Our Summer theatre camps have raised $3,800
to help save the Old Town Hall. Said Deano: "The whole event was full of
talented children, and the last show was fabulous,”
The play, written and acted by the camp’s young participants, was called
‘Loveboat, Lifeboat’. It told the story of local youngsters who were taking part
in a fundraising cruise on the Nith River to save their town hall. Lots of fun
ensued and the children ended up in the Grand River in a lifeboat at the end of
the play. Local river rafting company Grand Experiences donated the large rubber
raft, which was the production’s major set piece.
Olde Town Hall supporter fondly
remembered
Posted By Casandra Bellefeuille
Olde Town Hall supporter Vic Rouse died unexpectedly this month with his
loving wife by his side.
To the public, Vic was a giving, big-hearted, individual who fought
passionately to save the Olde Town Hall. He gave is time generously, as he
did his heart and soul to transfer the once thriving building back to its
glory days. From the moment his wife Deano Wilson-Rouse brought the project
to his attention, Vic was ready to help make his wife’s dream come true and
transform the architectural landmark into a centre for the arts.
“He spent days at the museum studying about the Olde Town Hall,” recalled
Deano in an interview with the Paris Star days after Vic’s touching
celebration of life service attended by over 200 people at Dwayne Budgell
Funeral Home. Vic researched every aspect of the former town hall and donned
period costume during the grand opening, where he shared the history of the
building, said Deano. “He just looked at me before the opening and said,
‘Love you’re not going to make me dress up?’” Deano shared of her late
husband.
Vic was a strong, intelligent man, but he had a soft spot when it came to
his wife. Behind closed doors, out of the public eye, Vic was hopelessly
devoted to Deano. The husband and wife duo lived their life much like the
fairy tale stories that Deano shares with her theatrical group. Hidden in
the woods on Paris Plains Church Road in house that Vic spent many hours
renovating to his and Deano’s taste, the pair were blissfully happy.
“He always inspired me to keep on fighting,” said Deano. Even though Vic
bought and sold machinery for living, more often than not, he set his tools
aside to take care of the lights and stage production for his wife’s Talk of
the Town Production shows. “He didn’t do this acting stuff for a living, he
just did it because he loved me so much,” said Deano.
Vic touched many people with his generosity and gentle nature. His funeral
brought out many residents who had the pleasure of crossing paths with Vic.
Integrity, caring, giving and loving were a few choice words used to
describe him. There was laughter and smiles, exactly how Vic would want to
be remembered, said Deano.
Numerous donations were also made to the Gothic Olde Town Hall Fund in Vic’s
name. Just prior to his death, Vic incorporated the name in order to get a
charitable number.
Aside from work, Vic was an avid golfer, loved to tinker with motors and
machines, dedicated countless hours to the Olde Town Hall and even tried his
hand as a pilot. But at the top of Vic’s list were his families. Vic was a
loving father to three daughters Melanie, Jennifer and Kim Rouse (and
several grandchildren). He was still very much cherished by the mother of
his children (his ex-wife) Lise, all of Montreal. In Ontario Vic was
surrounded by his loving family— wife of 16 years, Deano, stepdaughter Gemma
Gibbins, son-in-law Ron Gibbins and granddaughter Jayda.
His outgoing personality and jolly spirit will be greatly missed within the
community.
The delicious Deveena Devine will be guesting in
a new daily community Rogers TV show called "Inside Brant", each Thursday .
Deveena (alter ego of ToTT's Deano) will be talking about what's Hip, Hot &
Happening in Brant County & Brantford in entertainment/music/dance/slam
poetry!/etc...The slot will also feature a guest along for a tete-a-tete.
Pirates Take The Square - August 5 2009 Crowds enjoyed the latest open-air production from
Talk of The Town earlier this month, when Pirates Take The Square was performed
in Harmony Square.
You can read about it and catch a slideshow
here
Canada Day production
Enjoy our photo gallery from this year's Canada Day celebrations,
held July 1 at Cockshutt Park, Brantford.
Click here to watch...
LATEST NEWS: Brant Council passed a
motion that Brant County will for five years grant back to the Olde Town Hall
40% of their yearly property taxes - a major success in the fight to retain the
property for public use. More here
LATEST: The final episode of the TOTT
Soap Opera has been performed at Harmony Square downtown Brantford,
"As The Square Turns"
reached its finale after weeks of nail-biting drama! Click here for details and photos of
the very popular event.
