Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit

A Sparkling Supernatural Comedy

June 17 - July 16
Springer Theatre

"It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked
by honesty and how few by deceit."

 

 

 

By Noël Coward
Produced in association with Western Canada Theatre, Kamloops, BC
Directed by Ashlie Corcoran

  • Noël Coward’s ghostly romp is a riotous comedy that has delighted audiences around the world.

    Socialite and novelist Charles has invited the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to his house as research for his next book. But when her séance proves successful, Charles’ marriage is suddenly in jeopardy as he is haunted by the ghost of his first wife. While Charles aims to get rid of the ghost, she is hard at work trying to get rid of his new wife! Laughter meets the supernatural in this magical comedy of manners.

    “A highly efficient laugh machine…”
    - New York Times

    “Outrageous frivolity…”
    - The Daily Telegraph


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  • Springer Theatre Logo

    Playing at the Springer Theatre
    from June 17 - July 16

    Springer Theatre Performance Times
    All Tuesday performances start at 7:30 pm
    Wednesday to Saturday at 8:00 pm
    Matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 pm (starting the Sunday after opening)

    Running Time: 2 hours with intermission

  • Cast

    Krista Colosimo - Ruth
    Shannon Currie - Elvira
    Stephen Gartner - Charles
    Kelsey Gilker - Edith
    Janet Michael - Mrs. Bradman
    Christopher Weddell - Doctor Bradman
    Anita Wittenberg - Madame Arcati

    Creative

    Director - Ashlie Corcoran
    Set & Costume Designer - Dana Osborne
    Lighting Designer - Oz Weaver
    Composer & Sound Designer - Christopher Stanton
    Stage Manager - Isabelle Ly
    Dialect Coach - Alison Deon
    Assistant Director - Jason Hall
    Assistant Stage Manager - Natasha Bean-Smith
    Production Assistant - Josh Thomas
    Apprentice Director - Marta McDonald



    NATASHA BEAN-SMITH
    ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

    For the Playhouse: Dear Johnny Deere, The Ugly One, Salt-Water Moon
    Elsewhere: Orpheus and Eurydice, The Magic Flute, Der Freischütz (Opera Atelier); Billy Elliot the Musical (Mirvish Productions). As Stage Manager: Within the Glass, The Bakelite Masterpiece (Tarragon Theatre); Macbeth: Walking Shadows, Richard III, Two Gents (Shakespeare in the Ruff); Durango (Theatre Smash/fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company); Das Ding (The Thing), The Ugly One (Theatre Smash), Concert Manager for Tafelmusik; Tour Manager for Opera Atelier’s residency at the Opéra Royal, Château de Versailles, France (2012, 2014, 2015).
    Upcoming: Das Ding (The Thing) (TIP/Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage); Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare in the Ruff); Dido and Aeneas (Opera Atelier).

    Natasha is a graduate of the Performance Production program at Ryerson University.

    KRISTA COLOSIMO
    RUTH

    For the Playhouse: Don’t Dress for Dinner, Boeing Boeing
    Elsewhere: On Top (Tarragon Theatre); Don’t Dress for Dinner (WTC/Gateway Theatre); The Seagull (Segal Centre); Boeing Boeing (WTC); Misalliance, His Girl Friday, When the Rain Stops Falling, Candida, The Doctor’s Dilemma, The Entertainer (Shaw Festival), Ivor Johnson’s Neighbours (Theatre North West), The Penelopiad (Nightwood 4x4 Directors Lab).

    Krista is a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada Acting Program.

    ASHLIE CORCORAN
    DIRECTOR

    For the Playhouse: Artistic Director since November 1, 2012. Director for: The Pirates of Penzance, Don’t Dress For Dinner, Bed & Breakfast, Dear Johnny Deere, The Ugly One, She Loves Me, Driving Miss Daisy, Salt-Water Moon, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Third Floor
    Elsewhere: As Director: Mustard (Tarragon Theatre); Das Ding (The Thing) (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage); Durango (Theatre Smash/fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company); The Gay Heritage Project (Buddies in Bad Times); The Ugly One (Theatre Smash/Tarragon Theatre); The Magic Flute (Opera Philadelphia); Don Giovanni, Le Lauréat, Three Sisters Who are Not Sisters (The Glenn Gould School, RCM);The Bremen Town Musicians, Operation Superpower, The Brothers Grimm, Isis and The Seven Scorpions, Cinderella, The Bear (Canadian Opera Company); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Western Canada Theatre). As Artistic Producer & Director: Tiny Dynamite, Tijuana Cure, A Boy Called Newfoundland (Theatre Smash).
    Upcoming: Into the Woods, Das Ding (The Thing) (TIP); Second Nature, The Magic Flute (COC); Kiss (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage); Bed & Breakfast (Centaur Theatre).

