Back at the Mack

Charlottetown Festival production returns to the Mack with Lynch back in director’s chair

“Glenda’s Kitchen” is reopening July 13 at the Mack in Charlottetown.

Opening July 13 is a cabaret matinee that offers a taste of the Island, literally and culturally. Glenda’s Kitchen returns after a successful debut at The Charlottetown Festival last summer, and will feature a beloved and familiar name in the director’s chair.

Wade Lynch will lead a cast of Festival favourites, including Glenda Landry, Hank Stinson, Julain Molnar, Marlane O’Brien, and Cam MacDuffee. Scott Christian will strike a chord as music director and Karen Graves will provide accompaniment.

Since stepping down as associate artistic director of the Festival in 2014, Wade has completed his Masters of Education through UPEI, which has led to opportunities at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que. Lynch is now development officer for the Senior Academy for Lifelong Living, and an instructor with Bishop’s drama department. He directed “Anne” for the Festival from 2015 to 2016, as well as directing for the Drayton Festival and for the Segal Centre in Montreal. Lynch’s new play, “Down the Road with Dutch Mason” is being workshopped at Bishop’s this spring before it returns to the Festival for its third workshop this July. “Working on ‘Glenda’s Kitchen’ feels very much like coming home,” reflects Lynch. “Marlane and I started at the Festival together in 1992 with ‘A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline’ at The Mack. That was the same summer we met and admired Glenda, Hank, and Julain, who were all performing their hearts out on the main stage. When Cam came along a few years later, this family was complete.” For 25 years the group have all worked, played, and bonded together.

“The common bond was Glenda and P.E.I. Glenda is the real thing – a genuine Islander who made a life in theatre possible, while keeping a happy home and family on the Island,” explains Lynch. “She was the model for the rest of us, and made us believe that opportunities don’t have to be limited by geography, that a life in show business and a life on beautiful P.E.I. are not mutually exclusive. What a gift then, to be able to celebrate her good example in this engaging, intimate show.”

“Glenda’s Kitchen” runs four times weekly, from July 13 to Sept. 1 at 1:30 p.m. in Studio 1 at Confederation Centre of the Arts.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Wade Lynch will return to The Charlottetown Festival this summer to direct “Glenda’s Kitchen” and workshop his new musical, “Down the Road with Dutch Mason.”