Shaw Festival Artistic Director To Receive Herbert Whittaker Award

Shaw Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell to Receive Herbert Whittaker Award

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, October 1, 2008 … The Shaw Festival is thrilled to acknowledge that on Monday, October 6 Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell will be awarded the 2008 Herbert Whittaker/Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre.

The recipient of this prestigious award is chosen annually by the members of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Since 1982 the Award has been given to some of Canada’s most respected theatre practitioners. Recent recipients include Joy Coghill, Monique Mercure, Brent Carver and Robert LePage.

On hearing that she was to receive the award, Ms. Maxwell said, “How wonderful to receive this award which takes us away from the wear and tear of opening nights and reviews and focuses us on the long-term work we are all striving to do - making and celebrating theatre which will linger in our audience's minds and hearts long after the curtain falls. I am touched and honoured.”

Under Ms. Maxwell’s creative leadership, the work produced on the Shaw Festival’s stages has been characterized by a spirit of discovery, with classics from the period of Bernard Shaw’s lifetime reexamined with thoughtfulness and vitality and juxtaposed with contemporary explorations of the mandate.

Born and educated in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jackie Maxwell studied Drama at the University of Manchester. She acted in both Ireland and England before coming to Canada in 1978. Throughout her long and varied career in Canada, Ms. Maxwell has worked extensively as a freelance director and been instrumental in programme creation at many theatre companies, including the National Arts Centre as Associate Director, Factory Theatre as Artistic Director (1986 to 1994), and the Charlottetown Festival as Head of New Play Development.

Ms. Maxwell has been dramaturge and teacher for several Canadian theatre schools, most notably the National Theatre School in Montreal. For eight years she was Guest Artist/Lecturer at the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. In October 2005 Ms. Maxwell was the recipient of the National Theatre School’s prestigious Gascon-Thomas Award, recognizing her exceptional achievements in Canadian theatre, and last year she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Windsor.

The Herbert Whittaker Award is named for the late Critic Emeritus of The Globe and Mail, who was also the Founding Chairman of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Mr. Whittaker had a long and distinguished career in Canada as a theatre critic and author.

The 2008 season is proudly presented by HSBC Bank Canada/HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

Shaw Festival Announces Fall Lecture Series

Shaw Festival Announces Fall Lecture Series

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, September 24, 2008 … The Shaw Festival is thrilled to announce its second fall celebrity lecture series: Four Lectures in the Provocative Spirit of Bernard Shaw. Funded by the Government of Ontario’s Celebrate Ontario Festival and Event Enhancement initiative, The Shaw will present lectures by Seymour Hersh, Stevie Cameron, Tomson Highway and Dr. Samantha Nutt.

Inspired by the brilliance, bravery, humanity and humour of Bernard Shaw, the Shaw Festival is a crucible of progressive and provocative ideas which illuminate our understanding of today’s world. Relevant and engaging theatre on the festival’s three stages is enhanced each season with a robust education program. Like Shaw’s, the work of these four prominent and passionate speakers shines light on the dilemmas of our world, encouraging us all to take action.

On announcing this year’s lecture series, Shaw Festival Executive Director Colleen Blake said: “The speakers we will present in our lecture series this year illustrate how the provocative spirit of Bernard Shaw still lives in discussions about today’s critical world issues. We were thrilled with the audience reception to last year’s inaugural series, which included Ken Wiwa, Mary Walsh, Sir Salman Rushdie and Tim Flannery, and are delighted that, thanks to the Government of Ontario, we are able to continue the series this season.”

Seymour Hersh October 12, 2008

Seymour Hersh is one of America’s most respected and groundbreaking investigative journalists. He has broken some of the biggest cover ups of the modern era -- from My Lai to Abu Ghraib -- and his work continues to uncover deceit and challenge corruption at the highest levels. In his analysis of U.S. foreign policy, he exposes the often shadowy world where official foreign policy stance meets political reality in other parts of the world. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Hersh is also the author of Chain of Command and The Dark Side of Camelot.

