Previous Issues
The pleasures of a recession
?Recessions aren’t all bad. In forcing to scale back our travel plans, maybe we see a bit more of what Ontario has to offer. In finally refusing (or just being unable) to pay the ticket prices that fund the obscenely high salaries of the Leafs, Raptors or Blue Jays, maybe we learn how exciting the Uxbridge Bruins, or the Friday night softball leagues, or even the neighbour kid’s soccer team, can be to watch.
Maybe instead of patronizing the restaurants and shops of Queen Street (that’s Toronto, not Port Perry), we sample the fare at some of Uxbridge’s own amazing eateries and specialty stores.
And maybe, instead of paying the inflated ticket prices for Toronto musicals, we pay less than $20 to see some fabulous entertainment right here in Uxbridge.
This week, for example, you have the rare opportunity to see one of the greatest comedies of all time, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, in a visually sumptuous production (see pages 1 and 7) directed by Barrie’s Michael Clipperton and featuring a sterling cast attracted from several neighbouring communities as well as Uxbridge. Many of these actors have won awards, and you’ll see why. The top price: only $17.
In just a couple of weeks, one of our town’s great spring traditions, the musical variety show Uxperience, finally leaves the cavernous environs of the USS gym for the intimate acoustics of the Music Hall. The cast will be cozy downstairs, but they’ll at last be in a space intended as a theatre. So if you’ve gotten out of the Uxperience habit the last few years, come this year for a whole new sensation. But get your tickets early at Presents; there are a lot fewer seats to be had.
And, of course, spring is concert season in Uxbridge. All the choirs will be presenting their season finales. One Voice, the largest community choir, will be showing off its new conductor, Charles White, who took over this year from the choir’s conductor, Angela Wakeford. And the Monday Morning Singers, up in a couple of weeks, are growing more confident every outing under their conductor Anne Mizen Baker. And we have to admit to a guilty pleasure: we look forward to the witty concert posters produced by one of their members, Jane Buckles, almost as much as to the concerts themselves.
And there’s a bonus concert this year. A week Sunday, at St. Paul’s Anglican (a heavenly place to perform acoustically), nine of the area’s most talented young female singers will perform together (as the chamber choir Bella Nove) and individually, to help fund their trip to a national music festival later this spring. A guest at their concert will be Joelle Turner, one of the most promising singers to come out of this town, who has just completed her degree in jazz vocal music at the U. of T., and is embarking on a career as a singer/songwriter.
All of these young women have grown under the tutelage of vocal teacher Jennifer Neveu-Cook. The Cosmos is fortunate to have its offices right next door to Jennifer’s studio, and we can tell you that each and every one of these girls is an exciting talent. Together, they’re dynamite, and have been told so repeatedly this season by adjudicators at several music festivals.
The price for seeing Bella Nove with Joelle Turner on April 19? Fifteen dollars.
That’s typical of the wonderful audience experiences that can be had in this township for peanuts (just wait till the Foster concerts start up in May!). And the ladies of Bella Nove are typical of the wonderful talent, young and old, that abounds in this town.
Aren’t you glad that the recession gives you just one more reason for staying home and enjoying them?