    http://www.1000islandsplayhouse.com/ashlie-corcoran/

    SHANNON CURRIE
    ELVIRA

    For the Playhouse: Dear Johnny Deere, Waiting for the Parade
    Elsewhere: The Seagull (Segal Centre); Iceland (Why Not Theatre); It’s A Wonderful Life, Boeing Boeing, The Mousetrap (Theatre Aquarius); The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival); Doubt (Sudbury Theatre Centre); King Lear, The Comedy of Errors (Driftwood Theatre); The Life of Jude (Summerworks Festival). Film & TV: Saving Hope (CTV); Warehouse 13 (SyFy); Falling for Caroline (Inside/Out Festival).

    Shannon holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor and is a graduate of the Acting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada.

    ALISON DEON
    DIALECT COACH

    For the Playhouse: Dialect coach for Educating Rita. As an actor: Don’t Dress For Dinner, The Importance of Being Earnest, Boeing Boeing, Somewhere Beyond The Sea
    Elsewhere: Dialect coach for Fishskin Trousers (Cart/Horse); Mary’s Wedding (Golden Apple). As an actor: The Railway Children (Mirvish); The Little Years, The 39 Steps (Magnus); Romeo and Juliet, The Secret Garden (Resurgence); The Shape of a Girl (First Light); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Touchmark); The Miser (Sudbury Theatre Centre); Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, London Assurance (Stratford).

    Alison is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre School. She also works as a Teaching Artist for the Stratford Festival and Shakespeare in Action.

    STEPHEN GARTNER 
    CHARLES CONDOMINE 

    For the Playhouse: Debut 
    Elsewhere (selected): Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cymbeline, Don Juan, Henry V (Stratford Festival – Seven Seasons); Great Expectations, The Comedy of Errors, Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet (Neptune Theatre); The Misanthrope (Tarragon Theatre); Robin Hood, Mary Poppins (Globe Theatre); Macbeth, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Hobbit, Yankee Tavern (Grand Theatre); My Zinc Bed (BeMe Theatre - Munich). Film & TV: Reign (CW Network), Abroad (CBC - Pilot), The Incredible Hulk (Marvel), Blythe & Virginia (Shaftsbury). 

    Stephen is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and Stratford’s Birmingham Conservatory.

    KELSEY GILKER
    EDITH

    For the Playhouse: Debut
    Elsewhere: The Shakespeare Show, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, The Last of the Dragons, Romeo and Juliet, James and the Giant Peach (Project X Theatre); Making Contact (Chimera Theatre); Liberation Days (Theatre Calgary/Western Canada Theatre); Silent Chap (Western Canada Theatre); The Shadow Circus (Western Canada Theatre’s High-Wire Festival); Village of Idiots, Antigone, The Tempest (Thompson Rivers University)

    Kelsey is a Betty Mitchell Award Nominee and Emerging Artist Award Winner from Kamloops, BC. She is a graduate of the Theatre Arts program at Thompson Rivers University. Kelsey would like to thank her incredible family for their constant support.

    JASON HALL
    ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

    For the Playhouse: Playwright of Violet’s the Pilot, Rose’s Clothes, Third Floor
    Elsewhere: A First Class Death (Vault Festival, UK); 21 Things You Should Know About Toronto’s Crack-Smoking Mayor (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Match (Company of Angels/Latitude Festival, UK); Third Floor (Summerworks/Lower Ossington Theatre); Stand Sentry (Rhubarb Festival/Buddies In Bad Times Theatre); GBS (Toronto Fringe Festival/Theatre 503, UK); Eyes Catch Fire (Finborough Theatre, UK).
    Upcoming: Jason is currently adapting his stage play GBS into a feature-length screenplay. He will also be the Assistant Director for Into the Woods and A Grand Time in the Rapids for the Playhouse’s 2016 season.

