Skip to main content

Season Announcement: Festival Players of Prince Edward County and community

int(96515)
/By / May 22, 2019
SHARE

Bringing Canadian-made performances to audiences for more than 10 years, Festival Players of Prince Edward County is the region’s professional summer theatre company. The company’s current season was announced this May and runs from July 9 to Sept. 1. The season centres on the idea of community, which is evident in a selection of entertainment this year, including theatre, music, and art.

“To me, community is a word that relates to what we’re doing in this beautiful, historic town, that’s growing in this region, but it is also a running theme in the play selections we have chosen for the season,” said Graham Abbey, the company’s artistic director, in an interview with Intermission.

Graham Abbey, artistic director of Festival Players of Prince Edward County. Photo provided by Festival Players.

Kicking the season off in July, the company will present John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar. Abbey describes the play as “a gorgeous story about two families that live near each other in the Irish Midlands” and sees the theme of community in “negotiating property disputes,” “generational divides,” and “the unrequited love between two people in these neighbouring farms.”

Also in July, The Script Tease Project marries scripted theatre and improv as performers Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus build a play based on just two pages of an original script as the audience watches. One playwright will be Raymond Storey, who happens to live in Wellington, and the other will be Kat Sandler. “I think any time people laugh and come to live improv, you’re experiencing a communal thing,” said Abbey.

The Studio Theatre lobby. Photo credit: Rick Matthews.

August sees actor and comedian Gavin Crawford performing one-person play Every Brilliant Thing. It is the story of a man who came of age with a suicidal mother, compiling a long list of reasons to live throughout his life.

Every Brilliant Thing is a play I’ve fallen in love with since I read it a couple years back and I’ve always wanted to do it,” said Abbey. In fact, Abbey loves the play so much he wrote playwright Duncan Macmillan and made a plea, which he believes made it possible for Festival Players to do this play now.

“It’s a gorgeous story about a child and their mother and coping with issues of depression,” Abbey continued. “It is a very beautiful, life-affirming story about hope and love. Its power lies in breaking down the fourth wall between performer and audience creating a memorable sense of community or commune in the theatre space.”

The Studio Theatre box office. Photo provided by Festival Players.

As August comes to a close, Melody A. Johnson stars in her one-woman show Person of Interest—a comedy drama about a “housebound loser” with neighbours from hell. “Person of Interest is about community, but from a different angle,” said Abbey. “More from an urban angle and from somebody watching a neighbour—a very funny piece about urban communities.

Abbey explained that he felt the rural and urban were balanced between Outside Mullingar and Person of Interest. He also wanted to balance the one-person plays in terms of gender representation, which was done through Person of Interest and Every Brilliant Thing.

Festival Players of Prince Edward County will also present Wellington Water Week featuring music and art as well as a summer camp program.

The tent used during Water Week is just down the street from the Festival Players Studio Theatre. Photo credit: Rick Matthews.

About Water Week, Abbey said: “Water Week certainly focuses on issues at the forefront of the community of Prince Edward County. Being bordered by water of course and being conscious of that ecology and that resource is important for the community.”  

A final word on community: “For me, community, yes, means your postal code or area code and something you can define geographically,” said Abbey, “but also a community of like-minded people coming together to create something.”

Festival Players of Prince Edward County Season Details  

The Studio Theatre. Photo provided by Festival Players.

Outside Mullingar

July 9 to 21

Written by John Patrick Shanley, directed by Brenda Bazinet

Set on neighbouring farms in the Irish midlands, Outside Mullingar is a lyrical misfit-romance, full of gallows-humour, wit and wonder. Four-time Dora Award nominee, Gemini Award-winning actor and critically acclaimed director, Brenda Bazinet directs what The New York Times declared as “Mr. Shanley’s finest work since Doubt.” Outside Mullingar is an urgent reminder that life is fleeting and true love rare.

The Script Tease Project

July 26 to 27

By and starring Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus /

Each evening, Festival Players will commission a playwright to write the first two pages of an original play. Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus will read the pages for the first time live in front of the audience. Then…they improvise the rest. From the foundation provided in the playwrights’ first two pages, Baram and Snieckus build an entire play before our very eyes.