Stevie Cameron October 19, 2008

Award-winning journalist Stevie Cameron is also a successful author, commentator, humanitarian and founding editor of Elm Street Magazine. Cameron's passion for writing, uncovering and dissecting stories of the day have earned her acclaim as one of Canada's foremost investigative journalists. In her lectures, Cameron takes a critical look at Canadian politics, business, society and the future.

Tomson Highway October 26, 2008

Tomson Highway is a playwright, author, musician, multilingual speaker, member of the Order of Canada and recipient of five doctorates. Throughout his life, he has overcome incredible obstacles, including the residential school system, prejudice, and struggles to have his work recognized, to become one of Canada’s foremost aboriginal and creative voices.

Dr. Samantha Nutt November 2, 2008

Dr. Samantha Nutt is Founder and Executive Director of War Child Canada. A medical doctor with over 13 years experience working in war zones and committed to peace, human rights and social justice, her ambition has always been to help war-affected women and children. Called one of “12 Canadians making a difference” by Maclean’s Magazine, she has received numerous awards for her work, including Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award.

Each lecture will be held at 11 am in the Royal George Theatre, 85 Queen St., Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Tickets are $20 each or $65 for the series and $10 each for students. Tickets are available online at www.shawfest.com or by calling the Shaw Festival Box Office at 1-800-511-7429 or 905-468-2172.

The 2008 season is proudly presented by HSBC Bank Canada/HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

Shaw Festival Announces 2009 Season

The Idea

Shaw … Coward … Osborne? The ideas of these playwrights rocked society far beyond the confines of the theatre world. The Shaw Festival’s 2009 season celebrates the brilliance of the work of these writers and opens up a new corner of its mandate to show the continuum of provocative theatre The Shaw is renowned for producing. In announcing the 2009 Season today, Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell said, “We’re thrilled to be embarking on our 2009 adventure. Two exciting events will be highlights of the season: a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of one of Bernard Shaw’s most famous contemporaries, fellow provocateur Noel Coward, and a new initiative in a new space with a new writer for The Shaw. We’ll do that – and we’ll present an additional six remarkable plays, while continuing our exploration of contemporary Shavian writers in our reading series. The choices made this season play to the strengths of our multi-faceted and extraordinary Company and are made in concert with our ongoing emphasis on nurturing the careers of emerging theatre artists and developing new work for our stages. Welcome aboard, and enjoy the ride.”

The Reality

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, September 23, 2008 . . . Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell officially announced the Shaw Festival’s 2009 season today. In 2009 The Shaw takes on a monumental and historic project with full productions of each play in Noel Coward’s famous Tonight at 8:30 collection. The Shaw’s 2009 productions represent the first time all ten short plays have been performed in repertory by a professional company since they were first produced by London’s Phoenix Theatre in 1935-36. The plays will be performed in sets of three, one on each of the Festival’s Niagara-on-the-Lake stages, with the tenth, the rarely produced Star Chamber, being the lunchtime production in the Royal George. And to celebrate this idea for the event that it is, on two separate occasions, we will present all ten in one day – an event we are appropriately naming “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”.

Ms. Maxwell said of the collection: “As the idea of doing all of Coward’s Tonight at 8:30 came to me, and as I reread the plays, I was struck that each one is a brilliant jewel – like the best short stories – some well known, some not. As is typical of Coward – who was always pushing the envelope in both form and content – the ten plays vary hugely. There are out-and-out comedies, heart-wrenching dramas, fantasy musicals and historical tales. Coward is a brilliant miniaturist, a master storyteller, and any group of these plays, seen together, is a truly satisfying evening at the theatre. The experience of seeing them in one fell swoop, for those who are game, will be thrilling indeed.”

