On Saturday, December 9th Globus Theatre launches its annual Christmas pantomime with their presentation of the classic story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Written and directed by Sarah Quick, the show features Toronto-based actors Katherine Cappellacci as Snow White and Ceasare Scarpone as Prince Roger, as well as Globus’ artistic producer James Barrett as Dame Wobbley Botham, in a production that turns the classic tale on its head with a sense of humour that both children and adults can enjoy.

Now I have a confession. Traditionally, I have always avoided pantomimes believing them to be overacted children’s fare I wouldn’t enjoy.

However, last year Sarah and James promised me they would change my mind and invited me to their production of Little Red Riding Hood.

Always enjoying my visits to the Lakeview Arts Barn, I accepted their challenge and discovered I had a misconception of what pantomimes are all about.

Little Red Riding Hood showed me why these productions have become such an important part of the holiday tradition for families all over the world. The kids in the audience really got into the colourful and high-energy spirit of the show, but it was clever enough with its double entendres and rowdy humour for the adults to enjoy it too. A wonderful experience, James and Sarah’s production changed my mind on pantomimes forever.

Sarah, who originally hails from Britain, grew up on pantomines as part of her childhood Christmases.

“It’s a phenomenon in England,” Sarah says. “At Christmastime every child goes and sees a panto, without exception. You have two-thousand-seat theatres packed every day for six weeks with kids and families. They get top stars to star in them. It’s so much fun, and it’s the Holy Grail as far as theatre is concerned because it’s bums in seats.

“It’s a guaranteed sell, so you can afford to pay these big celebrities because people are buying the tickets. But they’re not expensive tickets, because it is very much a family thing.”

Katherine Cappallacci, who is making her Globus debut in the iconic role of Snow White, grew up on the tradition as well through Ross Petty’s annual Christmas panto in Toronto.

“I’d go to the Ross Petty shows every year,” Katherine says. “They always have a celebrity come in. Ross Petty always played the evil villain and booing the bad guy was always a big thing. It’s an outlet for kids to see theatre, because it’s hard to get little ones in seats.

“So panto was something that my family and friends would always take me to see. It was a gateway to theatre. It solidified theatrical stereotypes and made them so real. It was hilarious and wonderful.”

Sarah’s version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a restaging of Globus’ first-ever panto 12 years ago. Every year since, Sarah has written a new panto for the theatre. It has become a local tradition not only for the Lakeview Arts Barn but for area families as well.

“When we first acquired a venue that was our own, we wanted to start traditions and pantos seemed like the obvious one to do,” Sarah says. “We hammer it home to people in the summer that we are a professional theatre and that we use professional actors, but I wanted to have that one show a year where we did include kids and give them the chance to be on stage.

“This version of Snow White was the one we did twelve years ago. The script has changed, because I do tailor it to each person, but it is the same version.”

This year Sarah has 30 children involved in the show, split up into two different cast of characters that perform with the adult actors.

“The reason for the two casts is to give more kids opportunities to do things,” Sarah explains. “We could have one cast, with fifteen kids having parts and the other fifteen in the chorus and in the back and not doing much, but I want to give each kid that wants to do it a decent enough role — something to work on and get their teeth into.

“The kids do come and have fun, which is the most important thing, but they are also learning the process, the discipline, the little things about facing an audience and projecting … all these little technical things. It’s a lot like hockey practice and about being part of a team. And we have more and more boys coming out each year, because we’ve had a few of the hockey players come out and really enjoy it.”

One of the key elements of a pantomime is the role of “the Dame”, which is always a male actor dressed up as a woman, as the comedic narrator of the show.

“It’s traditional in England that the same actors plays the Dame each year,” Sarah says. “But you’ll have different Dames. Some will be glamorous and flirty, and others will be more matronly. ”

For the annual Globus panto, the Dame is always played by James.

“I had never seen a panto before our first one,” James recalls. “When we were planning our first one, Sarah says ‘This is what happens: you dress up as a woman.’ I said, ‘What?!’

“But each year I feel I get better and better at being the Dame and talking to people, because the Dame crosses that line and talks to the audience. We all do to a certain respect, but the Dame can take liberties to stop acting and talk to the audience. ”

When Sarah and James first told me about their pantomimes, they expressed how much the kids in the audience really get into the show. With my misconceptions of pantomimes, I was skeptical of this claim at first. However, part of the magic of the experience for me was seeing how the audience, both the kids and the adults, got into the action on stage.

A panto is filled with audience participation and chances for kids in the audience to even join the show, and James and Sarah know how to craft a fun interactive theatre experience. The result is that Globus’ pantomime has become a yearly tradition for entire families, on top of an average of 10 school performances per year.

