A highlight of Clearview’s Small Halls Festival is the staged readings presented at Dunedin Village Hall.
This year, a five-person cast will perform Queen Milli of Galt, a romantic comedy based on the real life unverified claim that a woman from Galt secretly married the Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) when he visited the area in 1919.
Set and lighting director Steve Lucas chose the play. He has twice worked on productions of the play by Gary Kirkham, and has wished for more.
“I have always adored it,” said Lucas. “It’s just such a lovely and wacky story.”
Whether or not the claim is true, at 80 years old, Millicent “Milli” Milroy erected a tombstone claiming to be his wife.
Milli is played by Jewels Krause and the duke is played by Adrien Shepherd. The cast also includes Darren Key, and local actors Erika Batdorf and Anastasia Phillips, hot off their adaptation of The Chairs performed during Creemore Arts Fest.
During a staged reading the cast is performing the play for the very first time. Many of the actors will be meeting for the first time the day of, having been supplied the script but not having had a chance to rehearse. “They have the script in front of them so there’s no pressure to memorize,” said Lucas. “But they bring their first instincts to it and a little bit of fear, so it’s always a very immediate and exciting reading.” Lucas said a cast reading often happens on the first day of any stage production.
“It’s magical because plays are meant to be said aloud, plays aren’t meant to be read,” he said. “The funny thing about most plays is that when you read it that first time when you’ve just met you get this immediate magic in the room and you end up spending the next month trying to get it back so you can do it on stage... Everything that makes a show special is there immediately on day one. It’s a bit like falling in love at first sight.”
The audience will get to see the magic unfold on Saturday, Oct. 17. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $30. Cash only bar. 19+ event.
A VIP experience is available for $150, which includes a pre-show five- course dinner with the actors.
Tickets include dinner and wine pairing, plus the show. The VIP experience begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available at ticketscene. ca/events/64350.
