Local musicians, singers, and thespians joined together to entertain residents with a presentation of the performing arts to celebrate 100 years of music, dance, song, and theatre here.
The concert is part of ongoing celebrations to mark Fort Frances’ centennial this year.
“I loved it, it was fantastic,” said Marla Simpson, co-ordinator for centennial activities here. “The program was amazing. It goes really well with the centennial.
“It was a good representation of Fort Frances’ past,” she added.
“I was quite happy,” agreed Carol Lyons, one of many co-ordinators of the 100 Years of Performing Arts concert. “I think having a varied program like that is difficult.
“It was a bit rough on the edges, but overall it was good,” she added.
The concert, which was held both Thursday and Friday evening at the Townshend Theatre, attracted about 350 people altogether.
“On Thursday, we had about 140 people and close to 200 on Friday,” Lyons said. “I was a bit disappointed by the numbers of people.
“It was something that’s never been tried before,” she added, noting that might have played a factor in getting people out.
Cathy Richards, a performer for Fort Frances Little Theatre’s “Actors Without Borders” troupe, thought perhaps the concert wasn’t promoted as well as it could have been.
“The first night I think there were more people on stage than in the crowd,” she remarked. “It was sad.”
She thought the concert was a great idea and wished more people had come out to enjoy it.
“I think it was a nice mix,” Richards said of the variety of performances. “I don’t think we’ve done anything that colourful before.”
“I think they did a great job of representing all aspects of the performing arts,” agreed Simpson. “There’s so much talent in this town.”
Simpson was particularly taken with the comedic performance given by the “Actors Without Borders.”
The concert opened with a mix of Great Movie Marches performed by the Fort Frances High School band. They touched on many famous orchestral pieces from the silver screen, like the theme music to “Star Trek” and “Indiana Jones.”
The performance then took the crowd back to the days of old-time barn dances and the great country music that was played. The performance was given by local country/rock band “Milestone.”
The show then switched to represent the Ukrainian background in the district with traditional Ukrainian dancers from Fort Dance Studio. Their performance was interrupted by the entrance of the “Actors Without Borders.”
Dressed as Ukrainian babas, the actors kicked the young dancers off the stage under the pretense that the show was over. They were dressed as cleaning ladies, and told the dancers and audience they “have to clean up now.”
The “cleaning ladies” danced the Macarena and cleaned the stage to the laughter of the audience.
The group then showed a pre-taped video of “The Crocodile Hunter” played by local theatre member Brian Hagarty. In this comedic episode, they were tracking down a thespian and subliminally getting the message through to the audience to support the performing arts.
The troupe then took on various other funny characters, including hillbillies, to perform poetry.
The show changed gears going from comedy to the classical piano stylings of Stephanie Hawkins, playing “Fantaisie Impromtu, Op. 66” by Chopin.
The first half finished with a Shakespearean monologue from high school drama student Tom Gustafson and a performance by the Paul Severson & Company jazz band.
The second half was opened by Scottish dancing from the Fort Dance Studio and bagpipe music performed by Dr. Bob Algie of the Fort Frances Highlanders.
The Dancemakers dance group then performed a clog/tap dancing routine, which was followed by Heather Algie’s contemporary theatrical monologue of a young girl who was hiding from her father.
The piece originally was composed for and aired on CBC Radio.
Renee Martin and Jeff Fraser then gave a romantic and moving rendition of the song “All I Ask of You” from the Phantom of the Opera. And to finish the evening, the High School Musical Theatre from the school’s musical department gave a sample of a musical performance.
The show didn’t only do a great job of entertaining the audience. It also was meant to give a reflection of varied arts in the community over the past 100 years.
“I think it did that fairly well,” said Lyons. “We missed having a church choir, I noticed that afterwards. And we have a wonderful group of aboriginal dancers at the high school but they couldn’t find any drummers.”
Lyons also was worried some people in the community might be upset that they weren’t asked to be involved. “There are so many talented people in the community, we just couldn’t ask everyone,” she said.
In an effort to showcase the past, the concert also featured two five-minute slide show presentations of arts pictures from the last century, which were shown before each half of the concert.
There also were poster displays of images submitted by local residents that represented the rich arts history in the district.
“People did a wonderful job submitting information,” said Lyons. “The biggest problem was deciding what you use and what don’t you use.”
Despite the empty seats in the theatre, the concerts raised about $1,800 for the upcoming Rainy River District Festival of the Performing Arts.
The money raised will be put towards the $4,000-$5,000 it typically costs to stage the festival each year above and beyond the entry fees, explained Lyons.
She said the festival committee also will be seeking donations in the next few weeks to help keep things going.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
