By Dan White – Special to the Sydenham Current
Summer is quickly slipping away!
What a thrill it was to reintroduce ourselves to the summer tradition of Stratford Festival.
Joni and I made the lovely trek to Stratford recently to celebrate our anniversary and take in a show.
Attending a Stratford Festival show is a summer tradition that started for me in Grade 8 at Mooretown Public School.
Our class trip that June was to Stratford to see Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and I have not missed a year in the ensuing 40 some years… until 2020!
Joni and I planned the usual scenic drive out of Wallaceburg; meandering over the countryside to pass
through Ailsa Craig and Nairn on our way to the Festival city.
The morning of, we dropped Oliver off with a friend for the day and headed in a northwestern (ish) direction.
Of course, it’s summer so half way through our journey there was construction which led to us discovering a new path.
We decided to drive through St Mary’s as we neared Stratford. If you have never veered off the beaten path of Highway 7 and explored this beautiful little town, it is worth the diversion.
The stone buildings constructed from the abundance of material in that area are beautiful, the waterway is lovely, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is located there and something I discovered in university days, the rock quarry on the edge of town is awesome.
If you have children, or are a kid at heart, the old water hole now has an incredible maze of floating pathways and obstacles.
It is a floating jungle gym.
But I digress.
We arrived in Stratford well before our show as planned and did what every seasoned Stratford visitor does, we hit up the chocolate stores.
Many years ago, I was taking a course in Stratford during the summer and everyone attending was told about Rheo Thompson’s Chocolate, specifically their Mint Smoothies!
They are exquisite and from the first day I found that store I have stopped there anytime I was near enough to catch a whiff of that delicate mint center covered in hand made chocolate.
Even if I was just passing through Stratford to visit my children when they were attending school in Kitchener
and Guelph, I would stop and grab a box of Smoothies for Erin and something for the boys.
When I was teaching, I would stop the bus in front of Rheo’s, go in and buy a couple of boxes of smoothies and distribute one to each of my students with the instruction to memorize the path back to this store from the parking spot of the bus.
They really should have given me a commission.
Recently, there has been a new store that makes chocolate, Chocolate Barr’s.
They are quite similar to how Rheo was, and Joni and I enjoy sampling from both stores.
Our third stop, was Olive Your Favourite’s, a store that Joni introduced me to. If you like a variety of delicious olive oils and balsamic vinegars it is worth the trip to York St.
Of course, the York St. Kitchen is an amazing lunch stop, and a place I once met Peter Mansbridge while dining with my students, but we didn’t have time this trip.
We passed by the new Tom Patterson Theatre on the way to the Festival Theatre and found ourselves a parking spot.
We were pleased to see that over half of the patrons wore masks indoors. We settled into our seats for Chicago and there was not a second from curtain up to final bow that was anything less than spectacular!
The choreography was awe inspiring, the cast was stellar (as should be the case for a world class venue… but it still bears noting) the two leads, Chelsey Preston as Roxie Hart and Jennifer Rider Shaw as Velma Kelly, left us speechless.
They were flawless!
Steve Ross as Amos Heart played the comedic and sad role perfectly.
The live orchestra was incredible, from the sounds of a tuba warming up preshow to the talented Philip Seguin opening act 2 playing trumpet on stage as the cast danced around him and the steady crescendo to the brilliant final dancing duet from the leading ladies culminating in a breathtaking finale.
Unlike many musicals, this is not a show in search of a plot.
It has a clear story and the songs stick, they are iconic and reach beyond just theatre enthusiasts. Go on your favourite music streaming service and give Chicago a listen, they are catchy, and memorable, tunes.
This takes me to my last two points:
– Attending live shows in a community does more than promote a production, if there is community buy in from grass roots to municipality and businesses, the entire community prospers. Again, I am left wondering what our local politicians and those who will challenge them for a seat in October think about the lack of theatre venues in this area, but also across C-K.
– An exciting new project is happening north of the walking bridge. Local entrepreneur Todd Shepley hosted Joni and I on a tour of Glasstown Brewing Company as it prepares to begin operation in the fall. It is an exciting and visionary plan and could be a step towards changing the face and fate of Wallaceburg.
That’s next week’s column.
Happy WAMBO weekend.
