Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Victims of a tragic train accident, leaders and entrepreneurs of the fruit industry, politicians, soldiers, men and women will all be brought back to life for two days.
The above are all buried in Queen’s Lawn Cemetery in Grimsby and will be brought back to life on Sundays Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. As part of the region’s designation as a cultural capital for 2012, funding has been made available to extend a popular Niagara Falls cemetery tour into other municipalities.
Each year at the Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara Falls, visitors tour the site and experience some of the community characters buried there, as brought to life through costumed performances by local volunteer animators. Through the support of the Cultural Capital Of Canada program, A Walk Through History is expanding the available offerings of this type into cemeteries of interest in Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Welland, Grimsby, St Catharines and Pelham.
Grimsby Museum’s ‘A Walk Through History’ will bring to life the early history of Grimsby, said Colleen Laverdiere, assistant curator at the Grimsby Museum.
“We’ll be bringing the characters to life to explain the history of Grimsby,” said Laverdiere.
But, before they can resurrect the dead, they need actors to breathe new life into them. The museum is hosting a workshop for potential actors and actresses on Monday, Oct. 15 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The workshop is an opportunity for anyone interested in playing one of the deceased characters on the tour. Laverdiere notes, with many of the characters being male, there is a particular need for male actors.
Those attending the workshop are asked to dress comfortably.
Those attending the tour are also asked to dress accordingly, as the tours will be outside in late October and early November. And while the dates fall around Halloween, the tours are not focused on ghost stories but on the history of the area.
“So much can be learned from cemeteries,” said Laverdiere, noting she has learned plenty about some of the town’s earliest residents while organizing the tours. “This is not a Halloween tour. It’s a history tour.”
To prepare for the Grimsby tour, Laverdiere has attended several other cemetery tours and has been impressed so far. She hopes those attending the Grimsby cemetery tour leave with a similar feeling.
Laverdiere hopes to make the tours an annual event in Grimsby.
Anyone interested in taking on a character for the tours is welcome to attend the Oct. 15 workshop. No pre-registration is required.
However, those planning to check out the tours are asked to reserve their ticket by calling the Grimsby Museum at 905-945-5292. Tickets are $10. Tours on Oct. 28 and Nov. 4 run at 3 and 4:30 p.m.
By Amanda Moore for www.niagarathisweek.com.
2012-10-04
Grimsby: Museum seeks actors for Queen’s Lawn tours