In 2017, the company had a successful six-town, 14-show run of Stick Out Your Tongue and Say MOO, a romantic musical comedy by Ish Theiheimer featuring Evan Burgess, Danielle Bissonnette, Shirley Hill, Derek Tolhurst, Cathy Lyons and Chantal Elie-Sernoskie, who also directed the play and had her fourth baby in September, partially through the run.
It also staged a sold-out evening of Cape Breton music led by fiddler Andrea Beaton and supported by an all-star cast of East Coast musicians: Troy MacGillivray (fiddle/piano), Matt MacIsaac (pipes/whistles) and Nathan Bishop (vocals/guitar). Each is an outstanding talents in his own right.
In 2016, we staged the comedy Stag and Doe, by Mark Crawford, directed by Chantal Elie-Sernoskie. This play, which opened at the Blyth Festival in 2014, featured, in its Stone Fence Theatre production, Danielle Bissonnette, Melissa Lindsay, and Kelley Oliver, as well as returning veterans Joshua McCoy and Stephanie Pinkerton, Chris Hoffman, Phil Hoffman and Camille McLean, with MC Valley Vic, and pre-show music (traditional, Irish and Celtic) by Ish Theilheimer and Jim Beattie.
In fall and winter, it produced a fund-raising tour with a new musical comedy, High Times at the Heart Institute, by Ish Theilheimer. The show was inspired by the playwright’s own experience as a heart patient and the new appreciation he gained for Canada’s health system as a result. The tour raised more the $21,000 for health care in the Ottawa Valley. The show was directed by Chantal Elie-Sernoskie and featured John Haslam, Fran Pinkerton, Peter Brown, Lesley Sneddon and Shirley Hill, with Cathy Lyons, Elaine Neigel, Conrad Boyce and Nigel Epps and musicians Derek Tollhurst and Evan Burgess.
The company also produced a studio-recorded CD called Songs from Here Comes the Train, recorded by Colin Wylie at School House Recordings in Douglas, Ontario.
In 2015, the company produced two original musicals by Ish Theilheimer: Here Comes the Train! The Ottawa Valley Railway Story, starring Peter Brown, Lesley Sneddon, Chantal Elie-Sernoskie, Phil Hoffman, Ambrose Mullin, Fran Pinkerton, Colin Wylie, Peter Frolander, and Ish Theilheimer, with Stephanie Pinkerton standing in for Chantal in Fall, and Valley Vic and The Christmas Temptations, starring Ambrose Mullin, Fran Pinkerton, Lawrie Barton, Rita Tolhurst, Shirley Hill and Kaylee Garcia, with band members Bryan Walsh, Schroeder Nordholt, Robin Pinkerton and Derek Tolhurst and chorus members Bailee Dombroskie, Jenna Schisson, Jude Pinkerton, and Luna and Solana Nordholt. Chantal Elie-Sernoskie directed both shows.
In 2014, the company’s mainstage production was G’day, We’re from the Valley, EH!, a collectively-developed comic review about contemporary Ottawa Valley life, starring John Haslam, Peter Brown, Chantal Elie-Sernoskie, Phil Hoffman, Maureen McCoy, Camille McLean, Ambrose Mullin, Fran Pinkerton, Robin Pinkerton and Ish Theilheimer.
Chantal Elie-Sernoskie directed the show and Ish Theilheimer was musical director and main writer. Terry Mask joinied the crew that year as Techical Director. The crew made a music video based on the show’s rap number Don’t Get My Valley Up!
In March, 2014, the company held a reading of original one-act play scripts by Chris Hinsperger, Shannon Keller, Tim Stubinski.
In 2013, the company held its first-ever reading of scripts submitted through its Ottawa Valley Script Development project. More than 70 people attended the February event at The Sands on Golden Lake.
The company developed two new scripts and productions in 2013: – Bonnechere River – The Future Tense, by Ish Theilheimer and Johanna Zomers, with music by Terry McLeish, developed for the Bonnechere River Watershed Project, and – There’s Hippies Up the Line, a musical by Ish Theilheimer and Johanna Zomers, including music by Peter Brown and Carol Kennedy.
