Sunshine Sketches of our Little Towns

reviewed by Chava Field-Green | Nov 29, 2017

The North Frontenac Little Theatre showed presented an adorable collection of skits, songs and musical numbers last weekend. The heart of the show was seeing familiar faces, in memorable situations, all coming together. The News sat down with one of the most important people in the whole production, stage Manager and long time NFLT participant Margo McCullough. This was Margo’s 9th production with NFLT, her first as stage manager. Her only performing role, was that of a dancing tree in the Wizard of Oz.

“From the beginning, I thought, hey I can do this. I am so thankful that (Director) Brian Robertson asked me. He’s such an amazing, talented and well spoken person. I couldn’t say no. I feel more comfortable behind the scenes.”

The show started with an Indigenous story, grounding the show in the history of Frances and Mary Sharbot with drumming by Sisters of the Drum in front of a dreamy treeline set. The Sunshine Sketches takes a seasonal look at this area and those changes of season are represented by a 4 part quest for the perfect butter tart with Zeke from Zealand and Martha Stewpot, with a great cameo from David Yerxa selling Lion’s 50/50 draw tickets.

The First Act of the show was anchored by Autumn with the Wedding, a one act play written in North Frontenac that was put on 26 years ago in 1991. It is the story of a different kind of shotgun wedding, held during duck season, and it is still entertaining today even if some of the fashions of the times have changed.

Also in the first half, the cast showed off all of their singing, dancing, and musical talents with a rendition of the Log Driver’s Waltz, The Kick and Push and the Oklahoma inspired “Our Township Song” which includes the classic line “Where the granite’s steep, the soil’s not deep but something makes us call it home.”

The Second Act of the play took the audience through the winter months with the full cast singing The Snowmobile song, Two bearded blues brothers from Oso, a trip to the Treasure
Trunk, a good old hot tub soak and a classic wish for summer at the Cottage, a number from last year’s Turtle Crossings. The sketch about the inner working of meetings, The Ladies Committee was a hilarious piece which had four people playing committee members and four people dressed in black voicing the committee member’s thoughts. The cast finished off the night with The Frontenac County Anniversary Song written last year to commemorate 150 years of Frontenac County.

All in all it was a sweet event of community theatre, by the community, for the community and filled with maple sugar. The full interview with stage manager extraordinaire Margo McCullough will be posted shortly.