"The Bird’s and the Bees" by Mark Crawford opened on Wednesday afternoon to the largest audience in the Port Stanley Theatre’s history (a packed house in this year’s newly expanded theatre). Those theatre-goers had the pleasure of seeing this finale play for the 2016 season and were quick to give it an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Denise Mader bursts upon the stage to begin the first act of “This One” and for the remainder of the play mesmerizes the audience with a barrage of emotion, energy and humour.  It’s a one-woman show – a format perfectly matched to her very personal story.

Four people have headed for the woods in Port Stanley Festival Theatre’s Birds of a Feather. Three of them are in hot pursuit of the rare Bachman Warbler. Through a series of shifting conversational groupings and surprises, the real motivations for this bird-watching expedition are revealed.

Four women are bound get to know each other quite well, meeting regularly for eighteen holes of golf over a period of many years.  As it turns out, they could also have missed the chance to discover a whole lot more. That’s about to change as “The Ladies Foursome” tees off and the audiences is invited along for a round of golf mixed with revelations of all sorts.

The board of the Elgin Theatre Guild has recently launched a campaign to rebuild the balcony of the Princess Ave Playhouse in St. Thomas. Fans of local live theatre and Canadian music (which has been well represented on the Playhouse stage in recent years) will applaud their decision to go ahead with the repair.

A tree sparkling with decorations; cards signed, sealed and posted; a bounteous holiday feast centred around a golden turkey; festive crackers ‘snapping’; joyful carol singing – these are all commonly practised Christmas traditions whose origins or, at least, popularity can be attributed to Victorian England.

Read the entire article below or in Relish Elgin Holiday 2015

 “The Drawer Boy” by Michael Healey is the story of Miles, an enthusiastic theatre student from the city who invites himself onto the farm and into the home of two bachelor farmers (Morgan and Angus) in order to do research for a collaborative “Farm Show”. The unfolding mix of drama and humour presented on the stage of the Port Stanley Festival Theatre is captivating, from Miles arrival at the farmhouse doorstep right through to the final scene.