{"id":19213,"date":"2017-11-29T17:07:40","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19213"},"modified":"2017-11-29T17:07:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:07:40","slug":"sherlock-holmes-faces-identity-crisis-at-theatre-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/sherlock-holmes-faces-identity-crisis-at-theatre-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSherlock Holmes\u201d faces identity crisis at Theatre Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you introduce yourself?
\nYou start with your name, of course, but what\u2019s your next angle? Chances are, you follow up with what you do.
\nAurora resident Joey Ferguson, for instance, might come up, shake your hand and say, \u201cHi, I\u2019m Joey, and I\u2019m a teacher,\u201d but, he says, there\u2019s so much more to him than that.
\nSo too, there is much more to Sherlock Holmes than just solving a whodunit and, even more still for an actor who is nearing the end of his run living, breathing and portraying the fictional detective.
\nThat is the basis of the farce, \u201cThe Game\u2019s Afoot\u201d (or \u201cHolmes for the Holidays\u201d) which opens this Thursday at Theatre Aurora.
\nWritten by Ken Ludwig, the play is set in 1936 when Broadway star William Gillette, an actor who has become synonymous with Holmes himself, finds life imitating art when he\u2019s at the centre of a murder at his isolated Connecticut estate.
\n\u201cI first read the play about two years ago when I was on Theatre Aurora\u2019s play reading committee and instantly loved the show,\u201d says Mr. Ferguson, 25, who first became involved with Theatre Aurora through its youth program at the age of 16. \u201cIt is a holiday murder mystery farce with Broadway stars, fake blood, weapons and everything else you can expect. When I was away [teaching in the United Kingdom] I saw they needed a director, read through it again, realised I still loved it, and they were crazy enough to say yes.\u201d
\nWhile Mr. Ferguson has extensive experience directing actors in the youth program, this is his first time sitting in the director\u2019s chair for an adult production for the theatre company which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year.
\nMr. Ferguson says he was drawn to the play for its humour \u2013 he has never directed a comedy before, so he was getting out of his comfort zone to try something new.
\n\u201cWhat I liked is it is more than just a simple farce where you laugh and you go,\u201d he explains. \u201cI felt this story actually had a message behind it. It is more about identity. Gillette is now trying to figure out who he is and Sherlock Holmes is so engrained in his life. \u2018Who am I?\u2019 is the major factor in this show. [Each actor] has their persona and the way people look at them but we find out during the show that they\u2019re not all maybe who they seem to be, that maybe there is a lot more depth to them.\u201d
\nMaking the leap from youth shows to the adult leagues is a big one, but a natural one for Mr. Ferguson. Tasked with his first full-scale production at Theatre Aurora, he says he wanted something \u201cextravagant\u201d to really play up the grandiose existence of his main character.
\nThere were a lot of aspects he says he had to \u201cwrap his head around\u201d but he has relished the challenge.
\n\u201cI thought at first it would be very different, but I don\u2019t know if it is just the actors I cast, but they are all children essentially!\u201d he jokes. \u201cThe fact I can trust them to go on stage willing to make fools of themselves, willing to try crazy things and willing to give me crazy things to try all ends up working together. They are not as conscious of what people are thinking; they are really willing to explore all those characters and explore the story.\u201d
\nDespite starting in theatre at such a young age, Mr. Ferguson says he is drawn back time and time again because there is always a new challenge to explore. He grew up in the theatre, he says, and, in turn, the theatre has grown as well.
\nBoth have had a lot of growing up to do and have come into their own \u2013 and those are the themes Mr. Ferguson would like audiences to explore as they relax for a laugh.
\n\u201cI want everyone to have a good time and I think they will \u2013 but I want them to think beyond their own lives and who we are as persons. We typically introduce ourselves by our job, \u2018Hi, I\u2019m Joey, and I\u2019m a teacher.\u2019 However, that is not really who I am. If I were to list 10 things about me, one might be a teacher but that is not really me. Who are we really?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Game\u2019s Afoot (or Holmes for the Holidays) opens Thursday, November 30, running on select dates and times through December 9. For tickets and further information, call Theatre Aurora at 905-727-3669 or visit www.theatreaurora.com.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you introduce yourself?
\nYou start with your name, of course, but what\u2019s your next angle? Chances are, you follow up with what you do.
\nAurora resident Joey Ferguson, for instance, might come up, shake your hand and say, \u201cHi, I\u2019m Joey, and I\u2019m a teacher,\u201d but, he says, there\u2019s so much more to him than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-30-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4ZT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 13:58:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}