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 the return of Shirley Valentine to Bobcaygeon’s Globus Theatre, the 36th annual Peterborough Folk Festival, the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts, improv artists Linda Kash and Kerry Griffin at the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre, the Port Hope Jazz Festival’s return, and the world premiere of the original musical Rez Gas at the Capitol Theatre.
Globus Theatre bringing “Shirley Valentine” back to Bobcaygeon from August 13 to 23
I have nothing but endless admiration for anyone who can command a theatrical stage on his or her own. It’s one thing to have a cast around you to carry the load, but it’s quite another to be the sole centre of audience attention where a good review rests on your shoulders alone.
So it is that I’m spotlighting Globus Theatre’s restaging of Shirley Valentine, which will see once again see theatre co-founder and artistic director Sarah Quick portray the play’s lone character.
Written by English playwright Willy Russell, the comedy-drama premiered in 1986 at Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre, with Noreen Kershaw in the lead and only role. Three years later, Shirley Valentine made it to the big screen, winning Pauline Collins the Best Actress in a Leading Role statue from the British Academy Film Awards.
The story centres around Shirley, a working-class Liverpudlian housewife who, bored with her life, dreams of adventure and drinking a glass of wine “in a country where the grape is grown.”
She eventually packs her bags for a fortnight in Greece, marking what turns out to be a life-changing adventure. Along they way, Russell-injected British humour and memorable one-liners make for one hilarious and uplifting story of how newfound confidence can change one’s life for the better.
With Quick in the lead role, Globus is pretty much assured of a great run. She has performed in more 40 productions with the Bobcaygeon-based company. In addition, as a playwright, she has penned several plays that have been commissioned for stagings.
Curtain is 8 p.m. from August 13 to 16 and 19 to 23, with 2 p.m. matinees on August 16 and 21. For tickets, visit www.globustheatre.com, where an optional dinner before evening performances is available.
Peterborough Folk Festival on August 16 and 17 features 30-plus musical acts on three stages
VIDEO: “High Summer” – Joel Plaskett
When you lay claim to being Canada’s longest-running free admission folk festival, the pressure to stage a multi-day event worthy of that status is unrelenting.
Since 1989, organizers of the Peterborough Folk Festival have delivered in a big way, and by the looks of the lineup for the 2025 affair from Thursday to Sunday (August 14 to 17), this go-round will be no different.
While the festival kicks off Thursday at 7 p.m. with a ticketed concert at Market Hall featuring acclaimed singer-songwriter Basia Bulat as the headliner, joined by festival Emerging Artist of the Year Jeanne Truax (tickets available at markethall.org), followed by another ticketed event at 8 p.m. on Friday at Sadleir House, with Nixon Boyd (of Hollerado), VanCamp, and I, The Mountain doing the honours (tickets available at www.ticketscene.ca/events/55033), the main event takes place in Nicholls Oval Park on Saturday and Sunday, where three stages will be home to more than 30 musical acts, with 13 local performers in the mix.
The full schedule for the free-admission weekend is available at peterboroughfolkfest.com, but let me name-drop a few, in the form of Joel Plaskett, Whitehorse, Jeremie Albino, Goldie Boutilier, Shub, Bells Larsen, Colin Linden, and My Son The Hurricane. The list goes on and on.
Good on festival chair Rob Davis et al for keeping what is a Peterborough cultural institution relevant and fresh in its 36th year. And good on the festival’s many sponsors, kawarthaNOW among them, for ensuring its free admission status remains in place.
Take all that music, and toss in 45-plus artisans, the children’s village, and food providers, and there really is no other place to be this upcoming weekend, if even for a bit.
Buckhorn Community Centre hosting its perennially popular Festival of the Arts on August 16 and 17
There are a lot of great reasons to pay a visit to Buckhorn but, since 1978, thousands have found the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts to be the impetus to do just that.
First held as a fundraiser to help pay the mortgage on the original buildings and land that comprise the Buckhorn Community Centre, the festival annually attracts thousands to view the work of professional artists from across Canada. This year’s event on Saturday and Sunday (August 16 and 17) will prove no different.
Besides the featured artists — visit www.buckhorncommunitycentre.com/events/buckhorn-festival-of-the-arts/ for the full list — there’s an amateur art competition, an art activity zone, a youth art showcase and performances by a number of musicians, including Peterborough legend of sorts, Ken Ramsden.
Admission is by donation, with the festival running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Linda Kash and Kerry Griffin make with the funny at Traill College on August 21
If you’ve ever wanted to experience improv comedy, but haven’t yet found or made the time to do so, what better introduction than a show featuring not one but two of Canada’s best and most accomplished improv artists?
On Thursday, August 21 at Traill College’s lovely Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre at 315 Dublin Street, Linda Kash and Kerry Griffin will join forces to present Kash & Kerry: A Night at the Improv.
Along with being one very funny lady, Kash is an accomplished actress, having appeared in episodes of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Fargo, not to mention several movie roles, along with her high-profile commercial role as the Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese Angel. An alumnus of Second City, she has been performing improv for decades, and performing it very well.
Toronto native Griffin, meanwhile, is also a Second City alumnus and a multiple Canadian Comedy Award recipient, both as a solo performer and as a member of the comedy troupes Slap Happy and Monkey Toast. He has performed with Kash several times, the result nothing short of hilarity all round.
