From Thursday, August 16th to Sunday, August 19th, Triple Threat Theatre presents Annie: The Musical at the Academy Theatre for Performing Arts in Lindsay.

Featuring over two dozen young performers and a handful of adult actors, Annie: The Musical is directed by Claire Imrie and assisted by choreographer Alana Collver, musical director Mitch Aldrich, and producer Stephanie Mackey.

Part of their annual theatre intensive program held each summer, Annie is a unique show in that the company professionally brings it to full production in only 10 days of intensive work and performance training.

“We pull the show together in five days and then rehearse it like crazy after that,” says director Claire Imrie. “We started rehearsal on Monday morning. Act one was ready by Wednesday by lunch time. We go nine to five for two weeks. It really gives you a chance to really live it, and immerse yourself into the character and be there for a little while.”

Making her debut in the newspaper comic pages, Annie was created by cartoonist Harold Gray in 1924. Groundbreaking during the time of its debut, Little Orphan Annie was essentially a serialized comic strip written to appeal to children, but was filled with political and social commentary, primarily about class and the gap between the have’s and have not’s. As a result of its subject matter, during the Great Depression Little Orphan Annie was one of the most-read comics in North America.

In 1930 Annie made her debut on radio, attracting approximately six million listeners daily, and she made her film debut in 1932 in a series of short films directed by David O. Selznick and featuring actress Mitizi Green. Annie would be a fixture in newspaper comics until 2010, when her comic was abruptly cancelled on a cliffhanger. In a strange twist, the storyline was eventually finished in 2014 in the Dick Tracy comic strip, where Annie and her supporting cast continue to make regular appearances.

The stage musical version of Annie made its debut on Broadway at the Alvin Theater in 1977. Written by Charles Strouse, Martin Charmin, and Thomas Meehan, the show became an overnight sensation and won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book, catapulting songs like “Tomorrow” and “A Hard Knock Life” into the American songbook. The musical has since been adapted into a motion picture three times; most notably in 1982 featuring Aileen Quinn in the role of Annie, again in 1999, and most recently in 2014.

A character with timeless appeal, each generation seems to embrace their own version of Annie, and the musical has helped keep the character alive and relevant for over 90 years.

Yet despite the popularity of the films, none of the movies have actually followed the originally Broadway musical as written in 1977. They kept the songs and the premise, but have played around with much of the drama. It is the original 1977 version of Annie: The Musical that audiences may not be as familiar with that the Triple Threat Theatre is presenting at the Academy Theatre.

“What’s different about the movie and the musical is the way the show ends and many of the more dramatic moments,” Claire explains. “We also have a little bit of a meaner Missus Hannigan. For me, the meaning of the message of the story is hard work and following the rules can pay off. You have this incredible rags-to-riches story with Annie, and the opposite of that is Missus Hannigan and her brother Rooster who have not followed the rules and are not moral characters, so it doesn’t work out for them.”

The thirteenth year that Triple Threat Theatre has produced shows in their summer intensive program, volunteers and performers count their summers on these shows, popular with an audience that grows every year.

“A lot of the adults in our company are what I would call semi-professional in the sense that this is what they went to post-secondary school for, or they have been doing this for so much of their life,” Claire says. “This is what they do for their two week holidays. A lot of people will take two weeks off from their professional life and come and spend these weeks with us. My family uses the different shows as a point of reference to what we did that year.”

With many of the older performers being connected to the Lindsay Dance Studio, Claire and her colleagues were inundated with hopeful performers when audition notices went out for the group of orphans.

“We had over a hundred kids show up to audition for the orphans and we only had enough room for fifteen,” Claire recalls. “So that was a very hard decision. Choosing fifteen orphans was the hardest decision for us.”

Of course only one young performer can take the lead as the title character, and in the Triple Threat Theatre production the lucky girl to play Annie is Gracie Silveira.

Dressed in Annie’s trademark red and white dress, and peeking under a wig of red curls, Gracie is a bright and articulate young performer with big talent.

“In the beginning I was a little stressed out because I have a lot of lines,” Gracie tells me. “But it’s fun now that I’ve started. I like it.”

