Fifteen-foot-tall
Sir John A. stars in giant puppet pageant
on Canada Day
|
(KINGSTON, Ont.) - Internationally renowned Shadowland Theatre teams up with Kingston’s SALON Theatre and SirJohnA2015 to create a spectacular, historical, giant puppet pageant for this year's Canada Day parade in downtown Kingston. This is another event in the lead-up to the bicentennial of Macdonald’s birth in January 2015.
This musical comedy pageant—an old-school political election campaign—will feature a fifteen-foot-tall John A. Macdonald puppet flanked by the giant heads of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, George Brown, George-Étienne Cartier and Macdonald’s first wife, Isabella. According to Jim Garrard, executive producer for SALON Theatre, the Toronto Island-based Shadowland has held workshops in Kingston over the past month helping prepare more than thirty area volunteers—some on stilts—who will march in character with the giant Sir John A and his cronies. “Kingston’s Canada Day parade will be a true highlight of this summer and a kick-off for our historic theatrical Walks in Sir John A.’s Footsteps,” says Garrard. “We are all working hard to make this pageant a fit tribute to the legacy of Sir John A. and to our community.” Garrard says the pageant is being created to mark both Canada’s 147th birthday and the opening day of SALON's third summer season of Walks In Sir John A.’s Footsteps—guided theatrical walking tours of historic downtown Kingston. Final preparations and rehearsals will take place during Artfest in City Park on June 28, 29 and 30, 2014. The parade marshals at 10.30 am on July 1 and will wend its way down Kingston’s main street—Princess St.—to City Hall and from there back to City Park for a special SALON Acting Company performance as part of Artfest. “Sir John A.” will stand on the steps of Kingston’s 170-year-old City Hall to deliver his election speech lauding the country he helped create. ABOUT: SALON Theatre has a mandate to create, promote and disseminate public events and performances that are rooted in Canadian arts, heritage and history. SALON provides performance and professional development opportunities for young, talented, trained artists, performers and managers. ABOUT: SirJohnA2015 is a non-profit, non-partisan registered charity charged with raising national awareness of the life and legacy of Canada’s first prime minister leading up to the bicentennial of his birth in 2015. ABOUT: Shadowland, founded in 1983, is the Toronto Island-based company and winner of three Dora Awards. The Toronto Star’s Richard Ouzounian says Shadowland can be counted on to provide theatre with works “deliciously out of the ordinary. Nothing this group does is conventional.” -30-
recent Photos:
Additional research materialsLinks and descriptions to more information about the contest:
SIRJOHNA2015.ca's SHADOWLAND WEB PAGE PAGEInformation about our collaboration with Shadowland AND our two organizations cane be found on the following pages"
OTHER LINKS & SOCIAL MEDIA ACITITYBlog POSTS & MEDIA MENTIONS
A selection of Facebook posts
|
|
