Fourth time lucky! Islanders finally got to see Bowen’s finest in The Winter’s Tale the past two weekends, after three earlier attempts to go public with the play were torpedoed by Covid-19.
Thanks are due to the coronavirus for staying away this time, and to the electrical grid for failing right after the play rather than during. Thanks to Scott Stevenson for saving the final performance by clearing snow from Carter Road and parking areas, and to all the actors who shovelled and salted the stairs and footpaths, and all the actors who toiled for hours to build and then dismantle the stage and set.
And you the audiences who defied the February elements to come to see us and allow the Bard on the Rock Players to share the story with you.
Thanks to stage managers Jessica Wright and Maureen Sawasy, to lighting and lightning ace Ian Davidson, to Trevor Tunnacliffe for composing, performing and recording the Elizabethan music, to Jon Ritchie for the sound gear, to the wonderful Catherine Epps and her wonderful crew at Cates Pharmacy for handling ticket sales, to Kat Stevens for putting together the poster and programs, to Frazer Elliott for making many programs from one, to Sue Ritchie, Nancy Cox, Sasha McWilliam, Drew Hart, Lynn Williams, Sheilagh Sparks and Jeb Gutelius for taking those tickets at the theatre, to Sue Ritchie for baking all the intermission goodies, to Cates Hill Chapel for allowing us to build a theatre in its inspiring space, to Island Pacific School for giving us the actors’ green room, to the Little Red Church for letting us rehearse in the cosily evocative Collins Hall, to Marolyn Anderson for her prized basket and Ros Leggatt for turning it into the starring bassinet, and to Bruce Steele for his excellent photography.
Last but definitely not least, thanks to Shirley Wrinch, First Lady of Bowen Theatre, for her beautiful costumes, without which we’d be a sorry-looking lot. With gratitude,
- Graham Ritchie
