This July, 4th Line Theatre in Millbrook is kicking off its 26th season with the world premiere of a new historical play recognizing Canada’s greatest contributions to victory in the Second World War: No. 6 Group RCAF of Bomber Command.

Written by award-winning playwright David S. Craig, Bombers: Reaping the Whirlwind tells the story of Peter Benton, a Canadian heavy bomber pilot who flew sorties over Germany during World War II (WWII).

At its peak in the early 1940s, No. 6 Group Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) comprised 15 heavy bomber squadrons that operated in Europe out of airfields in Yorkshire, England. The squadrons in No. 6 Group raided U-boat bases in France and conducted night bombing raids on industrial complexes and urban centres in Germany. In all, No. 6 Group flew 40,822 sorties and dropped 126,122 tons of bombs — and lost 814 aircraft and 4,203 airmen in the process.

“This play is an incredible tribute to the men and women who served, most of whom are no longer with us,” says 4th Line Theatre’s Managing Artistic Director Kim Blackwell. “And for their families, who work tirelessly to ensure the sacrifice is not forgotten, Bombers allows them to honour their family members.”

Playwright David S. Craig, who has written 29 dramatic works that have won multiple theatre awards, has been working on Bombers for more than 30 years. In 1985, he began interviewing veterans of WWII and inviting former air crew members and women who served in the RCAF to share their stories of the war and life in Bomber Command. He is thrilled that his vision is being brought to the stage at 4th Line Theatre this summer.

“There is no other theatre in Canada where a play this epic could be staged,” Craig says. “Bombers has a large cast, epic musical numbers, and action-packed scenes of bombing runs over Europe. 4th Line is the perfect place to realize such an ambitious piece.”

Bombers will star 4th Line Theatre founder Robert Winslow, returning to the stage after a year-long hiatus, as the present-day Peter Benton. The play also stars Michael Cox as the young Peter Benton, Colin Doyle, Erin Humphry, Shaina Silver-Baird, and Deb Williams.

The ensemble cast features 30 actors playing more than 60 characters. Veteran actors include Lucas DeLuca, Kait Dueck, Rob Fortin, Matt Gilbert, Justin Hiscox, Mark Hiscox, Ken Houston, Kelsey Powell and Andrei Preda, apprentice actors include Justin Laurie and Frances Loiselle, and community volunteers include Madeleine Bryenton, Brady Carveth, Liam Davidson, Mike Davidson, Angelina Haines, Abby Hatherly, Emily Jones, Ethan King, Sarah Livingston, Emma Meinhardt, Peter Spasov, Phil Stott, and Samuelle Weatherdon.

The creative team includes Glenn Davidson (set design), Karyn McCallum (costume design), Justin Hiscox (musical direction, original music, and arrangements), Monica Dottor (choreography), and Esther Vincent (sound design). The stage management team include: Fiona Jones, Alanna Wrenshall, and apprentice Christine Mepstead.

The staging of this play at 4th Line Theatre in 2017 — the sesquicentennial year of Canada’s Confederation — encourages us to remember this part of our history and the sacrifices that Canadians have made.

When Canada entered WWII on September 10, 1939, the RCAF was our country’s smallest military service. By the end of the war, Canada had the fourth-largest air force of the Allied powers. Out of a population of 11 million at the time, more than one million Canadian men and women served in the military during WWII, with a quarter of these serving in the RCAF — many of them with Bomber Command.

Serving on a bomber crew was one of the riskiest roles for men in uniform in WWII. Typically, a seven-man crew flew night sorties in a four-engined heavy bomber like the Handley Page Halifax or the Avro Lancaster (some of which were manufactured in Ontario). Take-offs were often tense, with the aircraft roaring down the runway loaded with tons of bombs and more than 6,000 litres of highly flammable aviation gasoline.

At high altitudes, the crew faced sub-zero temperatures which sometimes froze their oxygen masks. During sorties, the bombers encountered German fighter planes patrolling the night skies over Europe as well as powerful searchlights targetting the bombers and flak batteries filling the sky with shrapnel.

If a plane was damaged it was difficult for the crew to escape and, if they managed to survive being shot down over over enemy territory, they would become prisoners of war.

Indeed, that was the fate of the father of David Ferry, who is directing Bombers. The renowned and award-winning Canadian director’s father served in Bomber Command, was shot down over Europe, and spent time in a German prisoner of war camp.