English actor, playwright and composer Noel Coward (1899-1973) is renowned for his full-length plays The Vortex, Hay Fever, Easy Virtue, Bitter Sweet, Cavalcade, Private Lives and Design for Living, most of which have been produced by The Shaw. His ambitious Tonight at 8:30 cycle, which he wrote and starred in with his frequent stage partner Gertrude Lawrence, was originally written to be performed in combinations of three plays for a different playbill each night.

Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell will direct the first set of plays, in the Festival Theatre. Titled Brief Encounters, this includes Still Life, We Were Dancing and Hands Across the Sea. The Royal George set, directed by Artistic Director Emeritus Christopher Newton, titled Play, Orchestra, Play, will include Red Peppers, Fumed Oak and Shadow Play. The Court House group, director to be announced, titled Ways of the Heart, will include Ways and Means, Family Album and The Astonished Heart. Kate Lynch will direct the lunchtime Star Chamber. Music plays a huge role throughout Tonight at 8:30 and The Shaw’s Music Director Paul Sportelli will be Music Director for the whole project.

John Osborne (1929-1994), playwright, activist and the original inspiration for the phrase “angry young man”, revolutionized English theatre in 1956 with his play Look Back in Anger. An outspoken critic of The Establishment and the monarchy, as well as English theatre, Osborne combined unsparing truthfulness with devastating wit. In 2009 The Shaw will produce a limited run of Osborne’s 1957 play The Entertainer, directed by Jackie Maxwell in the Festival Theatre Rehearsal Studio. The Entertainer, a boldly theatrical piece combining drama and vaudeville that Osborne wrote for Laurence Olivier, uses the metaphor of the dying music hall tradition to comment on the vicissitudes of post-war life in 1950s England. The production of both Tonight at 8:30 and The Entertainer in the 2009 season will create a vivid juxtaposition between Osborne’s angry existential soul search and the polished work of Coward, while also revealing the deep connection between the two.

The 2009 playbill includes six additional full productions. The Shaw’s celebration of Coward’s witty and subversive world sits perfectly beside the work of house wit and subversive, Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw’s exhilarating The Devil’s Disciple, last produced at The Shaw in 1996, is directed in 2009 by renowned Polish director Tadeusz Bradecki, and presented in the Festival Theatre. The upcoming American election and the ensuing new administration will provide a fascinating backdrop to Shaw’s drama of the struggles between England and her American colonies in the late 1700s. In the Royal George, Shaw’s hilarious satire of philosophy, playwriting and acting, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, will be directed by Eda Holmes.

Garson Kanin’s classic comedy Born Yesterday, directed by Neil Munro, will share the Festival Theatre stage. An enduring story of a corrupt tycoon and his not-so-dumb blonde girlfriend, the play was a huge hit on Broadway in 1946 with Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn. Denouncing bribery, corruption and greedy corporate interests, this highly entertaining play could well have been written yesterday.

The Court House Theatre season also includes Eugene O’Neill’s romantic drama A Moon for the Misbegotten, directed by Joseph Ziegler, who deftly handled O’Neill’s Ah Wilderness for The Shaw in 2004. Continuing to programme Canadian classics, Michel Tremblay’s phenomenal Albertine in Five Times, in a new translation by Linda Gaboriau and directed by Micheline Chevrier, will complete the Court House season. The play, which provides a wonderful challenge for six female actors, is a brilliant deconstruction of the life of Albertine, a complex, troubled woman who appears in many of Tremblay’s plays and is one of theatre’s most mercurial characters.

Building on the success of the 2008 season’s A Little Night Music and Follies: In Concert, The Shaw continues to explore the work of Stephen Sondheim with a production of Sunday in the Park with George, directed by Alisa Palmer, which explores the eternal conflict between life and art through the story of the French Impressionist painter Georges Seurat. The piece is a perfect fit with the intimate jewel-box setting of the Royal George Theatre.

