Jeff Green | Oct 01, 2015


Joelle Parr and Dayna Stone received Student Achievement awards; Tom and Eileen Christensen received Certificates of Merit; and Sarah Hale received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Frontenac Little Theatre (NFLT) last week.

The NFLT held its annual version of an awards show at their practice space in Tichborne last Saturday (September 26).

The hall, a converted church, was decked out for the occasion. There was wine, beer, punch and fancy finger foods, and many in attendance were dressed as if for the Doras. If it were not for the fact that the hall is serviced by an outhouse out back, it would have been the same as a fancy award show in Toronto or New York.

The afternoon was structured around videotaped interviews with the winners that were conducted by NFLT President Brian Robertson, who seemed to be channelling the late, great Brian Lineham in the videos.

The first recipient was Joelle Parr. Joelle has been involved in most of the productions where there are youth in the cast over the last seven or eight years, and most recently starred in Aladdin and Music Man. She has also been the student representative on the NFLT board.

She said that she has felt supported in all the productions she has been in, and also that she appreciates the role of student representative on the board because it gives her a sense that the younger members of the NFLT family have a say in what the NFLT does. When she was presented, live and in person, with a plaque and flowers, she gave a special thank you to her mother for encouraging her, and driving her to rehearsals, year after year.

Dayna Stone started acting in NFLT productions as a six-year-old in Oliver. She was a mainstay at NFLT for several years afterwards, acting in The Wizard of Oz, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Tom Sawyer. In 2012 she played the title role in Annie. In her interview she talked about all that she learned by acting with adults as a child, and about the acting she has done in Perth during and after her years with the Little Theatre. She is enrolled in a Theatre, Community and education Program at the University of Windsor.

In NFLT plays there always seems to be a role for Tom Christensen. He has played either a policeman, a fireman, a bouncer or a drunk in most of the productions over the last 17 years, and at the cast parties he has presented each cast member with a wood-burning of the play's program cover as a memento. Eileen has always come along with Tom to rehearsals and performances and each time she has ended up helping with the production in one way or another.

Sarah Hale said she looked at her lifetime achievement recognition as an award for her family as much as herself. She initially got involved because her daughter Julia was interested, and brought her late husband Lorne along for the ride. Lorne liked to sing more than he liked to act, although Sarah said playing the Mad Hatter in Alice in Theatreland in 1989 was a role he enjoyed. Sarah has been in many productions over almost 30 years, and has directed a number of productions as well. As her interview was being screened, there was a surprise cut to a short clip from her daughter Julia, now a teacher in Columbia, who talked about how much the Little Theatre had meant to her when she was young.

Over the years Sarah, an elder and lay preacher with the United Church in Arden, has played several nasty characters.

“I think it is good for a church elder to play an evil character on stage once in while,” she said. “Besides, it is so much fun.”

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