encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights Glass Tiger in concert at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, Foley’s Irish Pub’s return to Showplace, Public Energy’s presentation of Vivian Chong’s Blind Dates, Silent Sky on the Peterborough Theatre Guild stage, Carroll Baker’s musical goodbye in both Peterborough and Lindsay, and multi-music act Peterborough Performs V supporting local shelters and homelessness initiatives.
Glass Tiger bringing its classic hits to Lindsay’s Academy Theatre
VIDEO: “Someday” – Glass Tiger
There are album debuts, and then there’s the first studio offering from Glass Tiger in 1986.
The Thin Red Line was, and remains, in a league of its own, still gifting the Newmarket-sprung rock band a hectic touring schedule and the adoration of fans across the country.
Featuring the hit singles “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)” and “Someday” — both of which cracked the top 10 south of the border — the album attained quadruple platinum sales status and brought the band three 1986 Juno Awards. If lead singer Alan Frew et all stopped there and then, they could still look back on a wildly successful music career.
But Glass Tiger didn’t stop, with 1988’s Diamond Sun and 1991’s Simple Mission producing more hit songs in the form of “I’m Still Searching,” “Animal Heart,” “Rhythm Of Your Love,” and “My Town” — the latter a still striking vocal collaboration with Rod Stewart.
On Friday (March 14) at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, Glass Tiger will no doubt bring the same energy it brought to Del Crary Park in August 2023 when it headlined Peterborough Musicfest before a huge crowd.
While many bands of yesteryear feature a revamped lineup that maybe includes an original member, Glass Tiger remains mostly intact some 40 years on, with Frew getting it done with guitarist Al Connelly, bassist Wayne Parker, and keyboardist Sam Reid still by his side. Therein lies the reason Glass Tiger sounds as fresh as the day they first performed.
For the Lindsay show, billed as a “one-of-a-kind retrospective” of Glass Tiger’s music and part of a new tour extending into mid-April, Glass Tiger will be joined by special guest Erica Ehm. Anyone who watched MuchMusic back in the day will well remember the popular VJ. As the opener, Ehm will be sharing MuchMusic memories, retro video clips, and engaging with the audience.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show cost $100 and can be ordered online at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.
All things Irish regaled as only the Foley family and friends can
The annual celebration of all things Irish is upon us once again, this year’s proceedings augmented by this being the bicentennial of the Peter Robinson Irish emigration to these parts.
As such, green beer will flow at pubs across the city where Irish songs will fill the air as good cheer abounds. Nowhere will that be more evident than Showplace’s Cogeco Studio where, on Sunday (March 16), Foley’s Irish Pub returns with performances, at 2 and 7 p.m.
Presented annually by the Foley family, this is a party in every sense of the word — a fun time greatly accentuated by the storytelling gifts of Hugh Foley who, as seanchaí (the Irish word for storyteller), regales his audience with tales of Irish heroes, battles, saints and other aspects of Irish life he’s picked up from his treks to the home country.
“I take true facts and then I just embellish them a little bit,” said Foley in a pre-show interview with kawarthaNOW back in 2020. “Everyone going out on or around St. Patrick’s Day expects to hear the Irish songs. What will really surprise them at our show are the stories. People are absolutely amazed.”
That said, those expecting Irish songs won’t be disappointed with the Foley Celtic Band — Fiddling Jay Edmunds, Ron Kervin, Glen Caradus, Andrew Martin, Sheila Prophet, Theresa Foley, Norma Curtis, Bridget Foley, Amelia Foley and others — very much in the mix.
For those of Irish descent, and those wanna-be claimants of Emerald Isle roots, this is the place to be on St Patrick’s Day Eve.
While matinee performance is sold out, tickets are still available for the 7 p.m. show. Tickets cost $30 ($15 for students) at www.showplace.org.
Tour de force that is Vivian Chong in the Public Energy spotlight
VIDEO: “Blind Dates” by Vivian Chong (Theatre Passe Muraille promo)
When you have a reputation as one of Canada’s leading presenters of the performing arts, the pressure is on to deliver.
Peterborough’s Public Energy has certainly brought it for its 31st season — a wholly satisfying journey that continues on Thursday, March 20 at Market Hall in the form of Blind Dates.
Emanating from Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, the show was created by, and features, award-winning playwright, author, comic, artist, singer-songwriter and dancer Vivian Chong who shares stories of her mishaps, crushes, and relationships as she wrestles with how others perceive her blindness, and how she has refused to settle in any aspect of her life.
Chong is truly a tour de force. Her novel Dancing After Ten won the U.S. Library Journal Award and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2020. Two years later, her performance in Dancing with the Universe saw her nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award as performer of the year. Over the last five years, Chong has toiled as an audio description consultant for theatre, graphic novels, and children’s picture books.
Promising to be both poignant and hilarious, Blind Dates just had its world premiere at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille. Securing a performance in Peterborough is quite a coup for Public Energy but, then again, that’s nothing new for the performing arts presenter that, since it was founded as Peterborough New Dance in 1994, has made the presentation of innovative and thought-provoking performances the norm as opposed to the exception.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $5 to $50 on a sliding scale, with a $25 suggested price, and can be ordered online at www.markethall.org. Note that this is a blind-friendly production.
True story of a brilliant female astronomer at the Guild Hall
VIDEO: “Silent Sky” promo
Are the lights ever off at the worn but venerable Guild Hall in Peterborough’s East City?
It would seem not, as its tenant, the Peterborough Theatre Guild, rolls seamlessly from one play into the next, that ongoing creative process continuing Friday, March 21 when Silent Sky opens at the Rogers Street venue.
