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David Nairn extols Theatre Orangeville’s new season

September 9, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

David Nairn, Artistic Director of Theatre Orangeville, is certain about some aspects of the new season opening and uncertain about some others.

Talking about the first play of the 2021/2022 season, Same Time, Next Year, “It’s going to be thrilling to start rehearsal again.” He was clear about that. “It’s a period piece, in its way, starting in the 1950’s. It’s a lovely heart-warming play and very funny,” he said. “Not often that we get to do a ‘classic.’ It’s written by Canadian playwright, Bernard Slade. There’s a glorious set, of course.”

Same Time, Next Year will open October 13 and run until October 31.

So, more hesitantly: “The hope is by mid-October that we’ll be able to come indoors and with very limited numbers, based on the capacity [allowed by Public Health] and we’re going to have a great show. We don’t know the numbers as yet.”

To approach the ongoing dilemma of this pandemic, flexibility is the cornerstone.

“Only limited numbers can be seated,” he continued. “The [necessity for] passports will go a long way to assuage one’s concerns and it’s the law that people have the passports in order to come into the theatre. We would insist on it anyways. People need to know that we’ve done all we can to keep in line with Public Health orders. If anything, we go beyond what is required to make sure that the cast, crew and patrons are safe.”

Philosophically, he shook his head and admitted, “This is not going away. Audiences will be masked and socially distanced. Other establishments are doing the same;  this level of vigilance will [be] the thing for a long time.”

Well known to Theatre Orangeville audiences, Jane Spence and Jeffery Wetsch are starring in Same Time, Next Year, about a couple who meet once and then agree to meet every year.

Playwright, Bernard Slade wrote Same Time, Next year, 1975, which ran for an astonishing 1,453 performances on Broadway.

“Funny enough, my mother was friends with his parents,” Mr. Nairn told the Citizen, “His parents lived in St. Catharines [where Mr. Slade was born]. They were coffee buddies, meeting once a week to chat about their sons: an actor and a famous playwright.”

For the best possible Christmas treat, Rod Beattie is coming with his one-man Christmas Carol. Wingfield enthusiasts will be overjoyed to learn this.

Once in an interview with the Citizen, Mr. Beattie mentioned that he had adapted Dickens’ famous Christmas Carol for himself to perform.

“Of course, you play Scrooge,” said this writer, impulsively.

“Well,” he replied modestly. “I play everyone.”

“The poster for that is absolutely stunning,” Mr. Nairn told us.

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens and adapted and performed by Rod Beattie opens November 24 and runs until December 12.

In March, 2022, Theatre Orangeville present Things my Fore Sisters Saw, written and performed by Leslie McCurdy.

“We’re telling stories for all Canadians. This is about four remarkable women of colour,” David Nairn explained. “Some of these stories are not even known by Black Canadians. Telling real live stories about real live people.”

This one-woman play tells the stories of four women of African Descent who affected change in Canada. Marie-Joseph Angelique, Rose Fortune, Mary-Ann Shadd and Viola Desmond who was “recently named as the new face of the Canadian $10 bill.” (lesliemccurdy.ca/things-my-foresisters-saw/)

Things My Fore Sisters Saw opens March 3 and runs until March 13.

Dan Needle and Ian Bell team up again for more Confessions from the Ninth Concession, stories by Mr. Needles and Ian Bell’s songs.

“Great to see the Raconteur in Dan and Ian’s songs are his original.”

Lots of laughs. Opening March 23 and running until April 10,

In April, Leisa Way and her Wayward Band with another of Ms. Way’s so-much-fun shows, this one is Rock and Roll is Here to Stay. Line up for tickets – dancing in the aisles. (We hope). Opens April 27 and runs to May 15.

After some years, a play by Drew Hayden Taylor will be produced by Theatre Orangeville, comedy about two fellows who leave their reservation to go on holiday – to the Caribbean. Crees in the Caribbean will be a treat, not to be missed – opens June 1 and runs to June 19.

All these plays will also be streamed online for people who cannot or would prefer not to come into the theatre itself.

In fact, the theatre is developing and will soon be implementing an online library to watch all the films, each for a price. Now that they have developed this technology, Mr. Nairn claims, “There really is no excuse to miss a Theatre Orangeville show again.”

He commented, “My whole approach to all of this, particularly this new season, maybe more than we’ve ever done, our audiences are desperate to return to the theatre – joyously, with hope in their hearts that the world will change but to tell stories to be proud of who we are as a nation.

“Theatre Orangeville is on the same journey as the rest of the country,” he pointed out. “For us all to be inspired to make the country to be a better place, to lead that conversation and not just as the theatre.”

Praise for the community of Orangeville, he defied anyone to find a town of only 30,000 (plus) people that hold a “Pride” festival like Celebrate Your Awesome or the Blues and Jazz festival. This is a community that is truly inclusive. 

The theatre is taking its Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) into schools digitally again this year.

Yet, as he said, “That’s a huge part of theatre, sitting in the theatre. You can’t go into the theatre anywhere in the world and not come out a changed person, even a little – and now, if ever there were a time for other stories – stories in a broader spectrum. If we’ve learned anything, it’s how much we miss each other; how much we need one another, how we’ve missed that; how important it is for people being together for a common purpose.

“In this instance to laugh, to learn, to cry.”

These are candid, honest plays, small cast shows because “we also need to minimize the risks.”

“I pray every day, come September, 2022, we’ll all be able to come back [to] the theatre, the dream, the hope. The subscribers who have been with us for years will be able to have their seats. But, for this coming season, tickets to the live performances will be first come, first served.”

Two things matter most: safety for everyone in the theatre; “if come the time, if everything goes sideways and we can’t do the shows in the theatre, we will put them online. We are being flexible.”

Second and as important is the quality of the show, “Theatre Orangeville will always provide a first-class show.”

Creating the plays online is allowing them to be flexible and, also, to share the shows to a much greater audience. They get feedback from across Canada and Europe.

“Why would we stop that? We want to keep moving forward.”

Said David Nairn of the lessons they have learned through all this: “We work very hard to make that feeling of a play when it’s online. Our entire team has developed a special skill set. That’s wonderful too as an organization.”

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