While women did not serve in combat, they also played a significant role in Bomber Command. Members of the RCAF Women’s Division were stationed in England during WWII and performed important support work on the ground, such as being coding technicians, operating radios, and plotting aircraft positions. Civilian women were also essential factory workers, building the bombs and planes used during the war.

Bombers not only honours the contribution and sacrifice of the men and women of Bomber Command during WWII, but the play also asks us to reflect on the price of freedom.

VIDEO: The Avro Lancaster 1941

Bombers: Reaping the Whirlwind runs from Tuesdays to Saturdays from July 4th to July 29th at the Winslow Farm (779 Zion Line, Millbrook), with an additional performance on Monday, July 24th. Previews will be held on July 4th and 5th with opening night on Thursday, July 6th.

Single tickets are $38 for adults and $32 for youth. Subscription tickets (which include one ticket to Bombers: Reaping The Whirlwind in July and one ticket to The History of Drinking in Cavan in August) are $66 for adults and $56 for youth.

Tickets can be purchased by phone at 705-932-4445, online at 4thlinetheatre.on.ca, or at 4th Line Theatre’s Box Office at 4 Tupper Street in Millbrook or at the Peterborough Museum and Archives at 300 Hunter Street E. (Museum Drive) in Peterborough.

On Saturday, May 20th, Amber Coast Theatrical presents a unique concert event at Showplace’s Nexicom Studio. The Kawartha’s Rising Stars Mentorship Concert features some of Peterborough’s beloved musical theatre performers paired up with talented local high school students for a full day of mentorship, culminating in an all-star concert to be performed that night.

It will prove to be a memorable night of music featuring the talents of performers we already love, but spotlighting new voices who will form the future of Peterborough theatre.

“The event is very much like The Voice, minus the auditions,” explains Amber Coast’s founder Lucas DeLuca, the organizer behind the event.

“Each pairing of mentor and student will do a duet, and then the mentor will coach the student throughout the day on a solo number as well. After an intensive day of shaping the two numbers, all the pairings will come together for a concert in the evening. So you’ll get two numbers from the student, and one number from the mentor as part of the duet.”

A familiar face in the Peterborough theatre community, Lucas came to Peterborough from his home in Torrance, California to attend Trent University but quickly found himself wrapped up in the theatre community.

The Kawartha’s Rising Stars Mentorship Concert came out of inspiration from Lucas’ experiences as part of the local theatre scene.

“When I got to Trent, the community was bursting at the seams with talent,” Lucas recalls. “Talk about being at the right place at the right time. It was a total fluke. I got real lucky, and I was so blown away.”

I first noticed Lucas in 2014 with his show-stopping solo in The Anne Shirley Theatre Company’s presentation of Spring Awakening. Since then, he has become a highly regarded performer on many stages via a number of different companies.

“I started with the Anne Shirley Theater Company,” Lucas says. “There I was working with Brian McDonald who pulled me into Next to Normal, Art for Awareness’s’ inaugural show. Then I met Geoff and Rachel Bemrose, which led to me working with Justin Hiscox at St. James Players, and I was at 4th Line Theatre with Rob Winslow.

“It’s been a series of really lucky breaks in which I’ve met the most incredible people, and those people have been the most warm and loving and kind. In Peterborough I meet someone spectacular every day, and it’s such a blessing.”

The Rising Star Mentorship Concert is Lucas’ way to try to give local students the same sort of opportunity he has.

“I was coming into this community as a university student and never had this sort of experience before,” Lucas explains. “Some students are luckier than others; they get to experience one community connection and then are catapulted into another. But there are students who may not have those opportunities yet.

“The idea behind this mentorship concert was to extend invitations to all of the drama departments in as many schools as possible across the Kawarthas, including Port Hope, Lindsay and Peterborough, and see what we heard back. Because we are a fairly new drama company, the responses were a bit slow but we managed to get six students.”

Taking the spotlight at the concert include high school students Rene Frank, Keely Wilson, Jayde Taylor, Kate Bemrose, Meagan Vaughan, and Sydney Harwood Jones. They will be paired with local theatre favorites Kate Suhr, Hannah Bailey, Caitlin Currie, Erik Feldcamp, Brian McDonald, and Lucas himself, with musical accompaniment by Justin Hiscox.

“What we’ve done is pair up the students with individual mentors,” Lucas says. “We’ve been able to find people who have learned in multiple different ways. For example, Erik Feldcamp, who some would say is a fairly new talent, is entirely self taught but has an immense ability with performance and entertainment.