Annie: The Musical is Gracie’s fourth production with Triple Threat Theatre, but her first in a lead role. I asked Gracie, who has been dancing since the age of three, what it is about Annie that has made her resonate with audiences for over nine decades.

“Annie is special because she was going through so much stuff, but she was still happy,” Gracie says. “All the other orphans are angry, but Annie is different. She’s happy and cute and sweet. She has a positive energy about her wherever she goes.”

“Annie also has a sense of bravery,” Claire adds. “She has a cheeky, spunky side to her that I think a lot of people can relate to. In a world where she has every reason to be upset, Annie chooses to find hope.”

Unlike his young co-stars, Alex McLeod, who plays opposite Gracie as her mentor Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, didn’t walk onto a stage until he was 31. Working as a litigation lawyer by trade, Alex has taken two weeks away from his practice to take part in the production.

“It’s been incredible,” Alex says. “It’s amazing to see how fast the young people pick things up. The Triple Threat community itself is such a supportive and overwhelming nice community. It’s mind blowing to see how fast things come together.”

“Daddy Warbucks is masculine and strong, and he has fulfilled his business goals but hasn’t fulfilled his emotional goals,” Claire says of Alex’s character. “Annie sort of reminds him the amazingness of New York City. She reminds him how to see it with sweet innocence childlike eyes with that edge of optimism and hopefulness, especially in the depression era they needed that.”

“I’m a dad myself and I love spending time with my children so I think I have an understanding of where the transformation ends,” Alex says of his role. “But at the beginning it is a serious role, and in my nine to five doing litigation I can put that mask on sometimes.”

While visiting the set of Annie, I was struck by the high energy and excitement of the performers, but also by the discipline and the seriousness that even the youngest performers took in creating an excellent finished product.

As the older members of the cast performed the NYC production number, I noticed how each member of the chorus brought their own individual energy to the stage. Each performer had their own identity and stood out from one another. Each one had a role to play, but each one of them could also step up and be a star of their own. This is an extraordinary group of performers engaged in an intense, but rewarding, experience.

“We want to put together a performance that is great community theatre,” Claire says. “I get nervous when I call it community theatre, because what we want to do is to take it to the next level. We can do that because the people we are working with are so talented.”

“The rehearsal part is fun, but the main part is at the end when you can show everyone what you’ve been working on and you hear the applause,” Gracie adds.

I have full confidence that the Triple Threat Theatre’s production of Annie: The Musical, a perennial family favourite, will be a delight. I was greatly impressed but what I saw only after a short time of preparation.

Come out and support young performers and local theatre initiatives in this family-friendly production.

Annie: The Musical will be performed at the historic Academy Theatre in Lindsay at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 16th and Friday, August 17th, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 18th and Sunday, August 19th. Tickets are $28 for adults, $25 for seniors or university and high school students, and $18 for elementary school students and can be purchased from the Academy Theatre box office by phone at 705-324-9111 or online at academytheatre.ca.

When reflecting on the storied career of Canadian country music juggernaut Terri Clark, you best give Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and record producerr Keith Stegall his due.

In the late 1980s, Stegall urged the Alberta-born Clark — then performing at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, the iconic honky-tonk in downtown Nashville — to stay the course.

Traditional country wasn’t then in big demand by record executives but, assured Stegall, Clark’s time would come.

Come 1994, Stegall, an executive with Polygram/Mercury Records, made good on that prediction, signing Clark to a record deal.

Just a year later, Clark’s first single “Better Things To D”o peaked at #3 on both the RPM Canada Country Tracks and Billboard’s U.S. Top Country Songs listings.

Her subsequent debut self-titled platinum-certified album, with its high charting singles “When Boy Meets Girl”, “If I Were You”, and “Suddenly Single”, made Clark a tour de force on the exploding mid-1990s new country landscape.

Thank you very much, Keith Stegall.

VIDEO: “Better Things To Do” – Terri Clark

On Wednesday, August 15th at Del Crary Park, the pending Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee will headline Peterborough Musicfest. Admission is free to the 8 p.m. show.

“Part of playing live for me is just to say thanks,” says Clark in an October 2017 interview with Dillon Collins of The Newfoundland Herald.