The Shaw Festival’s popular reading series of contemporary Shavian writers continues to be an integral component of each season and an important area of growth for the Company. For the reading series, Jackie Maxwell and director Eda Holmes choose full-length plays that represent contemporary writing at its best – witty and compelling, with a distinct modern-day perspective. Like Shaw’s, the work of these writers centres on the critical examination of the times and communities in which they live. The 2009 Reading Series focuses on diverse female playwrights with a political voice. It includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Topdog/Underdog, a bitingly funny, hard-hitting examination of poverty in America by African-American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Obsidian Theatre’s Artistic Director Phil Akin, and further titles to be announced.

The reading series is often informed by The Shaw’s play development work. As part of the 2009 reading series The Shaw also presents a new musical based on the brief life of Maria Severa Onofriana, a famous Portuguese fado singer who achieved near-mythical status after her death. Maria Severa is written by Shaw Festival Music Director Paul Sportelli and Ensemble member Jay Turvey, whose musical Tristan received its world premiere at The Shaw in 2007.

The Shaw’s play development programme is actively engaged with writers, providing dramaturgical support, playwright-in-residence opportunities and workshops with actors, often working towards producing new work for The Shaw’s stages. In addition to Maria Severa, other projects in development include an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost by Robin Patterson, Artistic Director of St. Catharines’ Theatre Beyond Words; Kaj Munk by Dave Carley, The Shaw’s 2008 playwright-in-residence; an adaptation, by Associate Director Neil Munro, of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder; and an exciting new project with Cahoots Theatre Projects exploring and developing work from Asia and China of the mandate period.

For theatregoers who like to dig a little deeper into the world of plays, playwrights, theatre artists, and the world backstage, the 2009 season is complemented by Shaw Enriched, an extensive offering of seminars, workshops and other entertaining and informative behind-the-scenes experiences.

Regular ticket prices for the 2009 season range from $30 to $110 including GST. For Special Matinees, student tickets are $25 and senior tickets are $40. Lunchtime ticket prices are $30. Sunday night performances are available all season from $45 to $60 and, for patrons aged 19-29, $30 tickets are available for most performances. Preview prices are $55 to $70. Family tickets are available in each theatre: for each regularly-priced ticket purchased, one or two youth tickets (18 years or under) may be purchased for just $30. New in 2009 are specially designated $30 seats for most Festival Theatre performances.

Tickets for the 2009 season go on sale to Shaw Festival Members according to Membership level starting November 8. Tickets go on sale to groups and schools on January 5. Tickets go on sale to The Shaw’s high-loyalty customers on January 3 and to the general public by mail, fax or online on January 5 and by phone or in person on January 10.

Tonight at 8:30 is generously supported by Lombard Insurance.

Shaw Festival’s 2009 Season at a Glance

Production	Author	Director/ Designer	Previews	Opens	Closes	Stage	Sponsor
“Brief Encounters” (1935/36))	Noel Coward	Jackie Maxwell/ William Schmuck	April 11	May 20	October 24	Festival	CIBC World Markets
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days (1939)	Bernard Shaw	Eda Holmes/ Camellia Koo/ Michael Gianfresco	April 17	May 21	October 9	Royal George	TBD
Sunday in the Park with George (1984)	James Lapine/Stephen Sondheim	Alisa Palmer/ Judith Bowden	April 1	May 22	November 1	Royal George	TD Canada Trust Music
A Moon for the Misbegotten (1947)	Eugene O’Neill	Joseph Ziegler/ Christina Poddubiuk	April 28	May 23	October 9	Court House	Scotiabank Group
Born Yesterday (1946)	Garson Kanin	Neil Munro/ Sue LePage	May 5	May 23	November 1	Festival	Sun Life Financial
“Play, Orchestra, Play” (1935/36)	Noel Coward	Christopher Newton/ Cameron Porteous	June 9	July 11	October 31	Royal George	TBD
Albertine in Five Times (1986)	Michel Tremblay, Linda Gaboriau	Micheline Chevrier/ Teresa Przybylski	June 24	July 10	October 10	Court House	TBD
Star Chamber (1935/36)	Noel Coward	Kate Lynch/ William Schmuck	June 25	July 11	October 11	Royal George	TBD
The Devil’s Disciple (1897)	Bernard Shaw	Tadeusz Bradecki/ Peter Hartwell	June 14	July 9	October 11	Festival	TBD
“Ways of the Heart” (1935/36)	Noel Coward	TBD/ Sue LePage/ Judith Bowden	July 21	August 1	October 11	Court House	TBD
The Entertainer (1957)	John Osborne	Jackie Maxwell/ Peter Hartwell	July 31	August 15	September 20	Rehearsal Studio	TBD

