Following the successful launch of Blank Stage: Performances from the Porch earlier this year, the Stratford Perth Museum is hosting an eclectic group of musicians, actors, poets and storytellers this weekend for the front-porch concert series’ second iteration.

Organized this time under the theme of “transition,” organizers of the museum’s COVID-friendly outdoor concerts have lined up a now-sold-out Friday evening program featuring musical theatre numbers as performed by Stratford Festival and Broadway stars, including Chilina Kennedy, Blythe Wilson, Eric Charbonneau and more.

For Saturday’s concerts – one at 2 p.m. and another at 7 p.m. – a lineup of Indigenous and local storytellers, musicians, poets and other artists will share what “transition” means to them.

“The whole weekend is under the theme ‘transition’, so we’ve asked the artists to really think about what the word transition means to them without giving a lot of hints to what it might mean to us,” said museum manager of education and programs Peg Dunnem, who organized the weekend’s concerts with event producer Breanne Ritchie.

“The idea is that they would deliver theatre and music and spoken word, poetry, song and storytelling from the museum’s porch, which serves as a natural stage. It’s elevated and the audience can socially distance on the grounds where we’ve preset chairs six feet apart.”

Having sold out the concert series’ first rendition on Aug. 22 and 23, Dunnem said the museum event has already become quite popular, with this weekend’s Friday concert selling out a mere two days after tickets went on sale.

“We’re completely sold out, waiting list only,” she said. “But Saturday’s concerts are really exciting and I think forward thinking. Saturday’s performances are what we’re calling cultural perspective. So still under this idea of transition and it’s an opportunity to perform original work. It’s an opportunity to use our stage as a platform to amplify and uplift voices, focusing on representation and inclusion.

“It’s a mix of spoken word and poetry, original songs, there’s some audience participation as well, and again we’re really excited to have Stratford Festival talent as part of this lineup.”

Though this weekend’s concerts will likely be the last Performances from the Front Porch for the season, Dunnem said she and Ritchie are hoping to continue the concert series next summer to evolve the event and focus it on societal themes important to both artists and audience members.

For more information, to see this weekend’s lineup and to purchase tickets for Saturday’s concerts, visit www.stratfordperthmuseum.ca.

By Galen Simmons for The Beacon Herald.