Living with literary rejection

by Carol Little

The amount of rejection a writer receives is astronomical. We are bombarded with rejection. It’s like being in high school for the rest of your life. Any day of the week, you can walk to the post office and get a letter telling you that your work isn’t good enough. There are days where the grail of letters, the acceptance letter, arrives, but realistically, for

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Lord, What Fools!

Review by Carol Little

This year’s children’s Christmas play at the Confederation Centre of the Arts was John Bevan-Baker’s musical comedy Lord, What Fools! The performance, which featured thirty-one actors, many of them youth, ran for two nights, December 2 and 3.

Bevan-Baker wrote the play thirty years ago in Scotland, where it was originally performed as a school play, featuring

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Randy Burrows will direct Edge Players at The Guild in January

by Carol Little

The Edge Players are known for tackling edgy, thought provoking material with strong characters, and their January production of The Big Kahuna will follow suit.

Director Randy Burrows says, “Parameters for shows we have chosen are: generally smaller casts, simple set, few set changes, strength in characters and relationships, a

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ACT (a community theatre) production of Eliza Jane Wilson’s play

Review by Carol Little

In celebration of the anniversary of Island author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birthday, ACT (a community theatre) opened its 2005-2006 season at the Arts Guild in Charlottetown with The Strike at Putney Church, which ran for seven performances in November. The play, written by Charlottetown resident Eliza Jane Wilson, i

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Review by Carol Little

The UPEI Theatre Society presented the classic Greek anti-war comedy Lysistrata by Aristophanes on November 17th, 18th and 19th on campus at the Duffy Amphitheatre. The play was directed by Ashley Clark and produced by the coordinator of theatre studies at UPEI, Dr. Greg Doran.

Set in Athens, the play takes place amid war with the men fighting and the women alone in the city.

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Highlights from the conference held this October in Summerside

by Carol Little

Contact East is a four-day festival of theatre, music and dance that takes place in a different maritime city every two years. Performers at the industry trade show have twenty minutes of stage time with which to catch the attention of delegates from around the world, in hopes of securing future bookings. Summerside was

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Artisans use glass as their medium in new studio in Victoria

by Carol Little

Victoria’s Glass Studio is only a couple of months old, but Sabine Neusch and Kate Poole have big plans for it. Located at 24 Bardin Street in the village of Victoria By The Sea, the new shop is the only store of its kind in Prince Edward Island. Unlike many of the shops in Victoria, the glass studio is open year round, partly d

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Atlantic Smile Theatre brings professional theatre to senior residences

by Carol Little

Catherine O’Brien founded Atlantic Smile Theatre, a non-profit organization that brings professional theatre to senior residences, earlier this year in Charlottetown. The original Smile Theatre is an Ontario-based charitable company that has been running for thirty years. O’Brien said “I got my start with Smile as an

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The Drawer Boy

Review by Carol Little

The Drawer Boy, written by Michael Henley and directed by Duncan McIntosh, played at the Victoria Playhouse from September 9th to the 25th. The actors are veteran of stage and screen, Wally MacKinnon; seasoned favourite and founding Artistic Director of the Victoria Playhouse, Erskine Smith; and Victoria Playhouse newcomer, Ben Rayner.

The play is set in 1972

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How I Broke Into Showbiz

Review by Carol Little

Written by Montreal native Lorne Elliott and performed by Prince Edward Island actress Laurie Murphy, How I Broke Into Showbiz premiered at City Cinema in Charlottetown. Elliott wrote the play specifically with Murphy in mind because of her well-known stage presence and ability.

The play is a one-woman show about theatre life and theatre personalities

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Move Over Mrs. Markham

Review by Carol Little

The production of Move Over Mrs. Markham, performed by the Jubilee Players (Sue Urquhart, Terry Foster, Elaine Chessman, Sandra Sheridan, Dale Harrington, Thane Clarke, Karen Slater, Gordon Cobb, Angela Brighty), written by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, and directed by Corin McFadden, was at the Jubilee Theatre in Summerside.

The play is set in the posh

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Leacock, A Musical Evening

Review by Carol Little

Leacock, A Musical Evening was part of the Sunday Evening at The Carriage House Series at Beaconsfield Historic House in Charlottetown on August 7, 14 and 21. The hour-long performance was written/compiled by Hank Stinson mainly from excerpts of the works of Canada’s most beloved humourist Stephen Leacock. Actor, writer and storyteller Hank Stinson p

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