Page 6B The Castlegar Sun Wednesday, February 22, 1995 Brigadoon: an enchanted love story Imagine stumbling into a mag ical town somewhere in the mists of Scotland—a town that only exists for a single day every 100 years! Imagine meeting the townsfolk and falling in love with one of its lovely inhabitants! then the anguish as the enchanted place and the newly- acquired love float gently away into the fog! What would you do? For Tommy Albright, the romantic lead in Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon—as per- formed by the Rossland Light Opera Players—the situation is all too real. His buddy, New Yorker Jeff Douglas, speaks about the appearance of the town of Brigadoon as.a dream. Per- haps he is right—as that magical moment or enchanting time occur none too often in life But Tommy Albright is in love for the first time, and he believes in Brigadoon. Because of his belief, the ending of the musical is both satisfying for him—and for us who are caught up in the love story of this American hunter and a Scottish lass from time- These two American hunters played by Lorren‘Culley and Dennis McNulty are quite believable. Culley’s Tommy Albright is sufficiently jaded with modern life and perplexed enough about his upcoming mar- riage to find the freshness of Brigadoon to his liking McNulty's Jeff Douglas has just the right touch of cynicism and basic man to counter the romantic attachment of his buddy to the Scottish lass. His scenes represent the comic relief In fact, when Douglas is teamed with the vivacious Meg Brockie, the town joy- gal, they nearly steal the show Janet Bourchier is perfect in the role of Meg Without the counterpointing of Jeff and Meg—who are less romantic about their love inter est—this musical would have been too saccharine. Joanne van der Ham's character Fiona MacLaren, the romantic heroine, is almost too sweet and too sub- missive. Perhaps this is the very feature that was missing in Tommy's American fiance and why he so quickly falls in love with the Scottish lass. So demure and quiet is Van der Ham (Fiona) that at times the audience could-not hear her words. She needs to project her speaking voice out into the audi- torium at the same time as she is being caressingly soft with Tommy. In contrast, during her songs, her remarkable soprano voice carries very well. After the initial scene when the two American hunters spy Brigadoon materializing in the GORDON TURNER distance, a rousing overture brings the town to life in front of our eyes. The stage is filled with singers as the townsfolk encour- age all of us to “come to the fair.” Enter the Americans Tommy and Jeff—and the plot thickens immediately as the unattached Fiona takes Tommy onto the heath in search of sprigs of heather. An intriguing sub-plot runs throughout the musical, A wed- ding is about to take place between Fiona's sister, Jean MacLaren, and Charlie Dalrymple (ably played by Lisa Greene and Peter Clark, respectively), Unfor- tunately, Harry Beaton, the son of the town's plaid merchant, is still in love with Jean and feels jilted. Throughout the first act, he makes his anguish known and at the end of Act I, he throws him- self upon Jean at the wedding The townsfolk are angry and want to punish him. Act I ends with a cleverly staged chase scene with Harry on the run. Act II begins with the death of Harry. The wedding carries on, but eventually Harry's body is ceremoniously carried into town while the celebration is at its height. Not long after that, Tommy learns about the miracle of Brigadoon’s separation from the .world and ordinary time And then Brigadoon departs into the mist—leaving Tommy alone and heading back to New York. The minor characters in this musical fit perfectly from Jim Waldie's papa MacLaren to the least of the village dancers. Grant XIBIULITY Here in the Kootenay-Boundary area, we've gone through an incredible amount of consultation about the future of our area. Much of this focus has been on the various positions interest groups have taken about land use We should be flexible enough to recognize the needs, wants and desires of the majority of the people of the Kootenay-Boundary - . so that we can take a balanced approach to any planning about our future For more information, please call (604) 365-2351 Communities in Action SUN PHOTO / Gordon Tumer The Castlegar connection in Brigadoon includes (from left) Jim Waldie as Andrew MacLaren, Lorren Culley as Tommy Albright and Grant Lenarduzzi as Harry Beaton Lenarduzzi, as the villain Harry Beaton, was strong throughout His agile Sword dancing along with that of Lyle Peppler and Bill Romaniuk was one of the high- lights of the evening. Also outstanding was the bagpipe piping performed by young Chris Unger. At one point, he played a solo in front of the curtain—possibly while a scene change was taking place backstage—that brought down the ‘house The orchestra, directed by Lorne DePaolis, filled the gaps necessary for scene changes with The backdrops to the town events were carefully thought out. The most impressive land- scape was that of a church (kirk) with a highland lake (loch) set amidst the Scottish mountains. Some of us owe Van der Ham (Fiona) an apology. Near the end. of the musical, she appeared on stage several times almost as part of Tommy's dreams while he was talking with his friends in New York. Each time she appeared, a swirl of fog billowed around her—to remind us that the town was lost in the mist of time Unfortunately, the fog was too thick and drifted down into the many lively pieces. The audi- ence appreciated the jaunty tunes—and the antics of bass player Terry Moon orchestra pit. The drummer and trombonist were nearly gassed At one point, the drummer was Instant RRSP loans at prime in no time Ask us for details today! Bank of Montreal Castlegar Branch 365-6488 Trevor Etty Sheila Dunn Personal Loans Manager Customer Service Rep Open Sat., Feh..25 10 am to-2 pm for RRSP purchase Bank of Montre IT is POSSIBLE craning his head to try to see the conductor. At times he was hunching down to escape the fog. And we began laughing at his discomfort at the very moment Fiona was singing love ballad reminders for Tommy. The amount of fog required to suggest the appearance of Fiona in Tommy’s mind should be dra- matically reduced. We need only a slight puff of mist—not a fullblown fog that has the orchestra gasping and the audi- ence in the front rows coughing The visual effect was appreciat- ed, but it was overdone. Scottish accents were difficult for some of the performers, but within a range, they were accept- able. True Scots would proba- bly have been appalled at the abuse of their language. But true Scots would likely have for- given the cast béCause every- thing els¢ about Brigadoon was first-rate entertainment. If you wish to see Brigadoon, it will be on tour in Nelson on Feb. 25 and Creston on March 5. It will close with two perfor- mances in Rossland on March 10 IN STORE BAKERY Specializing in: 5 | =| Home made breads, pastries & pies f | “RUSSIAN FOOD” includes: 4 Borech, Pyrahi, Varenniki, Lapsha Located Playmor Junction Ph: 359- Two thousand bucks says this is the best 4X4 for your money! 1994 MAZDA B-SERIES 4X4 Clearout discounts up to $2000 off MSRP!" CHECK OUT THE PRICE, THEN COMPARE THE B-SERIES 4X4 T0 NISSAN AND TOYOTA. $1250 $1 The Mazda 4x4 comes with power-assisted steering, rear ABS, independent front suspension, steel wheels, protective underbody skid plate, removable tailgate, tinted glass, two optional V6 engines and lots more! It’s a great day for a test drive! IT JUST FEELS RIGHT 1 MSRP apply to all new 1994 B.Senes Trucks purchased and d '500 off Base requiar cab 4x4 models, all other 4x4 rm 19 Mazda dealers stock trom 5 : y Not be combined wath See participating deat 1e $1,000 off Base shortbox regular cab 4x2 modets tor details Supply and stock may vary by dealershup Wednesday, February 22, 1995 The Castlegar Sun People not But our education system today ignores that fact And God said: “Take what you will and pay for it.” —Spanish maxim Aci ing to recent paper headli di in a central B.C. high school achieved considerably less than average marks on certain Ministry of Edu- cation final examinations. Naturally, in a culture which is fixated on averages, the school board and its officials were very perturbed. However, since very few individ- uals and virtually no bureaucracies these days are ultimately responsi- ble for anything, it was essential to find an excuse for the disaster. So after careful consideration, it was determined that the lack of spe- cially-skilled teachers in the partic- ular subjects was to blame. It was decided to search out and hire experts in the.affected fields. “New and improved” is not confined to sham- poos, and foods, nor si: solutions to complex problems. One of the problems, as the Apostle-Paul and many others have pointed out over the past several thousands of years, is the fact that people are not born equal, but have a great variety of potential skills, drives and ambitions. Consequently, sports coaches are very selective in choosing their players. Colleges attempt to get the best qualified instructors. And those who make the team to climb Mount Everest have to be the best in their chosen field. In an ideal democratic society everyone is entitled to an equal opportunity to fully realize his or her potential. That is a social responsibility. Whether he or she becomes a machinist, a brain surgeon or a hobo has nothing to do with wishes, likes or dislikes and is an individual responsibility, with a certain amount of luck thrown in. (Napoleon's first qi after ing to why a certain officer should be promoted was: “But is he lucky?”) However, in the case of the problem of the failing students, no consideration was given to the fact that according to current educational fashion (and no area is more prone to fads than education) the stu- born equal: dents were assigned classes on a homogencous grouping, regardless of abilities or ambitions. Very democratic, but not acceptable on the bas- ketball team, Many years ago, when I taught senior sciences, it was an accepted fact that if you, as a student, enrolled in a Grade 12 science class you would write the government exams for credit, cither‘as an aca- demic or non-academic’student. There were no “recommendations”. There was also no popular