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New Village Theatre Show Gets Good Reviews
"Sexy Laundry", by Michelle Riml is currently playing at the Hudson Village Theatre. Directed by founding and former artistic director Heather Markgraf-Lowe, it received glowing reviews in the local papers and in the Montreal Gazette as a not-to-be-missed piece. In keeping with her reputation for directing summer theatre with substance, Heather brings out the humour in the relationship of the couple played by Andrew Johnston and Melanie Doerr but never lets the actors cross the line into exaggeration or slapstick.
The play was originally proposed to Heather by current Village Theatre artistic director Andrew Johnston who also suggested that he and his wife Melanie should play the couple. After looking it over, Heather liked both the play and the casting suggestion and agreed to direct. Rehearsals were held at the new Theatre Panache studio on Cameron and the playwright came to see the last few to make suggestions and help with the interpretation. The result is a play which looks for and finds humour in everyday life rather than trying to create funny situations. As a result, instead of laughing at characters who fumble through unexpected crises, audiences laugh with the actors when they recognize the absurdities in real life situations on the stage which reflect their own experiences.
While Heather enjoyed directing at Village Theatre again, she will be spending more time in the future with her own new non-profit theatre company, Theatre Panache, of which she is the artistic director. The company is currently giving theatre classes in its studio on Cameron Avenue in Hudson and will be touring the new Canadian musical, "Till We Meet Again" by David Langlois in the fall. There are already confirmed dates for Montreal, Toronto, St. Catherines, Brampton, Kitchener, Oakville and Guelph as well as a two-week run at the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. The play re-creates a war-time radio show originally broadcast by the CBC from the Sheraton Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal. It was first seen in Hudson as "Music of the Stars" and is partly based on material gathered in interviews with local Hudson veterans.