As a bonus, the venue is spectacular — one of those hidden gems that’s becoming increasingly less hidden. Intimate as all get out, the amphitheatre is home each summer to a number of performances by local talents, thanks to the generous support of the William and Nona Heaslip Foundation.
Kash & Kerry: A Night at the Improv is co-presented by New Stages Theatre, which has partnered on four performance this season. The fun begins at 7 p.m., with free admission, but be aware that seating is limited.
Visit www.trentu.ca/colleges/traill/amphitheatre for the remaining two festival dates and details.
All that jazz returns to Port Hope with a jam-packed lineup from August 21 to 24
VIDEO: “Flight” – Jeremy Ledbetter Trio
It’s hard to believe, but five years ago, we were in the ugly grip of the COVID-19 pandemic and all that entailed. It wasn’t a good time for many reasons, but for many longstanding cultural events, forced cancellation led to the end of the road for good.
Fortunately for local jazz music fans, the All-Canadian Jazz Festival staged at locations throughout Northumberland and the Kawarthas weathered the storm. After a two-year break, 2022 saw its rebirth as the Port Hope Jazz Festival, and here we are, days away from the 2025 edition.
First held in 2001 under its former name, the festival was held in Port Hope’s Memorial Park for 15 years before 2017 saw it adopt a series of road shows. It returned post-COVID with a new name and format, moving to a series of indoor shows offered as part of Arts Month.
With the simple but sincere mission of “delivering the best of Canadian jazz to residents and visitors in Port Hope,” Port Hope Jazz volunteers have put together a full schedule of performances from Thursday, August 21 to Friday, August 24, including Angela Pincente Big Band, Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, Elizabeth Shepherd and Michael Occhipinti, Molly Johnson Quartet, Oakland Stroke, Alison Young Sextet, and many more.
Visit www.porthopejazz.com for the full lineup of events and related ticket details.
Whether you’re a fan of the jazz genre, or simply would enjoy getting out on a late summer day and touring the best that Port Hope has to offer, the Port Hope Jazz Festival checks all the boxes.
Musical “Rez Gas” makes world premiere at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre from August 22 to September 7
VIDEO: “Rez Gas” promo
We’re in Port Hope now, so let’s stay there, with news of yet another world premiere set to open for an 18-performance run at the Capitol Theatre.
Billed as “a beautiful expression of Indigenous joy with a hip-hop infused score,” Rez Gas, a musical written by Alderville First Nation singer-songwriter Cale Crowe and Cobourg’s Genevieve Adam, is best described as Corner Gas meets Come From Away.
Directed by Herbie Barnes, it relates the story of Destin who, after moving away from his home reservation to pursue a music career, stumbles back into town due to car trouble and finds himself at the Wide Wigwam, a diner at the centre of the community. It is there that he encounters many of those he left behind, each of whom is anxious to remind him of his history and his place in the community.
The writing of music for a stage production is a first for Crowe, but he has a lot of people in his corner, including Capitol artistic director Rob Kempson, who had the foresight to enlist him in 2021 for this project, and subsequently facilitated the partnership with Adam. Anyone who chats with Crowe (stay tuned for my interview in kawarthaNOW) will sense his excitement as opening night nears. Simply put, it’s hard not to root for him.
The cast of Rez Gas features Vinnie Alberto, Dillan Meighan-Chiblow, and John Walmsley as the friends at the centre of the action. Also appearing are Michelle Bardach, Jonathan Fisher, Nicole Joy-Fraser, and Emma Rudy. Orchestrations and music supervision is by Jeff Newberry, with a band comprised of Kia Rose, Emry Tupper, and David Schotzko led music director Sarah Richarson.
This project has seen Crowe put many of his music pursuits on hold, but his most recent recording, titled Burn Blue, is available for listening at www.calecrowe.com, which is also home to tracks from his first two albums, Stars and Promises and Til I Let You Go, as well as performance videos.
Curtain for Rez Gas is 7:30 p.m. from August 22 and 23, 27 to 30, and September 3 to 6, with 2 p.m. matinees on August 24, 27, 30 and 31, and September 2, 3, 6 and 7. Visit capitoltheatre.com for tickets.
Encore
- I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but I have to give a huge shout-out to my pal Ken John Jones, better known in these parts as Jonesy. He recently presented the 200th episode of his Jonesy Corner podcast, which can be found on Facebook under his name and on Instagram @jonesys_corner_podcast_. Jonesy habitually interviews local musicians, particularly those of the up-and-coming variety, and, more than anyone I know, attends local shows to show his support. He is an unabashed ambassador of the local music scene, with his only reward being your eyes and ears, and the satisfaction of doing something he clearly loves to do. As someone who has appeared several times as a grateful guest on his podcast, I can vouch for Jonesy’s passion for all things Peterborough music. Lord knows we need more of his type.
- Something pretty special is planned for Monday, August 25 at the Black Horse Pub. Details are forthcoming, but suffice to say if you’re a local music fan, or simply something who admires anyone who sticks with it year after year, you want to be at the George Street North pub. Get there by 6 p.m. and you won’t miss a thing. That’s all I have to say. For now.
