Fall, 2014

Rex

Boiler Room Suite is receiving a new production by Waterloo's Lost and Found Theatre. I'll be doing a talkback after the performance on November 8.

November 5-15, 2014

at the Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre

9 Princess Street, Waterloo

Tuesday-Saturday @ 8pm

Saturday-Sunday @ 2pm

Director: Richard Quesnel

Cast: Kathleen Sheehy, George Joyce and Alan K. Sapp

Set Design:  Nicole Lee Quesnel

Lighting Design:  Kirsten Watt

Sound Design:  Terry Barna

“Ah, they will say of us – how brave, how adventuresome – to launch off on a brand new voyage of discovery at a time when most would have given up...” -- Sprugg

Aggie Rose, a former actress, and Sprugg, a failed poet, are two elderly tramps who climb into the boiler room of an abandoned hotel on the Prairies to seek refuge from winter and from the world.  Together in the shelter of their “suite,” they deflate the pompous and powerful, acting out their fantasies as they try to bring "a little warmth, a little human kindness to each other's lives" until the outside world interrupts their reverie with the arrival of a mysterious stranger.

Winner of the 1977 Canadian  Authors Association Award for Drama.

Rita

Rita's latest in print:

Rita Shelton Deverell’s chapter Vocal Scholaristry: Giving Voice to the Art, Craft, Effectiveness, and Excitement of Speech-making is included in the October 2014 just published book Performing Scholaristry, $39.95, www.backalongbooks.com. Twenty authors reflect on issues, dilemmas, provocations and inspirations associated with imagining, designing, creating and performing non-traditional, innovative research projects.

Heading into the summer (2014)

Since the last posting, Rex has been continuing to work on "Time of Trouble" - the new opera with composer Elizabeth Raum.
Rita has been writing a screenplay based on Florence James, the subject of her play, McCarthy and the Old Lady. Florence's autobiography, Fist Upon a Star, was launched by University of Regina Press and has won the Saskatchewan book award. Rita has written an epilogue which reports on Florence's career in Canada following the Seattle trial.

Also you can see a brief article with pictures about Rita at home in Sugar Bush at the following link.

http://csreyes.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/at-home-with-rita-deverell/

Rita Rehearses East Coast Drama

Danger, Courage & Love

March 5th- 8th, 2014 • 8 pm

Alderney Landing Theatre

DARTMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA

An original play by: Juanita Peters

Starring:

Arlene Duncan, Micha Cromwell

Rita Deverell ; Kirsten Olivia

Tickets: $25 Adults $20 Seniors/Students

with support

from:

THE CRAIG

FOUNDATION

THE MOTHER CLUB

Alderney Landing Theatre

March 5th -8 th, 2014 • 8 pm

Marge Sparks is a black midwife with 4 daughters, a dead husband and an entire village of problems. She wants all her girls to get up out of here and make a life somewhere where people who look like them can have a real chance in the world. She doesn’t know where that is, but she knows it’s out there.

Minnie Sparks is 12 years old and full of ideas. Her life is all planned out. She is going to take those beautiful sweet berries her grandmother and great Aunt Jessy pick for pies; make preserves and sell them at the market. She’s going to buy a big chunk of land and a big house so her family can live off their own resources instead of doing backbreaking work and sweating all month just to pay the rent.

When Minnie is raped and becomes pregnant, it’s the last straw. The nurturer now becomes the murderer. Instead of retaliating with the many useful tools on the farm, the women get together and concoct an intricate plan of intervention, protection and justice through their secret group THE MOTHER CLUB.

Starring:

Arlene Duncan

Micha Cromwell

Rita Deverell

Kirsten Olivia

THE CRAIG

FOUNDATION

with support

from:

An original play by: Juanita Peters

Rex is working on a Libretto

Composer Elizabeth Raum and I are busy at work on a new opera about a 19 century battle between unlikely combatants - The Sisters of Charity of Halifax and their Archbishop.