· Our Board of Directors, volunteers, billets, individual donors, cast, crew and our staff.
· 4th Line Theatre
· Angeline’s Restaurant &Inn
· ASTRO Summer Theatre
· Books and Company
· Canada Council for the Arts
· Chesterfield’s Homegrown Café
· The Corporation of the County of Prince Edward
· The County Cider Company
· CountyLive
· Daryl Kramp, MP
· The Devonshire Inn on the Lake
· Dollar Sign Rentals
· Driftwood Theatre Group
· Fields on West Lake
· Fields Farm House Inn
· Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co.
· Huff Estates
· JB Printing
· KA Media
· Leona Dombrowsky, MPP
· Love Nest Studios
· MACV Holdings
· Mathers Law Office
· Mayor Peter Mertens
· Michael Grills Photography
· The Milford Bistro
· Mount Tabor Playhouse
· Odonata Marketing
· Ontario Arts Council
· Ontario Ministry of Tourism
· Picton Home Hardware Building Centre
· Picton Re/Max
· The Regent Café
· Rosehall Run Vineyards
· Rose Haven Farm Store
· Scout Design
· St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival
· Strum
· Taste the County
· Thousand Islands Playhouse
· Ton-Up Creative
· The Waring House
· Westben Arts Festival Theatre

…and the list goes on! To all of those who have contributed to the success of the season an uproarious chorus of thanks. Everyone who straightened a rack card, picked up an empty water bottle, dusted off a seat, smiled at their fellow audience member or leapt to their feet in applause… everyone who has helped to make this Festival what it has become and helped make it a wonderful experience for us all. Thanks.

Playwright, Leanna Brodie as Anthea Dalzell

This week is the final week for The Book of Esther by Leanna Brodie! If you haven’t yet had a chance to see it, be sure to check it out before it closes on Saturday, July 30th at Mount Tabor Playhouse in Milford! And did we mention it’s air-conditioned?

In the rural community of Baker’s Creek the Dalzell family struggle to keep their farm, family and faith intact. To top it all off, their 15 year-old daughter Esther has just run away from home. This heart-warming story, from the writer who brought us Schoolhouse, takes us on a young girl’s journey to find herself.

Esther plays Wednesay, July 27th @ 2:00pm & 8:00pm, Thursday, July 28th @ 8:00pm, Friday, July 29th @ 8:00pm & Saturday, July 30th @8:00pm.

For tickets call 613-471-1991/1-866-584-1991, buy online at www.countytix.ca or stop by at the Box Office at 289 Main Street, Picton (inside Books & Company).

We hope to see you there!

*Photo by Michael Grills Photography

The Book of Esther – In the rural community of Baker’s Creek the Dalzell family struggle to keep their farm, family and faith intact. To top it all off, their 15 year-old daughter Esther has just run away from home. This heart-warming story, from the writer who brought us Schoolhouse, takes us on a young girl’s journey to find herself.

Doors at 7:30pm – Showtime at 8:00pm

Come and enjoy this fantastic show and show your support for a truly wonderful cause!

Tickets are on sale now!

Adults: $29.95 +HST
Seniors (65+): $23.75 +HST
Students (21 and under)*: $23.75 +HST

*Valid Student ID required.

For tickets please call 613-471-1991/1-866-584-1991 or buy online today at www.countytix.ca

For more info. about TaborFix please visit http://taborfix.blogspot.c?om/

We hope to see you there!

Leanna Brodie

Leanna Brodie has never been onstage in one of her own shows before. But all that is about to change. The playwright, who penned the audience favourite Schoolhouse, produced by Festival Players in 2009, is excited about performing in her own piece. The Book of Esther, opens Wednesday July 13^th and runs until July 30^th at Mt.Tabor Playhouse in Milford.

“I’m not sure what I expected, acting in my own play,” laughs playwright Leanna Brodie. “I can now see that the part of your brain that acts out stories is not the same part that makes them up from scratch! I don’t even think those parts of the brain know each other’s address! But I can tell you one thing: when I’m up there, talking to Roger or Abbee or Mark or Gord, everything gets very still in my head, because all of my attention is on them and on getting what my character wants from them. I’m not acting their parts, only my own. And that’s kind of wonderful, just being one piece of the story.”

The Book of Esther is a heart-warming play, challenging and humourous. June 1981. Toronto’s first Pride Day. The farm crisis. Charles and Di. Everything’s changing, including 15-year-old Esther, who has just run away from home. In this intensely personal exploration of the urban/rural divide, a stoic farmer, his conservative Christian wife, a middle-aged gay man in Toronto and a young street hustler are thrown together with one thing in common…Esther. Esther Dalzell. And yep…it’s a love story.