educational half-sense such as, “If the student doesn't learn, the teacher is not teaching.” Since you had d in passing the p site Biology or Chemistry 1 classes and were about to attempt the final classes, it became my responsibility to pre- pare you, to the best of my abili- ty, for the final exam. Everyone got the basic train- ing program—drills on the fun- damental material, test and retest, drill on methods of writ- ing the final exam, plus volun- tary extra classes at end of term. As a student you had a responsibility to cooper- ate. You did have an option, though—of several painful methods of suicide. None did. All passed. Antediluvian, of course, but it worked. For the student in the non-academic class, inter- ested only. in getting a Grade 12 certificate, this, training plus whatever else could be squeezed in’ was enough. On the other hand, the academic student—for whom Matric was truly an entrance to further stud- ies in the sciences—ranged as far as time and chal- lenge allowed and began to realize, hopefully, how little they knew. One summer I enrolled in an anthropology course for a science-specialist certificate. It was a large class, so. the visiting professor said: “I know that some of you just want a Pass to complete a degree. Attend the lectures and write the exam. “Some need a Second Class standing. You will have to turn in a major research paper as well. A few of you want a First; for that you will tieed all of the above plus six evening seminars.” The seminars alone were worth the course. Such is the nature of choice. Homogeneous is for milk, and experts alone don’t solve problems. In fact, as the saying goes, if you don’t understand the situation, perhaps you are a part of the problem. OVER MY SHOULDER JOHN CHARTERS 100% B.C. OWNED & OPERATED Whole Frozen FRYING CHICKE Grade ‘A’ e $1.72 kg. [3 Cerebral palsy head to visit Submitted and how to obtain these services. Two Ils have been pro- Beth Lawrence, executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Association of B.C., will be visit- ing the West Kootenay area from Feb. 22 - 24. During the visit, Lawrence hopes to meet people of all ages who are disabled by cerebral palsy. The Cerebral Palsy Associa- tion of B.C. is an information and advocacy organization whose main function is to ensure that people with disabilities are aware of the services that are available, duced _by_the association, one for adults and teenagers, and one for parents, which give information on the agencies and organizations which provide resources for peo- ple with disabilities. The association also has a reg- ular newsletter, and a lending library for the use of its members. Another manual to be pro- duced later this spring will be for teachers who have children with disabilities integrated into their classes: This resource will help the school staff with the pro- cess of inclusion of all students into the regular classroom. ing the three days that she will be in the area, Lawrence invites all interested people to come and visit informally with her. Today she will be at the Castlegar Health Unit from 10 am. - 1 p.m, and at the Sandman Inn between 3 and 9 p.m. On Thursday she will move to Nelson, where she will be at a table in Chahko-Mika Mall from 2-7 p.m. She will be in centre court in Waneta Plaza in Trail on Friday from 1-5 p.m. and from 7-9 p.m. Castlegar beats Seals goal “Submitted Just-released figures show that Castlegar-area residents donated $5,660 to the latest Christmas Campaign, helping the British Columbia Lung Association sur- pass its 1994 goal of $1.5 million. The Castlegar donations were part of a record $1.54 million raised across the province as of the Jan. 31 end of the four- month campaign. “We're proud of Castlegar’s role in the 1994 campaign, espe- cially with the tough economic conditions that affect many peo- ple,” says Bunny Charters, the Lung Association's Castlegar- area chairperson. “We had been unsure of meet- ing the provincial goal, but the and the UPPER ROOM GIFT SHOP Featuring Seniors Discounts every day 314 - 10th Ave. 365-2213 generosity of our community and others- made the difference." Castlegar’s goal was $5,257, a 3.6 percent increase of 1993. The record Christmas Seal total is about six per cent more than last year’s and marks the first time since 1991 that the campaign has kept pace with the Consumer Price Index. Charters notes, “It was cru- cial for us to make up losses due to inflation over the past three years.” She thanked all Castlegar resi- dents for their support. “Your donations will help fund vital medical research into diseases such as asthma and lung cancer, as well as educa- tional programs and patient sup- port groups.” Swift's Premium Whole SHOKED (-) ()¢ PORK epactd COOKED HAM ¢ T7inch a Ti COCA COLA Reg. or diet 2 L. bottle Royal City VEGI'S. Kernel corn, cream corn, spinach, peas & carrots, med. cut green beans. 341 - 398 ml. 68 Catelli PASTA Reg. or shape varieties 500 g. 1.dumM your RRSP into the ht minute? Around this time you start thinking about it. But then it ‘what you did last year anyway. We can show you s better way right now. 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