Sugar and Spice at St Andrews June 29th/2012

Bottle Tree Productions and St Andrews Presbyterian Church present Sugar and Spice; a night of musical fun June 29^th/2012

St. Andrews' Presbyterian Church and Bottle Tree Productions will be offering a series of Coffee Houses for young performers. The first is on June 29 @ 7:30 pm. This is a musical Coffee House (the next one will be for Improv!) and it promises to be a great evening.

Sugar and Spice features some great young Kingston musicians. 

We are pleased to receive financial support from Empire Life. Empire Life has made a big commitment to  the arts in Kingston. 

Sugar and Spice performers include.                                   

Audrey Robinson
Amanda Verner

Dana Lynn Farrel
Khira Wieting

Allyson Foster

Sara Sturgeon

Eric Sturgeon

Nathan Lappan

Aquatic Fire

11 am

                                                             Amanda Verner/Sugar and Spice

                                                                                             

Admission is just $5.00 per person. Refreshments, including a mocktail bar will be served in the adjoining hall, and if you bring a non-perishable food item for the Kingston Street Mission, we will give you one free beverage. Cafe Church provides the coffee. Lattes will be served.

Sugar and Spice at St. Andrews is a great opportunity for young musicians, singers, soloists and bands to come out and perform for friends, family and the Kingston community. Proceeds benefit St. Andrews music fund and Bottle Tree Productions' "The Sound of Music". Support Kingston's young musicians, support the Kingston Street Mission, support St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and support Bottle Tree Productions by coming to Sugar and Spice.

For further information contact Bottle Tree Productions at 613-384-8433 or email us at info@bottletreeinc.com, or check out our website at www.bottletreeinc.com.

Second City Workshops in Kingston

Second City has a long and storied history in comedy. Started over 50 years ago in Chicago in America's second city, with training centres now set up in LA  and Toronto, this funny bone factory has churned out a long list of famous alumni. Canadians of course know Dan Akroyd, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Colin Mochry, Ryan Stiles, Joe Flaherty, Mike Myers and many more. As a country Canada has some of the best paid comedians in the world. When you are living next to a big bully, when you are a mouse living next to an elephant you either learn to make the big guy laugh, or get running shoes.

Agents in Toronto will often recommend that young would be actors go to Second City workshops to develop their Improv skills. Important for any kind of acting. Of course; packing up the van and heading to Toronto for a day can cost a lot in time effort and money.

So why not bring Second City here? So we decided to bring them in for workshops on April 28th. Kingston has a vast talent pool of funny kids. Check out the high school Improv games some time. This is a very affordable workshop in time effort and money. Morning workshops will be geared to grade eights and under. Afternoon workshops will be geared to highschool-aged kids. Cost is only 45 dollars plus hst.

Limit is 25 kids/workshop. Details below. To register please go to Second City Workshops


Saturday April 28
@ St.Andrew's Presbyterian Church
Clergy and Princess
**LIMIT OF 25 participants per group**
$45.00 + hst
10:30 - 12:30  - Intermediate Group (7 - 14 years old, and not above Grade 8)
1:30 - 3:30 - Senior Group (14 - 17 years old, AND grade 9 and up)

Bottle Tree Productions Musical Theatre Class presents Disney's Aladdin

Bottle Tree's Musical Theatre class presents Disney's Aladdin at the Octave Theatre on Dalton Avenue Saturday March 24th; 4 pm and 7 pm, and Sunday  March 25th; 4 pm and 7 pm. Tickets are $10 for children and students, $12 for seniors and $15 for adults. Customers can purchase tickets online at Bottle Tree Productions.

A very talented cast of Kingston youth star in what is one of Disney's finest musical offerings.


This musical has all the Songs from the Disney film including "Arabian Nights," "One Jump Ahead," "Friend Like Me," "Prince Ali," and "A Whole New World,

The characters in the stage musical version of the film include

Aladdin
Princess Jasmine
Genie
Narrators 1-5
Jafar
Iago
Sultan
Razoul
Magic Carpet
Guards
Attendants
Prince Baba of Ganoush
Prince Dahdu Rahn-Rahn
(The) Prince Formerly Known as the Artist
Townspeople

Film info

Aladdin was released in 1992. Aladdin was the 31st animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, It was directed by John Musker and Ron Clements.

17 year old Scott Weinger made a homemade audition tape with his mother playing the Genie, 6 months later, he won the role of Aladdin.

