After a very busy week juggling work responsibilities along with a visit from my sister Kelli and her family from Kenora for a few days, I was looking forward to taking a bit of a break this weekend and enjoying some time off to relax a bit and slow down. So I was very pleased to receive an email request from Jane Gardner, General Manager of Carousel Players, who perform out of the Sullivan-Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St. Catharines.
Jane suggested I might want to attend the opening Saturday afternoon of their new play that will be touring area schools starting on Monday: The Forest in My Room by Thomas Morgan Jones. It couldn't have come at a better time for me! After my usual Saturday visit to Market Square, I headed to the theatre and joined a capacity crowd to enjoy a very entertaining and evocative hour of live theatre. This is the third and final production of Carousel's current season, their 41st in Niagara.
Carousel is the award-winning professional theatre company for young audiences committed to the development of new work and theatre that not only entertains but also challenges young audiences. Since they began 41 years ago they have played before 2.7 million people, which is a pretty astounding number. Each time I go to a Carousel Players show I am reminded of the high quality of the work presented and the calibre of the performers, and this new production is no different.
The play, according to Jones, deals with how disease affects families from the perspective of children. It is written for audiences aged nine and up, and is intended to spark discussions about the importance of family communication between parents and children. In the play, the mother hides her trips to the doctor from her daughter Ruby, who then draws her own conclusions about the truth behind her mom's secrets.
Young Ruby, who is eight in the play, is now in a new home in a new city, and after moving into a condo with a special mural in her bedroom depicting the forest she has left behind, soon discovers her mother is not acting normally. What could it be? She teams up with new-found friend Ella to unravel the mystery and get to the bottom of what is up with her mother. The results are funny, heartwarming, and come with a moral, of course: talk to your children, and help them to understand what you are dealing with so they can better handle the anxiety you are going through.
The cast is made up of Alexis Koetting as Momma; Amy Keating as Ruby and Amelia Sargisson as her new friend, Ella and all three are superb in their respective roles. What I like about Jones' script is it deals with the subject matter in a light yet serious manner, and the actors never talk down to the kids in the audience. As such, all the young children in the audience this afternoon were engaged from start to finish, and the parents were not bored by the play, either. Kudos to all involved for such a lovely piece of theatre with a message.
As mentioned, the play now begins a tour of schools in the area for the remainder of March and throughout April. It would nice to see another staging at the Courthouse as well so more people can catch the show as well. If nothing else, the quality of the work displayed in the new production provides ample proof Carousel Players is one of the major producers of quality children's theatre in Niagara and beyond, and can only do better still once they take up residence in the new performing arts centre downtown.
Sunday afternoon the Niagara Symphony, themselves large contributors to the education of our young audiences in Niagara, present their fourth Masterworks concert at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre at the Centre for the Arts, Brock University, starting at 2:30 pm. Maestro Bradley Thachuk leads the NSO in a concert that features the Symphony No. 7 in C major by Sibelius, and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in C minor by Rachmaninov, with guest soloist Younggun Kim. Also on the programme is Light Eternal (In Memoriam Wallace Leung) by Canadian composer John Estacio.
Kim made his professional debut in 2008 with the Toronto Philharmonia; he has been back twice more since then, each time playing a major piano work by Rachmaninov. The last time it was with Bradley Thachuk conducting the Toronto Philharmonia in a performance of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. So it seemed only natural to invite the young South Korean-born pianist to perform with the NSO, and he will make his debut with our orchestra this weekend.
This should be a great concert, and I am looking forward to hearing it as well as meeting a lot of familiar faces in the lobby again, as I set up shop with a table brimming with great musical gifts available for purchase before, after and at intermission. If you are there tomorrow be sure to stop by for a look and say hello.
Tickets to the concert can be ordered in advance by calling the Brock box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257, or picking them up at the box office tomorrow afternoon.
Hope to see you there!
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