District residents were treated to a tour of Las Vegas on Saturday, stopping at every major casino and catching performances by some of the biggest stars in music—thanks to the third-annual VALA Variety Show.
But audience members weren’t the only ones impressed with how the show turned out.
“It went really, really well,” said producer Princess Stephanee (also known as Kim Redford of the Valley Adult Learning Association).
“We were totally overwhelmed, beyond our expectations,” echoed director Babs Spielburg (a.k.a. Barb Duguay, also of VALA).
For the first time, both the 2 p.m. matinee and the 7 p.m. shows were sold out.
“The audience was completely packed,” Spielburg said, adding they’ve had good turnouts at the show in the past but the audience appears to grow every year.
Organizers received numerous phone calls on the day of the show from people looking for tickets, and many showed up at the Townshend Theatre hoping to get some at the door.
“We could have sold 200 more tickets,” Spielburg said. “We’re encouraging people to get their tickets early.”
The audience certainly got caught up in the spirit of the show. “They were very energetic and enthusiastic,” said Princess Stephanee.
The show began with a plane full of VALA Girls—a group of women vaudeville performers—landing on Fremont Street in Las Vegas.
There they meet the bag lady Mrs. T. (Karon Kaminski), who enlists the pilot (Drew Donald) and flight attendants (Laureen Luchka and Robin McCormick) to act as bus driver and tour guides for a guided bus tour through Sin City.
From there, the audience was taken to various casinos, where they saw performances by legends such as Frank Sinatra (Ken Brown), Celine Dion (Renee Martin-Brown), and Judy Garland (Heather Ogilvie) to country stars such as Patsy Cline (Sandra Allan) and Johnny Cash and June Carter (Louie Hawkeness and Colleen Cote), among others.
There also were dance numbers by the Chippengals, the Dancemaker Divas, the Dancemaker Darlings, and the Fort Dance Studio Lovely Ladies.
The VALA Girls themselves performed two numbers, “Gimme Some Money” and “Hey Good Looking.”
“Everybody in the show seemed to be having a great time,” Spielburg said, noting there were 77 people involved this year.
“We made a lot of new friends,” Princess Stephanee laughed.
Since they’ve returned to their day jobs, both ladies have received lots of feedback from audience members.
“We’ve received e-mails into our office saying what a fantastic show it was and asking if we’re going to do it again next year,” Spielburg said.
In the end, more than $11,000 was raised for the Valley Adult Learning Association.
“The funds raised from the past two years have enabled us to purchase new computers and computer resources, and has allowed us to offer more training hours to the community,” the pair wrote in the program for Saturday’s shows.
“Our agency delivered over 6,000 training hours to 103 learners in 2006,” they added.
The focus of VALA’s services is to provide opportunities for life-long learning, and the show itself is a demonstration of that goal.
“Each participant has had to go beyond their comfort zone to learn new skills in order for the show to come together.”
Spielburg and Princess Stephanee extended their thanks to all participants and volunteers, including local band “North of the Trax,” which began learning all the songs back in September.
Chantal Spuzak of Dancemakers provided free use of her studio on Sundays for rehearsals while Mlle Cherie (Sheree Denby) acted as choreographer for the show.
The ladies also thanked the many sponsors who made monetary and in-kind donations towards the success of this year’s production.
“The amount of support we’re getting out of the town is incredible,” Spielburg said.
The group already has begun planning for next year’s event, which will be a “Love Boat” cruise down the river from Fort Frances to Rainy River.
The ship will stop at various ports, including Devlin and Emo.
“It’s very exotic, our trip,” chuckled Princess Stephanee.
Anyone interested in performing next year should contact the director and producer.
“We have to start planning early because the band has to start practising,” her majesty laughed.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