In 1988, lyricist Howard Ashman pushed the idea of an animated musical adaptation of Aladdin to Disney. Composer Alan Menken and songwriters Howard Ashman and Tim Rice worked on the music.

Aladdin won two academy awards. for, best Original Score and Best Original Song for "A Whole New World"

Slings and Arrows

Slings and Arrows is a Canadian television series about the theatre starring Paul Gross as Geoffrey Tennant, director at a thinly-disguised Stratford Festival called the New Burbage Festival. Slings and Arrows appear in Hamlet's famous To be or not to be monologue. Richard Burbage was Shakespeare's leading actor and Burbage's father had built the Globe Theatre in London.

Slings and Arrows was introduced to me by Jacob James a couple of years ago and I watched a couple of episodes and then my daughter recently brought the whole 3 season set back with her for the Holidays. Both Jacob and my daughter have acted so they loved the series. They had in fact played Romeo and Juliet together on stage at The Grand Theatre in Kingston, Ontario.

This show is brilliantly written by former Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney, playwright and actress Susan Coyne, and comedian Bob Martin.(of Drowsy Chaperone fame)


The insights into theatre, both of the creative and the personal nature are bang on. Having directed three of the plays featured from Shakespeare's canon in this series, I can certainly empathize with the process described in the show. I wonder though, if the show, which is so theatre specific could be enjoyed by people who haven't been in theatre. 


But it rings loud and true about what it takes to put on a show and to survive in a world where Paul Gross' character Geoffrey Tennant says that the average Canadian professional actor makes 11,000 dollars a year. 


The last season is about Tennant's production of King Lear which is very moving and so true. William Hutt plays the aging thespian rescued from a senior's home to play Lear. Sarah Polley plays a dedicated young actor who plays Lear's daughter; Cordelia. Great acting from them both. In a parallel story, Don McKellar's outrageously affected Darren Nichols is directing a work-shopped Canadian musical called East Hastings, in the studio theatre. As the last season progresses, the King Lear is fraught with difficulties and that show is demoted to the studio space while the accessible success of the musical sees it take the bigger stage. I think it mirrors the real world. Musicals have risen at Stratford at the expense of Shakespeare's work. Hutt's poignant decline as the series edges to a close, is remarkable and fascinating. 


My friend Jacob who had brought the series to my attention in the first place had acted as Ariel to Hutt's Prospero at Stratford. Ironically, Prospero is the story of a man with magic powers giving them up as the sunset of his life approaches. Shakespeare as writer was also, at the writing of the play, watching the decline of his own powers. Hutt died not long after his performance in The Tempest.


It is refreshing to see a Canadian television show which is so well-acted and so well-written. 


**** stars

Local youth star in Cinderella

Bottle Tree Productions performance of Cinderella Saturday December 17th at The Kingston Christian School  and Sunday December 18th at the Octave Theatre features some tremendous performances from some rising stars. The young cast are the products of schools throughout the area. John Macpherson, who had attended NDSS and starred in this year's Kinsmen's production of Footloose plays the nerdy Prince Charming with comic awkwardness before becoming the suave prince. His rap is very entertaining. Sara Sturgeon from Marie Riviere is a beautiful Cinderella with a sweet voice. Ian Macpherson, from Prince Charles School in Napanee has had a role practically created for him to accommodate his talent. Only twelve years old, Ian has a great future in front of him and anyone who saw him in The Meistersingers production of Oliver! as the Artful Dodger would agree.

Khira Wieting, from LCVI and Daniel 'Rainbow' Powell from QECVI's Theatre Complete Program are hilarious as the ugly stepsisters. They are both great singers.

Allyson Foster plays the beautiful fairy godmother and sings beautifully. Allyson is attending Theatre Complete.

To round out the cast, Bryden Trapp from Regiopolis High School plays Cinderella's mean stepmother. Daniel Smith from Frontenac Secondary School is very funny in his cameo appearance as the king. Meg Morgan from LCVI makes a funny queen. Ian Lamb from LCVI, Eric Sturgeon from Marie Riviere and Ted Mathers from The Leap program at Calvin Park Public School as various animals round out the cast.

Almost rounds out the cast. Lawyer John Farant is the slightly bemused, slightly foggy Doc Doc who would likely keep personal injury lawyers busy with his unique approach to medicine.

Keep your eye on these people. You will be hearing a lot more from them in the future.

For more info on the show go to Cinderella