“Then we have Kate Suhr who is a homegrown talent who has made herself a name in Toronto. We’ve also pulled in Hannah Bailey and Brian McDonald, who have become Peterborough staples in their own way.”

Although the mentors and students will spend the day developing their performances for that evening, the matches have already been made and correspondence has already been happening between the pairs.

But, as Lucas reveals, this is only the first concert that Amber Coast Productions will be presenting this year. In September they will be doing a spotlight on Justin Hiscox’s nearly two decades of contribution to musical theatre in a show they are calling ‘Justin’s Jukebox’.

“We are going to try to get as many performers we can who have performed in shows where Justin has been the musical director,” Lucas says. “We hope that each can do at least one song from different shows Justin has done. Justin has been doing music for as close to twenty years. That will be another really exciting show for us.”

Amber Coast Theatrical has another production planned for the end of 2017, and then Lucas will be teaming up with Elizabeth Moody to direct the Peterborough Theatre Guild’s 2018 musical. However, for the time being the details of those shows are held tightly in the vault. For the moment, Lucas’ focus is on enriching the next wave of local talent and introducing them to Peterborough’s rich theatrical community.

“With all the community connections I had, it was like I’d meet one person and that would lead to another person,” Lucas says. “I want to find a way to gift the professional development and community connections that I had to young students.”

The Kawartha’s Rising Stars Mentorship Concert is going to be a fantastic night of music featuring many of my favourite local performers and a way to be introduced to the future of Peterborough theatre. It is a night that I’m highly anticipating, and a great way to welcome the newest batch of players into our community. Furthermore, at $5 admission, the show is an affordable night of performance.

The Kawartha’s Rising Stars Mentorship Concert happens at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 20th in the Nexicom Studio downstairs at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough). Admission is $5 at the door, or pay what you can.

The Peterborough Folk Festival has announced that Buffy Sainte-Marie will be kicking off the annual summer music festival with a concert on Friday, August 18th at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.

The Cree-Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, and visual artist has won multiple awards over her 50-year-plus career. In 1983, she won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for “Up Where We Belong”. She’s also won four Juno awards, including two in 2016 (Aboriginal Album of the Year and Contemporary Roots Album of the Year) for her latest album Power in the Blood, which also took home the 2015 Polaris Music Prize for the top album in Canada.

Tickets for the kick-off concert are $49.50 plus fees and go on sale at 12 noon on Wednesday, May 17th at the box office at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-7469) or online at www.showplace.org.

While the kick-off concert featuring Buffy Sainte-Marie is ticketed, the remainder of the 28th annual Peterborough Folk Festival weekend at Nicholls Oval in Peterborough’s East City is free admission.

The festival includes two days of free music featuring nationally recognized artists along with workshops and food and craft vendors.

While the complete lineup of performers will be revealed in the coming weeks, the Peterborough Folk Festival has also announced that legendary Canadian children’s performers Sharon and Bram will be playing at the festival on Sunday, August 20th.

“A big part of the Peterborough Folk Festival experience is bringing together the community and families to enjoy live music,” says Ryan Kemp, the festival’s Artistic Director.

The Juno award winning duo, who have sold more than three million albums worldwide, are best known for such songs such as “Skinamarinky Dinky Dink”, “Peanut Butter and Jelly”, and “Fish and Chips and Vinegar”.

The festival is now accepting submissions for artisans and craft and food vendors, and is also seeking volunteers are sponsors. More information is available online at www.peterboroughfolkfest.com.

VIDEO: 2017 Peterborough Folk Festival (featuring music from Mayhemingways)

While teaching a writing workshop, Toronto-based writer and comedian Deborah Kimmett received a message that her younger brother Kevin had been diagnosed with cancer. The unexpected journey that followed has become the basis for Deborah’s brand new one-woman show The Year of The Suddenly.

Directed by Linda Kash, the show is being called part standup comedy and part eulogy. Deborah, a Second City veteran and a regular on CBC Radio’s The Debaters, will perform her monologue at Catalina’s in downtown Peterborough for one night only on Saturday, June 3rd.

“I was in the middle of teaching a writing class about the word ‘suddenly’ when suddenly my whole life changed,” Deborah recalls. “So, as a writer, I was trying to write this story in my head as it should go. But as I started getting closer, it didn’t go that way at all.”

“The Year of The Suddenly is this journey of how I got the news that my brother had cancer, and I thought I was going to bring the casseroles and be a good sister. But I ended up having this other thing happen with my brother.”

