ArtsBeat

The enduring affection for Selina Noble, elementary music teacher

The Ridge choir album was funded by the school’s parent-teacher club.

After flipping through a stack of vinyl LPs in my basement recently, I posted, on Facebook, a photo of the jacket from an album recorded at the elementary school I attended. It was released in Leamington, Ont., in 1967 and was titled Ridge School Choir Sings a Centennial Souvenir. It consisted of a dozen tracks — largely a roundup of pieces the choir had performed at recent music festivals.

The post got dozens of responses. Many former pupils remembered recording the album; a few commenters mentioned the cursive writing with which pupils had autographed its cover. But the predominant theme among those who replied was an enduring affection for our itinerant music teacher, Selina Noble (Selina rhymes with “China”). The tributes flowed not only from former pupils at Ridge — the same held true for those who had attended other Essex County schools at which she’s taught, such as Gosfield South (now Jack Miner), Inman, Mt. Carmel, Olinda, Ruthven and Union.

Mary Newland, a Grade 6 pupil at the time of the recording, went on to make singing her career, much of it in recording studios in Los Angeles and on stages around the world. She continues to perform alongside composer, producer, keyboardist and husband Richard Baker.

“I credit Mrs. Noble with being the first person to tell me I could sing, the first one to give me the opportunity and I honestly don’t know that I’d have pursued it had she not done so,” Mary wrote. “To have her influence and guidance, teaching us to sight read and inspire us to do so well at music festivals was, for me, the highlight of my elementary school years.”

G. Roy Fenwick’s sight-singing books were used in schools at which Selina Noble taught.

Janice Founk (née Driedger), who attended Gosfield South Area Public School, wrote that “most of my fond memories were of marching up and down the rows to the beat as she played a very impressive march on the piano. (I always wanted to play like her!) I also can picture the grey hardcover sight-reading books. Who teaches that anymore? And her writing the do-re-mi scale on the board. She would then use her wooden pointer to have us sing do-la-ti-so-la … up and down the scale. What a good tone-matching exercise! But truly memorable for me was her purple hair, big fancy jewelry and bright red lipstick — and perfume!!”

Norma Selina Hutchins was born on Dec. 1, 1901, in Colchester, Ont.; her birth registered in nearby Essex. She was the descendant of a family that had emigrated to the United States from Dorchester, England, in the mid-1700s. When the American Revolutionary War arrived, her family sided with the British and came to Upper Canada as United Empire Loyalists.

Selina married Orvel Noble and the couple had one son, Donald, in 1925. The 1931 Dominion of Canada census shows that Orvel was a farmer, while Selina was listed as a homemaker. They were members of the United Church of Canada in Olinda, Ont., where Selina served as a pianist for the Sunday School children and a substitute organist for the congregation.

More than a decade passed, then hardship struck. Sometime around 1947, Orvel contracted polio. Although he retained the use of his limbs, the disease robbed him of his ability to breathe normally. Farm work became too onerous. He managed, however, to hold down a job as the janitor at Olinda Public School. With Orvel’s health in question and son Donald grown, Selina decided she’d need to join the workforce. Her musical training and experience with teaching Sunday School children were the skills she would parlay into a job as an itinerant music teacher at various elementary schools in Gosfield and Mersea townships — each school, at that time, governed by its own board of trustees.

Selina Noble plays the piano during the Olinda Public School Christmas concert in either 1958 or 1959. Photo courtesy of Greg Noble

At some point in the late 1940s or early 1950s (ArtsBeat is still searching), Selina opted to attend teachers college in Toronto (teacher certification wasn’t absolutely necessary as a condition of her employment in 1948, sources say). It was likely there that she became personally acquainted with G. Roy Fenwick, who had been appointed Ontario’s first director of music — the first such position in Canada — in 1935. Fenwick became a powerful influence on Selina Noble throughout her career, first as her professor, then as author and editor of the High Road of Song music textbooks, widely used in Ontario elementary schools, and then as adjudicator at some of the festivals to which Mrs. Noble brought her school choirs. Dr. Fenwick, in fact, visited Mrs. Noble and Ridge Public School during the recording of the commemorative Centennial album, in late 1966. The following year, CBC Radio broadcast a selection by the Ridge choir as part of a series called Ontario Sings, hosted by Lloyd Queen.

The New High Road of Song books were used widely throughout Ontario elementary schools during the 1960s. They were edited by G. Roy Fenwick, Hollis Dann and Robert Foresman.

Susie Knight, co-owner of Hair Traffic and Skin Sense on Leamington’s Talbot Street, is Selina Noble’s niece. She remembers her aunt from family reunions and other functions as being serious, even sometimes stern. “I don’t think my aunt liked me,” she says. “She called me a flibbertigibbet…. Aunt Lina was kind of gruff, but obviously she was a lovable person to her students. As they say, ‘If you don’t reach for the stars, you don’t get anywhere near them.'”

