Leading Ladies opens this Friday at Mt. Tabor

Pat Larkin with the Eastern Ontario Drama League Spring Festival Adjudicator’s Award for Special Effects.

Prince Edward Community Theatre brought home one award and two nominations from the troupe’s first appearance at the Eastern Ontario Drama League Festival, held at Ottawa’s Little Theatre.

Educating Rita was performed to sell-out crowds and rave reviews on the Mt Tabor stage in February. The play tells the tale of a young, working class hairdresser pursuing higher education and her relationship with Dr. Frank Bryant, a middle-aged alcoholic university lecturer, over the course of a year.
Susan (who initially calls herself Rita) is played by Hilary Fennell-Hunter. John McCarthy is cast as Frank. Director Lynn Fennell and co-producer Jen Goodman join the duo behind the scenes along with Georgia Papanicolaou, set designer, Collen Johnson, wardrobe; Crystal Mayer as properties director and Pat Larkin on sound and lights.

They competed with performers from Ottawa, Kingston, Quinte West and Peterborough.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Goodman. “We arrived at the theatre at 8am for load in and left there around 1am.  In that time we built a set, placed props, set lights, rehearsed  and performed. The adjudicator pointed out what he liked about our show and what we needed to work on for the future which was very helpful.”

PECT received the Arnold Connerty Adjudicator’s Award for Special Effects and was nominated for costume and best female performance.

“There were four adjudicator awards for things he thought were exceptional.  Our projected window was one of them,” said Goodman. “All in all a pretty great reward for our first time at the festival.  We had a great team and were very excited to be a part of it.  Also I can’t say enough about the team from Ottawa Little Theatre.  They were a great group – very supportive and helpful and we really couldn’t have done it without them.”

Prince Edward Community Theatre’s third production ‘Leading Ladies’ hits the stage May 4, 5, and 11 12 at 8 p.m. at the Mt. Tabor Playhouse, Milford.
Starring Bill McMahon, Wilma McCagg, Adam Bramburger, Crystal Mayer, Mark Danier, George Papanicolaou, Kevin McGall and Pat Larkin, the farce centers on two down-on-their-luck Shakespearean actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable. The pair discover through a newspaper that Florence, an older ailing woman, has been unable to find Max and Steve, her sister’s children who moved away to England as children in order to include them in her multi-million dollar inheritance. They decide to pose as Max and Steve to claim portions of it. When they discover that “Max” and “Steve” are actually “Maxine” and “Stephanie,” they continue on, undaunted, in drag.

Visit www.pecommtheatre.com Advance tickets $14 in Picton at RoseHaven and Kelly’s; in Wellington at SideStreet Gallery; online at countytix.ca; by calling 613-476-5925 or by emailing lynnfennell@gmail.com.