“We’re so excited to have Leanna here. She’s brilliant. To have the playwright up there with the rest of the cast, working through the piece…amazing. It’s like we’ve shaken up the roles. Brad Rudy, who’s directing the show, starred in it last year at the Blyth Festival. They’re so close to the play, engage with it on such a profound level, I love it,” says Artistic Director Sarah Phillips. “It’s wonderfully funny, and thought-provoking. We’re so glad to have this play here for our audiences. I think they’re really going
to enjoy it.”

Joining Ms. Brodie on stage this summer are veteran Stratfordactors, Gordon Miller and Roger Shank and newcomers/youngsters Abigail Fernandes and Mark Rotil. Director Brad Rudy, also familiar toStratford andBlyth audiences, takes the helm.

For ticket and schedule information about the 2011 season visit www.festivalplayers.ca or call 613.471.1991/1.866.584.1991. Flex Passes, discounted passes for 3 tickets to the 2011 season, are still available.

The Book of Esther – Preview tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Preview Performance of the second show in our 2011 season, The Book of Esther by Leanna Brodie. Tickets are only $20+HST.

The Book of Esther plays July 12- 30 at Mt. Tabor Playhouse in Milford. For tickets please call 613-471-1991/1-866-584-1991 or buy online at www.countytix.ca!

Tomorrow night we are hosting a ”Ladies Night with Amelia”. With each purchase of a ticket your name will be entered into a draw to win a basket of goodies (including wine from Rosehall Run Vineyards, 2 tickets to The Book of Esther, 2 tickets to The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw, 1 Picturefest Pass, and a selection of body productions from Sensitive Scents!), Rosehall Run Vineyards will also be joining us to do wine tastings.

Next week The Book of Esther by Leanna Brodie opens with a Preview Performance on Tuesday, July 12 at 8pm at Mt. Tabor Playhouse in Milford! Tickets are only $20.00+HST. We hope to see you there!

The season will begin with a remount of Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly by Governor General’s Award winning playwright John Gray. Gray’s entertaining and engaging musical about iconic aviatrix Amelia Earhart will have only ten performances prior to its national tour. Festival Players premiered the original work last year to sold out houses. Ottawa actor Eliza-Jane Scott will revive the role she originated last year. Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly will run June 28^th to July 8^th at Fields on West Lake, in Bloomfield.

Leanna Brodie’s powerful and moving story of a young girl’s journey to find herself in The Book of Esther will be the second show of the 2011 season. Set in the rural community of Baker’s Creek, the Dalzell family struggle to keep their farm, family and faith intact when their 15 year-old daughter Esther runs away from home. Festival Players audiences are familiar with Brodie’s razor-sharp wit – in the 2009 season, her Schoolhouse was a runaway audience favourite. The Book of Esther will run July 12^th to 30^th at Mt.Tabor Playhouse, in Milford.

The third show of the 2011 season will be The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw by Peter Anderson and Dora Award winner John Millard. This comical and clever take on the Faust legend tells the story of a young country boy who sells his soul to the devil to play the banjo. Originally produced by Caravan Farm Theatre in British Columbia, to strong audience and critical acclaim, the performance will feature a live bluegrass band. The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw will run August 3^rd to 28^th at Rosehall Run Vineyards, in Wellington.

“Our 5^th anniversary season is a celebration of stellar talent. We are thrilled to be creating and presenting original Canadian work in a unique and vibrant community, anchored in both rural life and artistic excellence. It’s here that our theatre artists continue to inspire, entertain, and engage a rapidly growing audience,” says Artistic Director Sarah Phillips. “We’ve got a few other things up our sleeve for this year too. There’s more great news to come!”

The season will run June 28-August 27, 2011. Single tickets will go on sale in early Spring. Flex Pass subscriptions are available and are priced at $81.00+HST until June 24^th. Contact boxoffice@festivalplayers.ca or call 613-471-1991/1-866-584-1991 to order a Flex Pass, and visit www.festivalplayers.ca for ongoing updates about the season and schedule.

If you’d like to sell your events, safely and securely via CountyTix, be sure to contact Box Office Systems Manager Rick Zimmerman at rick@countytix.ca.

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Festival Players 2011 Flex Passes -Get your Flex Pass today for only $76 +HST (15% off) until December 20, 2010 ONLY! After that the prices goes up, so get’em while they’re hot (and cheap)!
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Quinte Symphony Tickets & Subscriptions -

CountyTix is now selling single tickets and subscriptions to the Quinte Symphony’s 2010-2011 Concert Season. Click here to view the Quinte Symphony 2010-2011 Brochure.

Enjoy 4 MasterWorks concerts for one comprehensive price!
  Adult Subscription   – $96
  Youth Subscription  - $20   (6-24 years)

2010-2011 Single Tickets:
MasterWorks Series – Each concert
  Adult – $30
  Youth  - $5   (6-24 years)

Quinte Symphony Pops – “Take it to the Limit - The Music of the Eagles”
  Adults – $45
  Youth  - $5   (6-24 years)
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Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory Fundraiser Dinner & Silent Auction -

Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010
Time: 6:00pm-10:00pm
Venue: The Waring House, Picton

We will be joined by special guest presenter Professor David Bird of McGill University, author of The Bird Almanac. The title of his talk is ”Watching Birds Naked” and by all accounts will be highly entertaining. Tickets are $65.00 each.
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Picton Noir -

Date: Sunday, October 31, 2010
Time: 1:00pm
Venue: Upstairs at Books and Company (289 Main Street, Picton)

Presented by The P.E.C. Authors Festival & IFOA Ontario. 