* titles and dates subject to change

The Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle

The Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle will feature the choral music of Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.

Where: Kitchener City Hall Rotunda, 200 King Street West, Kitchener, Ontario

Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008

Time: 7:00 pm

Admission: Free

Information: 519 894-5308, or www.chestnuthallmusic.com/choral

Overview

A unique event patterned on the popular singer songwriter circles, the Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle features the choral music of Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.

The Event

The Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle is a unique concert event, patterned after the Songwriter Circles that have become popular in the pop world. Audiences attend the events and have an opportunity to interact with the songwriters, who often introduce works that are new or unique, and perform them by themselves or with participation from other songwriters who are all present on stage.

The Choral Song Circle will be similar to this pattern, except choral classical composers are not obviously able to accompany themselves SATB on stage. With the help of a Waterloo Region Arts Fund grant, we have formed a professional core choir reinforced with the best singers from the region's two university music schools.

The choir conducted by Wilfrid Laurier University's Dr Lee Willingham will perform choral music of the composers who make their homes or places of work in the Waterloo region, with the six composers present on stage.

Hosted by Jurgen Petrenko, there will be opportunities to hear the composers talk about their music, and for audiences to meet with them and become familiar with who they are and to develop awareness of their craft and their sound, and how they are a vital part of the cultural fabric of the Waterloo region, Canada and abroad. Jurgen will moderate interaction between the composers and the audience as we talk about the music and the compositional process.

The Participants

• Six Waterloo region composers, including Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.
• A newly formed professional choir joined by the Laurier Singers will be conducted by Dr Lee Willingham, who is an Associate Professor at WLU where he leads the Laurier Singers and is Director for the new Laurier Centre for Music in the Community.
• Jurgen Petrenko, former producer of CBC's Music and Company, will be acting as host for the event.

The Venue

The event is being held at the city of Kitchener's unique Rotunda, situated on ground floor of the building. The hall is very open and accessible to the public, and the choir, composers and audience will be arranged so that there is a close sense of interaction and community. The acoustics are amazing and the hall is four stories high, with a circular floor layout... perfect for a choral song circle.

Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle

Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle

The Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle will feature the choral music of Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Richard Cunningham, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.

Where: Kitchener City Hall Rotunda, 200 King Street West, Kitchener, Ontario

Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008

Time: 7:00 pm

Admission: Free

Information: www.chestnuthallmusic.com/choral

Overview

A unique event patterned on the popular singer songwriter circles, the Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle features the choral music of Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Richard Cunningham, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.

The Event

The Waterloo Region Composers Choral Song Circle is a unique concert event, patterned after the Songwriter Circles that have become popular in the pop world. Audiences attend the events and have an opportunity to interact with the songwriters, who often introduce works that are new or unique, and perform them by themselves or with participation from other songwriters who are all present on stage.

The Choral Song Circle will be similar to this pattern, except choral classical composers are not obviously able to accompany themselves SATB on stage. With the help of a Region of Waterloo Arts Fund grant, we have formed a professional core choir reinforced with the best singers from the region's two university music schools.

The choir conducted by Wilfrid Laurier University's Dr Lee Willingham will perform choral music of the composers who make their homes or places of work in the Waterloo region, with the seven composers present on stage.

