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Author: Kelly

  • 2007

    2007

     The company was forced to dramatically downsize in 2007. Attendance in 2006 was fair, but hoped-for public funding did not materialize. There’s a lot of competition for the few programs available for small theatres! Since then, the company has been run by a core of professionals working part-time, with a greater number of volunteers, with a focus only on revenue it can earn from customers, supporters and local businesses.

    In 2007, Stone Fence produced a new musical review called “The Train She Blew From Killaloe,” a title emanating from a poem by lumber camp supplier and part-time poet Martin Garvey, “the Bard of the Bonnechere.” The show featured historical narratives including the Battle of Brudenell, based on the work of Shirley Mask Connolly, the saga of Laird Archibald MacNab, with vignettes by Joan Finnigan, and Big Joe Mufferaw (Joseph Montferrand), with vignettes by Bernie Bedore. It featured a cast and crew of 18 including 10 youth.

    This show appeared in rotation with variety of musical performances, including a new version of “On the Air with Mac’s Melodiers,  the company’s classic recreation of the old Mac Beattie radio show. The 2007 version featured new songs and personnel.

    Also in 2007 Stone Fence Theatre launched an Ottawa Valley Concert Series, with successful concerts by top Canadian performers Gail Gavan, April Verch and Searson, among others. Singer Gail Gavan is seen in this photo with her legendary uncle Fred Meilleur, owner of Meilleur’s Hotel in Chapeau, Quebec.

  • 2006

    2006

    In 2006 the company staged three original productions, all based on collaborative research and development with the local community:

    1. “Barn Dance!” was an all-star musical tribute to the stars of old-time Canadian country music assembled by Ish Theilheimer, featuring Brian Hebert, Carol Kennedy, “Reverend Ken” Ramsden, Lynn Davis, Ish Theilheimer, Robin Pinkerton and the dancing of Jenna and Marissa Henry. The program featured the music of Don Messer, Hank Snow, Lucille Star, Ned Landry, Mac Beattie, Reg Hill and other favourites from the ’30s through the ’60s.

    2. “Here To Stay!” by Ish Theilheimer, was a sequel, of sorts, to Reflections of a Century, The Musical, but also an inspiring, feel-good musical about the fight for rural survival. It followed the big events and underlying themes occurring in the Valley and in all of rural Canada through the last 50 years of the 20th Century.

    3. “Upstream To Basin Depot,” a new show by Barry Goldie and Lee LaFont was developed in conjunction with CHCR Community Radio and the Killaloe Friendship Club as part of an ongoing collaborative process. It is based on the rich lore of stories associated with the Bonnechere River.

    The story is set in the lumber camps, stopping places, and supply farms near Basin Depot. We meet historical and fictional characters that tell a tale about the lumber industry on the Bonnechere in the early years of the 20th century. History, romance, adventure, evil deeds, brave heros, lots of original music and fun will be found “Upstream.”

  • 2005

    2005

    The company began 2005 with a 10-show, four-community winter tour of Renfrew County with a newly developed, full-length show called Looking Back at Mac, by Ish Theilheimer. This show essentially adds a first act to ON THE AIR with Mac’s Melodiers and is more biographical as a result. The tour was sponsored by Renfrew County Community Futures Development Corporation and had a specific focus on youth, with five youth in the cast and one backstage.

    All performances took place in high school auditoriums and featured cameo performances by local students and teachers. In three of the schools, students did dramatic productions specially for the tour and, in one case, wrote an original script.

    Stone Fence’s summer and fall schedule included 34 performances of two shows: Al Capone’s Hideout, a locally-written musical comedy about when gangster Al Capone hid out near the Ottawa Valley town of Quadeville in the 1940s, and eight performances in August of Looking Back at Mac. Director Barry Goldie was a co-author of Al Capone’s Hideout and led its development process in 1992 with Stone Fence’s predecessor company, Upper Madawaska Theatre.

  • 2004

    2004

    In 2004, its second year, Stone Fence Theatre produced three original new shows that focused on the cultural heritage and history of the Ottawa Valley. The season included eight touring performances in a variety of community halls, 20 summer performances in two venues and four fall performances.

    Reflections of a Century-The Musical, by Ish Theilheimer and Barry Goldie. This was a particularly ambitious work based on a 100-year compilation of news articles from the local newspaper, The Eganville Leader. The show played to standing ovations despite a rushed development and rehearsal schedule and a venue that created many problems for performance.

    MORE Valley Tales from the Summer Kitchen. This variety show, developed by Ish Theilheimer and directed by Barry Goldie (see photo above), included ON THE AIR with Mac’s Melodiers and a prelude act made up of text and songs from various sources.

    In addition, in summer 2004, Stone Fence launched an ambitious program intended to elevate the profile of the area’s roots music for summer visitors. “Fiddlin’ Around at Noon” was a Stone Fence summer 2004 series of 30 lunch-hour concerts produced by Ish Theilheimer and upwards of 60 local musicians, dancers and story-tellers at five different tourist destinations: The Bonnechere Museum, The Wilno Station Inn, The Balmoral Hotel, The Golden Sands Resort and The Bonnechere Caves.

    Throughout the fall of 2004 Stone Fence ran a series of theatre arts workshops for the public led by theatre professionals such as Bruce Laird, a professional playwright, composer, director and musical director with a 50-year record of achievement.

  • 2003

    2003

    Spring

    In March 2003, Stone Fence Theatre produced an original variety show called Valley Irish, in conjunction with Bonnechere Little Theatre of Eganville. The show was developed and hosted by Ish Theilheimer and directed by Barry Goldie. It featured a reading by Joan Finnigan from “Songs from Both Sides of the River” and an original historical narrative “Hanora’s Children” developed collaboratively. It was performed in three Renfrew County communities on one weekend. Despite blizzards every day it showed, “Valley Irish” played to capacity audiences everywhere.

    Summer

    In July and August, 2003, Stone Fence Theatre produced a four-week, eight-show run of an all-new supper theatre show entitled Up The Line! Valley Tales from the Summer Kitchen. This show, also developed and hosted by Theilheimer and directed by Goldie, contained script from several writers including Joan Finnigan, Bernie Bedore, and Barry Goldie as well as live story-telling. It was presented in the historic church hall at Our Lady of the Angels Parish on the historic Opeongo Road in Brudenell, Ontario in conjunction with the Parish auxiliary. Supper was prepared by the Parish which is famous for its annual church supper. The show was so well received that the entire run was sold out after two performances nearly 1,300 tickets sold, altogether, with much public clamour for tickets and more performances

    Fall

    In Fall, 2003, the company did a remount of Al Capone’s Hideout, by The Upper Madawaska Theatre Company, the community theatre founded by Barry Goldie. The play was based on the history of the famous gangster, who hid out near Quadville in the 1930s.

  • 2002

    2002

    In December 2002 Stone Fence Theatre presented its first show: Ottawa Valley Christmas Past at the Wilno Tavern in Wilno, Ontario. One hundred people packed the small tavern for an afternoon of stories, song and comic monologue. The show was developed, written and hosted by Ish Theilheimer and directed by Barry Goldie. It included excerpts from Joan Finnigan and Bernie Bedore and songs by several Ottawa Valley writers. Storytellers at this session included Bob Cotnam, Lornie Foran and Martha Linton.