READING:
Michael Koryta (USA) So Cold the River
Michael Robotham (Australia) Bleed For Me
Emily St. John Mandel (Canada/USA) The Singer’s Gun

ROUND TABLE:
Giles Blunt (Canada) is the author of the John Cardinal series Forty Words for Sorrow, A Delicate Storm, Blackfly Season, By the Time You Read This, and the national bestseller Breaking Lorca. Blunt’s Crime Machine is the fifth installment in the John Cardinal mystery series.

Louise Welsh (Scotland) bestselling author of The Cutting Room, Tamburlaine Must Die and The Bullet Trick, presents her latest work, Naming the Bones.

Peter Robinson (Canada/UK) has received numerous awards for his Inspector Banks novels; he is also a member of the exclusive Detection Club founded in 1928 by a group of mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and G.K. Chesterton. Robinson presents Bad Boy, the latest installment in the Inspector Banks series.

Tickets are $15.00 each.
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Q.E.M.A. Victorian Gala -

Date: Saturday, November 6, 2010
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: The Restaurant on the Knoll (Isaiah Tubbs Resort)

Quinte Educational Museum and Archives presents the 4th Annual Victorian Gala.

Cash bar at 6:00pm, buffet dinner at 7:00pm. Enjoy a silent and live auction with Manson & Lori Slik and entertainment by David Simmons & Fraser Hardman. Door prizes, 50/50 draw and more! Tickets are $50.00 each. 
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“The Dresser” (County Theatre Group) -

Date: November 19, 20, 26 & 27, 2010
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Mount Tabor Playhouse, Milford 

The Dresser is presented by The County Theatre Group. Written by Ronald Harwood and directed by John Burns. Tickets are $15.00 each.

Synopsis: Based on the author’s own experiences as dresser to Sir Donald Wolfit, this bracing, heartbreaking drama is an elegy to a by-gone era. Backstage at a theatre in the English provinces during WWII, Sir, the last of the great breed of English actor/managers, is in a bad way tonight, as his dresser Norman tries valiantly to prepare him to go on stage as King Lear. Unsure of his lines as well as who and where he is supposed to be, Sir is adamantly determined to roar his last. With Herculean effort on the part of Norman, Sir finally makes it on stage and through the performance no thanks to an air raid courtesy of the Luftwaffe. Back in his dressing room after the performance, the worn out old trouper dies, leaving alone his company and the loyal dresser after one final bow.
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“Quartet” (Prince Edward Community Theatre) -

Date: December 3, 4, 10, & 11, 2010
Time: 8:00pm
Venue: Picton Community Centre (Picton Fairgrounds)

Quartet is presented by Prince Edward Community Theatre. Written by Ronald Harwood and directed by Lynn Fennell. Tickets are $12.50 each. NOTE: Save $2.50 on your tickets by purchasing both shows for $25.00.

Synopsis: Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred reside in a home for retired opera singers in Kent, England. Each year, on the tenth of October, there is a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday. Jean, who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva and refuses to sing. But the show must go on in this funny and poignant play by the author of Another Time, The Dresser and Interperters that premiered at the Albery Theatre, London.
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To get your Flex Pass or tickets to any of the above events, please contact Rick at the Box Office at 613-471-1991 or 1-866-584-1991 or buy online via www.countytix.ca

This show is a MUST see! It’s been adored by audiences all across the world and now it’s your chance to enjoy Peter Colley’s masterpiece in your very own backyard!

Check out I’ll Be Back Before Midnight… TONIGHT AT 8PM (July 22), TOMORROW NIGHT AT 8PM (July 23), or SATURDAY NIGHT AT 8PM (July 24 – Closing Night).

BUT…

If you can’t make it to I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, we would love to see you at Tempting Providence!

Festival Players is thrilled to be hosting Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s production of Tempting Providence, FOR ONE WEEK ONLY, at Fields on West Lake (15786 Loyalist Parkway, Bloomfield, K0K 1G0).

Tempting Providence, by Robert Chafe, is about Myra Bennett, a young British nurse, arrives on the rugged shores of Newfoundland in 1921. No roads, no electricity, no doctors for miles. She signed on for a year and stayed for a lifetime. A spell-binding tale of strength and heroism told with humour and elegant simplicity.

Tempting Providence runs from July 26-30, 2010 ONLY! Get your tickets now to avoid disappointment.

The Box Office can be reached at 613-471-1991 or 1-866-584-1991. Buy online TODAY via www.countytix.ca .