Deborah admits that, despite knowing her brother his entire life, she really didn’t know him at all. The show she has written is about the new relationship created between herself and her brother at the end of his life.

“The premise is that this is a love story with a person who I didn’t know very well my entire life,” Deborah says. “One of the lines I use is ‘I found the brother I didn’t know I had.’

“You have this incredible love for your family, but you think you have enough time to be indifferent. It’s not that you hate anybody, but you put them in a category and they put you in a category. And then, a lot of people move around now, so you may have moved away twenty years ago, but your family still thinks of you the same way you were when you left.

“You just think you have time to not work this stuff out. I didn’t think in a million years this story would evolve the way it did. It was a surprise to me as a person that I could feel the way I felt towards my brother, in terms of the way it shifted in our relationship.”

Although the show deals with her brother’s illness, Deborah stresses that The Year of The Suddenly is not a show about cancer: it’s about the relationship that formed between two siblings in a backdrop where time is running out.

“At first I was just writing about what that process was all about because it was absolutely epic,” Deborah explains. “But as I got into it more, I realized it was about a brother-sister journey and not a cancer story at all. I really don’t deal with my brother’s treatments.

“It’s also about that idea of when are you going to show up for life as it is. It was like there was a time limit, so we had to make our peace. But I had no idea of the things that were going to happen that were going to challenge me.”

Part of the development of the show came from notes that Deborah kept after having phone conversations with her brother during his illness. It was through these conversations that she began to get to know Kevin in a way she never had before.

“We got to know each other through a series of phone calls, and after we’d get off the phone I’d write these things down that he’d say because they were so profound,” Deborah says. “I asked him if I could write them down and he said yes, because he wanted people to know what he could see now that he couldn’t see before in his life.

“He was an engineer and he was just an amazing guy. He was very smart and very funny and had a lot of wisdom. Even at the very end, he had a lot of insight into life. That was a surprise for me — not knowing him at that level until the end.”

For the past few months Deborah has been traveling to Peterborough to develop the show with Linda Kash, and she performed an excerpt in April at Linda’s annual fundraising event for Hospice Peterborough called “Paul’s Left Ball”, which also celebrates the life of Linda’s late husband Paul O’Sullivan, who died in a tragic car accident in 2012 at the age of 48.

“Linda has been good to work with because she lost her husband and we just knew the sensibility that we wanted to have about it,” Deborah says. “This is not just some sort of ‘precious piece.’ When these things happen it brings out the best and the worst in people. It’s been fun to develop it with Linda because she has that same sensibility.”

Although cancer and loss are sensitive topics, Deborah has also been able to find comedy in the story.

“This show walks that tightrope between humour and drama because everything is heightened by what’s going on,” Deborah says. “Where the comedy comes in is when life doesn’t happen as you plan it. We have expectations of ourselves when someone is sick, and we also have expectations of how a dying person should act. It never goes the way you thought, and life is often very messy.

“I don’t think you can make jokes at the expense of a person, but I think it’s always funny that in the middle of something so tragic there can be the most ridiculous behavior that happens. I make fun of how badly we treat things. The humour comes in the human condition butting up against something serious. There’s humour in how we are all incompetent in how we soothe and comfort each other at the time that we need it the most. As a comedian, I find the humour in my own incompetence and then I laugh at that.”

Deborah will be premiering the show in Toronto at Second City’s John Candy Box Theatre on May 27th and 28th before bringing it to Peterborough on June 3rd. There are possible plans in the works to continue performing it in other cities as well.

All proceeds from the Toronto performances of The Year of The Suddenly will be going to The Kensington Hospice in Toronto. So that Deborah can donate all the ticket proceeds to Kensington Hospice, she has created a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2,500 to help her cover the fixed costs of doing the Toronto shows. You can donate to her campaign at www.gofundme.com/kevin-suddenly.

“Linda says I’m very brave for telling this story,” Deborah says. “I don’t feel brave. I don’t know if it’s brave or not. It’s just got a lot of nice conversation going on about it already. I just want to work it out and see what we have.”

The Peterborough performance takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 3rd at Catalina’s (131 Hunter St. W., Peterborough) and will also feature musician Jack Nicholson providing accompaniment. This is a rare opportunity to see a newly developed show in our community before it travels to larger cities.

Tickets for The Year of The Suddenly are $25 and are available in advance from Deborah’s website.