Alight at Night lights up Eastern Ontario

 

 Last year they were caught by surprise.

This year, however, Upper Canada Playhouse artistic director, Donnie Bowes, and his staff were prepared to cope with the rush of people taking advantage of their pre-season tickets and flex pass sales. The new season of musicals and plays at the Playhouse was officially announced on Monday, November 4.

“Just like last year, people were lined up outside the theatre door by 8:15 a.m.,” Bowes said, “and our box office didn’t even open until 10 a.m. It is simply amazing.”

Judging by the response to the launch of the new season last year, staff at the Playhouse will probably be swamped for at least two days, and the phone calls and walk-ins will be strong for a good two weeks. Bowes indicated that as many as 50 per cent of the tickets for the season are often sold before December. And the Playhouse Flex Pass continues to be very popular with purchasers.

This year Bill Halman, of Variety 104.5 and CJSS, was on air live, broadcasting from the box office of the Playhouse.

“Shows here at the Playhouse are fantastic,” Halman said. “It’s great for Corus Entertainment to sponsor some of them.”

Audiences have an exciting, hilarious and star-studded line-up to look forward to in the new season.

“I like to announce our new season before the old one is completely over,” Bowes said. “Our audiences like to ‘look at life through a comic lens,’ so two of our summer shows will be very popular farces, A Bedfull of Foreigners and Lend Me A Tenor, which feature jam-packed hilarity on stage.

And Norm Foster, Canada’s most popular and renowned playwright is bringing The Ladies’ Foursome to the Playhouse for our second show.”

Foster’s hugely successful play, The Foursome, has left audiences asking for a sequel for 20 years. 

“Norm called us this summer, said he was currently writing the sequel, and asked if we would like to premier the production,” Bowes laughed. “Well, did we ever! We are thrilled to be staging the debut of an original, exciting Norm Foster comedy.”

Foster himself will be starring in the fourth production of the 2014 season, On A First Name Basis, a spectacular show which has played to sold out tours in Canada and Florida.

And that’s just the main summer season at the Playhouse!

Coming in April will be the musical revue, Memories of Summer Love, by Chris McHarge and Colin Stewart, a blockbuster homage to the music of the 1960s, and, in October, their Memories of Rock & Roll is sure to have Playhouse crowds cheering.

And for the final show of the 2014 season, the theatre is offering actor/playwright Jesse Collins’ new play, Lights, Camera, Christmas!, an hilarious and heart-warming musical story  set around the making of a 1970’s Christmas Variety Show. 

“Hopefully this will be a season audiences will really enjoy. A real balance of plays and different types of comedy,” said Bowes. “We feel we have a good idea what our audiences want to see.”

[…]

 

A sewer use bylaw for South Dundas is in the works.

“This could be a very significant document,” said Todd Grant of AECOM who is working on drafting the document that aims to protect the sewer collection system from extraneous inflow by providing legal grounds for the elimination of improper connections.

An example of an improper connection would be a sump pump connection into the sanitary sewer system. 

These types of connections are believed to exist within the villages of South Dundas, and may be partially to blame for the extreme amounts of water that have overtaxed the waste water treatment plants during large rainfall events in the past.

Many municipalities already have sewer use bylaws in place. 

Grant explained to South Dundas council at the October 15 meeting that this document members of council are presently reviewing is not re-inventing the wheel. 

The current draft of the bylaw is similar to that of six municipalities much like South Dundas. 

Protecting the sewer collection system from corrosion, damage and obstruction, and protecting the wastewater treatment process from upset are the primary objectives of the bylaw. 

According to Grant, having this bylaw in place has the potential to improve the operational efficiency of the wastewater treatment plants by improving the influent quality and reducing influent inflows.

The draft document has been circulated to council for comment. 

It too will undergo a legal review before being presented to the public for input. After the public consultation process the document will require council acceptance before it becomes law. 

While the implementation of this bylaw has no financial implications for the municipality, this bylaw could be costly for some homeowners, where illegal connections do exist. They would be on the hook for costs associated with eliminating those illegal connections.

[…]

  Brent Christie of Prescott was not expecting a phone call from Iroquois on Wednesday, June 22. However, the employee of Prescott Building Centre (where he purchased his ticket from an Iroquois fire department member) […]