Christy Chase's

Stars at Parkwood

There's another movie shoot at Parkwood, the national heritage site in Oshawa. Once the home of Col. Sam McLaughlin and his family, Parkwood is now a great way to visit the past and now and again plays host to movie shoots. I was there Saturday for a delightful historical fashion show -- you really should go when they have another by Fashion History Production -- and found lots of cables and lights all over and furniture lining the hallway along the bowling alley. Yes, another movie shot, this time for the movie based on Amelia Earhardt's life, titled, appropriately but unimaginatively, Amelia. It stars Richard Gere, Hilary Swank and Ewan McGregor (pictured). Turns out the three are expected at Parkwood for the filming. Oooooooo. When my daughter worked at Parkwood, she and the others delighted in getting glimpses of the stars and, perhaps more so, in being invited to partake of the catered food goodies brought in for cast and crew. Some of the stars dimmed once she saw them and their behaviour. Others turned out to be just regular folk, like Bob Hoskin who chatted about football (the English kind) with staff. And you thought Parkwood was just a big mansion with a showy fountain.

Add some names and a belated nomination

There have been some changes to the ACT-CO THEA awards since the ceremony last Saturday, which came too late for the newspaper story. The Borelians in Port Perry won best set design for Alice in Wonderland. Linda Edwards was the only one mentioned at the event but Jennifer Hardie and Carey Nicholson should also have had their names on that award. ACT-CO has added them to the award. Congrats to all three hard-working artists.
Chalk up another nomination for Scugog Choral Society's production of My Fair Lady from ACT-CO. This one in the best director category for Michael Roantree. Turns out the director who won at the April 5 awards gala was actually a professional director and thus not eligible for the THEA awards. Once this was discovered, the award was rescinded and the adjudicated gave it to another of the nominees he'd named, this one from Clarkson Musical Theatre. That then left another spot for a nominee, since the adjudicator was allowed to nominate three directors. To fill that vacant nominee spot, he picked Roantree, well known in Oshawa LIttle Theatre circles.
You can read about the awards won by Durham groups and more nominations in This Week and the Port Perry Star's April 11 editions and in the entertainment section of www.newsdurhamregion.com

An awarding evening

I promised to report on the Association of Community Theatres-Central Ontario annual awards ceremonies. Durham theatre groups brought home 11 THEAs (ACT-CO's awards) on Saturday night. The Borelians in Port Perry got 4, Scugog Choral Society 3, OnStage Uxbridge 2 and Whitby Courthouse Theatre 2. Plus there were another 24 nominations for those groups and Oshawa Little Theatre. It was a great night watching these groups keep on winning. All of which means a night at local community theatre in Durham is a great experience for everyone. So get out and support these drama companies. (By the way, that's THEA in the picture.) You can read the full account of the awards on Friday's papers.

Awards weekend

It's awards weekend for the central Ontario theatre community and that includes Durham community theatre groups. April 5 is the ACT-CO awards gala with awards being handed out for the usual - best play, best actor, best director, etc. - and whatever else the adjudicators decide should be recognized in a season of great theatre. Groups in Durham were adjudicated so we could have some winners. I'm attending the event and will report back next week about how Durham did.

AhMen indeed

I took a trip to Uxbridge Sunday afternoon to take in The Ahmen Project, a collaborative project by a group of talented UXbridge women, produced and directed by Anna MacKay-Smith. The show consists of these women, who come from a variety of backgrounds, telling each other's stories about relationships with men. If you can, please take in the show. It's funny, sad, provoking and touching. By far, one of the best things I've seen in Durham over the years. And proceeds from the show go to the Uxbridge Youth Centre and Uxbridge Art Association. So go see it. AhMen runs April 3, 4, 5 at 8 p.m. and April 6 at 3 p.m. at the Uxbridge Music Hall on Main Street. Tickets are $20 and available at Blue Heron Books, by calling 416-938-7649 or by sending an e-mail to ahmenproject@gmail.com.

