Local theatres prepare holiday productions after a year off
Local actors are preparing their holiday productions at the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney, N.S. after the pandemic forced actors off the stage for more than a year.
"After last year's hiatus, we're so excited to be back with all of our usual holiday goodies and that includes our annual fundraising production, Charles Dickens, The Christmas Carol," says Welsey Colford, with the Highlands Arts Theatre.
The productions involves several shows that will take place from Dec. 7 to 12, featuring 40 local actors.
"For a lot of our performers this is their sixth or seventh year they'll be a part of our production, so taking the year off last year was so strange. We have families who celebrated their anniversary every year as part of the production," says Colford.
Colford says the theatre is the perfect place to spend the holidays.
"For so many of us, our holidays were much more isolated, much more lonely, and I mean especially Christmas coming to the theatre is exactly the opposite of those things," says Colford.
Glace Bay's Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, N.S. will also return and production crews say most holiday shows are already almost sold out.
"What we would normally have as an advertising budget, at this point, we will only spend about 10 per cent of that this year because we actually don't have to. Which is a good problem to have considering we've been closed for two years," says Pam Leader, the production’s executive director.
Well known entertainers like Jimmy Rankin, The Barra MacNeil's, Matt Andersen and others will take to the stage in Glace Bay.
Leader says the demand has never been higher.
"We have more shows than we would normally have in December, but they're all selling out, so people are happy to get back to somewhat normal," says Leader.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.