Six Feet Festival

Festival Players launches 2021 season with outdoor theatre

Live theatre will be coming back to the County in late July as the Festival Players launches its 2021 season in a new venue just east of Wellington. A new outdoor theatre pavilion has been built at The Eddie Hotel and Farm (the former site of Fields on West Lake), and there is an initial run of four shows on the schedule. Artistic Director Graham Abbey, who joined Festival Players in 2016, is excited to present the new season after the enforced layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re doing what we call the Six Feet Festival, which is a mixture of theatre, song, and dance,” says Abbey. “We’re opening with a show called Beneath Springhill, which is a show telling the story of Maurice Ruddick, and African-Canadian miner who survived nine days underground and became known as the singing miner. It deals with some of the racial tensions in the town around the disaster, but ultimately it’s a beautiful story of hope and courage. Then we’re doing a show called Live at The Eddie starring Carolyn Taylor and Elvira Kurt. Many people will know Carolyn from the Baroness von Sketch show. Carolyn is a Wellington resident and she’s teaming up with Elvira, who’s done lots with Just for Laughs and she’s been on the Tonight Show. They are two amazingly funny women, and the show has already been sold out, but we are hoping to add additional shows. If we can increase seating, we’ll put more tickets on the bill for that. We have a new contemporary dance festival called Flight Festival, which features a local all-female group. That is going to have all sorts of performances, but we’re also running kids dance classes and community dance classes. And then we’re ending with a show called Chase the Ace, which is a world premiere by Mark Crawford. It’s the story of a big-city radio host who is forced to move to a small town, and it’s a very funny, heart-warming show.” Abbey adds that the company is working on an additional show that will play for only two nights and will be announced in the coming weeks. The shows start on July 21 and the season currently ends on August 29. Strict COVID-19 protocols are being followed, with the performances all being outdoors and social distancing rules in place. While some of the plays are solo performances, the newly built pavilion stage is large enough to host multiple players.

One of the draws of live theatre is the connection between players and audience, especially in an intimate setting such as the Studio Theatre in Wellington where a number of performances were held in 2019. However, Abbey says the outdoor setting at The Eddie will still have a cozy feel. “”Ideally, we’d all love to be packed into a tight space to experience something, but I really believe this is a significant step forward,” he says. “We’ve all been trying to perform theatre in a digital world, and so we’re taking a massive step forward in putting live theatre on and allowing performers to connect with the audience. It’s not as great as being cheek to jowl, which is what people ideally want to get to, but there’s something beautiful about outdoor theatre. I’ve always loved it as a performer and there’s something exciting about the spot we’re in, tucked away at the back of The Eddie, bordering on the Millennium Trail and surrounded by beautiful fields. It’s a special place and has massive potential.”

The pandemic has taken quite a toll on the live performance sector. Artists, actors and musicians have seen work opportunities evaporate. But creative work has been happening despite all of this. “We’ve been busy as a company and done a lot of work in the offseason. We have new board members. We’ve hired new people onto our team, and we’ve got three shows in development,” says Abbey.

“We are developing a musical called The Real McCoy with Vincent de Tourdonnet from Picton, who’s done quite amazing things in the musical theatre world. We’ve commissioned a new piece based on the work of poet Al Purdy called Sundance at Dusk. We’re very excited about it and we’re hoping that it will be a feature piece we will present next year.”

Abbey says the County is a place that seems to stimulate artistic creation. “There’s a muse of sorts out there that really is hard to put a finger on, but there’s a beautiful air of entrepreneurship. There are so many artists out there in so many different capacities that it just feels like an exciting place for dreaming and building and trying new things. So much of the County to me is the connection to the land and the terrain, and I’m really excited to cut the ribbon on this new outdoor pavilion, and I hope it will be part of our programming for years to come. Being outdoors just adds that extra element.” He adds that attracting a local audience to the performances is important to Festival Players. “We are a local theatre, first and foremost. Last year our season was themed around community. This season we’ve picked a theme of hope, which is a broad word, but it’s about bringing the community back together and allowing them to experience beautiful art. For me, that takes a number of fronts. In the past we’ve offered a discount to local people coming to the theatre. We will run again this year our kids’ camp, which is a reach out to local kids for free. We will hire a couple of instructors who will come and work for a week at our location and then they will perform.” Abbey says that he became involved in theatre in Stratford when he was 10 years old, and it changed the direction of his life. “We want to engage local kids. Art and theatre has a chance to change lives. We are very excited to come back and engage with our community and bring live theatre back to Prince Edward County.” For information about the Festival Players season, please visit festivalplayers.ca.