“I say at every show that I can’t believe I get to still do this and have the privilege to entertain people and see them smile. That’s the ultimate thing for me and that’s what I was put on this planet to do. I know I found my purpose and I know a lot of people never get to find that.”

VIDEO: “When Boy Meets Girl” – Terri Clark

Since her explosive debut, Clark has certainly entertained and then some.

The only Canadian female country artist to be a member of the storied Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, she has recorded 13 top ten singles with total album sales exceeding five million. Subsequent hits such as “Emotional Girl”, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, “Now That I Found You”, “You’re Easy On The Eyes”, “A Little Gasoline”, “I Just Wanna Be Mad”, “Girls Lie Too”, and “Northern Girl” have brought her a hugely loyal, and still growing, fan base.

Still, she continues to create new music.

VIDEO: “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me – Terri Clark

“My focus now is to say what I want to say … I’m not chasing anything anymore,” she explains.

“It’s just about scratching my creative itch and giving my fan base something new to listen to because they’ve been so supportive. I know I’m going to be playing Better Things To Do until I’m 80 and that’s fine with me, but I also have to create something new almost just for myself. But my show will never be packed full of new material because the audience wants to hear the songs they know.”

The recipient of three Juno Awards and the winner of Entertainer of the Year honours from the Canadian Country Music Association an astounding eight times, Clark certainly has nothing to prove to anyone — but she remains relentless in her pursuit of new projects.

VIDEO: “Girls Lie Too – Terri Clark

Last October, she teamed up with fellow country music artists Pam Tillis and Suzy Bogguss for the still ongoing Chicks With Hits Tour. In addition, since April 2016, she has hosted Country Gold, heard on more than 100 radio stations across North America.

“I feel like if you work really, really hard and take advantage of opportunities as they come your way you can’t really go wrong,” Clark says.

“Having a strong work ethic and not being afraid to put the time in and do something right is also key. I was taught that as a kid — if you’re going to do something do it right. I try to go at everything I do one hundred and ten per cent. I’ve been very lucky in being able to maximize my time and being able to do what I love.”

Clearly the work ethic that saw Clark put her nose to the grindstone during those pre-record deal years in Nashville continues to serve her very well. The musical influence of her upbringing in Medicine Hat didn’t hurt matters. Her grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were noted Canadian country music performers while her mom Linda was a folk musician. This apple fell very close to the tree.

VIDEO: “Northern Girl – Terri Clark

“I’m very fortunate,” Clark says.

“I think I’m the kind of person who couldn’t retire. I love to keep going, I love to have projects, try different things and branch out. I’ve been afforded a very long run at a great career and it evolved over time. You go from focusing on making hits for radio to now I have a radio show and I’m focusing on 1990s artists and interviewing them and touring and playing all of my songs people are familiar with from over the years.

“It’s been busy but in a good way. It keeps me moving forward.”

Note: For her Peterborough Musicfest concert, a guitar signed by Clark, generously donated by Long & McQuade in Peterborough, as well as cowboy boots and a hat kindly donated by Nelson Western Boots & Apparel, will be raffled off with all proceeds supporting Peterborough Musicfest programming. Tickets cost $5 each.

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 18 free-admission concerts featuring a total of 20 acts during its 32nd season — each staged on Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2018 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

When opportunity knocks, you find it a stage.

Last September, after being approached by drummer David Inglis, Community Care Peterborough donor relations lead Dean Ostrander found a terrific stage for Inglis’ contemporary jazz band Zing.

The result was a benefit concert for the agency, staged last September at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.

“When David came in with the idea, I was ‘Absolutely, let’s do it,'” recalls Ostrander. “When you have somebody that’s willing to do something like that and move forward with it, you take the opportunity and roll with it.”

And roll with it they did, with the concert raising $1,400 for Community Care Peterborough while bringing increased awareness to the organization’s mandate to provide essential services to seniors and physically challenged adults to allow them to stay in their homes.

So it’s no surprise that Zing is returning to the Market Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 8th to perform another benefit concert for Community Care Peterborough. Tickets for “Play It Forward: An Evening of Contemporary Jazz Funk” cost $23 for general admission or $33 for cabaret-style seating, and can be ordered at the Market Hall box office, by phone at 705-749-1146, or online at markethall.org. Tickets are also available from Ostrander by calling 705-742-7067 ext. 224 or email dostrander@commcareptbo.org.