    Jason is a lecturer in Playwriting at Brunel University, London, UK.

    ISABELLE LY
    STAGE MANAGER

    For the Playhouse: Eleventh season, credits include Tuesdays With Morrie, Driving Miss Daisy, Boeing Boeing
    Elsewhere: Five seasons with Western Canada Theatre; Mary Poppins (WCT/Persephone Theatre); Mockingbird (Next Stage Theatre Festival); Infinity (Volcano Theatre/Tarragon Theatre); Palace of the End (Canadian Stage); The Eco Show, Insomnia (Necessary Angel); What Lies Before Us (Crow’s Theatre/Canadian Stage); Interim School Technical Coordinator and rehearsal ASM on the world premiere of Going Home Star - Truth and Reconciliation (Royal Winnipeg Ballet).
    Upcoming: A Grand Time in the Rapids (TIP); remount and regional tour of Infinity (Volcano Theatre/Tarragon Theatre).

    Isabelle is a Toronto-based stage manager and graduate of the drama department at Queen’s University. On top of stage managing, she has held various marketing and public relations positions with Thousand Islands Playhouse, The Corporation of Roy Thomson and Massey Hall, Nightwood Theatre, Soundstreams, and the Luminato Festival.

    MARTA MCDONALD
    APPRENTICE DIRECTOR

    For the Playhouse: Actor in Anne & Gilbert, Anne of Green Gables, The Music Man
    Elsewhere: Spring Awakening (Theatre Mies); Lilies (Queen’s University Drama Department); The Threepenny Opera (Queen’s University Drama Department); Steel Magnolias (5th Company Lane); Counter Service (Queen’s University Drama Department).

    Marta works as the Box Office Manager here at the Thousand Islands Playhouse. For the past year, Marta has been working as an Artistic Intern at the Playhouse under Ashlie Corcoran and Rob Kempson. Thank you to Ashlie for the opportunity to be a part of this process, and to everyone in Administration and the Box Office Staff for your support!

    JANET MICHAEL
    MRS. BRADMAN

    For the Playhouse: Waiting for the Parade
    Elsewhere: Waiting for the Parade (Western Canada Theatre); Noises Off! (WCT); Sexy Laundry (Richmond Gateway Theatre); No Great Mischief (Vancouver Playhouse); Wit (WCT); Joan Henry (Caravan Farm Theatre); If We Are Women (WCT); Hot Flashes (Sunshine Theatre); Witness for the Prosecution (WCT); Atlantis (Workshop West); Romeo and Juliet (Richmond Gateway Theatre); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rocky Mountain Shakespeare); The Hostage (Belfry Theatre); Dancing at Lughnasa (New Bastion Theatre).
    Upcoming: A recording of original songs based on Newfoundland themes.

    Janet very recently debuted her first play Habib’s Unforgettable All Night House Party, produced by Resource Centre for the Arts in Newfoundland and Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops, BC.

    DANA OSBORNE
    SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

    For The Playhouse: Bed and Breakfast, The Importance of Being Earnest, Boeing Boeing
    Elsewhere (selected): Costume Design: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, All My Sons, Possible Worlds, Carousel (Stratford); The Barber of Seville (Pacific Opera); Parfumerie (Soulpepper). Set Design: Jacob Two Two and the Hooded Fang (YPT). Set and Costume Designs: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Soulpepper); To Kill A Mockingbird (YPT)
    Upcoming: Father Comes Home From the War (Soulpepper); You are Here: A New Musical (TIP); Joni Mitchell - River (Grand Theatre); 2017 Season (Stratford & Shaw)

    www.danaosborne.ca

    CHRISTOPHER STANTON
    COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER

    For the Playhouse: Tuesdays With Morrie
    Elsewhere: Gertrude & Alice (Buddies In Bad Times); Mustard (Tarragon Theatre); El Refugio de Freidel (Aluna/Progress Festival); Possible Worlds (Stratford/Talk Is Free /BeMe Munich); Ajax & Little Iliad (World Stage/Brisbane Festival/Dublin Fringe/Wiener Festwochen); Jacob & Nova (Dancemakers); New Electric Ballroom (MacKenzieRo); Gruesome Playground Injuries (BirdLand); The Tin Drum, Minotaur (UnSpun).

