If you missed some of the sold-out and highly acclaimed performances at the Brand New Stages Festival held by New Stages Theatre in February this year, you are in luck: select shows will be brought to life again throughout the summer, and this time, they will be staged for free and in the open air.
The evenings of performance, songs, stories, and comedy will be held at the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre, located in downtown Peterborough at Trent University’s Catharine Parr Traill College. The free shows will kick off and close out the William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Summer Festival, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday evenings from June 5 to August 28.
“We are excited to share some of our most popular performance events from our 2024-25 season as part of this exciting summer festival,” said New Stages Theatre artistic director Mark Wallace in a media release. “Many of these shows were first presented at our Brand New Stages Festival in February and we’re sure that audiences will love to see them here at the amphitheatre.”
Built in 2023, the three-season performance space, which is located at the downtown college’s courtyard, is named for Jalynn Bennett, a former chair of the Trent University board of governors and a trailblazer in business. Bennett’s estate granted $1.13 million to the university in 2018 which was put towards the construction alongside federal and municipal funding the university received to meet the need for a centrally located, outdoor stage in the community.
The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Summer Festival will bring music, theatre, comedy to the stage performed by local and visiting artists almost every week beginning the first Thursday in June. The festival offers a more diverse line-up and more performances in comparison to the six-concert “William and Nona Heaslip: Music on the Hill” series presented by the college throughout the summer of 2024.
To open the festival on June 5, New Stages Theatre is presenting Fireside Munsch, directed by Dahlia Katz and adapted and performed by M. John Kennedy (New Stages Theatre, 4th Line Theatre).
VIDEO: “Fireside Munsch” trailer
Enjoyable to kids and adults of all ages, the show is a highly acclaimed theatrical retelling of beloved Robert Munsch children’s stories like “The Paper Bag Princess” and “Mortimer.” Performed to a sold-out audience at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre this past February, M. John Kenney has performed the one-person show has been performed all over the province and has been nominated for eight of Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
On Thursday, June 12, Peterborough’s own Megan Murphy will host a Story Slam at the amphitheatre. Following the success of the debut slam at the Brand New Stages Festival earlier this year, New Stages Theatre is reviving the fun by giving audiences a chance to share a true, personal story under the theme of “Great Escapes.”
Whatever story the theme reminds you of, Murphy wants to hear it. Each storyteller will have five minutes on stage to share their story, which must be told without the use of notes or props, must be true, and must be from one’s own experience. Storytellers need not sign up ahead of time.
New Stages Theatre will then return to the amphitheatre on Thursday, August 21 to reunite the two stars from the New Stages production of A Christmas Carol Comedy, staged at the Market Hall last December, only this time they’ll be unscripted.
World-class improvisers and comedians Linda Kash and Kerry Griffin — with surprise special guests — will have the audience laughing and surprised by what can be done without rehearsals or a script. You never know what trouble Kash and Griffin will get into, though it will undoubtedly be hilarious.
On Thursday, August 28, the final night of the festival, New Stages Theatre will present a staged reading of Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell. Written by Peterborough residents and former Trent University faculty Orm and Barbara Mitchell, the play is a remembrance of the life and work of the legendary Canadian writer who was Orm’s father.
The performance is sure to be a memorable one, as O.W. frequently gave readings and held writing workshops at Trent University, from which he received an honorary degree. Performed by Martin Julien with musical accompaniment from Peterborough pianist Rob Phillips, Magic Lies was staged during the Brand New Stages Festival this past February.
The rest of the shows in the William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Summer Festival are “Portraits of Peterborough 1825 to 2025” with folk music by Glen Caradus (June 19), the Peterborough Concert Band performing marches, big band music, and more (June 26), “An Evening of Jazz” with violinist Victoria Yeh and special guests (July 3), “Exploring Agamemnon” performed by The Electric City Players (July 10), Peterborough-born and Kitchener-based indie folk-rockers I, The Mountain (July 24), jazz quintet Carpe Noctem (July 31), and clarinet quintet Clarintella and the Peterborough Dixieland Septet (August 7).
In the event of rain, performances may be moved indoors to Bagnani Hall if needed.
