This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
It’s been a busy weekend so far. It’s made busier by realizing the Orillia Silver Band concert I knew was happening, was not happening next week, but tonight, Saturday November 2 at St. Paul’s Centre. This will be a shorter column thanks to the jam packed schedule of the Lightfoot Days Festival, so look for a review of the festival early in the week and a catch up column before next weekend to get some other concert reviews and event warnings in front of you.
There will be plenty of time to take in some of the Lightfoot Days Festival before and after the 7:30 p.m. start of the concert.
Their guest is soprano Alex Teske. She’ll be singing No One is Alone from Sondheim’s Into The Woods, Being Alive from his Company. And a medley of George Gershwin’s , most well-known show tunes.
The band will perform some Rossini (Overture to The Italian in Algiers)and one of the most powerful pieces of music Richard Wagner ever wrote, Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral. If you bring along some younger folk they’ll also be doing music from The Legend of Zelda and the Incredibles.
If you haven’t enjoyed a concert by this outstanding ensemble before, this would be a good time to check out why they have been nominated for the Qennefer Browne Achievement Award for the 2024 ORAH Awards (happening November 27 at Creative Nomad Studios). You can get tickets online, or at the door.
Lightheaded Days
I’ve been having a great time so far. The organizing committee did a great job expanding the Lightfoot Days Festival to fill four days this year. The concert with the Lightfoot Band was magical, the workshops and Memories of Gord on Friday were excellent, but more on that next time. Except to say I met people from Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, other parts of Ontario and festival president John Winchester told me there were people in town from Georgia and New York.
Saturday night’s venue lineup looks like this:
Don James will be at Mariposa Market at noon; Michael Brown plays at Apple Annie’s at noon; There is an open mic at Alleycats Music at 1 p.m. James Gray will be at Couchiching Craft Brewing at 2 p.m.; Chris Scott plays at Brewery Bay Food Co. at 2 and again at 8 p.m.; at 8 p.m. see Geoff Booth is at the Sunken Ship, Sean Patrick at the Lone Wolf Café, and Even Steven is at Lake Country Grill.
Sunday morning St. Paul’s Centre’s Sunday service at 10:30 a.m. is a remembrance of Gord. It features a new hymn composed by Jim Lewis and the Orillia Community Children’s Choir will sing along with recordings made in 1951 by Gord when he was a member of the church’s choir.
Also on Sunday the closing ceremony is at Mariposa Market. Steve Porter will be performing and it’s at 12:30 p.m. at 1:30 p.m. Ian and Jennifer North play at Couchiching Craft Brewing and the High Steppin’ Strutters are at Picnic.
Going To The MAT
The Mariposa Arts Theatre Company is opening Gypsy November 7 at the Opera House. This is one of the most famous of Broadway musicals. It’s based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee spanning her time as a newbie in Vaudeville to her rise to fame.
Josh Halbot is directing. It’s his first big production, but MAT has a team around him that has produced many great plays. Robin Watson is leading the 20-piece 4th Street Jazz Project as the house band for the musical. Sheri Nicholls is once again choreographing the dances. Something new to pay attention to, even though MAT has an extensive collection of costumes and they do a terrific job tearing them apart and putting them back together as needed (remember Rocky Horror Show?), this time costume designer Erin Hawke has had to put together 128 costumes for the 28 cast members.
And of course it all happens in front of Brian Halbot’s sets. I can’t wait to see what he has come up with for this one because the sets he’s designed up to now have been stunning.
Tickets have been selling well and you can get them online. You will note this two-week run is happening a week earlier than past years. Closing day used to happen the same day as the Santa Claus Parade, which made parking difficult for everyone heading downtown of the parade of the play.
Can You Contain Those Muchkins
I’m sure most of them won’t be reading this (you could start training them in two weeks time to look in once in a while) because the Santa Clause Parade happens Nov. 23 at 5 p.m. downtown and I’m not responsible for them getting too excited, too early about it.
There is still time to get a float together, though most groups probably started weeks ago. And there is always room for more parade sponsors to sign up. They also need volunteers to make it happen and to carry banners along the parade route. This is a great way for high school students to pick up some volunteer hour credits. Well, great for me and you to say. I can almost hear, “It’s too cold,” or, “I have to walk how far?” It will build character. You can find links to register for any of those things here.
The annual Downtown Management Board’s Candlelight Parade is November 22 at 7 p..m. It marshall’s at Front and Mississaga Streets and ends at the Opera House. There the new tree will be lit. I suggested to councillor Ralph Cipolla they should put the lights on with two circuits. The first circuit would light up just the trunk. Then they could say ‘just fooling’ and then throw the second switch for the rest of the tree. He kind of of looked at me sideways. I don’t think they’re going to do that.
The Shorts
- You can get tickets now for the Mariposa Folk Festival’s Mariposa-In-Concert event Nov. 23 at the Opera House with Matt Weidinger’s Van Morrison show. Matt is a member of Matchedash Parish and has appeared in many of Lance Anderson’s tribute show bands.
- There are still a few Tickets for The Free Label with special guests, the Harmonicity Rock Choir event at the Washago Community Centre; mainly because there are only 100 tickets. It happens Dec. 15 at 4:30 p.m.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: The Orillia Silver Band is in concert Saturday night at St. Paul’s Centre.