“I don’t often get a chance to answer the phones and sell tickets,” says James. “But the other day I took a call and a woman said ‘Last year my son got up on stage, and he’s still talking about it now. You better pick him again this year!'”

For Ceasare Scarpone, who plays Prince Roger, having children in the audience is one reason he’s excited to perform in the show.

“Recently when I was in England was the first time I got to perform for children,” Ceasare says. “They are just the best audience. They just give so much. They give you so much energy, and it’s just a fun time for both you and them. It’s fantastic.”

I found it interesting that, despite this show being a family event, Sarah writes a lot of material in the show for adults — including jokes filled with innuendo and double meanings the parents get but that fly right over the heads of the children in the audience.

Sarah explains that, while many pantos change their script for the ever popular “adult pantos”, these types of pantos are not commonly done in England.

“That’s not the traditional way to do a panto,” she says. “It’s super popular, and we could probably get more people in if we did that, but you should be able to do the same show for a whole group of adults and a whole group of kids. It’ll be just as energetic and exciting, and have just a little bit of innuendo for the adults. It should be a bit filthy, but no kids should be able to get it.”

For adults who are worried about a family show containing this type of humour, there is no need to fret. Although it might be a bit risqué, it is funny and harmless and such an intricate part of the ridiculous yet warm tradition of the pantomime. When I questioned James and Sarah about a risqué joke they used in the show, they cleverly asked if they really said what I claimed they said or did my mind take it somewhere else.

For people who are as skeptical as I used to be, there is a good chance you just don’t understand what a good traditional pantomime is. I can honestly tell you that was the case for me.

“I really feel that people who don’t enjoy pantomime don’t understand what they are getting into,” Katherine points out. “But if you understand the nature of the beast and you know what is happening, it’s impossible not to be completely swept up in it. I got swept up myself during rehearsal today. There is nothing more endearing then these little kids, and especially the kids in the cast, that are getting so into it.”

But one of the best things about the Globus panto is the warm and inviting space created by James and Sarah, their staff, and their players. With its small space and intimate shows, the Lakeview Arts Barn is one of the prettiest and most welcoming theatres in the Kawarthas.

“This space where we perform is such an intimate theatre that, as an audience member, you are part of the whole experience,” Sarah says. “Your reactions change how the show progresses. It’s a wonderful thing for a kid to sit down and be taken into this world of imagination and fairy tales and princes and you are so immersed into it. I’m sure there are pantos that are far superior to ours but, if you are sitting in the balcony surrounded by a thousand people, I’m sure you are not getting that same interactive experience.”

Although I would never have ever believed it years ago, the Globus Theatre pantomime is now part of my holiday tradition. Just like the kids who look forward to coming back each Christmas, I’ve been waiting for a whole year for the next pantomime. Sarah and James has made me a believer in the holiday magic of a good pantomime.

If you’ve known all along how fun these shows are, it’s worth the trip to Bobcaygeon this season. If you’ve never seen one, pack up the kids and bring them to this fun show. If you don’t think you will like pantomimes, come to the show and have your mind changed. Take it from me: it can happen.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be performed on December 9th, 15th, and 16th at 8 p.m., and on December 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $22.50 for adults and $15.50 for students for the show only, or $52.50 if you want the dinner and the show. For tickets, visit the box office at Lakeview Arts Barn or call 705-738-2037.

Reflecting on a lifetime devoted to his art, Lakefield sculptor Don Frost lays claim to not having watched television for more than 40 years now.

“I mouthed off to somebody years ago that I don’t want to watch a movie, I want to be a movie,” says Frost, suggesting one should not only be careful what one wishes for — one should also be grateful when a wish comes true.

“That just happened. Wow. What a major thing to have happen in your life.”

Frost is referring to ShapeMaker: The Sculptor Don Frost, co-directed by Mary L. Holley and Michael Morritt, which premiered in September at the Canada-China International Film Festival in Montreal where it was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Close to two years in the making, the 22-minute documentary will be screened at 3:50 p.m. on Friday, January 26, 2018 at Showplace Performance Centre during the ReFrame Film Festival.

This marks the second collaboration involving Morritt and Holley. In 2016, their 10-minute experimental film SHOW also premiered in Montreal and shortly after was screened at Galaxy Cinemas for Artsweek audiences. At the New York State Film Festival held this past April in Manhattan, SHOW was awarded Best Experimental Film.

“At my first meeting with Mary years ago, she already knew that she wanted to make three distinct films,” says Morritt, founder and creative director of Peterborough-based Whitebulb Production Company. “A documentary was one of them.”

VIDEO: Trailer for ShapeMaker: The Sculptor Don Frost

Holley formally pitched the original idea for ShapeMaker to Morritt in May 2015 while the duo were finishing up the editing for SHOW. She had already approached Don to see if he was interested in something like this.

During the pitch process, Holley played for Morritt a 10-minute audio recording she made of a conversation she had with Frost.