In that regard, Susie says, her Aunt Lina was very much like Helen Law, another talented musician and choral conductor who founded the Leamington Choral Society in 1960. Neither Noble nor Law tolerated flippancy or mischief; they were focused on the pursuit of excellence. “The things Helen Law taught me stayed with me,” Knight recalls.

From The Windsor Star, Saturday, March 21, 1959

Greg Noble, born in 1951, was fortunate enough to be taught music by his grandmother during all eight of his elementary school years — four at Olinda and four at Ruthven. He recalls that his Grandma would insist that their relationship inside the classroom be strictly one of teacher and student. “When she’d come to school, the students would say, ‘Good morning, Mrs. Noble.’ I’d say, ‘Good morning, Grandma.’ She didn’t like that. She taught thousands of students. They all liked her — most of them, anyway.”

Michelle Stockwell was a Grade 8 pupil at Ridge school during the recording of the centennial album. On Dec. 14, 1966, she wrote a testimonial to the love of music her teacher had instilled in her. “We like to sing to make people happy and to please Mrs. Noble. She is the only music director I know who can sweet-talk a group of normal children into singing like a host of celestials. This is good, because when you’re finished there is still a warm glow of pride left.”

Michelle Stockwell, a Grade 8 pupil at Ridge School in December 1966, wrote a four-page essay about the accomplishments of the Ridge choir. It was sent to G. Roy Fenwick.

In her essay, 12-year-old Michelle went on to describe the experience of winning first place at the local music festival and of a visit by Dr. Fenwick to Ridge school. “He listened to our choir and made favourable comments,” she wrote. “He stayed for lunch and then listened to the juniors sing. In one [class]room, there still remains a yellow and pink star at the top corner of the blackboard, a memento of his visit.”

Michelle recalled a performance by the Ridge school senior choir at Windsor Teachers College in May of that year. (“We would be the first public school ever to attempt such a thing,” she wrote.) The musical selections were Lonesome Valley, Hush Thee My Little One and The Ash Grove. She concluded her essay with, “Although I won’t be here next year, I hope the Ridge children will carry on what has been going on for as long as I can remember. Music!!!”

Michelle Stockwell received a kind reply from G. Roy Fenwick in response to her letter in late 1966.

Orvel Noble died in mid-August 1966. Here again, Selina’s professionalism became evident. While we were recording the Ridge School Centennial souvenir album and rehearsing the 1966 Christmas pageant, telling the story of the Nativity from Joseph’s point of view, few of us had any idea that, just months earlier, Selina had buried her husband. Donald Noble predeceased his mother when he died of a rare tropical illness at Victoria Hospital in London, Ont., in 1985.

Selina Noble relaxes at home at age 87. During her final years, she lived at the Leamington Mennonite Home on Pickwick Drive. Photo courtesy of Greg Noble.

Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, music festival results published in both the Leamington Post and the Windsor Star frequently made mention of the accomplishments of Mrs. Noble’s students and choirs. Selina Noble was 68 when, in June 1970, the Essex County Board of Education honoured her for 22 years of teaching. She died in 1995.

The following are the tracks contained on Ridge School Choir Sings a Centennial Souvenir. The vinyl LP contains no information about the musical selections, such as publisher, year of publication, type of arrangement, etc., so properly crediting and licensing them here would seem impossible.

Introduction by Mrs. Selina Noble

Canada (Proudly We Hail Thee)

Men of Harlech

Fair Are the Meadows

My Lord, What a Mornin’

Vesper Hymn

Jacob’s Ladder

Canada, My Home

O Come, Be Glad and Sing

Mary Sang Softly

O Lord, I’m Tired

The Lord’s My Shepherd

Lonesome Valley

Selina Noble left much of her collection of music and musical instruments to Leamington-area resident Don Sayers.

Thanks to Greg Noble, Don Sayers, Ida Smith, Deanna Reid, Jo-Anne Jaynes, Olav Kitchen, Michelle Stockwell, Western University Libraries’ educational disciplinary coordinator Bruce Fyfe, and Windsor Public Library local history librarian Tom Vajdik for their help in researching this post.

Review: Clue’s set designer, director and butler bring down the house

Clue, the Parker Brothers board game many of us played as children, featured an array of sensory stimulations: a colourful game board with alluring rooms, a deck of beautifully illustrated cards, a set of tiny weapons, meticulously sculpted. But it was light on story and background. The “case file” said only that “this evening, Samuel Black was found murdered in the mansion! Detectives found six suspects and six weapons in the mansion’s nine rooms, but couldn’t solve the case. So now it’s up to you to solve the murder.” There were 324 possible outcomes, which has probably contributed to the game’s longstanding popularity.

Jonathan Lynn, author of the screenplay for the 1985 film, and Sandy Rustin, who wrote the script on which the current Grand Theatre/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production is based, dreamt up a more nefarious context. Their setting is Boddy Manor, “a mansion of epic proportions and terrifying secrets,” not far from Washington, D.C. The time: 1954, at the height of McCarthyism, congressional hearings on un-American activities, the Red Scare and blacklisting.