This became one of the company’s signature shows, a musical with a large cast that featured Fran Pinkerton, Ambrose Mullin, Amber Dagenais, Maureen McCoy, Ken Ramsden, Colin Wylie, and Phil Hoffman. Chantal Elie-Sernoskie directed both productions.
The company also produced a bluegrass concert in Eganville with The Foggy Hogtown Boys.
2012 marked a departure for the company, its first non-musical play, and its first script by a non-company member, Schoolhouse, by Leanna Brodie. It starred Christine Helferty and Josh McCoy and was directed by Chantal Elie-Sernoskie, who made her Stone Fence debut in 2011.
The show included original background music by Peter Brown intermission entertainment by Emma and Will March, and dinner music by Peter Brown and Ish Theilheimer.
The company also produced a French-Canadian traditional music party called “In a Little Shack Up the Pontiac,” which introduced button accordion master Gaston Nolet, along with Jake Charron, Francios Dumond, Serge Martin and Marie Claude Breault, along with featured singer Debbie Beauchamps.
In 2011, the company put on a review of traditional, favourite and original musical numbers with comic vignettes called The Opeongo Opera, by Ish Theilheimer. It featured Terry McLeish, Fran Hobbs, Maureen McCoy, John Haslam, the Helferty Sisters, Stephen Helferty, Ken Ramsden and “Minny Others.”
The summer program also featured four concerts: Louis Schryer in Concert; In a Little Shack Up the Pontiac with Debbie Bechamp, Barry Gilchrist, Carol Kennedy, Gaston Nolet and friends. ; Stephanie Cadman and Celtic Blaze; Russell De Carles with Steve Briggs and Denis Keldle. .
Boys in the band John Haslam and Ken Ramsden play a trick on announcer Ambrose Mullin, shaving him as he attempts to read a commercial.
In 2010, the company lost an important team member, business manager Joe Murray and we had other health problems to contend with, so we offered a new version of On the Air with Mac’s Melodiers, featuring Ambrose Mullin, John Haslam, Ken Ramsden and Stephen Helferty. This show, in one form or another, was ultimately performed more than 70 times.
In 2009, the company moved to the Eagle’s Nest at the Eganville Community Centre for its greater size, convenience, accessibility and central location. We produced a review based on the history of dance halls in the Ottawa Valley called Country Sparking at Sunnydale Acres, written by Ish Theilheimer, who also starred in the show, along with Diana Walker and Ken Ramsden. Also in the band that year were Stephen Helferty and, for the first time, keyboard standout Peter Brown. .
In 2008 Stone Fence Theatre presented a special new variety show that featured hilarious stories and songs as told by one of Killaloe’s most beloved residents. An Ottawa Valley Kitchen Party, featuring Tales of Benny Afelskie brought to the stage some very funny people, led by Stone Fence favourites John Haslam, Ambrose Mullin and Ken Ramsden telling stories that Bennie Afelskie has told us.
Helping them tell the stories were four members of one of the Valley’s leading musical families, the Helfertys of Douglas. Stephen played guitar, acted and sang. Catherine, Christine and Rachel sang, step-danced and acted. And backing them all up were some of the Valley’s favourite musicians. Carol Kennedy played keyboard and fiddle and acted. Ish Theilheimer – who created the show – sang, acted and played fiddle and other stringed instruments. Ken Ramsden acted, sang and played guitar and fiddle and a bit of everything.
Also that year, Stone Fence Theatre launched The Ottawa Valley Pageant, performed outdoors on Saturday afternoons, July 5 – August 16 at 1:30 p.m., right after the Farmer’s Market at Hoch Farm Park in Killaloe. This one-hour show was a real family affair, ideal for the whole family. The musical and dramatic show, directed and created by Barry Goldie, took the audience on a guided musical and historical tour of the Killaloe area.
The audience was led around the historic farm by none other than J.R. Booth, the lumber baron who built the railway that put Killaloe on the map. This trip back in time focused on Centennial year celebrations in charming Killaloe.
