What's On
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
BRIGHT LIGHTS: An Evening with GWEN BROWN
In conversation with Paul Wilson
With performances by Paul Crough and Gwen Brown
presented by Market Hall Performing Arts
Please note that the elevator will be available for people with
mobility difficulties.
Market
Hall Performing Arts presents An Evening with Gwen Brown, the latest
event in its Bright Lights series
of conversations with great Peterborough artists. At 87 years young,
Ms. Brown is one of Peterborough's leading senior citizens and one
of its most accomplished theatre artists. A woman of great integrity,
strong sensitivity, and deep moral fibre who lives every day with
an intense love of life, Gwen is an inspiring role model for octogenarians
everywhere.
Hosting the event, and speaking with Gwen about her life and career, will be another veteran of the Peterborough stage, Paul Wilson. One of Peterborough's most engaging personalities, Paul's reach extends into many parts of the community, from politics to athletics and the arts. This range of interests almost matches Ms. Brown's lifetime of experiences: she's been a champion golfer, an accomplished singer, an award winning actor and director, a radio dramatist, and a long-time volunteer who reads for the blind. In 1999 she was inducted into Peterborough's Pathway of Fame, and in 2006 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Showplace Performance Centre. In 2004 Gwen was one of 12 Calendar Girls who posed for the calendar that raised over $20,000 for flood relief.
"We're very proud to have Gwen Brown as part of our Bright Lights series," said Market Hall general manager Bill Kimball. "The combination of Gwen talking with Paul Wilson and performing with Paul Crough, will guarantee an evening of lively story-telling and inspiring performances."
Among the topics up for discussion on the program will be Gwen's memories of Peterborough before and during World War II and tales from the 1950s of Peterborough's earliest professional theatre, with such luminaries as Bill Hutt, Kate Reid, Anthony Perkins, Charmian King, and Gordon Pinsent. Much of the discussion will revolve around Ms. Brown's greatest accomplishments, which have been in the world of theatre: she helped to found the Peterborough Theatre Guild in 1965 and then directed its first play, Eugene O'Neil's Ah Wilderness. In the 1970s she performed professionally with Arbor Theatre. In the intervening years she has been an adjudicator, workshop leader, and lecturer, as well as actor and director for which she has won numerous awards. Well into her 80s, she continues to perform on stage. Her most recent major role came in 2006 in the St. James Players' world premiere of the Irish musical Slainte, and she still performs every year in Spring Tonic at Showplace.
For audience members who have somehow missed seeing Ms. Brown on
stage, the evening's program will be rounded out by a number of performances
from Gwen, accompanied by Paul Crough, of scenes and songs from plays
and musicals she has been in over the years (including Slainte),
as well as readings of some of her favourite poetry. And what would
a program of talking, singing and dancing be without a director? The
crucial role of staging the performances and directing the program
is being filled by one of Peterborough's most experienced theatre
directors, Gillian Wilson, whose latest production, The Chalk Garden,
is running at the Peterborough Theatre Guild to Nov. 8.
About Bright Lights
Bright Lights is a series of live
on-stage conversations with great artists who live in, or hail from,
the Peterborough area. Previous artists have included playwright Drew
Hayden Taylor, ballerina Evelyn Hart and composer R. Murray Schafer.
The series is based on Market Hall's Greatest
100 in the Performing Arts, a centennial project for the City
of Peterborough that named the 100 most outstanding performing artists
in its history.
Proceeds from Bright Lights events contribute to Market Hall's artistic
programming as well as to the Bright Lights Award, an educational
bursary given out at each event to a young artist working in the same
field as the featured guest.