{"id":27027,"date":"2020-07-16T17:53:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27027"},"modified":"2020-07-16T17:53:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T21:53:19","slug":"local-theatres-team-up-for-virtual-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/local-theatres-team-up-for-virtual-gala\/","title":{"rendered":"Local theatres team up for virtual gala"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is likely a long wait before theatre fans can enjoy the\nthrill of experiencing a play or a musical together under the same vaulted\nroof, but local theatrical companies are coming together for a virtual show\nintended to be a shot-in-the-arm for Aurora\u2019s arts scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Saturday, July 25, Marquee Theatrical Productions\nand Theatre Aurora will host One Stage Live, a virtual arts fundraiser to\nsupport both organizations which have been hurting since the COVID-19 pandemic\nforced them to shut their doors just prior to March Break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A combination of live and pre-recorded performances, the\nvirtual gala will take place 7 p.m., streaming directly through Marquee\u2019s\nYouTube channel @marqueetp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea came from our Board of Directors [and we\nstarted planning] by watching YouTube videos of other groups who have done\nsimilar things \u2013 now we\u2019re trying our version of it,\u201d says Marquee\u2019s Sheryl\nThomas. \u201cThe live portion will be broadcast from Theatre Aurora\u2019s lobby with\ntwo hosts, and we have the artist Dube who will be doing his life painting. We\nhave pre-recorded performances by various artists who belong to both groups, so\nit will be a two-hour show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the performances, there will also be\nculinary demonstrations \u2013 of a sort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewers will be walked through the creation of a cocktail\nby a very special mixologist, representing a show that is a favourite of\nMarquee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The special mixologist is under wraps, but the name of\nthe cocktail, \u201cThe Time Warp\u201d, should be something of a teaser!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, this is a telethon,\u201d says Ms. Thomas. \u201cWe\u2019re\nasking people to visit our new webpage onestagelive.com and there is a donate\nbutton there and proceeds will be split 50\/50 between Marquee and Theatre\nAurora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since COVID-19 forced the closure of Marquee\u2019s three\nIndustrial Parkway North-based studios in the middle of March, the experience\nhas been \u201chorrible\u201d for the company, she says. They lost 30 performances at the\nend of their season, which was a huge blow to the dozens of young and seasoned\nactors, as well as crew, who had put in innumerable hours of work to get to\nthat point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, their hugely successful March Break\nprograms were scuttled and their summer camp programs have been greatly\nimpacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both initiatives are \u201ca huge bloodline\u201d for Marquee,\naccording to Ms. Thomas and having to run at an extremely limited capacity is\nhurting not only their bottom line, but the mental health of participants, for\nwhom such camps are an invaluable creative outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer camp programs usually welcome 60 campers each day.\nLast Friday morning, they were able to welcome just 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can tell you the feedback we are getting from parents,\nI had an email from a parent today who was very worried about her child\u2019s\nmental health and the anxiety that was coming just from this situation and\nhaving to be at home all the time,\u201d says Ms. Thomas. \u201cThey were very thankful\nwe actually did open our doors and we\u2019re taking every precaution as per the\nguidelines we need to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, every cloud has a silver lining and Ms. Thomas says\nshe believes that the situation has underscored to many the importance that\narts and culture programs have on communities like Aurora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know what you have until you don\u2019t have it\nanymore,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople have been saying, \u2018that\u2019s it for theatre, it ain\u2019t\ngonna happen anymore\u2019 and some people are hanging onto the hope it will come\naround again. It will probably be a while, but we\u2019re going to roll with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, what I will remember about [the height of the pandemic] is how people came together just to keep everything going. I know I have worked very hard at it, but those who took part in what we tried to offer, we learned as we went along. Some people were patient with it, some people didn\u2019t understand why we had to take the measures we did. It is interesting, but I am just so thankful for the people who requested that we continue to do what we did, even if it was just online, because it was the only normalcy they had in their kids\u2019 life. Even though it was on a Zoom call, they at least got to see their friends again and have fun that way. The vote of confidence from the parents speaks volumes to what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is likely a long wait before theatre fans can enjoy the thrill of experiencing a play or a musical together under the same vaulted roof, but local theatrical companies are coming together for a virtual show intended to be a shot-in-the-arm for Aurora\u2019s arts scene. Next Saturday, July 25, Marquee Theatrical Productions and Theatre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27007,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2020-07-16-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-71V","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 22:38:40","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\/27027","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=27027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}