    Chris has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards as a performer (winning in 2011), five as a sound designer, and two as a director. He was also nominated for a Pauline McGibbon award for his work as a director. Chris is the Artistic Producer of the Toronto-based indie theatre performance company ARC.

    JOSH THOMAS
    PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

    For the Playhouse: Debut

    Josh started his career as a production assistant at TIP in 2014. Over the last three seasons, he has worked closely with the Playhouse’s lighting crew. Blithe Spirit is the first time he has worked directly with a production. Josh will be studying theatre production at Sheridan College in the fall.

    OZ WEAVER
    LIGHTING DESIGNER

    For the Playhouse: Don’t Dress for Dinner, The Importance of Being Earnest
    Elsewhere: Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well (Canadian Stage); Mamma Mia! (Drayton Entertainment); Passage & Idiom (Kemi Contemporary Dance Projects – Canadian Tour); Glenn Gould Prize Jury Gala (The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts); The Whole Shebang (Dreamwalker Dance Company); Don Giovanni (Koerner Hall)

    Oz is a Toronto-based lighting designer, production manager, and producer who has helped create over seventy-five shows. He has been nominated for a Brickenden Award, and has won two Dish Awards for his designs of Into the Woods and Phantom of the Opera. He is currently also the Executive Director & Producer for The Dietrich Group with Artistic Direction by D.A. Hoskins.

    CHRISTOPHER WEDDELL
    DOCTOR BRADMAN

    For the Playhouse: Debut
    Elsewhere: Waiting For Godot (Kaspar Theatre, Prague); Noises Off! (WCT/Chemainus); The Importance Of Being Earnest (Persephone/WCT); Augustine (Big Hysteria) (Pink Ink)
    Upcoming: The Collector (Artists Collective Theatre)

    Christopher is a graduate of the Playhouse Acting School, and has played on stages in Europe and Canada. He is a founding member and past Artistic Associate of the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival.

    ANITA WITTENBERG
    MADAME ARCATI

    For the Playhouse: Waiting for the Parade, Boeing Boeing
    Elsewhere (selected): In A Blue Moon, Circle Mirror Transformation (Arts Club); Noises Off!, A Christmas Story, Wit (Western Canada Theatre); The Heiress, Hay Fever, Candida, Enchanted April, Lost in Yonkers (Chemainus Theatre Festival); Ethan Claymore (The Belfry); Patron Saint of Stanley Park (Theatre Northwest); Mourning Dove, Agnes of God (Pacific Theatre).
    Upcoming: Anita is returning to the Playhouse in August for In A Blue Moon.

    Anita is delighted to be back in Gananoque and hopes everyone enjoys the show!

  • Photos

    Photos by Stephen Wild.

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    Videos

    Click image to watch video!

    [embed width="640" height="360"]https://youtu.be/pA3SDdhCKAY[/embed]

     

    [embed width="640" height="360"]https://youtu.be/HQU3xZATojs[/embed]

     

  • Press

    Theatre Review: "Blithe Spirit" at the 1000 Islands Playhouse
    North Country Public Radio. June 27, 2016
    If you enjoy Noel Coward’s comedies as much as I do, get over to the 1000 Islands Playhouse and see their terrific production of “Blithe Spirit.” Director Ashlie… Read More

    Blithe Spirit cast delivers stellar performance
    Kingston Whig Standard. June 24, 2016
    The classic Noel Coward comedy, written at the conclusion of the Second World War, is considered to be one of his best and this adaptation at the Thousand… Read More

    Blithe Spirit: Theater Review
    WWNY TV Fox News. June 21, 2016
    Blithe Spirit, when it first appeared on the London stage in 1941, was one of iconic Noel Coward's greatest commercial successes.  Since then it continues to be… Read More 

    Theatre is the Voice
    Alicia Jessup Blog. June 20, 2016
    A quick witty comedy, Blithe Spirit is sure to charm audiences at the Thousand Islands Playhouse… Read More

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