Young musicians of Durham

Coming up soon is your chance to hear some great music and support the many, fine young musicians here in Durham. It's the Oshawa-Whitby Kiwanis Music Festival which takes place April 14 to 25 in various locations throughout Whitby, Oshawa and Courtice. More than 6,000 musicians are taking part this year, making the festival one of the top 10 in Canada. If you can't get to any of the regular categories, check out the four major competitions in which the best of the festival play off against each other. There's the Rosebowl for voice April 16 at 7 p.m. at St. Luke's Prebyterian Church, 333 Rossland Rd. W., Oshawa, Chairman's Awards for piano, April 17 at 7 p.m. at Harmony Baptist Church, 26 Harmony Rd. S., Oshawa, and April 18 at 6 p.m. at St. Mark's United Church, 201 Centre St., Whitby, and Founder's Awards, instrumental, April 23 at 7 p.m., at St. Mark's again. All events are free but donations will help pay the festival expenses.

Lost art?

A recent interview I did for a story got me thinking about correspondence. Linda Jansma, curator for the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, was talking to me for  story about an exhibit about Isabel McLaughlin, daughter of Col. Sam. She left her documents, including letters, postcards, Christmas cards, to Queen's University archives. There were thousands of documents involved. And since Isabel was an artist and was friends with artists, including A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, she corresponded with them. Their letters to her are now part of an archives which people researching the Canadian art scene and the artists in question may have access to. As Linda and I talked, we got onto the subject of correspondence itself. Who writes letters anymore? E-mail has replaced it. Instant messenger. Phone calls. I use all of those to stay in touch with my daughter at university. I used to write (infrequent) letters to my parents when I was in university and after I got a job and moved to Oshawa. It's how we stayed in touch, other than a weekly phone call. Today, it's all about the internet and cell phones. Now, I'm sure people apt to leave their documents to universities and such will still have lots of letters etc to leave behind. But historians really like the common touch -- reading letters from regular people gives you a better idea of what daily life was like in various eras. Letters sent from men at war to families back home tell far more than reports of battles. But without letters, what will historians be able to tell about you and me? Sure there are TV shows, newspapers, magazines, etc. But where will the personal, individual records be? Will there be gaps in our history?

Zzzzzzzzzz

Wasn't that a boring Oscars show on Sunday night?! I don't usually watch award shows (I've usually never seen any of the nominees and this year was no different) but my daughter and her friend were home and had announced they were watching the Academy Awards. I was outvoted. So I watched with them. Ho hum. Nothing worth watching really - especially the nominated songs. Boy, it must have been a bad year for music if those were the five best! And three from one movie, none of which won - that was actually rather funny. So count me out when it comes to next year's show.

Quick, where's the ark?

I've been busy outside of work lately as stage manager for the Borelians' production of Crimes of the Heart, which opened in Port Perry on Feb. 21. It's been a lot of late nights, miles on the car, hard work and great fun with a great group of people. As stage manager, you get called on to do lots of different things - including mopping up after a flood. The director wanted running water in the sink on the set (the play is set in a kitchen) so she got it. And the rest of us got a hose, running from the sink backstage, through the stage door, over a riser, under a flat and over another riser to the taps in the sink on the set. (Lots of duct tape was used in the installation of this hose so that no one would trip over it - so guess who's the only one who has so far? Yeah, the stage manager.) Anyway, opening night came and just over an hour before play time, I hooked up the hose backstage and turned on the water. As I was about to head onto the stage to make sure everything was working, I swore I could hear water running. So I ran too -- only to find two leaks in the hose right inside the stage door. I also found water pooling by the stage door. Sigh. The water got turned off and several of us, including one very helpful actor, got busy with handfuls of paper towels and rags and a mop. It took many minutes to get everything dry. And I decided we'd do without running water for that show. Being stage manager means you get to make decisions like that. (The actors made do with pitchers of water in the working fridge on the set.) The next day, the hose was replaced and the show went on -- with running water. But we check that hose carefully before every show. After all, there's no pool of tears in this play. By the way, why not head up to Port Perry to see the show - Feb. 28, 29 and March 1 at 8 p.m. and 2 p.m. March 1? For ticket info, check out www.borelians.org Hope to see you there. I'll be the one in black looking suitably nervous.

Neat idea

Whitby Courthouse Theatre is staging an Agatha Christie murder mystery this month and has a great audience participation idea. When you get your program, you're given a form with a list of suspects from the play on it. At the end of the first act, you're asked to check off who you think did it and hand it in. Those with the correct answer are entered into a draw, with the prize being awarded at the end of the run. On opening night, there were 17 correct answers. I managed to figure it out but it's not easy. It's a great way to get the audience involved. And if you go see the play, check out Mark Slattery playing the dead guy -- I kept an eye on him and he didn't seem to move. Good work.