinterpretation. Just think of how many different takes on their songs you’ve heard over the years, from Muzak through to full symphonic presentations.

In putting together his concerts, Ramessar has assembled a quartet of seasoned musicians. He’ll be joined by noted local bassist Matt Lima, at home with rock, jazz (Kellylee Evans) and country (Western Swing Authority); versatile keyboard player and vocalist Mike Janzen, who has played with such luminaries as Hugh Marsh, George Koeller and Steve Bell, and is currently working on a film scoring collaboration with Daniel Lanois; and rounding out the foursome is one of Canada’ great percussionists, Mark Kelso (Holly Cole, Michael Brecker, Jane Sibbery, Hilario Duran).

The musicians have spent the last couple of weeks fine-tuning the arrangements, refining the sound they want. This weekend, it goes live.

Ramessar said he expects to see a mix of people in the audience, a tribute to the widespread appeal of music that spans generations.

“Everybody knows these songs. When you mention The Beatles, there aren’t too many blank stares,” he laughed.

“I love the fact that my students can be there, my friends can be there, my parents can be there,” he added of the concerts. “This is music that has that kind of universal appeal.”

Kevin Ramessar’s Get Back to The Beatles: The songs of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison takes to the stage Mar. 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick St., Kitchener. Tickets are $25, 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.

Life & death and everything in between

If life is what you make it, shouldn’t that be true of the other side of the coin? Even if death is what you make it doesn’t roll off the tongue in the same way?

Really, who wants to dwell on that subject? Students in the drama department at Elmira District Secondary School, apparently.

Death, specifically how we come to terms with it once we’re there, is the focal point of Dreaming of Life, the school’s entry into the Sears Drama Festival. Written by department head DJ Carroll as a collaborative effort with his students, the one-act play will be performed for a preview audience next week.

A dozen or so spirits/souls/call-them-what-you-wills find themselves in purgatory, waiting to see who’ll go on and who’ll go back for another crack at life on Earth.

“It’s about these people coming to terms with death,” said Carroll. “The point is that people will see there are many interpretations of death.”

Three of the 15 cast members play Death: one is a kindly figure, the second is pragmatic – it is what it is – and the third is a cold Death. That reflects some of the varied cultural takes on dying, said Carroll, noting some people mourn, some celebrate and others simply accept it as a part of life.

The story evolved from the students themselves as Carroll began discussing preparations for the annual Sears Drama competition. Rather than going with a classic play or other commercial script, the students opted to go with something home-grown, as has been the case in the past. A brainstorming exercise laid the foundation for the script put together by the teacher.

“I let them decide what kind of show we would do. They were very excited by the idea, and got right into the process,” he explained. “We brainstormed ideas, and had probably 30 of them on the board … including the topic of death and how people deal with it.”

Obviously, they wanted to tackle a fairly serious subject. And that’s the case with their characters dealing with death and the transition from life to what comes after. Accordingly, the centerpiece of the staging is a giant tree, drawing on the tree-of-life analogy and the tree as symbol of growth and change.

“The students are really getting into character with the play. It’s really coming together.”

Dreaming of Life will be performed for the Sears Drama Festival judges Mar. 1 at Eastwood Collegiate Institute in Kitchener. Carroll expects some steep competition – “practically every high school in the region will be there” – from the 17 entrants that will be staging productions through the week.

Prior to that, there’ll be one public performance next Saturday, a chance to stage the show for a local audience.

The show for the judges is the first of three levels in the Sears Drama Festival. The district competition will be followed by regional contests and then the provincial showcase to be held at the University of Toronto in May.

Now in its 65th year, the drama festival involves some 10,000 students and teachers from more than 300 secondary schools. What started as a small Toronto drama presentation in 1946 has evolved into one of the largest student festivals in the world.

At this point, however, it’s one hurdle at a time for the EDSS entry.

The drama department’s production of Dreaming of Life will be staged Feb. 26 in the high school gym.

Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8, but just $5 for students and seniors. Due to the mature theme, the play is not recommended for very young children.

The distinctive sound of a dobro guitar

He’s been in the business for decades, and his work appears on an assortment of CDs, but it’s only now that Bob Tremblay has recorded an album of his own. Dobro is an ode to the instrument that’s been his passion for all these years.

The dobro, an acoustic guitar with a bowl-shaped metal resonator built into its body, has a distinctive sound that’s been adapted into country, bluegrass, western swing and blues music.

“It’s a real sound all of its own – completely different,” said Tremblay of the instrument, part of his guitar-oriented repertoire.

In putting together the album, he narrowed it down to 19 songs from an assortment of styles, all of which have meaning for him after decades of playing with a variety of artists. Given the number of years he’s been playing, choosing was no small task.

Like a lot of kids, he took music lessons, starting with the guitar at the age of 9. Unlike most kids, he had a professional gig by the time he was 14. Call it good timing, but the Silver Bar Ranch Boys had just lost their steel guitar player when Tremblay happened along.

“They hired me on the spot. Two weeks later, I was playing on TV for them.”

The show was a staple on Kitchener’s CKCO-TV through the mid-1950s, airing every Saturday evening from 7-7:30 p.m.

Later, he and his two siblings would tour North America as the Tremblay Brothers. There was also The Sherwoods, a trio that would lend its name to Sherwood Music in Kitchener, which he co-founded.

Through the years of working outside of the music industry, he always kept his hand in it, refining the style that would make him perhaps the finest dobro player in Ontario.

Today, he plays regularly at the Commercial Tavern in Maryhill, which will host his CD release party Feb. 20.

Paul Weber, owner of the Maryhill fixture, appears on the album, playing bass and rhythm guitar. Dan Howlett, on fiddle, mandolin and guitar, and Grant Heywood, on drums, round out the lineup.

