Theatre Wakefield

Do you have a creative kiddo at home who wants to meet new people and learn new things?

There are still a few spots left in our Theatre summer camp that runs July 22nd - July 26th.

Campers will be learning the ins and outs of all aspects of theatre and will put on a show for friends and family at the end of the week 🎭

For more information or to register :
https://centrewakefieldlapeche.ca/event-5704464?CalendarViewType=1&SelectedDate=7/6/2024

Theatre Wakefield wishes to thank the First Peoples Group and all the participants from local community groups who attended the Indigenous Awareness Training day on June 15.

This event was funded by the Government of Canada under the Community Services Recovery Fund. We also received generous support from the Wakefield Mill.

Theatre Wakefield sends its appreciation to all those who attended the Climate Play Workshop!

Oops, how silly of us. There was an error in the newsletter that says the Summer Camp is in June but it's actually July.

Sorry for the confusion 🤭

For more information and to register:
https://centrewakefieldlapeche.ca/event-5704464

Theatre Wakefield Summer Camp is back for another year!
When: July 22-26
Ages: 8-13 years

This 1 week camp will feature theatre games, character creation, scenic artistry, learning how to craft stories, and a final performance for friends and family.

For more information and to register:
https://centrewakefieldlapeche.ca/event-5704464

On Friday, March 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Great Canadian Theatre Company on Wellington Street in Ottawa, Alisa Palmer, the Executive Artistic Director of the English Section at the National Theatre School (NTS), will be present to talk about the NTS, our programs, curriculum, student life, financial aid, auditions, and more. It will be an opportunity for prospective students and their parents to ask any questions. The atmosphere will be casual and relaxed. Learn more and sign up:

Visit the School | National Theatre School of Canada Attend one of our open house events or guided tours to find out what it’s really like to be an NTS student and explore the state-of-the-art facilities at our two campuses.

Theatre Wakefield is getting ready for this weekend's Masquerade Ball with an excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dream (the Pyramus and Thisbe play-within-a-play). From left to right, our admirable thespians: Teresa Bandrowska, Cathy Edwards, Andrea Rowe, Melisa Kamibayashi-Staples, Margo Seymour. Directed by Eleanor Crowder, with help from Mary Ellen MacLean. It's gonna be "WILD"!!

Thanks to multi-disciplinary artists and facilitators Destini Broom and Iris Kiewiet, Theatre Wakefield is proud to present a second four-week storytelling workshop featuring Wakefield’s own Louise Profeit-Leblanc. The twist, this time, is that participants can engage their hearts and hands in a piece of beading art as they sit in a circle around a canvas frame, hearing stories from Louise and learning how to share their own.

Louise was raised in the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (First Nation of the Big River People) in the Yukon. She grew up speaking the Northern Tutchone language, an endangered Athabaskan language, and was taught the craft of storytelling by her aunt Angela Sidney, who devoted her life to preserving the stories of the Tagish of Southern Yukon. Louise went on to become keeper of stories from the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation.

For 15 years she worked with her people all over the Yukon to ensure that the oral histories and stories of the First Nations people were recorded and transcribed for posterity. Cofounder of the Yukon International Storytelling festival, Louise has attempted to ensure the voice of her people is heard and will be protected for the future generations.

Oh, and did we mention Louise is also an exceptional bead artist?

We're so lucky to have her, so come learn from the best! Register now on our website: www.theatrewakefield.ca. Workshops -- free, and open to everyone 15+ -- will be held 10am until noon on Feb. 15, 22, 29 and March 7 at the CWLP.

When we sit in circle, hear and share stories, and engage the heart and hands in a piece of art that has many others contributing to it, something wonderful happens to our spirit: it starts to remember long forgotten parts within us that are yearning for expression.

Theatre Wakefield is thrilled to be presenting a second series of storytelling workshops, BEADING YOUR STORY, with Indigenous artist Louise Profeit-Leblanc over four weeks in February/March. The invitation comes through multi-disciplinary artists and facilitators Iris Kiewiet and Destini Broom who, along with Ginnifer Menominee, designed and realized the first phase of their Spirit Beading project in November 2022 for STO Union’s OUT LOUD Festival.

In this next phase, Louise will bring a stronger storytelling aspect to the project: participants will circle around a canvas frame, hearing stories from Louise and learning how to share their own – while engaging their hearts and hands in a piece of beading art that is shared with many others. These two-hour, weekly workshops beginning February 15 are free and open to everyone 15+ but you must register in advance to participate. The classes are cumulative, and you are asked to sign up for the full four-week series. For more information and to register, see www.theatrewakefield.ca.

Final call for tickets to tonight's show at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche! Theatre Wakefield will close the online box office on our website at 4pm this afternoon -- after that you can buy tickets at the door (at a slightly higher price) until 7pm when the performance starts.

This is the first time ever (we think!) that Theatre Wakefield has presented another company's show. Being a presenter means that we've paid the artists a fee to perform and we've assumed all the costs of putting on the production, from the rental of Gwen Shea Hall, to tuning the piano, marketing (you've probably noticed), and paying the technician (yay Claude!). So we're taking all the risk and letting Bear & Co. focus on creating a wonderful show, rather than trying to do all the administration and marketing themselves. It's also the first time we've set up our own website to sell tickets -- no more exorbitant fees to Eventbrite! Yippee! We think it's a terrific way to end the year. Happy holidays everyone, from all of us at Theatre Wakefield.

Oh, and the Centre asks us to see if you could bring something for the food bank -- it's a donation drop-off point!

