Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, November 29 to Wednesday, December 5.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

From November 29th to December 1st, The Theatre On King (TTOK) welcomes back Planet 12 Productions’ with their presentation of Ian McWethy’s Appropriate Audience Behaviour.

With Ryan Kerr taking over directorial duties, the production is an amalgamation of the Planet 12 performers alongside a collection of TTOK players in an often clever script that pokes strong jabs at terrible audiences in an immersive theatre experience.

A fairly obscure show by emerging American playwright Ian McWethy, little information exists about the origins or production history of Appropriate Audience Behaviour.

The show was discovered by Planet 12’s Derek Weatherdon on playscripts.com, an independent publisher of new plays and musicals where McWethy (who is also an actor) has more than 30 scripts published.

Appropriate Audience Behaviour is a cleverly crafted play where the audience and actors become merged, and a sort of metaphysical experience takes place. The show becomes a criticism by the playwright about his personal issues with bad audience members. While he airs his beefs through humour, there is a hint of aggressive cynicism just under the surface. The play invites you to watch a performance of Hamlet with the worst audience in the world but, instead of watching Hamlet, you are actually watching the audience.

High school students Ashley (Emma Meinhardt) and Carol (Sam Weatherdon) are at the play for an English project, but find it impossible to enjoy the performance due to the constant interference of the eccentric and annoying audience members around them.

There is the texter (sorry … talxter) in the back row (Emily Keller), the overzealous Claudius fan (Eddy Sweeney), the Shakespeare snob (Kelsey Gordon Powell), the confused older couple (Sheila Charleton and Andrew Root), the food guy (Derek Weatherdon), the girls getting too involved in the show (Abbie Dale and Aimee Gordon), the orgasm woman (Shannon McKenzie), and the creepy guy in the back row (Nathan Govier).

As Ashley and Carol battle in vain for silence in the theatre, the tables are eventually turned as they become victims of the things that are driving them the craziest.

Appropriate Audience Behaviour opens with an interesting pre-show experience, an exercise in endurance all of its own when the audience is left in silence with the cast sitting across from them for what seems to be a much longer length of time than it actually is.

As members of the cast mutter their own improvised dialogue, some of the most entertaining moments of the show emerge. Primarily entertaining is Andrew Root, who comes up with some hilarious bits about Hamlet, and his arguments with Kelsey Gordon Powell and Sheila Charleton are comedic gold.

After a while the barrier between the audience and performers begins to break down, and I’ll admit that at one point I forgot I was even watching a show at all and actually checked my phone. Was I becoming part of that bad audience behaviour, or just victim of a very immersive experience?

Once the actual play begins, it becomes a series of vignettes where the audience is taken from character to character, witnessing their bizarre and often bad behaviour. Sometimes it really works. Derek Weatherdon’s food gags are pretty funny, and the way that sound is used to create conflict is really clever. Andrew Root and Sheila Charleton’s characters Benny and Ruth have some very funny bits as a couple experiencing Shakespeare for the first time.

It is also worth noting that, with the permission of the playwright, Derek Weatherdon added one major vignette featuring Kelsey Gordon Powell as a Shakespeare snob who patronizes the two young audience members. It is an interesting commentary in toxic and privileged fan behaviour, a current concern in fandom today.

But Appropriate Audience Behaviour isn’t without its challenges. In an opening monologue by Lindsey Unterlander, as Hamlet’s stage manager, she seems to speak through the voice of Ian McWethy, revealing all of his pent-up rage against the bad audiences he has encountered. Although the monologue is supposed to be comical, it becomes more of an attack and threatens to alienate the audience in the first few moments of the show. Thankfully, once the show begins it becomes much funnier and less patronizing.

As annoying as some of the play’s audience characters are, I find Ashley and Carol — the two high school students attempting to enjoy Hamlet — the most aggressive characters in the show. I’ve dealt with audience members like them in real life and, in my experience, they can be the most infuriating. Due to their frustration, Ashley and Carol soon become the rudest characters of all.

Perhaps this is the playwright’s intention: to show how even the most well-meaning people can become terrible audience members without even knowing it. From that perspective, watching the tables get turned on the two girls is interesting.

Appropriate Audience Behaviour has some interesting meta moments, and it’s good to experience work from a new playwright for the first time. The premise is unique, and Ryan Kerr has made some interesting directing choices, especially in breaking the third wall by merging players and audience.