AUDIO: “Josie” by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen arranged and performed by Zing

Formed in April 2014, each of Zing’s four members bring “some serious musical schooling” to the fore, according to Inglis.

Inglis is a retired City of Toronto Fire Department captain who, with bassist Patrick McPhail and guitarist Robert Moore, were once part of a band comprised mostly of firefighters.

The band raised some $40,000 for Toronto area charities, the set list typically comprised of songs with a connection to fire. Cue “Fire” by The Ohio Players or Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House” and you get the idea.

“When I retired, I thought it would be nice to continue doing that sort of thing,” says Inglis, who also played percussion with the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra for 10 years.

John Ebata, a keyboardist who has worked with the likes of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Oscar Peterson, and The Alan Parsons Project, was added to the mix about a year ago, joining Berklee School of Music-trained Moore and McPhail, a 25-year member of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra who still toils as a firefighter.

Joining the band for the Play It Forward concert will be a special guest, Inglis says.

“What we’re playing is a lot more intricate and sophisticated than smooth jazz,” explains Inglis about Zing’s sound.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble trying to give it a title. For this show, it’s called contemporary jazz funk. It’s not a fusion band like Chick Corea and it’s not like John McLaughlin. It’s not heavy musical stuff that only appeals to a select audience. The stuff we’re playing, people actually got up and danced last year, which was quite surprising.”

VIDEO: “Pick Up The Pieces” by Average White Band performed by Zing

With a repertoire that features “Josie” by Steely Dan, “Fields Of Gold” by Sting, and “Full House” by David Sanborn, Zing performs music not heard often on radio or at festivals, according to Inglis.

“That’s strange because the bands that composed this music are still out there playing and putting out CDs. We’re having a lot of fun bringing this particular style of music to folks. When they hear it, they want to know more about it.

“This style of music is something I always wanted to play but never had the opportunity. I did the symphony, I did jazz recordings and rock recordings, but this particular style of music — there was no outlet for me. So it was let’s put something together and see if how it goes. It’s educational and it’s entertaining and that’s what makes it all fun.”

The partnership with Community Care Peterborough, says Inglis, formed when he learned that fundraising is integral to the agency’s ability to meet its service commitments. The show name, Play It Forward, is a reflection of the fact he may one day need the services it provides.

“We all hope to get to the point where we don’t want to need the services,” Ostrander adds, “but we also all hope to grow old enough to need the services.”

With close to 900 volunteers, Community Care Peterborough supports the health and well being of individuals, caregivers, and communities across Peterborough city and county. Last year, more than 37,000 meals were delivered by Meals On Wheels, more than 35,000 drives were provided, and more that 24,000 reassurance calls and visits were made.

In addition, the Home At Last program, offered in conjunction with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre and the Central East Local Health Integration Network, helped more than 700 people settle back into their homes after a hospital stay.

VIDEO: Zing at the Market Hall for Community Care Peterborough in September 2017

“They’re a great bunch of guys,” says Ostrander of Zing.

“The biggest thing that came out of last year’s show was everybody was extremely pleased and, in a way, surprised because they didn’t know what to expect. With the quality level of their music, everybody was very pleased.”

Audience reaction to the band’s sound and talent, says Inglis, is “the litmus test” of a job well done. On a personal level, the challenge presented by the arrangements is what keeps him intrigued.

“I’ve asked many musicians who do it for a living ‘Do you not get tired playing cover tunes?'” he says. “How many times can you play I Can’t Get No Satisfaction before you say ‘Gee, this is not doing it.'”

With all due respect to The Rolling Stones, the arrangement and execution of the jazz tunes that Zing covers are slightly more sophisticated.

“You’ve got to be really on your toes and focused, not just as an individual but also as a band. That challenge is what makes it exciting. Surviving two hours and hopefully pulling it of — that’s kind of the highlight of the night.”

For more updates on Zing, visit the band’s Facebook page. For more information about Community Care Peterborough, including the programs it offers, visit www.commcareptbo.org.