In announcing its new season for 2010-11, the Elora Community Theatre is presenting three plays it hopes will have something for theatregoers of all ages.
Opening the new season in November is Anne of Avonlea, directed by Deb Stanson, the director of last year’s hit, Anne of Green Gables.
Anne of Avonlea continues the adventures of the clever and loveable Anne Shirley from her first days as a young teacher to her departure for Redmond College. Familiar names such as Marilla Cuthbert, Rachel Lynde, Diana Barry, and Gilbert Blythe are joined by many new colourful characters like a cantankerous neighbor, Mr. Harrison (and his offstage parrot); the mysterious Miss Lavendar; and the irrepressible twins, Dora and Davy.
Witness the anxiety of Anne’s first day teaching school, the plum marmalade incident, and the encounter with Miss Lavendar. There are also flashbacks to Anne’s young life and how she came to live at Green Gables.
Bronwyn Allen Hill directs the winner of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Literary Award, Spring Planting.
That play is about four people, mother and daughter, grandfather and grandson, all of them trying to find a way to make it through the confusion that ordinary life often presents.
It focuses on two neighbours, Garnet Black and Jill Foster. Black, in his 80s, and Foster, in her 30s, have outlived their respective spouses and have a lot of unspoken guilt and anger about the deaths of their partners. The hidden secrets among the four of them eventually spring to the surface.
Hay Fever, one of Noel Coward’s most loved comedies, will be directed by Richard Walsh-Bowers.
Set in an English country house in the 1920s, the play revolves around four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend.
The ensuing confusion gives rise to some of Coward’s wittiest dialogue and has provided audiences with evenings of delightful pure escape into a world of light-hearted fun.
Anne of Avonlea runs November 26 to 28 and Dec 2 to 4; Spring Planting runs Feb. 11to13 and 17 to 19; and Hay Fever April 29 and 30, plus May 1 and then May 5 to 7.
Tickets will be available through the box office at the Fergus Grand Theatre (check www.fergusgrandtheatre.ca for further information).
