It's Showtime At Fraser Valley Stage

On October 15th, No Code Blue ( www.nocodebluerocks.com ) featuring our own Al Pattison and Marg Kennedy, took the stage to head-line our highly successful fundraising effort to get us over to Buxton in July/Aug 2012.  The event was a HUGE SUCCESS! 

Not only was the Abbotsford District Teacher’s Association Hall packed with movers and shakers of all ages (19 and older), everyone had a smile on their face!  Congratulations are in order to all the volunteers and the cash bar jockey’s who undoubtedly had a hand in this, to be sure!   

No Code Blue regaled us with THREE solid sets of music, and graciously stepped away from the lead vocals during the second set to allow featured performances from some of our own!  After an official (G)utterance from “the Queen” (no relation to Freddie Mercury – and who is still able to fit into the same dress that he… er, I mean SHE… has been wearing for the past 12 years), Caroline Pignatelli took the stage to perform Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot.  The gauntlet was thrown down!  Following this we had Charles Wiebe performing The Monkees’ I’m a Believer, Christine Hatklin performing Mexican Bandleader Pablo Beltrán Ruiz’s (or Dean Martin, Michael Bublé or the Pussycat Dolls’) Sway, Carol Wiebe performing Abba’s Waterloo, Jim Tessaro performing Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl, Sharla Sauder performing Heart’s Alone, and your’s truly performing an apparently choreographed version of  Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music White Boy.  Check it out at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbYjbolQ0E4 

Looking down to a packed dance floor,  we could see by the beaming smiles that everyone was having a fantastic time, but those of us on stage were having even more fun!  Good stuff.   

Thanks to No Code Blue’s Frank Ahman, Lewis Bartlett, Shale Blane, Katherine Hamilton, Margaret Kennedy, Randy Mathers, Al Pattison, and Don Ross for bringing us on board!  We should really do this again!

     We are still recovering from one of the busiest seasons that we have had in recent years, but I do believe that it must be considered a successful one as well as a very active one in many respects.
     We mounted four very different main productions and ….some significant points were the added performance of “A Christmas Carol” at the Clark Theatre in Mission – a very good experience that bodes well for future cooperation with the Clark, -  the “Youtube” video for “Stranded”,  the appearance on CBC’s North by Northwest to discuss the “Stranded” project and the fact that one of our members wrote a full length script for this production and  made her Artistic Director debut with it…… 
     In August we provided five FVS Heritage Family members in Victorian dress at Trethewey House to help celebrate the opening of their exhibition of early CPR prints. The Reach mounted an exhibition of railway “Vistas” from Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, October through January, and we provided a character for their advertising  (an Edwardian villain tying a young maiden to the railway tracks). Our “Forty Years on Stage” exhibit ran concurrently with the Benbow exhibit at The Reach……  it really is amazing what this group has contributed to the cultural life of Abbotsford over its lifetime…….
     The Abbotsford Performing Arts Steering Committee, which had been working to come up with a consensus on the size and type of theatre facility that is needed by the performing arts groups, has now handed this task over to the Abbotsford Arts Council….. Your Board supports this move very strongly and hopes that combining Arty Awards with a proposed fundraiser concert by MCA user groups in October will help to strengthen and focus the performing arts groups on this important topic…..
     Support functions are of course of the utmost importance to our group and we are blessed with a considerable number of volunteers who cheerfully go about performing all the duties necessary to keep an organisation like FVS running effectively…..  On your behalf, I thank them ALL.

     Your Board has had a busy year and I thank them for their support.
     And thanks to YOU.     I hope that you have enjoyed this season and are looking forward to an exciting season to come!

(Full transcript of this report is available to FVS members on the Members Page)

The visit last week of Sir William Gilbert to our home for the meeting of the Little Fotheringham Operatic and Dramatic Society was rated a great success. Sir William was kind enough to give some history of the writing of the operettas and the members of the Society showed how well they knew the musical numbers from the various productions.  

The audiences who joined us, were entranced by the music and dancing of the villagers. The evening was well received and many have asked that it be repeated at a later date, and this may well happen – that is providedthat Lady Westcliffe is prepared to have the group in our living room again! 

Thanks to all those in the Society – Fraser Valley Stage -  who were responsible for staging this event – author, artistic and music directors, producers, stage manager, costume manager, set designer and builder and all others who make the presentation of such events possible.

And thanks to you, our audience, who support us and make us feel that our efforts are really worthwhile – without you it would not happen.

 Westcliffe.

We are so excited about our upcoming production “Stranded at Westcliffe”!!  Our very own Paulina Harskamp, has written and directed this fabulous play.  Many of the best known and well loved Gilbert and Sullivan songs are incorporated into the play and make this a complete entertainment experience. 

Charles Wiebe is something to see as the Arch Deacon Cecil Postelthwaite.   Heather Davis keeps him in line as Lucretia, his “know it all”, wife.  Tony Roper and Ruth Rich are the charming hosts, Lord and Lady Westcliffe and Andy Rolleman really puts the sting into his character, Mr. Nettle. Larry Doan, as Phineas, pines for his lost love, Lady Olivia (played by the lovely Wendy Love) and the sparks fly between Poppy and Harry, played by the beautiful Tiffany King and dashing Mark Kroeker. Mark Field is out to prove he really didn’t do it as Hobbs, the Westcliffe’s butler, and Phil Aldridge bears the most uncanny resemblance to Sir Gilbert, especially in his mutton chops!

The chorus is lead by the shy and demure Miss Twinkle, played by Sharla Sauder and Eileen Deros tickles the ivories, as only she can, in her role as Mrs. Noteworthy. The chorus is simply fantastic and the fun had by all is very evident!! 

Get your tickets now and prepare to be thoroughly entertained!