Halton Hills Newspapers

Independent & Free Press (Georgetown, ON), 10 May 2018, p. 35

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35| The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,M ay 10,2018 theifp.ca Buy 1, Get 1 Hearing Testing, Hearing Aids • Accessories DO YOU HEAR Ringing? Buzzing? Book a TINNITUS Consultation Today! Ph: 289-891-8833 120 Mill Street, Georgetown Hearing Testing, Hearing Aids Accessories "Let's get people talk- ing." For Georgetown Little Theatre youth company directors and alumni Tay- lor Grist and Jill Pike, staging a remount of Dark of the Moon is an opportu- nity to do just that. In honour of its 15th an- niversary, the George- town Little Theatre Youth Company is bringing back one of its original shows, produced in 2005. But the world has very much changed since then, Pike says, and in today's social and political cli- mate, there is an even deeper sense of urgency to tell this story. Written by Howard Richardson and William Berney in the 1940s, Dark of the Moon tells the story of a witch boy who falls in love with a young woman named Barbara Allen and wishes to become a hu- man himself to be with her. The play touches upon dark, violent subject mat- ter, as well as the main themes of acceptance and the consequences of mor- al vanity. "This show really reso- nated with me," Pike said. "It felt very relevant to what's happening right now - the Me Too move- ment and the overall di- vide, the dichotomy that seems at times that it doesn't exist, but we are realizing more and more that it does. I think this play really speaks to that." The youth actors se- lected the play themselves and though it was written decades ago, it continues to be relevant today, espe- cially to members of gen- eration Z who are chal- lenging and questioning these themes in their own lives, she added. "I just think it was so apt for what we're going through. The youth here are so incredibly beyond intelligent, and to me, this is something that they un- derstood and they got," Pike said. Based on Scottish folk ballad Barbara Allen, and steeped in both realism and otherworldliness, the play presents its audience with a number of difficult topics, but they are deliv- ered without a sense of heavy-handedness or in- tentional shock value, Grist said. "The here and now of this play really comes down to the idea of inten- tions and consequences in today's world, when it feels like our intentions are always something we have to have on blast ... es- pecially with social media on the table," he said. "And with young people, it's important to talk about those ideas of how you rarely actually get to control how those are go- ing to affect the world, even if you have the best hopes in mind." Grist says he hopes the play will provoke discus- sion among parents and youth about the topics at hand. "It's not a scary episode of TV," he said. "You can ask questions and inter- act with this, and it's real- ly something that is very empowering to youth, and educational, too." Dark of the Moon is in the second week of its run and will be playing at Georgetown Little Thea- tre to May 12. For more in- formation, visit www.georgetownlittleth- eatre.ca/. WHAT'S ON Directors Taylor Grist and Jill Pike on opening night for Dark of the Moon. Veronica Appia/Metroland Georgetown Little Theatre's youth remount confronts dark, urgent themes VERONICA APPIA vappia@metroland.com

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