Directed by Guild veteran Bea Quarrie, Lauren Gunderson’s play relates the true story of American astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, whose discovery of how to effectively measure vast distances to remote galaxies led to a shift in our understanding of the scale and nature of the universe.
However, when Leavitt began work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she wasn’t allowed, as a woman, to touch a telescope or even express an original idea. She instead charts the stars with other women “computers” for an astronomer who tracked their work in “girl hours.” As she pursues her research in her free time, Leavitt takes measure of her life, all while trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love.
In Quarrie, the Guild has entrusted one of its most beloved ambassadors to again direct and, in turn, she has entrusted the lead role to Lindsay Unterlander — by far her most challenging role to date. Silent Sky also stars Lyndele Gauci, Kevin O’Neill, Laura Lawson, and Lela Fox-Doran, with Lisa Dixon as assistant director.
As Quarrie recently told kawarthaNOW, Silent Sky is “a life-affirming play. It’s historically based, but it lifts you up at a time when we all need that — something positive, something that makes you feel like you’re part of a bigger plan. It’s about what makes us human.”
That sounds like a pretty good way to spend a few hours.
Performance dates are March 21 and 22, 27 to 29, and April 3 to 5 at 7:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on March 23 and 30. Tickets cost $30 for adults, $27 for seniors, and $20 for students, and can be purchased by calling 705-745-4211 or ordered online at www.peterboroughtheatreguild.com.
“Canada’s First Lady of Country Music” Carroll Baker headlines One Final Tour
VIDEO: Carroll Baker in Nashville (1979)
As a youth growing up in Nova Scotia, Carroll Baker’s music interest was anchored in rock ‘n’ roll, her fiddler father’s prediction that one day she’ll love country music falling on deaf ears.
Fortunately for country music fans across North America and beyond, a move to Toronto when she was 16 saw a homesick Baker develop a love for the genre. Now, 55 years on, Baker is widely and rightly hailed as “Canada’s First Lady of Country Music.”
With more than 20 number one hits spawned from 14 albums, Baker has indeed earned that billing. Along the way she took home five Juno Awards as Country Female Vocalist of the Year.
From 1970 to 1982, the kid who would never like country music recorded 31 consecutive charting country music singles. In 1992, her induction to the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame was topped 16 years later when she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Baker is now on the road for what’s billed as One Final Tour, backed by her band Bakerstreet.
While Baker will be performing in both Peterborough and Lindsay, her 7 p.m. show on Monday, March 24 at Showplace in downtown Peterborough is already sold out. However, a few seats still remain for her 7 p.m. show the following evening (March 25) at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre. Tickets are $71.50 and are available at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.
Multi-act Peterborough Performs back for a fifth time on March 26
VIDEO: “Hot Rod Daddy” – Nicholas Campbell (Peterborough Performs, 2023)
When David Goyette and I sat down over coffee in late 2019 to discuss the possibility of organizing and presenting a live music-based fundraiser for United Way partner agencies working on the front lines of homelessness, we presented Peterborough Performs as a one-off that would benefit the current United Way campaign.
On March 5, 2020 — just before COVID darkened venues around the globe — Peterborough Performs was held at Showplace, featuring 16 local music acts performing simultaneously on the main theatre stage and in the lower-level lounge. The end result saw about $25,000 raised and music lovers go home well satisfied.
It’s with no shortage of humility that I’m grateful the United Way has seen fit to make what was a one-off a regular event on its busy campaign schedule, with the fifth Peterborough Performs set for Wednesday, March 26 from 7 to 11 p.m., again at Showplace. Better still, my friend David is still heavily involved as a founding patron and sponsor.
This time around, 14 acts will take to both stages — the full lineup can be viewed at www.uwpeterborough.ca/peterborough-performs — with a related silent virtual auction set to go live on March 12. When the last note is played, thousands of dollars will be added to the $110,000 that Peterborough Performs has raised for local shelters and emergency housing initiatives.
David and I started something special, and for that we feel pretty good, but it’s not lost on either of us that the remarkable generosity of local musicians, financial and in-kind sponsors, and supporters of live music, and the support of United Way staff and volunteers, has kept the momentum going since in a very big way.
Tickets for Peterborough Performs V: Musicians United To End Homelessness cost $50, but buy two and the cost drops to $40 per ticket. Visit the Showplace box office or order online at www.showplace.org.
Encore
- From the It’s About Time We Started Feeling Warmer File, Peterborough Musicfest has made its first concert announcement of 2025, confirming Millbrook’s Serena Ryder will open the 38th Del Crary Park summer concert series June 28. Better still, Musicfest executive director Tracey Randall says half of the 16 series dates have been filled, with more concert announcements coming soon, including what she terms “a doozy” for closing night on August 16. In the meantime, the search for volunteers to help on concert nights will begin soon. Visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca for updates. If you like music and enjoy helping people have a great time, there really isn’t a better way to enjoy a summer evening on the shores of Little Lake.
- If you’re a fan of local music, or are just curious about what’s going on musically in the city and region, be sure to follow the Facebook groups Peterborough’s Music Scene and Kawartha Musician. The administrators do a great job posting videos, both current and from yesteryear. I mention these sources as a complement to kawarthaNOW’s nightlifeNOW, which weekly publishes the most comprehensive listing of local and regional music, theatre and arts events to be found anywhere on the social media landscape. Bottom line? We’re exceptionally well-served in terms of knowing who’s playing when and where.