At the heart of Rustin’s script are the characters we remember from the game. Now, however, all have been bestowed with shady backgrounds, wacky personalities and amusing quirks. Miss Scarlet is the eccentric, calculating D.C. madam with a client list the length of a staircase. Mrs. Peacock is the eccentric, highly strung spouse of a Capitol Hill senator. Mrs. White is a pale, gloomy socialite, dressed mostly in black, whose five ex-husbands have all died under mysterious circumstances. Colonel Mustard is a pompous yet daft military man, unaccustomed the nuances of language in polite society. Professor Plum is an arrogant, egotistical academic whose self-esteem knows no limits. Mr. Green is an accident-prone Nervous Nellie with a strong preference for following rules. They’ve all been invited to the Boddy Manor on a dark and stormy night — and they’re all hiding dark secrets. Mayhem ensues. Murders pile up.

Mr. Boddy (Alex Furber) relishes the company of his guests: Colonel Mustard (Beau Dixon) with a wrench, Professor Plum (Derek Scott) with a revolver, Mr. Green (Toby Hughes) with a lead pipe, Mrs. Peacock (Sharon Bajer) with a dagger, Mrs. White (Petrina Bromley) with a rope, and Miss Scarlet (Reena Jolly) with a candlestick. Photo by Morris Lamont

Wadsworth, the mansion’s butler, plays a central role in executing the night’s activities and propelling the action, scene to scene. He supervises Yvette, the French maid, as well as the brusque and bad-tempered Cook. Mr. Boddy, the film noir-ish owner of the mansion, makes an appearance and, as the action builds to a furious pace, a Chief of Police, a pair of cops, a stranded motorist and a singing telegram girl darken the manor’s door.

The result is 90 minutes of uproarious camp, interspersed with palpable tension, as the well-practised cast (they performed this show nearly 20 times in Winnipeg last fall) take turns alternately firing one-liners in rat-a-tat fashion, then milking their lines for maximum effect. Sometimes the laughs come so hard and fast that they trample onto the next witticism, forcing us into a mental reset by abandoning the last joke in favour of the new one, as we hope to simply keep up, but the pacing is generally spot on.

Apart from the fine performances of the manor’s guests, there are two overriding reasons to see this production. The first is the performance of Jesse Gervais, familiar to Grand Theatre patrons for his role as Ambrose Small in the 2022 production of Grand Ghosts. Here, as Wadsworth, Gervais rifles through a skillset that produces clear, dark lines dripping with sardonic wit, sight gags that surprise, and other forms of physical comedy that bleed every drop of mirth from a delightfully exhausted audience. Near the end of the show, as he breaks through the fourth wall, we’re in stitches, wondering how much longer he can keep up the ruse — and his energy.

Jesse Gervais plays Wadsworth, the butler, in the current Grand Theatre production of Clue. Photo by Morris Lamont

The other reason is Brian Perchaluk’s set. While Rustin’s script calls for Clue’s various rooms to “easily pull out/appear in surprising ways,” Perchaluk’s set is a feat of theatrical and mechanical engineering. The two-and-a-half storey facade elicits delight and wonderment the moment the curtain rises, then enhances the characters’ movements through the mansion by rotating its rooms into view — 30 times in 90 minutes. If, in many of Woody Allen’s films, New York City is so prominent as to become a character unto itself, so too does Boddy Manor in Perchaluk’s hands.

Wadsworth (Jesse Gervais) and Mrs. White (Petrina Bromley) search for clues in the second-storey conservatory of Brian Perchaluk’s breathtaking set. Photo by Morris Lamont

Director Dennis Garnhum reveals a deft hand with Rustin’s script, successfully managing the players through their paces across the extraordinary set, while changing a few lines here and there (even the show’s final line is different — and in my view, improved — from the playwright’s original).

This production of Clue is Garnhum’s parting gift to the Grand and to the city. He programmed the play for the current season as one of the final tasks of his seven-year tenure as the theatre’s artistic director. He led the Grand through the darkest days of the pandemic (writing a book titled Toward Beauty in the process). Leave it to a seasoned showman such as Garnhum, now relocated with his family to Toronto, to go out with a flourish and a bow.

And that’s probably a third reason to see Clue: Post-pandemic, it is a wonderful and almost therapeutic experience to sit in a packed theatre again; to laugh with 800 other patrons at something so outrageous and distracting that our social brokenness seems to mend, even if only temporarily.

The source for so much cathartic mirth? I accuse Mr. Garnhum, with a splendid cast, on the Spriet stage.