But the most interesting thing about the play is the merger of players from Planet 12 Productions and TTOK. It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for the young players in the Planet 12 company, and I always enjoy watching them perform. Seeing them interact with a different group of adult performers, and being directed by a different director, is a new experience.

Appropriate Audience Behaviour runs from November 29th to December 1st at The Theatre on King (171 King St., Peterborough). Shows begin at 8 p.m. and tickets are $10 at the door or pay what you can.

On Saturday, December 1st, New Stages Theatre Company brings together performers from across Ontario’s biggest theatrical stages to present a concert version of William Fenn’s A New Brain at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre.

A potent and uplifting musical about cancer and mortality, A New Brain – In Concert is produced by New Stages’ Randy Read and features a spectacular cast of performers from the stages of Stratford, Shaw, and Toronto, joined by some Peterborough favourites.

First produced Off-Broadway in 1998, A New Brain is the most personal project for American composer and lyricist William Fenn, who has had Broadway success with the Tony award-winning Falsettos and The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee.

“This play is very personal and autobiographical,” Randy says. “William Finn was diagnosed by what they thought was an inoperable brain tumour and, upon being rushed to the hospital, his agent said ‘You should keep notes and write about this.’ His response was ‘What’s the point? They told me I won’t survive this.’

“Anyway, he kept notes. They got into his brain and found that it didn’t end up being a brain tumour after all. They were able to completely correct him and now he’s fine. But he came out and wrote a musical about this experience.”

A New Brain tells the story of composer Gordon Schwinn who has been reduced to writing songs for a kids’ show about a singing frog named Mr. Bungee.

When meeting his agent Rhoda for lunch, Gordon has a brain seizure and is rushed to the hospital where he discovers that he needs to have an MRI. The musical centres on Gordon’s journey through his illness as he faces various medical staff, family members, procedures, and his own mortality, as he realizes his biggest fear is dying before composing his greatest work.

For the Peterborough concert version, Randy is reuniting Steven Gallagher and Juan Chioran who played the roles of Gordon and Mr. Bungee in Toronto’s Musical Stage Company’s 2009 production of A New Brain, which was nominated for three Dora Awards.

“In the beginning of the show, Gordon’s trying to write songs for a kids’ show but Mr. Bungee is a despotic mean guy,” Randy says. “Gordon tries to be intelligent with the lyrics for the show, but the kids’ show host hates everything he writes. So he’s very unhappy working on the show.”

While the topics of brain cancer and facing death may seem like a depressing subject for a show, Randy explains that A New Brain is actually an uplifting show about hope and second chances.

“Through the course of the play, the piece becomes a show about getting a second chance,” Randy says. “Gordon comes through and has a renewed sense of the meaning of life. He starts off as a cynical guy, but ends hopeful. I never thought about it before, but we are doing it on December 1st and the show does have some Christmas carol overtones to it.”

Making up the rest of the players in A New Brain is a fantastic cast put together from Randy’s connections across Ontario’s theatre community.

Charlotte Moore (Lisa), Shawn Wright (Roger), and Gabrielle Jones (Mimi) have all been featured performers on the Stratford and Shaw Festival stages. Kristi Frank (Rhoda) played Sally Smith in Shaw Festival’s recent production of Me and My Gal, and Soulpepper Theater regular Troy Adams (Richard) returns to the Market Hall where he played Balize in last year’s New Stages’ production of Angels in America.

The cast will be rounded out by local favourites Dianne Latchford in the role of the Doctor, Kate Suhr in the role of Nurse Nancy, and Carl Johann Christenson in the role of the Minister.

Listening to some of the music from the show, I took note that the musical arrangements ranged from blues and ’50s-inspired doo-wop to the traditional musical theatre ballads.

“The music is so clever,” Randy comments. “Some of it is very beautiful, and some of it is so funny. It has many different kind of styles and genres in it. I love the score because it’s so eclectic. There is a beautiful song at the end where he’s supposed to write the kids’ song for the frog to sing, ‘There is so Much Spring Within Me,’ but he turns it around to reflect his own rebirth.”

Similar to the staged readings for New Stages Page on Stage series, A New Brain will be presented in a concert format, with the performers singing and acting songs instead of presenting the show as a full musical.

