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The Oakville Players come back with Top 10 Festival

Alex Ragozzino leading a meeting with the cast and crew before a final dress rehearsal for the Top 10 Comeback Festival.
Alex Ragozzino leading a meeting with the cast and crew before a final dress rehearsal for the Top 10 Comeback Festival.

It's been "more than 800 days" since The Oakville Players community theatre group put on a show. But with today's performances of their Top 10 Comeback Festival, that drought is finally over.

While called a festival, each performance this weekend (2 p.m. and 8 p.m. today, Saturday, June 4 and 2 p.m. tomorrow, Sunday, June 5) is actually an anthology performance of seven short plays, each around ten minutes long.

COVID-19, of course, is the reason why The Oakville Players (or TOP) haven't put on a show since early 2020. Their last show, the March 2020 production of Footloose, was actually the last show to play at the Oakville Centre before it closed for nearly 18 months.

But in the two years since then, this is the first time TOP has attempted to stage an in-person show. Audiences who can't attend in person this weekend can also buy a ticket to watch a live stream at home, or a replay video of the show anytime between now and Monday, July 4, 2022.

Alex Ragozzino is both the Executive Producer of the Top 10 Comeback Festival and President of TOP. He says one the highlights is that, "this one act festival is an opportunity for new people and seasoned theatre lovers alike to be involved with a play."

"We thought it was great way to give as many people a chance to come back as we could," he continues. "We [TOP] decided to come back slowly - we didn’t want to over burden ourselves with a big project. Our one act festival was a great way to ease into opening up again."

There are seven shows being included as part of the program:

  • 10...9...8... by Guy Newsham
  • Gnomes by Michael Brown
  • Play Along by Kendall Zurowski
  • Skip by Guy Newsham
  • Sub Rosa by Jack Humby
  • We're Moving to Canaan? by Jerrold Karch
  • We Rocked by Tony Corrie

One of the challenges early on was continuing to manage the risks of COVID-19 while safely rehearsing. For that, Ragozzino found and helped reconfigure a program similar to Zoom for working virtually.

"The biggest challenge was how do we rehearse in flux of COVID? Would people be safe getting together? That's when we found a virtual platform (called AirMeet) for auditions and rehearsals. That way every one of the seven casts to rehearse on their own schedule."

Many of the artists working across the festival's seven plays are doing so in more than one discipline. Take  Michael Brown, for example: in his play Gnomes, he is the playwright, director, and one of the two actors on stage. Brown has been a member of TOP since the mid-1980s, with at least 20 seasons of work with the group.

"It's easier when I do my own work," he jokes. "But it’s fun to be on stage again. The last couple of years have been tough. I love the idea the comeback festival is about recovering - that’s what it is. To me, it's also just fun."

Another unique challenge was finding a performance space suitable for these smaller scale, intimate plays. That's when the Moonshine Cafe on Kerr Street stepped in to help: it's the venue for the live performances. 

Stage Manager Arron Earl Smaller says that, despite it not regularly being used for live theatre (live music is more common on this stage,) "the staff and venue equipment have been so co-operative."

What excites him most about the show is "bringing art to the community. We're letting different artists bring their art and stories to the community after two years away."

As for the feeling of letting the audience return, Ragozzino says "It’s a relief. It’s been touch and go for the last two years, because we didn’t know when and how we’d be allowed to come back. Now that we are, I'm so excited to get back to making the show."

The Top 10 Comeback Festival performs today and tomorrow in person at the Moonshine Cafe, in addition live streaming options and replay streaming options until July 4, 2022. Tickets for all these events and types are available on the TOP website here.


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Tyler Collins

About the Author: Tyler Collins

Tyler Collins is the editor for Oakville News. Originally from Campbellton, New Brunswick, he's lived in Oakville more than 20 years. Tyler is a proud Sheridan College graduate of both Journalism and Performing Arts.
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