Clue
A co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn
Writter by Sandy Rustin
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Based on the Paramount Pictures motion picture and the Hasbro board game
The Grand Theatre
London, Ontario
March 12-31, 2024
Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets (nearly sold out) here

Clue knocks at the front door, offering mystery and mayhem

It’s a good thing the ensemble cast of Clue, opening Friday at the Grand Theatre, has performed this show nearly two dozen times on the same set audiences will see during its London run. Otherwise, it might have been an actor’s (and director’s) nightmare.

That haunting was averted this week when the complicated set, consisting of various rooms (as per the board game) finally arrived at the Grand’s loading docks. Until Tuesday, the cast had been forced to rely on their memory of the garish three-storey faux mansion from their work in it at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, where it ran from mid-October to mid-November last year. Getting it to London involved some “transportation issues,” theatre officials said.

Clue, the play by American playwright Sandy Rustin, is based on Jonathan Lynn’s screenplay for the 1985 Paramount Pictures movie of the same name. Most of us, however, will relate to it simply as the stage version of the Hasbro board game.

The set of Clue, a co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, was designed in Winnipeg by Brian Perchaluk. Photo by Morris Lamont

Garnhum, who was artistic director at the Grand for seven years, handled the logistical wrinkle with all the aplomb that only a 56-year-old seasoned director of nearly 200 productions could offer. After all, he’s been solving problems and mysteries ever since he played Clue, the board game, as a child at his Boullee Street home in London more than four decades ago.

But back to the play itself. The main characters’ names are familiar to anyone who’s played the game: Colonel Mustard (Beau Dixon), Professor Plum (Derek Scott), Mr. Green (Toby Hughes), Mrs. Peacock (Sharon Bajer), Miss Scarlet (Reena Jolly) and Mrs. White (Petrina Bromley). Jesse Gervais plays Wadsworth, the Boddy Manor’s butler. Add in another fistful of actors in minor roles (Rosie Callaghan, Kamal Chioua, Alex Furber, Tracy Penner and Rosalie Tremblay) and this Clue ensemble is complete.

Colonel Mustard (Beau Dixon), Miss Scarlet (Reena Jolly), Mrs. White (Petrina Bromley), Mrs. Peacock (Sharon Bajer), Mr. Green (Toby Hughes) and Professor Plum (Derek Scott) demand explanations from Wadsworth (Jesse Gervais), the Boddy Manor’s butler, in the murder mystery Clue.

There’s already evidence that a good old-fashioned murder mystery will be a hit with the Grand’s patrons. Ticket sales are strong and an additional performance has been scheduled for March 31, Easter Sunday. The show may have been extended longer if not for a hard-stop on that date because of other theatre requirements.

The London Free Press’s advance story on the production is here. A review of the show will follow here on ArtsBeat soon after opening night.

Clue
A co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn
Writter by Sandy Rustin
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Based on the Paramount Pictures motion picture and the Hasbro board game
The Grand Theatre
London, Ontario
March 12-31, 2024, with opening night March 15
Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Tickets here

One footnote: A new film version of Clue, directed by James Bobin, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, is currently in production.

The power of illustrative storytelling arrives at a faith-based publication

When the Feb. 23 issue of Canadian Mennonite arrived in my inbox last week, I set it aside. My schedule was just too busy to spend time with it.

When I opened it again yesterday, however, I was amazed. My early skepticism about editor Will Braun‘s use of illustration, similar to a graphic novel, to tell a little-known yarn from Indigenous-settler history, dissolved within a few pages. Here was a compelling story, carefully written and drawn to capture nuance while shepherding the reader from page to page. Within minutes, I was putty in storyteller Jonathan Dyck‘s hands.

Faith-based publications don’t often use graphic-novel-style storytelling as a mode of reporting and discussion. The Feb. 23 issue of Canadian Mennonite does — to superb effect.

I’ve been fascinated by graphic novels since childhood. I remember my parents’ disapproving looks when I checked out volume after volume of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin from the Leamington Public Library. And at one point, our neighbour, Paul Morse, sold me his entire collection of comics — mostly Superman, Batman and Peanuts — for a few dollars. Admittedly, I’ve paid scant attention, during the intervening decades, to the rise of the graphic novel as a art and literary form that extends far beyond children’s or niche markets.

The story told by Dave Scott, an elder in the Swan Lake First Nation in Manitoba, and beautifully illustrated by Dyck, is called The Secret Treaty. It chronicles the early interactions between Mennonite settlers in Manitoba and Indigenous peoples during the latter half of the 19th century. It contains a few interesting surprises.

As a former magazine editor, I appreciate the resources, time and editorial risks that must have gone into those 12 pages. I expect that some readers will push back against this style of storytelling in a faith-based magazine. Too unserious, they might say. Too worldly.

My guess: This issue is a future award-winner. Look for it to pick up some citations at the next Canadian Christian Communicators Association‘s competition.

Review: The creative bravery and risk of Jordi Mand’s In Seven Days

In Seven Days, playing until March 2 at London’s Grand Theatre, is billed as “a comedy about death.” That’s somewhat miscast.

