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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, October 7, 2011 · 24 Artscene Take your best shot of Oakville The Oakville Camera Club is holding its photography competition once again, and the Tuesday, Oct. 11 deadline fast approaching. The Capture Oakville 2011 contest will conclude with an exhibit and awards ceremony in Oakville Town Hall at the end of this year. However, until then, to have a chance to win any of the categories, people must snap those photos. Photos must be taken between Oct. 11, 2010 and Oct. 11 of this year. The categories are as follows: · Fine Art: Images with imaginative, aesthetic or intellectual content. · Portraits: Impressions of people that depict character and personality. · Nature: Essential qualities of the physical world. No man-made objects should appear in the image. · Energy: Power derived from physical, mental or chemical resources. · Heritage (The Mayor's Award): Valued qualities unique to Oakville and worthy of preservation. · Open: Your best shot taken anywhere, not just in Oakville. Except for the Open category, all photos must be taken within Oakville. All photos must be printed on 11" X 14", high quality photo paper. "This is an exciting time for Capture Oakville, now with six fresh categories open to the public," said club president Kieley Hickey, in a press release. "The two biggest changes are the Open category; now you can submit your best image taken anywhere in the world." The top 80 photos will be displayed at an exhibit at Town Hall from Nov. 4 to early next year. The opening night will also include an awards ceremony for winners of the categories, selected by a jury of professional photographers. For more information on rules and how to submit the photos www.oakvillecameraclub.com/ Competition.html. GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVER ROMANCE STAGED: Tom Haxell (Jacob) offers Emily Jefferies (Mary) a pair of stockings during a recent rehearsal of a play about a young couple in Burl-Oak Theatre Group's presentation of Salt-Water Moon, which opened this week at The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. Struggles of love in difficult times staged By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Set in 1926 Newfoundland, the theatrical production of Salt-Water Moon will showcase the struggles of two lovers in a difficult post-war time. The Burl-Oak Theatre Group opened the play, by the late, great Canadian playwright David French, yesterday at The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. "It's a beautiful play, it's wonderfully written and it's a love story," said director Peter Kunder. "The play itself won a lot of awards." Salt-Water Moon is the third play in a series of five featuring the saga of the Mercer family. Though it is the third in the series, it is set before the others, including the first in the series, Leaving Home, which has been performed by the theatre group in the past. "Leaving Home is really a play about conflict between father and sons," Kunder said. "This one, French takes you back to when the mother and father are just 17 and recent graduates of theatre school 18, first getting together." programs. Both grew up in Oakville The two teens are Jacob Mercer and moved to Toronto in recent (played by Tom Haxell) and Mary years to attend school and to begin Snow (played by Emily Jefferies). their acting careers. Jacob and Mary were a couple until "This is an unusual situation in the young man a way," Kunder left for a life in "It's a beautiful play, it's said. "The actors Toronto without usually involved wonderfully written and it's saying goodbye. in community Just as Mary gets a love story. The play itself theatre groups engaged to some- won a lot of awards." are usually volone else, Jacob unteers in the returns to his Peter Kunder, director c o m m u n i t y. hometown. Sometimes Burl-Oak Theatre Group Performing a they've had some two-character professional play, Kunder said, is quite chal- experience or a lot of community lenging for the actors. theatre experience." "It's a two person play. In fact, Having two trained actors for it's a very demanding piece. Two this play, Kunder said, makes his actors are on stage for an hour and job easier. a half talking and there's a lot of "There's a kind of shorthand in lines and the roles are very chal- terms of talking to each other lenging," he said. about their work," he said. "They In fact, the theatre group hap- know how to tackle a script and pened to have a difficult time cast- they know how to go about develing the play. But, through word of oping a character and getting mouth, Kunder was able to recruit themselves into a play and into a Haxell and Jefferies, who are both role. Frankly, they're both very talented people." The 21-year-old Jefferies had to do some digging to be able to play her part. "(Mary) grew up on an island in Newfoundland. She's a tough cookie. Even though she's young, she's responsible and really knows her stuff," she said. Put into the life of service by her mother at the age of nine, Mary is a maid for a wealthy couple. Her sister was put into a home, while her mother is losing her mind and her father died in the war. Not having lived through such hardships herself, Jefferies turned to research to delve into the psyche of her character, trying to learn about hardships faced by people in Newfoundland at that time, or the pain being suffered by her mother. "When I go through a script, I see how she reacts with people and she brings up a lot of her past. I get a lot of information from that," Jefferies said. See Play page 25