On the day of the release, Tremblay will be playing with the musicians who recorded the album with him.

Songs from the album will be mixed with other favourites. And other musicians will be invited up for a jam session.

One musician who’ll be there in spirit only is fiddler Mike Slauenwhite, to whom Tremblay dedicates the album’s cut of “Amazing Grace.”

Slauenwhite, who died in December after a battle with cancer, was part of the Silver Bar Ranch Boys all those years ago, and they’d played together frequently over the past three years or so. In fact, Tremblay played on Slauenwhite’s debut album released last spring. Like that CD, Dobro comes at the prodding of Floradale’s Lynn Russwurm, a tireless songwriter, performer, producer and advocate for the genre.

“I’ve been on lots of other people’s albums. Lynn kept saying, ‘Bob, you should be cutting something yourself,’” Tremblay explained. “When I go out and play, people ask me for CDs. I guess it was time.

“In this day and age, it took quite a bit of nerve to do an instrumental CD, especially dobro,” he added with a laugh.

The CD release party for Bob Tremblay’s album is set for Feb. 20, 1-5 p.m., at the Commercial Tavern in Maryhill.

“It will be some good family fun for the long weekend, since Monday’s a holiday. It will give people a place to go if they’re not heading away for the weekend.”

A start that was anything but glamorous

Think of Carol Burnett, and comedy comes to mind. But it wasn’t always that way, as the fictionalized story of her early years attests to.

Hollywood Arms, to be staged by the Elmira Theatre Company starting next week, paints a less-than-perfect portrait of the iconic actress’ formative years. That’s not to say it’s without its funny moments, however, in keeping with who she would become.

Written by the comic legend and her daughter Carrie Hamilton (who died of cancer at 38 before the play hit Broadway in 2002), Hollywood Arms is based on Burnett’s best-selling memoir “One More Time.” Set in California in 1941 and 1951, it tells the story of Burnett (called “Helen” in the play) as she grows up in a poor and troubled family. Born in San Antonio, Texas, Burnett moved to a less-than-glamorous section of Hollywood, where her grandmother raised her and her younger sister.

“She had a rough childhood. They were poor, and both her parents were alcoholics.

She and a half-sister were pretty much raised by her grandmother,” explained David MacMillan, who directs the ETC production that opens Feb. 11.

“It was a rather trying time for them, but it’s a very interesting story about the human element.”

Given the circumstances, it might be advisable to bring along a hanky, he suggests.
“It’s not a flat-out comedy, that’s for sure. It has it’s comedic moments, but it’s more of a drama.”

Telling the story of three generations of women pursuing their dreams that often ended up in disappointment and tragedy – and ultimately triumph for Burnett – Hollywood
Arms is at times poignant, sad and funny as we get to see the fledgling Carol Burnett in the making and how she chose to become an entertainer.

“She was a very strong person. Despite all that happened to her, she had no resentment and kept a good outlook on life,” said MacMillan.

The play offers great roles for the female leads, he noted, particularly the roles of Helen – played as a child by Kate Short and later by Krista Hovsepian – and her grandmother, Nanny, played by Cathy Judd.

“Her grandmother was really important to her – this shows us why.”

Fans of the Carol Burnett Show, her long-running variety series, will remember the signature signoff: Burnett tugging her ear as an affectionate message to her grandmother that she was doing fine. Her grandmother’s influence is clearly on display in the story of her origins. In Helen, we see where she got her start.

In years that follow those portrayed in Hollywood Arms, Burnett headed off to New York, where she proved to have star power and strong comedic instincts. Appearances on The Garry Moore Show, The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show led, in 1959, to a starring role on the off-Broadway (and soon Broadway) hit Once Upon a Mattress.

An Emmy Award-winning concert special with Julie Andrews in 1962 drew critical acclaim and in 1967 Burnett was ready for her own series, The Carol Burnett Show.

What followed was a far cry from the Hollywood days of her youth.

The Elmira Theatre Company production of Hollywood Arms runs Feb. 11-13, Feb 17-20 at 76 Howard Ave. Show times are 8 p.m., except Sundays (2:30 p.m.). Tickets are $18, available at the Centre In The Square box office in Kitchener by calling 578-1570 or 1-800-265-8977, online at www.centre-square.com.

The Long Weekend and dinner theatre

In making its first foray into dinner theatre, Conestogo’s Black Forest Inn is going with a heavyweight: Norm Foster. The Long Weekend is one of the prolific Canadian playwright’s funniest.
The comedy has just started a four-week run at the Showplace Dinner Theatre. …Read more

Popular Folk Night at the Registry

Now that we’ve rolled into 2011, the busier part of the Folk Night at the Registry series kicks into gear. It’s a busy time for Jack Cole of the Old Chestnuts Song Circle, though part of that comes from working on next season’s bookings as well.
In the immediate future, he welcomes Haines and Leighton to the Registry Theatre next weekend. The Jan. 29 show is one rescheduled from September.
An even bigger organizational job is the next show on the schedule, the Southern Ontario Folk Reunion in March. …Read more

Teen jazzes things up for Christmas

Traditional Christmas carols are some of the most timeless musical pieces ever produced. For Elmira’s Maggie Wang, the songs were a natural choice for her first recording. Produced last month at AME Recording Studio’s in Kitchener, Wang’s CD, “Dreaming of Christmas,” comes in the wake of a performances that brought her to the public’s attention. Last year, at the age of 14, she was a finalist in the Faith FM Rising Star talent contest. Earlier this year, she won the Wellesley Idol singing competition. …Read more

A show filled with the magic of Christmas

Somewhere between digesting far too much turkey dinner and starting off a new year with far too much bubbly falls another holiday tradition: The Nutcracker ballet, which makes its usual Christmas week stop at Kitchener’s Centre In The Square Dec. 28. …Read more