To be sure, playwright Jordi Mand‘s characters wrestle with death in the same way that Jacob, the Hebrew patriarch, wrestled with the angel at Peniel in the first book of the Jewish Torah. And there are comedic moments: about childhood antics, about culturally correct bagels, about parental expectations of their children, and so on.

But In Seven Days is no more “about death” than Grow, the musical that had its world premiere on the Grand stage in April 2022, is about marijuana. Yes, those themes are prominent. And yes, both scripts were birthed in their writers’ imaginations by recent changes in Canadian law. However, like Grow, Mand’s script deals just as much with the messiness of family relationships, the clashes of secular and religious cultures, the concern of parents for their loved ones’ prospects, and the secrets we decide to reveal or keep from those closest to us. Like a good Torte Napoleon, the sweet complexity lies in the layers.

From left: Shelley (Mairi Babb) and Rachel (Shaina Silver-Baird) argue about their father’s decision to end his life in a week’s time in In Seven Days. Photo by Morris Lamont

Set in London, Ont., In Seven Days takes us into the home of a Jewish family, just as daughter Rachel, flustered by a series of minor tribulations, arrives for what was to be an uneventful weekend visit with her ill and widowed father, Sam, and his partner, Shelley. Rachel soon learns that her father, suffering from a cancer that has spread from his prostate to his bones, has chosen to end his battle with chronic pain through medical assistance in dying (MAiD), to be delivered by a doctor from University Hospital. Rachel is horrified, as is Eli, their rabbi and family friend. Both argue with Sam about his need to change his mind — Rachel as a daughter, convinced that the right treatment could yet prolong Sam’s life; and Eli, as the spiritual leader of the local Reform synagogue, whose congregation still largely regards MAiD as murder and anyone present, when it’s administered, to be an accomplice. To further complicate matters, Darren, Rachel’s deejay boyfriend, makes the two-and-a-half-hour trip to be try to be of use or comfort to the family, despite the fact his relationship with Rachel is teetering.

Death is not the only passage with which the play deals. As we ride along the bumpy road toward some sort of certainty about Sam’s ultimate choice, we brush up against a host of others: single-parent childhood, career choice, marriage, pregnancy and inheritance, among them. Those themes provide a rich, vivid palette with which to tell a relatable, relevant story.

From left: Eli (Ralph Small) visits his childhood friend Sam (Ron Lea) to reminisce, but also to weigh the implications of Sam’s decision to end his life. Photo by Morris Lamont

One of the show’s important conceits doesn’t quite work. As a sufferer of incurable cancer, Sam declares himself to be in so much pain and suffering that the option of ending his life seems the only realistic one. Yet his ability to move around his home, with the help of a pair of canes, seems manageable. His voice is strong; his memory, sense of humour and caustic wit are unimpeded. He jokes. He sings. He raids the refrigerator for late-night ice cream. In the real world, he would likely not, in this moment, meet the requirement of being in “an advanced state of irreversible decline in capability.”

Shaina Silver-Baird gives a frenetic performance as the anxiety addled Rachel, while Mairi Babb, as Shelley, is nearly the polar opposite, so serene and understated is her character of the partner of a dying man. Ralph Small, as Eli, offers the sturdiest and most convincing turn among the cast. He appears every inch the philosophical rabbi who might stop by Sam’s home between his work at the synagogue and Hebrew school. By the time Sam arrives at his final decision, it is almost anticlimactic — so engrossed (or maybe distracted) have we become in a series of other mini-dramas unfolding in the lives of the other characters.

In Seven Days is a brave attempt by Mand to explore a timely, controversial topic with balance, empathy and love. Theatregoers will need to approach it as such. It’s not so much an evening’s entertainment as it is a jumping-off point for introspection and conversation about the issues at hand. As such, it succeeds. But it also represents a programming risk for the Grand, whose audiences historically tend to prefer lighter fare or, when controversial, deal with subjects not quite as close to home as their own mortality.

To push the show’s bagel motif a pinch past its limit, In Seven Days is a good schmear: crusty on the outside, tender and warm within, topped with unrelenting honesty.

In Seven Days
By Jordi Mand
Directed by Philip Akin
A world premiere

Sprint Stage, The Grand Theatre
471 Richmond St., London, Ontario
Until March 2, 2024
Tickets: http://www.grandtheatre.com

Greenwin Theatre, Meridian Arts Centre
5040 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario
May 4-16, 2024
Tickets: http://www.hgjewishtheatre.com

In Seven Days probes the ethical quandary of medically assisted death

Playwright Jordi Mand could not have known, when she began writing In Seven Days several years ago, that the show’s world premiere would occur just weeks after Canada’s Members of Parliament decided to boot the discussion about expanding medical assistance in dying (MAID) to sometime beyond the next federal election.

But then again, that’s often the function of art. It provokes discussion about sensitive topics and issues that even politicians can be too timid, perplexed or cagey to handle.