Pirates weigh anchor The World Premiere of our new musical play,"PIRATES
TAKE BRANTFORD" has just closed at the Sanderson
Centre, with the cheers and applause of the audience still ringing in our ears.
We'll have more information and pictures later, but here is a heartening letter
from one of the schools able to take their students to our show thanks to our
generous sponsors, plus a review from the Brantford Examiner on December 10.
Letter from Vee
Hayward, Principal, Grahan Bell-Victoria School
Dear Talk
of the Town Productions: Congratulations on your very entertaining and
colourful showmanship exhibited throughout the pantomime production
"Pirates Take Brantford" at the Sanderson Centre on Dec. 6th!
Thanks to the tireless efforts of your founding director, Deano Rouse,
who found a sponsor for our school, the entire Graham Bell-Victoria
School population was in attendance at your December 6th performance.
The children were so excited to attend a live performance and found it
to be so very funny and entertaining.
The costumes were amazing and the actors were so believable to our
children, one student asked "Are they only people dressed up like
pirates"?
After our students returned to the
school,
many of our students were so inspired by the pantomime, they wrote
amazing pirate story adventures!
The Graham Bell-Victoria School Community would like to take this
opportunity to thank all the energetic and promising young 'volunteer'
actors, the producers and the director, Deano Rouse, for such a
dynamite, entertaining and fun-loving show.
A grateful thanks also for donating over $3000 from the proceeds on Dec.
6 to one of our Graham Bell-Victoria Families to help cover the cost of
medical expenses incurred by their daughter as she battles leukaemia.
What a selfless and charitable act of kindness on the part of Talk of
the Town Productions! Sincerely, Vee Hayward
Principal
Graham Bell-Victoria School
Expositor reviews our show
By Judy Moore
FOR THE EXPOSITOR
Brantford
The audience for Pirates Take Brantford on Friday night at the Sanderson
Centre was an enthusiastic mix of ages, all ready for fun at a
pantomime.
And they left with lighter hearts, thanks to entertainment delivered by
Paris-based Talk of the Town Productions.
A troupe of pirate dancers from Carol Kitchen's Dance Centre opened the
show with energy.
Lively and precise, the girls provided a richness to the visuals and
gave depth to the scenario. I would have liked to have seen them more
often in the middle of the show.
Jamz Maher and Nara Farrell, as Cap-t'n Sparrowlegs and Johnny Dipstick,
were fascinating. They were a classic comedy duo, drawing on everything
from Pinky and the Brain to Abbott and Costello for inspiration.
I enjoyed the particular gravity that seemed to surround Capt'n
Sparrowlegs and kept him upright despite his gyrations.
George Sanford as Captain Crank was a lovely mixture of elegant,
inebriated and greedy.
Adrian Gorrissen as Captain Hook was the long-suffering mate of Captain
Hookess, played by Deano Wilson Rouse.
Ima Hook, played by Clara Eaton, provided double-barrelled
entertainment, with the ability to sing well and dance with much
gymnastic flexibility.
Her character
was sweet and clueless in the Valley Girl style.
As Meet Hook, Eric Oleskiw played a wonderful dame of the panto style.
He provided glorious, unbridled, flamboyant entertainment as he
confidently sang and danced his way through his role.
Completely committed and talented, Oleskiw was one of the highlights of
the show.
Pirates Take Brantford was true to British panto in many ways. Some
panto trademarks are: audience interactions, cross-dressing and broad
characters and humour.
This show delivered on all of these and even included an animal bit,
with Rudolph arriving on stage. In fact, a few people arrived on stage.
There was a jolly red-suited man.
Then Elvis came and showed off some great moves as he sang his way
through a crowd-pleasing favourite.
Next, Little Orphan Annie arrived and briefly hijacked the show. She
demonstrated surprisingly confident and strong singing for such a wee
thing, and had a personality to match.
After stealing a scene, she stole a little more from the pirates.
Talk of the Town has again produced an entertaining panto for people to
enjoy. Rouse has brought a lot of talented and able artists together.
She brings a real understanding of panto to the production.
Her character is classic "bad guy": she loves to be hated and invokes a
lot of audience reaction.
