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Theatre Orangeville prepares for opening night of the New Canadian Curling Club, full of laughs and lessons

April 20, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Theatre Orangeville is happy to announce their production of The New Canadian Curling Club by Mark Crawford runs from Apr. 26 to May 14. Opening Night is Friday, Apr. 28. Originally planned for 2020 and cancelled due to Covid, everyone is pleased with the go-ahead for the show, as is director Jane Spence.

Artistic director David Nairn is very enthusiastic about the play, “This is a wonderful play reflecting attitudes in all communities. Anybody walking into the theatre walks out of it better. It is theatre that asks the difficult questions and works to resolve them.”

Basically, for their individual reasons four new Canadians from different cultural backgrounds have each decided to learn to play that all-Canadian favourite game – curling. They are Chinese, Syrian, Jamaican and Indian. When they arrive variously at the rink, they meet their instructor, Stuart, a white man with age and old attitudes on him. What ensues are the lessons on how to make this work.

The cast features all new faces to Theatre Orangeville, and the Citizen sat down to interview them in the Nancy and Doc Gilles Rehearsal Hall in the Community Living Dufferin building.

Norman Yeung plays the role of Mike Chang, a resident doctor at the local hospital. He and Stuart are acquainted with each other in a less than satisfactory way, grumpy and at times, funny.

Coming to Theatre Orangeville with an impressive list of theatre and film credits, Mr. Yeung has also written three plays and been nominated for a number of awards. He has received a BFA and BFA Honours at the University of British Columbia and Toronto Metropolitan University.

John Jarvis has been to Orangeville “as a hockey dad.” Mr. Jarvis is Stuart MacPhail, the instructor to the four new Canadians. He finds himself on an uncomfortable road of enlightenment, yet worth the trip.

Mr. Jarvis has done another Mark Crawford play, The Birds and the Bees. Of his other credits, playing Jacob Marley and “all the ghosts” in a production of A Christmas Carol for Soulpepper may well have set the bar for fun.

Lively and passionate, Zaynna Khalife plays the Syrian Fatima Al-Sayed. Having fled her war-torn home, she was assisted by the Jamaican, Charmaine Bailey, played by Chiamaka Glory.

Ms. Khalife does it all – sing, dance, act and write. She recently graduated from the “joint Sheridan College and University of Toronto Theatre and Drama Studies Specialist Program with an Advanced Diploma in Acting.”

It is clear that Charmaine Bailey is a force “to be dealt with” and it looks as though Chiamaka Glory is perfect for the role.

During a very lively conversation with the Citizen, Ms. Glory confirmed that out-of-step remarks born of misconceptions have to be called out on the spot.

She said, “We have to call people out to affect change on the spot so that people can watch that change within the speaker and learn from it.”

Ms. Glory has been nominated for awards both as an actor and director. As a person who has “worked across Canada and internationally,” her named “favourite credits” include playing in a theatre in Berlin and a well-known television series. 

Being “the leading Tap dance artists in Canada,” and producing a “short film that was selected for 12 festivals around the world…winning four awards…” and so much more is what runs Andrew Prashad’s professional life. Mr. Prashad has come to Theatre Orangeville to play Anoopjeet Singh.

Anoopjeet’s interest in curling is born of his job ambitions at Tim Horton’s.

Mark Crawford’s plays are based in rural and small-town settings. As he says in his notes, this play “is about a bunch of people who are stuck. They’re stuck in a way of thinking, in a job they don’t want, stuck between cultures, between worlds, stuck in family dynamics, financial situations, stuck in grief, stuck between what they want and what they have right now. That’s something every audience member can relate to.”

He adds, “And that stuck-ness is frequently the engine for both the comedy and the drama of the play.”

Jane Spence is back at the theatre as director, a family favourite. Over the years of her association with Theatre Orangeville, Ms. Spence has performed in six shows and mentored with David Nairn, when she received Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program grant. During that time, she assistant-directed four plays over that year’s season.

With those introductions, here are the actors’ reasons why we should all rush to get tickets for The New Canadian Curling Club.

“This play is brilliantly clever, laughs, warm and also fresh perspectives,” said John Jarvis, to which Mr. Yeung noted, “there is a heart-breaking element.”

Ms. Khalife encouraged us, “allow yourself to come and see what’s given to the ‘others,'” while what Ms. Glory loves about it is “the coming together of a new kind of family.”

Andrew Prashad noted that we will “see everything that makes us the same,”

The last word from Jane Spence, she opined, “The laughs will improve your day.”

The New Canadian Curling Club previews Apr. 26. Opening Night is on Apr. 28, and David Nairn will climb a chair to announce the new 2023-2024 season list of shows. He promises a stellar selection.

For all the information and to purchase tickets, go to www.theatreorangeville.ca or call the box office at 519-942-3423. The Box Office is located at 87 Broadway in the Town Hall/Opera House.

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