Jordi Mand says her new play originated from a discussion with her brother about how, hypothetically, they might say goodbye to their father if he chose MAID. Photo by Morris Lamont

Mand acknowledges upfront that her drama, billed as “a comedy about death,” will be provocative. It’s meant to be. With her script, however, she’s not advocating a position on assisted death so much as she’s hoping audiences will see the humanity in the conundrums families face.

Co-produced with Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, In Seven Days peers into the life of a fictional Jewish family in London, Ont., as their patriarch, Sam, decides, after nearly a decade of dealing with cancer, to end his life in a week’s time. Daughter Rachel must wrestle with whether to change her father’s mind or honour his wishes.

Director Philip Akin says In Seven Days is “a play that is detailed and nuanced” in its attempt to portray the stark choices of assisted death. “It’s been a joy to figure out.” Photo by Morris Lamont

An experienced writer for theatre, TV and film, Mand says the development of In Seven Days was “the most thoughtful process I’ve ever been part of as a writer.” Her mother and father, who recently moved to London to retire, were heavily involved, with assistance from director Philip Akin and Rabbi Debra Stahlberg Dressler of Temple Israel, London’s Reform Jewish congregation.

The cast of In Seven Days, left to right: Ralph Small (Eli), Brendan McMurtry-Howlett (Darren), Ron Lea (Sam), Shaina Silver-Baird (Rachel) and Mairi Babb (Shelley). Photo by Morris Lamont

Mand’s parents have more than a familial interest in their daughter’s script. Jason Mandlowitz is the current president of Temple Israel and, even within Judaism’s more liberal circles, the belief that MAID amounts to murder is prevalent. Mand says she honestly doesn’t know what kind of reception In Seven Days will get from her own community, let alone the general public.

Nevertheless, Mand says she feels the currents of change breezing through her new work: “This show had to happen here. There’s something fortuitous about this whole thing.”

In Seven Days officially opens Friday night.

In Seven Days
By Jordi Mand
Directed by Philip Akin
A world premiere

Spriet Stage, The Grand Theatre
471 Richmond St., London, Ontario
February 13-March 2, 2024
Tickets: http://www.grandtheatre.com

Greenwin Theatre, Meridian Arts Centre
5040 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario
May 4-16, 2024
Tickets: http://www.hgjewishtheatre.com

A sugary holiday confection at the Grand Theatre

Programming the 2023-24 season would have been one of the last major tasks for outgoing Grand Theatre artistic director Dennis Garnhum before ending his seven-year tenure in June. And on the Grand’s slate of yearly offerings, none is more important — to audiences and to the theatre’s bottom line — than the annual holiday show.

Not surprisingly, tickets to that production are always in high demand, as patrons seek dazzling, uplifting family fare that can tucked in among Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s festivities. Past shows have included Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical (2012), Elf (2013 and 2022), Shrek The Musical (2014), A Christmas Story (2015), The Wizard of Oz (2016), A Christmas Carol (2017 and 2018), and Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins (2019). The Grand’s patrons, in fact, don’t mind seeing old chestnuts resurface from time to time. Over the past 40 years, A Christmas Carol has been the holiday show seven times (1982, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2008, 2017 and 2018), with Jan Alexandra Smith‘s critically acclaimed turn in the role of Scrooge in that most recent production.

Ten cast members assemble in front of a gate with a giant W affixed to its front. — Golden Ticket winners assemble outside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory during a photo opportunity at the Grand Theatre on Nov. 21, 2023. Photo by Morris Lamont

This year, it’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the musical based on British writer Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s novel. Smith is directing, with Alexandra Kane as musical director. In the role of Willy Wonka: Mark Uhre, the London native whose growing list of credits includes performances on Broadway, the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival and numerous other theatres, including that other London’s Globe Theatre.

Uhre has been acting professionally since the age of 12 and is an alumnus of the Grand’s High School Project, for which he played Tony in the 1998 production of West Side Story, directed by Michael Shamata. More recently, Uhre starred as Bert the chimney sweep in 2019’s Mary Poppins. It’s one of the joys of living in cities such as London, Ont., whether at the theatre or on the ice of Budweiser Gardens: Audiences get to witness the rise of upcoming stars just as they take the professional leap to bigger stages.

A child holds aloft one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets. — Neela Noble, in her Grand Theatre debut, is one of two young actors alternating in the role of Charlie Bucket. The other is Grade 3 elementary pupil Greyson Reign Armer. Photo by Morris Lamont

Both Charlie Buckets in this production are worth tracking in that way; both are making their Grand debut. Neela Noble, 15, is a student at H.B. Beal Secondary School and a graduate of the Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts. Greyson Reign Armer, 8, is a Grade 3 pupil at Cedar Hollow Public School and has been active in local amateur theatre scene for several years. A promotional video produced by the theatre features both Neela and Greyson in conversation.

