Auditions for Romeo & Juliet Feb. 7 & 8
Cast to feature close to three dozen performers ‘Chemical’ taste due to cleaning solution residue in tanker, company says
Kidzact Association is holding auditions for the production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The auditions will be held on Feb. 7 and 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Yarmouth YMCA on Main Street.
Show dates are May 3, 4, 5, and 10, 11 and 12 and performances will be held at the Salle Père Maurice LeBlanc Theatre in Tusket. The play is adapted and directed by Jeremy Watkins.
Roles in the show vary in age from 13 to 70 for both males and females. Performances will be in the classical English Shakespearean language.
The roles of Juliet and Tybalt will have vocal numbers. People interested in auditioning for these roles will be asked to do some vocal ranges with a keyboard and will be provided a short (16-32 bar) song to sing.
All others auditioning will have side scenes available at the audition to read with.
Romeo and Juliet features choreography by Kidzact and Stage Combat by Muise Taekwon-Do. Most actors/actresses will be required to attend choreography rehearsals starting the end of February and into March and some actors/actresses will be required to attend stage combat rehearsal starting the end of February into March.
Rehearsals for choreography and acting will take place at the Yarmouth YMCA. Rehearsals for stage combat will be held at Muise Taekwon-Do Headquarters on Main Street.
Farmers Dairy issued a voluntary recall of dozens of milk and cream products last week due to what it is calling an “off-taste” flavour from cleaning solution residue in a tanker used to carry milk.
The recall included 39 products in various sizes of containers of Farmers skim, 1%, 2%, homogenized, buttermilk and chocolate milk, as well as Farmers creams, Natrel brand coffee cream, and Northumberland buttermilk and creams.
The affected products were sold in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, and carried best-before dates starting with Jan. 30.
In a statement on its website – where a list of the recalled products is also listed – Farmers Dairy said the products were packaged during a brief period and no complaints have been received since then.
“This withdrawal is conducted on a preventive basis and there is no health risk associated with the consumption of these products,” the company said.
The products could be returned
“Parrsboro is now one of the most successful little towns in the province,” he says. “Marcel said he could see the same thing happening here. Then he said, ‘I’ve been putting money aside from my budgets for the last few years looking for the right project and if you are willing to add a theatre component, based on your New France plays and then add in other local stories, I would be willing to fund the start-up costs for the first few years.’”
They submitted their proposal to McKeough and Theriault says he’s just received verbal confirmation from him that the project is a go.
“Stacey had immediately identified that if we were going to do a festival theatre then the historical society building would be perfect,” says Theriault. “It starts us in a small place, a place the community is used to coming to.”
The pair have since joined the historical society, presented their idea and received approval from its board. They also recognized that they would need to install a new accessible washroom in the building, but they were uncertain if the province would be interested in funding that work.
About the same time, they were invited to apply for a local grant through Digby Care 25, a group of local women who meet quarterly, donate $25 to the funding pot and then accept applications from local groups.
“We did the presentation and they voted and we received the funds,” Theriault says. “It’s $2,890, the most they’ve given so far, so that to the point of sale for a full refund, or customers can call the consumer response line at 1-800-501-1150.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the recall was issued on Monday and is listed as Class 3, with low to no risk.
The food inspection agency began investigating after receiving complaints nearly two weeks ago after consumers said Farmers milk had a “chemical” taste similar to chlorine.
Farmers Dairy is owned by Agropur Dairy Cooperative of Quebec.
Veronique Boileau, vice-president of communications for Agropur, said an internal investigation found the cause of the earlier problem and the recall is a result of that.
“We found that some residue of cleaning solution remained in the tanker used to transport the milk,” she said.
Farmers Dairy shared the results with the food inspection agency and immediately issued the recall. Since then, the agency has said no further action is necessary, said Boileau.
Consumers with product still in their refrigerators should compare the best-before date and the production lot numbers carefully with those posted on the Farmers Dairy and food inspection agency websites, she said. just fit in perfectly with this plan, and the Weymouth Lions Club has agreed to fund whatever is lacking for that washroom renovation.”
Both Theriault and Doucette sound a bit shell-shocked as they share the project development story – the festival theatre must be up and running for this coming summer so they’ve just booked the historical society building for two weeks in July. Both men continue to work closely with the Stehelin family on the project, through Paul and his wife Ann, and the couple continues to act in an advisory and benefactor role.
LOOKING AHEAD
With the third Nouvelle France/ Electric City play set to be on stage the last weekend in April at Université Sainte-Anne, the non-profit starting, the feasibility study to complete, ongoing community presentations and a festival theatre to launch, both Theriault and Doucette feel their dream is literally off and running.
“This was offered to us and we now have to run with it,” Theriault says. “But I don’t think people in the community – or even on our own committee – fully understand the momentous capacity for development that this theatre piece has.” Doucette chimes in. “People keep asking us what we’re doing with the original site, but we’re not doing anything with the site right now,” Doucette said. “What we want is to bring tourism back to Weymouth. Let’s get the people back here again. They’re slowly coming, but these projects are going to be a really big step forward.”