However, as those who have attended the New Stages readings know, this format is not only highly entertaining but often the words of the pieces become more of the stars than the performers themselves.

It’s a format that allows the audience to focus more on the writing of the piece, and is a different way to experience incredible performers tackling often provocative pieces.

“I’m excited about this performance,” Randy says. “We tend to do pieces that not everybody is familiar with, and I tend to like musicals that have some guts to them — something that has a good storyline and tends to have something to say.”

Peterborough audiences love their musical theatre, and A New Brain – In Concert is an exciting chance to see something very different and very potent, performed by some of the best musical performers in Canadian theatre. It’s an event you shouldn’t miss.

A New Brain: In Concert will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 1st at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. General admission tickets are $30 ($15 for students, art workers, and the under waged) and are available in person at the Market Hall Box Office or by phone at 705-749-1146 (12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday) or online anytime at markethall.org.

Every December, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) loves to kick off the festive season for Peterborough-area music lovers with a holiday-themed concert.

After last year’s Hollywood take on the concert, the PSO returns with “Home for the Holidays” at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 8th at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.

Sponsored by Swish, Home for the Holidays features a Boston Pops-style program sure to get the whole family into the spirit, along with members of the Kawartha Youth Orchestra and the PSO’s annual holiday carol sing-along.

PSO Music Director and Conductor Michael Newnham and the PSO musicians, who began rehearsals for this concert in mid-November, are already caught up in the Christmas magic of the music.

“If there is any concert that can be called ‘pure fun’, this is it,” Michael says.

“The PSO’s Home for the Holidays concert has become a Peterborough tradition. It is an opportunity to bring everyone together to celebrate the upcoming holiday season with our wonderful PSO players and the addition of the Kawartha Youth Orchestra.”

The Kawartha Youth Orchestra (KYO) is a charitable, not-for-profit, community-focused organization that takes pride in helping young people to develop and cultivate a love for music, and to share it with the community.

Under the leadership of Maestro Newnham, who founded the KYO in 2002, the youth orchestra offers young musicians between the ages of 12 and 24 the opportunity to work under the guidance of professional instrumental coaches and to have the experience playing in an orchestra with their peers.

VIDEO: Kawartha Youth Orchestra

The KYO musicians will join their PSO counterparts on stage for the second half of Home for the Holidays. It’s an exciting opportunity to bring the two orchestras together in one show, giving all the players a chance to combine their artistry, performing fun and familiar music, and giving the audience the thrill to hear it played by a very large symphony orchestra.

With all of the action on-stage, the audience won’t be able to help getting into the spirit, and they too will have a chance to take part.

“One of the highlights every year is the carol sing-along,” Michael explains. “With the full audience and more than 80 players on stage all taking part, this is for me always an unforgettable experience.”

Lyrics for the concert’s sing-along will be provided to audience members in the house program that evening.

In addition to the seasonal tunes audience members can expect at Home for the Holidays, Michael reveals that there is more to the program.

“The music ranges from very well-known orchestral showpieces, like Sibelius’ Finlandia and music by Bizet, Wagner and Glinka, through popular Christmas and holiday favourites,” he says. “Even though not every piece has a specific Christmas or holiday theme, they all are included because of the feeling of excitement and gladness they all contain.”

VIDEO: Russlan And Ludmilla (Overture) performed by Orchestra Of Mariinsky Theatre

Mikhail Glinka’s Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla is the best known music from the composer’s 1842 opera based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin. Richard Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is also from an opera written by the composer, his only ‘comic’ opera.

Georges Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suites No. 1 and 2 were orchestrated from music composed for a production of the play of the same name by Alphonse Daudet. Jean Sibelius, widely recognized as Finland’s greatest composer, created Finlandia in 1899 as a tone poem, which includes the serene Finlandia Hymn, one of the country’s most beloved melodies.

Home for the Holidays audience members are reminded that Michael Newnham does not present a “Meet the Maestro” pre-concert chat ahead of the PSO Christmas concert. “Meet the Maestro” will return in the New Year at February 2nd’s “Classical Roots” concert.

Concert tickets for Home for the Holidays are available from the Showplace box office at a cost of $35 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets are available in person at the box office (290 George St. N, Peterborough), by phone at 705-742-SHOW (7469), or online at www.showplace.org.