Every Brilliant Thing

August 2 to 17

Written by Duncan Macmillan, with Johnny Donahoe, starring Gavin Crawford, directed by Dylan Trowbridge

Every Brilliant Thing is a one-of-a-kind, interactive theatrical event, starring renowned actor and comedian, Gavin Crawford, that engages its audience in thrilling and original ways. At once profoundly funny and deeply moving, Every Brilliant Thing chronicles a young person’s quest to unearth every magnificent thing about being alive.

Person of Interest

August 28 to September 1

By Melody A. Johnson, with additional dialogue by Eric Woolfe, starring Melody A. Johnson, directed by Rick Roberts

Written and performed by Melody A. Johnson, Person of Interest is the mostly true and very funny story of an actor driven to the brink. Directed by Rick Roberts, it is storytelling at its best and will strike a chord with anyone who has ever lived, loved, and battled with neighbours.

Cultivate: Play Incubator Camp (PIC)

August 12 to 24

A two-week summer camp experience that looks to create a new play with a collective of grade eight to 12 students, and then share the results of the process with the community on stage at the Festival Players Studio Theatre in Wellington.

Maev Beaty was in Wellington last year for A Beautiful View.
Photo credit: Sarah Kirby/Imagine Photography.

Wellington Water Week

August 17 to 25

World-class music and art in the glorious surroundings of our local Great Lakes. Programming highlights include chamber, choral, pop and live film music and community-driven events. Featuring Sarah Slean, Opus 8, Bryan Cheng, Dominic Desautels, Danika Lorèn and many more.

Mirali Almaula
WRITTEN BY

Mirali Almaula

Mirali completed her PhD in Literary/Theatre Studies in English at the University of Guelph, where she concentrated on stand-up comedy, mediatization, race, marginalized voices, and Canadian theatre. She likes performing stand-up, eating snacks, and reading restaurant menus online.

LEARN MORE

Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


/
Promo photo for Lord of the Flies. iPhoto caption: Courtesy of the St. Michael's College Troubadours.

A Lord of the Flies adaptation hits the Hart House Theatre stage this weekend

Andrea Perez is set to direct the student-led production, which will reimagine the story through a de-colonialist lens.

By Liam Donovan
annemieke wade iPhoto caption: Photo of Annemieke Wade courtesy of TAPA.

TAPA appoints Annemieke Wade as new executive director

Wade steps into the position with an extensive background in theatre, with past roles including executive director of Roseneath Theatre and Theatre Direct and company manager of Tarragon Theatre.

By Aisling Murphy
beowulf in afghanistan iPhoto caption: Beowulf in Afghanistan graphic courtesy of GCTC.

Beowulf in Afghanistan to make world premiere at GCTC

As part of its 50th anniversary season, Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company will program the world premiere of Laurie Fyffe’s Beowulf in Afghanistan, in a production directed by Company of Fools artistic director Kate Smith.

By Aisling Murphy
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of The Hive

Brampton On Stage partners with local companies to present contrasting pair of fall productions

Brampton Music Theatre is head-banging to the stage with a community theatre production of We Will Rock You, while The Hive Performing Arts is staging Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing.

By Liam Donovan
Poster for CBC Podcasts' Tunnel Runners iPhoto caption: Poster courtesy of CBC Podcasts

PlayME releases trailer for new audio drama Tunnel Runners

Launching on October 30, the series follows Cam, a 16-year-old gifted student whose struggles with anxiety and depression lead him into a labyrinth of hidden subway tunnels beneath Toronto.

By Liam Donovan
Prude production photo: The King of the Party, played by Lou Campbell, is wearing a tight, light pink full-body suit that covers everything except their eyes and mouth. On their head is a simple pink crown with jagged points. They are standing on one leg, with the other bent and lifted, while both arms are stretched out wide, mid tap dance. They are wearing beige tap shoes. Behind them is a black chair and a pair of pink shoes lying on the floor. The scene is set against a completely black background, with pink lighting highlighting the figure on stage. iPhoto caption: Prude production photo by Daniel Wittnebel

Toronto Fringe unveils 2024 Next Stage programming

The Toronto Fringe has announced the lineup for the 17th annual Next Stage Theatre Festival, running at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre from October 16 to 27.

By Liam Donovan