Patrons at this year’s holiday show should once again expect a pitch, at the end of the performance, for a cash donation to the London Food Bank through its Business Cares program. Over the past six years, those solicitations have raised more than $400,000 for the local charity. A full 100 per cent of funds raised goes to the food bank and the homes of those in need.

No formal analysis exists, but it would be interesting to know if the Grand’s holiday shows draw bigger audiences for seasonal fare, such as A Christmas Carol or Miracle on 34th Street, or for productions that aren’t season-specific, such as Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz or, in this case, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My guess is it makes little difference; that the state of the local economy, in general, is likely the bigger factor.

An advance feature on the show in The London Free Press is here.

Grandpa Joe, played by David Talbot, and Grandma Josephine, portrayed by Barbara Fulton, react to the news that Willy Wonka is reopening his factory. Photo by Morris Lamont

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Spriet Stage, The Grand Theatre, London, Ontario
Runs Nov. 21 to Dec. 24, 2023
Book by David Greig
Music by Marc Shaiman
Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Based on the novel by Roald Dahl
Songs from the motion picture by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
Directed by Jan Alexandra Smith
Musical director Alexandra Kane
Choreography by Robin Calvert

Izad Etemadi as Buddy the Elf: ‘It’s fully a dream come true’

As he honed the role of Samuel for the world premiere of the musical Grow earlier this year, Canadian-Iranian actor Izad Etemadi had no idea he’d be back at London’s Grand Theatre so soon. And this time, in a lead role.

Artistic director Dennis Garnhum, however, was already thinking seven months ahead. Among those thoughts: asking Etemadi whether he’d be interested in the role of Buddy in this year’s holiday production of Elf, The Musical.

“[During the run of Grow], my husband, Bruce, asked whether I’d settled on who would play Buddy,” Garnhum said. “I said I hadn’t. He said I think you’ve found him…. The very next day, [former executive director] Deb Harvey suggested the same thing. As Samuel, Izad showed he could charm you and entertain you. He had heart.”

“Dennis told me that story not long ago,” Etemadi said this week. “He sent an email [in spring] asking whether I’d consider playing the role of Buddy. I sent back a coy response: ‘Yes, I’d consider it. Please contact my agent.'”

Etemadi’s casual reply, however, belied his excitement about the offer. Aware of the physical demands of the role, he immediately began weekly voice lessons, which soon ramped up to twice-weekly. He learned the music over the summer and began memorizing lines three weeks ahead of rehearsals so that he could go off-book as quickly as possible.

“On a personal and emotional level, this is the kind of role I’ve always dreamed of getting to do,” Etemadi said. “I’ve found sometimes in musical theatre people didn’t always know what to do with me…. With Buddy, I get to sing, I get to dance, I get to make people laugh for two hours. But it also has so much heart; it’s the really moving story that drives the whole show forward. Fourteen-year-old me would be in shock right now… it’s fully a dream come true.

Izad Etemadi and Buddy the Elf — Izad Etemadi as Buddy the Elf in the Grand Theatre’s 2022 production of Elf, The Musical. Photo by Morris Lamont

Script and songs aside, Etemadi says the physical demands of playing the energetic, unworldly Buddy are a challenge all their own.

“It’s a lot. It’s, straight up, two hours of me talking and singing and screaming non-stop, but I started the process really early, because it’s the first time I’ve been the lead-lead-lead of a show…. The big thing has actually been learning how to yell healthily on stage. Buddy is always very excited. It’s really easy to get swept up in that excitement and then shout improperly. There’s a lot of yelling in the first 20 minutes, so if you’re not doing that properly, the rest of the show is going to be really, really difficult. Also, you have to get it to a cadence that’s funny and not annoying. There’s a really fine line.”

Garnhum and Etemadi agree that audiences will expect certain lines and gags from the 2003 motion picture Elf, starring Will Ferrell, to show up on stage; however, the musical version doesn’t slavishly follow the hyperactive thrust of the film. Whereas the movie is steeped in frenetic realism, the musical version is more fantastical, honouring audience expectations but telling a more heart-rending story, Garnhum said.

“And I’m not 6-2,” said Etemadi. “I went into this thinking this is not going to be the Will Ferrell version; this is going to be my version. And that’s what I’m going to give to the audience. Because this is a musical adaptation, there are so many new things for the audience that, while they’re going to be familiar with the story, they’re not seeing the movie on stage.

Izad Etemadi with Michelle Bardach and Ma-Anne Dionisio — Buddy (Izad Etemadi) enjoys a bowl of spaghetti with Emily (Ma-Anne Dionisio), left, and Michelle (Riley Deluca). Photo by Morris Lamont

“Emotionally, everything has to be played for real. It has to come from the heart…. It’s funny and it’s over the top and it’s silly, but it’s grounded in so much truth that, when it does get sad and when it does get moving, we’re all going to feel it as well. And that lets the funny stuff be even funnier. So I’m really hoping we can have justice for Buddy.