Hosted by Jurgen Petrenko, there will be opportunities to hear the composers talk about their music, and for audiences to meet with them and become familiar with who they are and to develop awareness of their craft and their sound, and how they are a vital part of the cultural fabric of the Waterloo region, Canada and abroad. Jurgen will moderate interaction between the composers and the audience as we talk about the music and the compositional process.

The Participants

• Seven Waterloo region composers, including Glenn Buhr, Barrie Cabena, Richard Cunningham, Leonard Enns, Jeff Enns, Michael Purves-Smith and Carol Ann Weaver.
• A newly formed professional choir will be conducted by Dr Lee Willingham, who is an Associate Professor at WLU where he leads the Laurier Singers and is Director for the new Laurier Centre for Music in the Community.
• Jurgen Petrenko, former producer of CBC's Music and Company, will be acting as host for the event.

The Venue

The event is being held at the city of Kitchener's unique Rotunda, situated on ground floor of the building. The hall is very open and accessable to the public, and the choir, composers and audience will be arranged so that there is a close sense of interaction and community. The acoustics are amazing and the hall is four stories high, with a circular floor layout... perfect for a choral song circle.

Shaw Festival Presents Follies: In Concert

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, August 26, 2008 … Final rehearsals are underway for the Shaw Festival’s concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s legendary Follies. Follies: In Concert is presented for a limited engagement in the Festival Theatre, with performances on August 29, September 12 and 27, and October 4.

Follies, with almost 50 actors, singers and dancers in the original cast, is rarely staged. The Shaw’s Concert, featuring full orchestration, minimal staging and a highly abridged book, is a great fit with the skills of the Company’s actors, singers and musicians and includes 21 of the 45 musical Ensemble members cast for the 2008 Season.

With a book by James Goldman, the original Follies production won seven Tony Awards. “Broadway Baby”, “I’m Still Here”, “In Buddy’s Eyes” and “Losing My Mind” are Follies songs that have become celebrated Broadway standards. Set in the early ’70s, the piece explores the time between the World Wars in the American musical, juxtaposing the romanticism of the past with the cynicism of the present, and ultimately revealing the foolishness of living in the past.

Two unhappily married couples, Buddy (Jay Turvey) and Sally (Glynis Ranney) Plummer and Ben (George Masswohl) and Phyllis (Melanie Janzen) Stone, are the focus of the story. Sally and Phyllis were showgirls together thirty years earlier, as were many of the other guests at a party. As characters begin to relive their lives and careers, the past seems to seep into the present as ghosts of their former selves appear.

In Follies, the past and present collide in the music as well as the story. Its score encapsulates the history of musical theatre. Characters in the present express themselves in what was a contemporary musical style. Characters reminiscing about the past or suffering psychological breakdown sing “pastiche” songs that represent musical theatre styles through time.

Follies: In Concert is the second Sondheim musical to be presented by the Shaw Festival this season. The sophisticated A Little Night Music, directed by Morris Panych, continues to run in the Court House Theatre until October 4.

The cast of Follies: In Concert also includes Thom Allison, Neil Barclay, Donna Belleville, Carol Forte, Deborah Hay, Patty Jamieson, Gabrielle Jones, Chilina Kennedy, Lorne Kennedy, Julie Martell, Mike Nadajewski, Melanie Phillipson, Kiera Sangster, Goldie Semple, Jacqueline Thair and Mark Uhre.

Follies: In Concert is directed by Valerie Moore, with musical direction by Paul Sportelli, design by William Schmuck, lighting design by Kevin Lamotte, and sound design by John Lott. The stage management team includes Stage Manager Judy Farthing and Assistant Stage Manager Amy Jewell.

For tickets and information, visit www.shawfest.com or call 1-800-511-7429 or 905-468-2172 (local).

Follies: In Concert is sponsored by Paradigm Capital Inc.