“I immediately got a sense of the warmth of his personality,” recalls Morritt. “I was drawn in and I wanted to learn more.”

For her part, Holley was sure at the outset of her vision for the project.

“I knew that I didn’t want to do a traditional journalistic documentary film,” she says. “I wanted to take it to a different level.

“My vision was to take traditional documentary filmmaking and provide the viewer with both a documentary about an artist and a work of art in the form of a film. My aim was to capture the essence of Don and his work — to reflect the intimacy and revelation of an artist in his studio and his constantly evolving gift of creativity.”.

With Morritt’s production company secured, the duo — working closely with Frost and his partner Vikki Foy — embarked on a journey with more twists and turns than any one of their subject’s celebrated sculptures.

“Producing a documentary is very different than producing a narrative work of fiction,” Morritt explains. “You go into a documentary with a number of contingency plans, but you have to start with a solid outlook. That’s what Mary and I did in the first several weeks of planning.

“We brought out the cork-board and the thumbtacks and we put the recipe cards up and we said ‘Here’s what we know about this artist and here are the chapters for the documentary that we want to establish’. The next five months were a series of discoveries that led to us realizing most of those were not going to be able to be shot.

“That’s what a documentary is. You have to roll with the punches. It is a process of adaptability. This project was very much about letting the subject guide the narrative.”

Frost was more than willing to play along.

“When Mary approached me, I knew she had already made a movie,” he says. “I jumped in with both feet.

“Printmakers can make prints by the millions. Anybody who is a painter can run a print off. They get all sorts of advertising that way. In the world of sculpture, to duplicate is a very difficult thing. There’s no kind of natural outlet like that for sculpture. This is a golden opportunity for me.”

The experience of being filmed, he adds, was “overwhelming.”

“You can say what you like and be what you like in your daily life, and let it all loosely run amiss. But when somebody has a camera aimed at you, you have to really have your ducks in a row. There’s no fluffing it off.”

Saying his favourite piece is “the next one I’m working on,” Frost has enjoyed great success since 1974 when Marathon Realty, then the owners of Peterborough Square, commissioned him to create ‘Figures Dancing’, the 14-foot-tall steel and fiberglass piece that still dominates the mall’s downtown courtyard.

In 1983, he created ‘Equinox’, a 50-foot piece inside the Michael Starr Building in Oshawa. And he also created the striking 24-foot ‘Resurrection Cross’ outside the Catholic school board office on Lansdowne Street West in 2010.

In addition, his work graces private collections around the world — including four large sculptures purchased by the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Not too bad for an artist who, in his early teens, discovered he was colour blind.

“So I started sculpting,” Frost says. “My mother kept the first piece I made. It was a little chunk of wax that I made a little dinosaur out of when I was three years old. It was barely recognizable as anything, but I knew what it was.

“My father had a room off the back of the house with all kinds of tools and wood and that, so it was a natural thing for me to start fiddling around with dimensional stuff. I had a great curiosity.”

More notably, however, he was and remains the real deal — as both Holley and Morritt discovered to their delight when production of the film took longer than they originally thought.

“It was supposed to be shot very quickly and basically was to be an introduction to the documentary form for Mary,” Morritt says.

Instead, it took 16 months of filming.

“We always came back to Don himself during production,” Morritt recalls. “That’s what touched me and moved me and convinced me this documentary needed to be made.

“I thought that what we were creating might be the only archive of Don’s legacy that would ever exist, and it was vital to get it right.”

“It’s all about the study of the human being,” adds Holley. “In both film and theatre, we can’t forget it’s an examination of humankind. No matter what the subject is, it’s all about people. This documentary is grounded in the real world — in real relationships. There needed to be a lot of trust.”

The finished documentary was screened for Frost at Galaxy Cinemas — a private showing also attended by Foy, Morritt, and Holley and her husband.

“They’ve made something out of me that’s better than me,” says Frost, particularly impressed by Morritt’s composing and performing of the piano score that runs through the entire soundtrack.

That review is music to both Morritt’s and Holley’s ears.

“Don is such a talented artist and a humble person,” she says. “How do you do him justice? That’s when the project felt a little overwhelming. What if he doesn’t like it?

“Words cannot express my gratitude to Don and Vikki for allowing us to enter into their lives to create this film.”

Looking ahead, whether another Holley-Morritt collaboration is in the cards is anyone’s guess. That said, Holley is hopeful of working with her mentor again — “Film is a little like life. You never know what’s around the corner.”

For more information on the film, visit the official website at www.shapemakerfilm.com. To learn more about Don Frost and to view his work, visit his website at www.donfrostsculptor.com.

For more information on the Reframe Film Festival, including how to get tickets and passes, visit www.reframefilmfestival.ca.