A Child's Christmas in Wales - Presented by Theatre Wakefield

Bear & Co.'s guiding principle is "compelling theatre, close to home.” The troupe chooses work that intrigues them as much as it pleases their audiences. They travel light, delivering peak power from their artists in a lean setting. And they love what they do!

A Child's Christmas in Wales -- funny, whimsical, nostalgic -- stars actor/singers Rachel Eugster and Nicholas Amott with direction by Eleanor Crowder. Keep your eyes peeled for the prop designed and executed by Wakefield's own artist/blacksmith Michael Kinghorn! And yes, there will be carol singing!

Performance is Friday, Dec. 22 at 7pm at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche. Tickets available on-line at www.theatrewakefield.ca and at the door (at a slightly higher price).

This Friday evening Theatre Wakefield is proud to present A Child's Christmas in Wales, a production of Ottawa theatre company Bear & Co. Veteran actors Rachel Eugster and Nicholas D. Amott revel in Dylan Thomas' language, as they bring his often comical characters to life for you. As director Eleanor Crowder explains, "Their own talent makes for a truly lovely sense of play in their approach as actors, and there's a wonderful blend in their musical styles, each being a vocal powerhouse. Their work together brings a real sense of family to the stage. They sing like they just dropped into your living room. And you are invited to sing too!"

Come join us Friday, Dec. 22 at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche for this special presentation. Tickets are available at the door or on our website at www.theatrewakefield.ca.

Did you know that A Child's Christmas in Wales was not conceived as a play? According to actress Rachel Eugster, “It's a poetic reminiscence of Dylan Thomas's childhood. One of his gifts is the ability to evoke an entire character in half a dozen words. As Nick [Amott] and I embody the poem and the world of this little seaside Welsh town, our job is to be equally economical as we fluidly evoke different characters with a gesture, a posture, a change in vocal tone, or a way of walking. This is both challenging and a lot of fun.”

Why should you come? “Because it's warm and lovely and sweet. No matter how you feel when you arrive, no matter what your own traditions are, you will head home with your spirits lifted.”

Come see Bear & Co.’s production of A Child’s Christmas in Wales directed by Eleanor Crowder and presented by Theatre Wakefield at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche on December 22 at 7pm. For tickets go to: www.theatrewakefield.ca.

In 2020, with theatres shuttered and all actors out of work across the city (and around the world, really), Bear & Co. decided to take to the streets to sing carols to folks who couldn't gather with loved ones. They stood on windy corners and in cold driveways to sing into windows and doorways, and to neighbours gathered on their snow-laden lawns. This was a profound experience for the company, and it evoked warmth and joy everywhere they went.

Then in 2021, with live theatre cautiously beginning to return, Bear & Co. wanted to bring those remembered warm and joyful feelings onto the stage. They realized that Dylan Thomas's language and childhood memories held the same magic for them, AND there was room in his classic poem to accommodate well-loved carols as well!

Unfortunately, they brought the piece to the stage just as Omicron was emerging, and so they had to cut the carol singing and ask the audiences not to join in, much as they clearly wanted to. But NOW, it is with great delight that Bear & Co. is remounting this piece that they are very proud of and are finally able to invite the audience to sing along!

Theatre Wakefield is proud to present Bear & Co.'s captivating rendition of A Child's Christmas in Wales -- Friday, December 22 at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche at 7pm. Tickets at www.theatrewakefield.ca. And come prepared to sing!

When we asked the Director of A Child’s Christmas in Wales about her favourite moment in the play, Eleanor Crowder replied, “There's a big reveal. It's a very special Christmas moment. But because it’s a reveal, you'll have to be there to enjoy it!” She added that it's the sort of Christmas secret parents don't tell their children about. And then when they grow up to be parents, they keep the secret from their kids too!

This show is for children -- and adults -- of all ages. Come see Bear & Co.'s production on Friday, December 22 at 7pm at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche and find out what the mysterious secret is that they won't tell us about! And don't forget, there'll be Carol singing at the end for everyone. For tickets, see our website: www.theatrewakefield.ca.

Dylan Thomas' childhood Christmas story stands with Dickens as a classic. It gets read around Christmas trees on snowy afternoons across this country. Some families recite the wonderful imagery from memory as they hear it again year after year. It begins, "I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six..." Dylan Thomas' Welsh town is a lot like our snowy Gatineau Hills. And evoking his pleasure in Christmas is a sure way to warm your heart in anticipation of the holidays.

Theatre Wakefield is delighted to bring this presentation to the Centre Wakefield La Pêche on Friday, Dec. 22 at 7pm. It stars Nicholas Amott and Rachel Eugster and is directed by Eleanor Crowder. Tickets available on our website: www.theatrewakefield.ca.

Theatre Wakefield is thrilled to present Bear & Co.’s holiday favourite, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, on December 22nd at 7pm at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche. Directed by Eleanor Crowder.

Published in 1954, Dylan Thomas’s story transports us back to the snow-blanketed seaside Welsh town where he was born. Nicholas D. Amott and Rachel Eugster bring his rough-and-tumble characters to life, share their own memories, and send your spirits soaring with midwinter harmonies. Join us for candle-lighting and stories, and a sweet Carol Sing at the end!

Come share a warm hug of a show, and build your Christmas memories all over again. Gather with Ottawa-based theatre company Bear & Co. to celebrate the joys of midwinter festivals! For tickets, go to our website: www.theatrewakefield.ca.

Thanks, Phil!