Uxbridge and area well represented at the ACTCO awards ceremony

I had the privilege of enjoying the ACTCO Gala Awards at Vaughan last night and I have to say that we should be wonderfully proud of the Uxbridge and area productions and actors/musicians/singers/stage managers/producers and on and on (you know what I mean). They were very well represented last night.

For anyone who is not familiar with ACTCO, it is a regional non-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting community theatre in Central Ontario, and part of what they offer is the adjudication of performances. They are invited to adjudicate, and then those events are included in an awards ceremony once a year. These are need to be community theatre in the categories of Musical, Comedy and Drama.

Now I am going to attempt to remember and list the Uxbridge and area people that were honoured last night and I apologize, I know that I will forget some.

Roger Varley was nominated for leading male role in "Blackpool and Parrish" with OnStage Uxbridge. This was a Canadian play with a very small cast, and had some wonderful press from it. It was directed by first time director Colin Murphy, and if what I hear said is true, he is going to be bringing some amazing skills to that role again.

"Les Miserables High School" edition which was performed at Oshawa Little Theater had many Uxbridge area people involved including Carol and Mallory Salomone, Michael Williamson from Port Perry, and my son Derik Gould (WHOM I AM SO PROUD OF I COULD SCREAM) from Uxbridge. It had a number of nominations, WON a number of awards including Best Musical. What a wonderful honour and if you had the privilege to see it, you would know why it won.

Borelians own "Midsummer Nights Dream" performed in Port Perry was also highlighted with many nominations and took home a number of awards. I have to say that this was one of the most visually intoxicating plays that I saw this past year, and I have to really shout out to Jen Hardie who was honoured with creating the costumes for this production. Just wonderful.

I know I have missed something, but what I want to highlight is Uxbridge, Port Perry and many people from both towns are talented beyond just the families praises. They are so talented that they were recognized in all of central Ontario's own theatre community as some of the best.

Arts is alive and well, and not very far away at all.