{"id":19451,"date":"2017-12-20T14:45:16","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19451"},"modified":"2017-12-20T14:45:16","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:45:16","slug":"temple-of-fame-will-once-again-harness-the-power-of-local-women-100-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/temple-of-fame-will-once-again-harness-the-power-of-local-women-100-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple of Fame will once again harness the power of local women \u2013 100 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nA century ago, Aurora women were looking to their heroines.
\nIt was a dark time in our history. World War One was still raging, thousands of Canadians had died, and suffrage was still something being fought for.
\nBut where there is darkness, there is also light. By breathing life to their heroines \u2013 women who led empires, changed the world through the written word, or exercised everyday heroism in the raising of their children at home \u2013 they too were determined to shine a light onto the world around them.
\nThe result was The Temple of Fame, a stage play featuring monologues from women throughout history, all vying for a place in a pantheon of goddesses. Showcasing the acting prowess of many of Aurora\u2019s leading society lights, it was first mounted in 1900 and, with a few minor tweaks, mounted in 1918 for the Red Cross Auxiliary.
\n100 years later, thanks to a grant for the Federal Government, the play is being dusted off, modernized, and getting ready to be staged once again by the Aurora Museum & Archives.
\nSpearheaded by curator Shawna White and rewritten by Aurora-based actress Corrie Clark (Little Women, The Twilight Zone), it is ready to roll just in time for Mother\u2019s Day 2018 \u2013 but, in order to make it happen, they are looking for the acting talents from today\u2019s leading lights, women and men.
\nOpen auditions will be held at the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s Brevik Hall on Saturday, January 14, and the following Wednesday, January 17, open to all who are interested in lending a hand, whether it is taking on a stage roll, building a set, or even spreading the word.
\nThe curtain will rise at Trinity Anglican Church on Mother\u2019s Day Weekend, just a stone\u2019s throw from where it was originally mounted at Mechanic\u2019s Hall. Performances will take place on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and include special associated events with community partners, ranging from a Mother\u2019s Day Tea co-hosted by the Aurora Historical Society to a Women In Business Excellence reception co-hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce.
\n\u201cIn 2015, we were gifted the original scripts and a lot of materials [from historian John McIntyre] whose grandmother actually organized it in 1918, and we thought with 2018 being the 100th anniversary, let\u2019s remount it!\u201d says Ms. White.
\nThe original script for The Temple of Fame sees women, through a series of monologues, plead their respective cases to the Goddess on why they should be \u201ccrowned\u201d with fame and elevated to the temple.
\n\u201cBecause it had been updated from 1900 to 1918, we felt we had the creative license to be able to update it again,\u201d says Ms. White. \u201cCorrie was brought on board to update the script and we all thought it would probably be better for a modern audience to turn it into an actual play rather than a bunch of little speeches.\u201d
\nSome \u201cnew\u201d women have been added in, some of the previously featured women have been removed for issues that would today be best described as \u201cproblematic\u201d, all with a modern eye.
\n\u201cThe play itself was put on by women back then as a showcase of the achievements of women,\u201d says Ms. Clark. \u201cIt was a novel thing, but we\u2019re still struggling with the same issues. There are those issues that anyone who is courageous enough, whether it is for the abolition of slavery, involved in politics, or even inventors, they suffered greatly for it. I think women still suffer with having a sort of ego, and a voice too. If this play were a bunch of guys trying to get into the temple of fame, it would be like a big chariot match or a drag down fight. This is actually kind of a sporting event for women to be famous.\u201d
\nIn the larger context, 2018 will also mark 100 years since the Women\u2019s Movement hit its zenith in Canada. For Ms. White, the question on her mind is how much has actually changed in that intervening century.
\n\u201cWe tend to get a little complacent, although it is building up again, that in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, the Women\u2019s Movement was seen as something that happened in the 60s or earlier, \u2018feminism\u2019 was a dirty word,\u201d says Ms. White. \u201c[It is important] to see this wasn\u2019t just about women\u2019s rights, it\u2019s about equality for everyone. Whether you\u2019re male, female, trans, everyone should be treated fairly and equitably. This is focusing on women and that the struggle continues. There is a responsibility on every single person to do their part and everyone has a role in ensuring this is not left for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the upcoming auditions for The Temple of Fame, contact Shawna White at swhite@aurora.ca. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A century ago, Aurora women were looking to their heroines.
\nIt was a dark time in our history. World War One was still raging, thousands of Canadians had died, and suffrage was still something being fought for.
\nBut where there is darkness, there is also light. By breathing life to their heroines \u2013 women who led empires, changed the world through the written word, or exercised everyday heroism in the raising of their children at home \u2013 they too were determined to shine a light onto the world around them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19451","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\/12\/2017-12-21-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-53J","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 04:23:52","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\/19451","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=19451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}