The 2008 season is proudly presented by HSBC Bank Canada/HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

Follies: In Concert

book by James Goldman

music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Produced originally on Broadway by Harold Prince

By special arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh

Follies concert version is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.

421 West 54^th Street, New York, NY 10019

Phone: 212-541-4684 Fax: 212-397-4684 www.MTIshows.com

Sweetwater Music Festival 2008

SWEETWATER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2008
September 19, 20, 21 2008

Artistic Director and critically acclaimed violinist Mark Fewer is pleased to announce the fifth annual SweetWater Music Festival, a series of chamber music concerts and free workshops for music students September 19 to 21, 2008 in Historic Leith Church and Division Street United Church in Owen Sound.

Artistic Director Mark Fewer (violin) and Associate Director Virginia Barron (viola) lead this year's all-star performer lineup which includes guest performer James Campbell (Artistic Director of Parry Sound's Festival of the Sound) and newcomer Michi Wiancko (violin), as well as returning performers Melanie Conly (soprano), Jonathan Crow (violin), Denise Djokic (cello), Peter Longworth (piano), Douglas McNabney (viola), Tom Wiebe (cello), and Rosanne Wieringa (flute).

This year's composer lineup includes: Boccherini, Colgrass, Brahms, Handel/Halvorsen, Haydn, Hindson, Hoiby, Murphy, Schnittke, Schoenberg, Schoenfield, and Stravinsky. Canadian composer Walter Buczynski's work "In Memoriam" will be perfomed in honour of teacher & pianist Earle Moss.

The Saturday pre-concert chat will be given by Artistic Director Mark Fewer. He will discuss the repertoire as well as speak about SweetWater and its presence at the local, national, and international levels. Sweetwater Music Festival will also continue the tradition of highlighting the work of local instrument makers during the series of concerts.

FRIDAY, Sept. 19, 2008, 8pm, Historic Leith Church:
"transformations" works by Handel/Halvorsen, Colgrass, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Schoenberg.

SATURDAY, Sept. 20, 2008, 10am-12noon, Division Street Church in Owen Sound:
Student Master Classes (see below)

SATURDAY, Sept. 20, 2008, 8pm, Division Street Church in Owen Sound:
"about face" works by Hoiby, Boccherini, Buczynski, Murphy, Schoenfield, Hindson.
(Includes a pre-concert chat by Artistic Director Mark Fewer at 6:30pm)

SUNDAY, Sept. 21, 2008, 2pm, Historic Leith Church
"all good things" works by Haydn & Brahms

Student Master Classes Saturday, September 20, 10am - 12noon
Students interested in performing a solo or chamber work at this year's Masterclass can apply by mail to the address below. Applications should be submitted ASAP. For information, call 519-376-3517. Send applications to: Keith Medley, Box #392, Owen Sound ON N4K 5P7. Free to the performing students and open to the public.

Tickets:
Roxy Theatre Box Office 519-371-2833 (1-888-446-ROXY)
or call 519-371-1754
or email info@swmw.ca

Fri. Sept. 19 at Historic Leith Church: $30.00 (includes reception following)
Sat. Sept. 20 at Division Street Church: $25.00 (includes a pre-concert chat at 6:30pm)
Sun. Sept. 21 at Historic Leith Church: $30.00
Series tickets: $75.00

4th Line Theatre Adds Extra Play Date

Extra Date added for 4th Line Theatre’s Schoolhouse Play

4th Line Theatre has already enjoyed sold out shows for their remount of the Schoolhouse play this season, and have made available an extra performance on Monday, August 18^th for their eager audiences. “This has almost become an annual tradition,” says General Manager, Simone Georges. “We normally perform from Tuesday through Saturday, with a break for the actors on Sundays and Mondays but that extra Monday date has proved to be an invaluable practice for each of the productions these past two years. Mondays provide a great weekday alternative as it has proven to be ve