The Theatre Ontario Festival is here!
In a fantastically well attended opening ceremony, Richmond Hill Major Dave Barrow and others officially opened the proceedings at The Curtain Club. The Curtain Club is proud that Joan Burrows, long-time member of The Curtain Club, resident playwright and former President, had her play Staff Room included in “Grassroots,” an anthology of plays that was launched by Theatre Ontario during yesterday’s opening ceremonies.
(L to R): Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow (L) along with several councillors attenended the opening ceremonies of the 2011 Theatre Ontario Festival and is seen here with festival co-chair Wayne Milliner (R).
Following which everyone proceeded to The Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts for the opening show of the Festival — SUDS!
(L TO R): Donna Lajeunesse (Marge), Heather Gibb (Cindy), Jason Butler-Burns (Everyone Else), and Heather Johnson (Dee Dee) were the very talented cast from the Whitby Courthouse Theatre that stared in SUDS, the musical that opened the 2011 Theatre Ontario Festival on May 18, 2011.
All day the cast and crew of SUDS had been building their set and running through the technical aspects of the show. Just before supper time, they had a full run of the show to ensure everything was ship shape for their audience at 8 pm.
They were fantastic and the audience was roaring with laughter and even broke into song with the cast a time or two. You could tell that festival adjudicator Jane Carnwath was not disappointed as she made her brief public adjudication following the performance.
Don’t miss the other shows during the 2011 Theatre Ontario Festival. Who knows when Richmond Hill be hosting such as great event in town again.