30 Years Young!
Wanless and Mackay’s Farewell Season features Musicals, Romance and Mystery
Gananoque, ON. The 2012 season of the Thousand Islands Playhouse will not only be the official 30th birthday of the Playhouse, but will be the 31st and final season planned by co-founders Greg Wanless (Artistic Director) and Kathryn MacKay (Associate Artistic Director). The season, which begins May 11, 2012, features seven productions with a coast-to-coast array of playwrights and subject matter.
“This year we are attempting to celebrate the past and the beloved, while introducing the new and provocative. It has always been our goal to achieve a balance, and we feel confident that our audiences will appreciate both the season itself and the manner in which it has been created,” says Wanless of his choices for his final season.
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Getting into the habit of starting with a lively musical, the Springer Theatre season kicks off May 11 with an irresistibly hilarious musical, Nunsense II, by Dan Goggin. The revue follows a group of nuns who have been seriously bitten by the theatre bug, and are trying to impress a talent scout (while carrying on their usual bingo game on the side.) It’s followed from June 22 to July 21 by the premiere of Douglas Bowie’s Somewhere Beyond The Sea, a close encounter of the culinary kind that is disrupted by some not-so-subtle climate events. Bowie’s most recent comedies, Till It Hurts and Rope’s End, also premiered at the Playhouse and have gone on to subsequent productions.
The Playhouse’s 30th birthday (June 25) is followed by the 30th Birthday of another star: Little Shop of Horrors, the legendary musical which plays July 27 to September 1. Created by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and directed by Greg Wanless (who also plays the hungry plant) Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of sweet Seymour Krelborn, his bandaged-beloved Audrey, an evil dentist, and a hungry plant that mysteriously arrives to solve everyone’s problems.
Fall 2012 at the Springer Theatre starts in September September 7 – October 6 with the return of the dauntlessly adventurous couple from Sexy Laundry in Henry and Alice: Into The Wild, from Vancouverite Michele Riml. The season closes with a limited run of the world-travelled production of Tempting Providence, the real-life story of Newfoundland’s legendary nurse Myra Bennett by Robert Chafe. Performed by the acclaimed company Theatre Newfoundland Labrador , Tempting Providence stars Deidre Gillard-Rowlings as Bennett.
The ninth Firehall Season begins with a production that originated with Festival Players of Prince Edward County. The acclaimed musical by John MacLachlan Gray, Amelia, The Girl Who Wants to Fly featuring Eliza-Jane Scott, Stephen Gallagher and Karin Randoja, plays from June 28 to July 28. August 10 to September 8, Stephen Massicotte’s award-winning romantic mystery The Clockmaker, will be directed by Kathryn MacKay. MacKay’s numerous directing credits at the Firehall include The Drowning Girls, Trying, and The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl.
Wanless and Mackay recently announced their resignation, after 30 seasons with the company they founded. Their resignation will be effective at the end of the 2012 season. The search for a successor to Wanless will begin in the near future.
Subscriptions for the 2012 Season are on sale now through the Box Office at 613 382-7020. More information on the season and the company’s history can be found at www.1000islandsplayhouse.com