A short musical film about a tragic event in Peterborough’s history is now available for online viewing.

One Day in December premiered in May at the ‘Erring at King George’ multidisciplinary arts festival, presented by Public Energy Performing Arts at the decommissioned King George Public School in Peterborough’s East City.

Written and directed by filmmaker LA Alfonso with lyrics by Rob Fortin and music by Susan Newman, One Day in December imagines the experience of a teacher and students who witnessed the 1916 explosion and fire at the Quaker Oats plant in Peterborough from their classroom at King George Public School.

With the First World War raging in Europe, workers at the Quaker Oats plant had been working around the clock meeting wartime contacts. That heightened activity overwhelmed the plant’s system for controlling the grain dust so, when a small fire broke out in a grinding room, it ignited the cloud of dust at 10:20 a.m. on Monday, December 11, 1916.

The resulting massive explosion levelled the plant, killing 22 workers — two more would later die as a result of their injuries — and resulting in over $2 million in damages. The fire at the plant burned for four days. At King George Public School, then only three years old, students whose classroom windows faced the plant witnessed the event and its aftermath.

“We decided we would try to present that morning from the point of view of a fictional teacher in the classroom and the students, who would have been in the middle of doing whatever you do on a normal school day,” Newman told kawarthaNOW in April. “We called it One Day In December because it was just an ordinary day until ‘BOOM.’ It’s a look at an everyday occurrence with just everyday people and the impact that something like that can have.”

VIDEO: “One Day In December”

The film features Marsala Lukianchuk as the teacher along with a cast of young performers as the students. Not seen on film but heard is a choir from Kaawaate East City Public School.

Newman and Fortin wrote five original songs for One Day In December: “My Brood,” “The Coldest One,” “Is This The War?”, “A Prayer for Safety,” and “A Child’s Alphabet in Wartime.” Their original plan had been to present their piece as a live performance in a classroom during Erring at King George. When that became impossible to do because of pandemic restrictions at the time, it evolved into a film project at the suggestion of Alfonso.

For the film’s debut at Erring at King George, Alfonso created a unique video projection-mapping presentation that transformed the classroom windows in Room 12 into “portals of an imagined past.”

The 20-minute film, which also features rarely seen photographs of the devastation caused by the explosion and fire at the Quaker Oats plant, was shot on location at King George Public School.

“We made the classroom look like it did in 1916,” Fortin told kawarthaNOW.. “How often do you get the chance to tell a story and recreate it in the very place that it happened? It was like ‘Wow.’ You really felt the ghosts.”

Fortin also appears in the film as a former worker at the Quaker Oats plant who takes his granddaughter to the empty school many years later, reminiscing both about the tragedy and the First World War.

For more information, visit www.lesteralfonso.com/one-day-in-december-2022/.

Globus Theatre’s family panto is back for 2022, with the Bobcaygeon theatre company presenting Cinderella at the Lakeview Arts Barn over two weekends until December 18.

The Globus Theatre production is a traditional British pantomime, a form of theatrical entertainment for families that involves music, topical jokes, gender-crossing actors, and slapstick comedy. Often inspired by fairy tales or nursery stories, pantos are produced around Christmas and audience members are encouraged to participate in the fun.

Based on the classic fairy tale, Globus Theatre’s Cinderella follows Cinders, her best friend Buttons, her Fairy Godmother, and a host of comedy characters as they join forces against Cinders’ Wicked Stepmother and her very Ugly Stepsisters.

Globus Theatre’s 16th annual panto was written by Globus artistic director Sarah Quick, a native of Britain, who says pantos are a phenomenon in England during the holidays, with top actors starring in them and large theatres packed with families ever day for weeks.

“I grew up performing in pantomimes in the UK,” Quick says. “It was the thing that sparked my love of acting and encouraged me to make theatre my career. In fact. my first professional gig was in a panto in London’s West End 25 years ago now.”

Globus Theatre’s annual panto is also an opportunity for community actors, both young and young at heart, to mix with professional actors on the stage. Many cast members of Cinderella are participants in Globus Theatre’s School of Dramatic Arts, who will join six professional actors on stage — Quick as the Wicked Stepmother, Kevin Sepaul and James Barrett as the Ugly Stepsisters, Jack Copland as Buttons, Sasha Luna as Prince Charming, and Rebecca Anne Bloom as Cinderella.

“When Globus Theatre moved to the Lakeview Arts Barn in 2006, I knew that I wanted to offer the kids in our community the same experience I had growing up,” Quick explains. “To see so many on our stage this year is a joy. They do such a great job alongside our professional cast and audiences are going to love the energy, jokes, romance, and sheer zaniness.”

While most theatre companies producing pantos these days create both a “nice” version of the show for children and a “naughty” version for adults, traditional British pantos instead cleverly incorporate adult-oriented humour in a way that goes over the head of the children in the audience. Children enjoy the action, songs, and audience participation, with adults loving the local references and innuendos.

“Panto is a great tradition of performance that appeals to every generation of family, making it the perfect festive trip out,” Quick says.

Prior to the public performances, Globus Theatre performed two sold-out shows of Cinderella for local schools,

This year, Globus Theatre has added extra weekend matinee performances to accommodate everyone who wants to enjoy the show. Performances of Cinderella take place at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays (December 9 and 10 and 16 and 17), at 2 p.m. on Saturdays (December 10 and 17), and at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Sundays (December 11 and 18). An optional three-course Christmas dinner is available at 6 p.m. before the evening performances.

Theatre-only tickets are $32.50 for adults and $18.50 for children and students under 18. The optional dinner is an additional $45 for adults and $20 for children 10 and under. Theatre-only tickets are available online at globustheatre.com/current-season/2022/cinderella or by calling the box office at 705-738-2037 (toll free at 1-800-304-7897). For the dinner option or for group rates, call the box office. All tickets prices are subject to HST and a $2 box office fee.