“It’s a challenging role, but this process with this company and this theatre has been one of the best that I’ve ever been in. Everything has gone smoothly, everyone is so positive … it’s been magic,” Etemadi said.

Elf, The Musical has a history at the Grand as being one of the theatre’s most successful shows. It boosted the institution’s bottom line in 2013, when former artistic director Susan Ferley directed and actor Liam Tobin played the role of Buddy. More than 20,000 tickets have already been sold for the current production, with shows extended to New Year’s Eve. It had originally been slated to close on Christmas Eve.

Elf: The Musical
Book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin
Music by Matthew Sklar
Lyrics by Chad Beguelin
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Musical director: Alexandra Kane
The Grand Theatre, London, Ont.
November 22-December 31, 2022
Buy tickets here.

Buddy the Elf with Jovie — Buddy (Izad Etemadi) tries to befriend Jovie (Michelle Bardach) in the Grand Theatre’s 2022 production of Elf, The Musical. Photo by Morris Lamont

(More photos are available on freelance photographer Morris Lamont’s Facebook page. A preview of the show by London Free Press entertainment writer Joe Belanger is here.)

We should all shout ‘Bravo!’

There are moments in the cultural life of a city that should be remembered as nothing less than a triumph. What happened Saturday night, at the corner of Wellington Street and Dufferin Avenue in London, Ont., was one of them.

London Symphonia‘s season-opening concert at Metropolitan United Church was more than an evening of orchestral music. It was the dramatic, even cathartic, meeting of two story lines: that of a skilled and undaunted ensemble that has wandered an artistic wilderness for nearly a decade in search of place to call home, and that of a faith congregation in the heart of the city that seized an opportunity to transform its space into one that could serve as both a place of worship and an arts hub. Saturday night’s result was as brilliant as the autumnal colours of the weekend and as glorious as its warm sunshine.

London Symphonia performs *En el Escuro, es Todo Uno*, by Kelly-Marie Murphy, under the direction of conductor Gordon Gerrard, at Metropolitan United Church on Oct. 22, 2022.

The concert, dubbed We Are All One, after the double concerto for harp and cello by Kelly-Marie Murphy titled En el Escuro, es Todo Uno (In the Darkness, All is One), was spectacular for its music alone. Murphy’s evocative score revealed the skilful artistry of harpist Angela Schwarzkopf and the prodigious talent of cellist Cameron Crozman. But layer on the culmination of a $1.65-million renovation, jointly financed by the church and the orchestra, and the evening became a landmark event. It was a brand new space — not even Metropolitan’s congregants, who had spearheaded the fundraising, will gather in the renovated sanctuary until Oct. 30. One could hear the understated satisfaction in the voice of Al Edwards, chair of the renovation steering committee, during opening introductions: “This is really going to happen,” he said, with a hint of emotion. “It’s tremendous.” And it was.

Al Edwards, chair of the joint renovation steering committee, welcomes patrons to London Symphonia’s new home at Metropolitan United Church at the start of yesterday’s concert.

Akasha, (meaning “sky” in Sanskrit) by Canadian composer Glenn Buhr, offered a foretaste of the exotic sounds and rhythms that would pervade the first half of the evening, while Mendelssohn’s familiar Symphony No. 4 in A major (“Italian”) closed the program, post-intermission. The concert’s centrepiece, however, was Murphy’s remarkable double concerto, which premiered in Montreal in 2018. The composition draws on songs from the Sephardic tradition for each of its four movements, together with Bulgarian, Turkish and Balkan influences. The concerto’s third movement, the Cadenza Yigdal, was arresting in both the emotion it evoked and the musical virtuosity it revealed. Conductor Gordon Gerrard, in his sixth season as leader of the Regina Symphony Orchestra, brought a casual yet masterful, business-like style to the podium, displaying an ease with audience interaction as he offered an unscripted, light-hearted introduction to the Mendelssohn work.

Harpist Angela Schwarzkopf and cellist Cameron Crozman perform *En el Escuro, es Todo Uno*, by Kelly-Marie Murphy, on Nov. 22, 2022, in London, Ont.

After two years of experimenting with live-streaming as a box-office option, London Symphonia appears to have mastered that aspect of its business plan too, with the help of Stratford-based Stream Studio. (Much as I would have loved to have been there in person, I opted for the livestream of Saturday’s concert. I’ll leave it to others to evaluate the acoustics of Metropolitan’s new space.) The livestream’s production values are high: superb direction, timely switching, sharp and focused video and a rich sound quality. The best I’ve seen and heard.

Amid the information desert that is London, Ont., on weekends, it’s easy to miss — or worse, dismiss — events of this import. But Saturday’s concert was a marvellous, exultant feat, both on the stage and off.

Here’s a time-lapse video produced by Metropolitan than speeds through the orchestra’s rehearsal on Thursday evening:

A guide to the remainder of London Symphonia’s 2022-23 season is here.

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