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Page 4 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanvillc. February 18, 1998 Section Two Group Seeks Memorabilia from Newcastle Community Hall Historical Society Marks Hall's 75th Anniversary Seventy-five years ago, the Newcastle Community Hall was officially opened by the Massey Family of Toronto. The building was a gift from Chester Massey, who had just established a summer home in the Village of Newcastle. The Massey Family started what became a world famous business, here in Newcastle in 1847 and moved it to Toronto in 1879, but they had not forgotten the village that held the company's roots. Year-Long Display The Newcastle Village and District Historical Society plans to set up a year-long display to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Hall. Many artifacts artifacts and photographs arc now in the possession of the Historical Society, but a large amount of memorabilia still remains part of family collections and the loan of these items would be appreciated by the Society. Credit will be given to the person or family loaning the items. If you have items pertaining to the construction of the Newcastle Community Hall, the operation of the Hall, or village and local life over the past seventy-five years the Historical Society would be very pleased to hear from you! Any items including photos, papers, builders' tools or stories and family remembrances that could be transcribed transcribed and printed by the Society will be greatly appreciated. appreciated. Any person with an item to loan should visit our Historical Society, in our Memorial Library room, the former Newcastle Village library, just inside the front doors of the Newcastle Community Hall. This room is open to the public every Tuesday morning from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. with volunteers on hand to help you. People may also call Ken Stephenson at 983-5890 or Pal Macdonnell at 987-5411. "Show and Tell" March 2 Another option - bring your material, photos or artifacts artifacts to the next meeting of the Newcastle Village and District Historical Society. This is our Annual "Show and Tell" meeting where anyone may bring an interesting interesting historical article, photo or document and tell its story. This is a very popular meeting and is always well attended. attended. The "Show and Tell" meeting will take place in our Memorial Library Room on March 2nd at 7:30 p.nj. There is no charge and refreshments will be served. Bring something that represents your family's history, and share it with your neighbours. GM Wins Awards For Fuel Economy General Motors continues its leadership in fuel economy economy with the most fuel efficient cars and pick-up trucks in Canada. For the fifth straight year, the Chevrolet Metro and Pontiac Firefly have been crowned as the most fuel efficient efficient cars sold in the country. These 1.0 litre displacement, displacement, 3 cylinder, manual 5-speed transmission cars provide provide 4.3 litres per 100 km (66 miles per gallon) highway and 5.4 litres per 100 km (52 miles per gallon) city fuel economy. Both cars are built at GM's joint-venture facility facility in Ingcrsoll, Ontario. GM has also captured the crown in the pick-up truck category with the Chevrolet S-10, GMC Sonoma and Isuzu Hombre models. The 2.2 litre displacement, 4 çyclindcr, manual 5-spccd transmission models all provide provide 7.5 litres per 100 km (38 miles per gallon) highway and 11.0 litres per 100 km (26 miles per gallon) city fuel economy. These models by virtue of their efficiency offer the lowest C02 emissions of any vehicles sold in Canada. Multicultural Council Backs University Centre The Multicultural Council of Oshawa/Durham recently approved a $5000 grant to.hclp convert Durham College into a University. We believe that not only with the growth of the ethnic population, but also with the flow increase of the Toronto population into Durham Region, the Collcgc/University will benefit the future youth of Durham. They will be able to better their academic skills closer closer to home, thus saving them financial expenses of room and board. The M.C.O.D. wishes to set an example and lead the way to encourage its Member Organizations to support this endeavour. The group made a cheque presentation to Gary Polanski, President, Durham College on Tuesday, February 10. MRP's Video Interviews at Library The Claringlon Public Library would like to thank John O'Toole, MPP for Durham East, for his generous donation of informational videotapes to the library. In this series of interviews with community leaders in many different fields, Mr. O'Toole addresses topics that should be important to all members of this community such as hospital restructuring, community-based health care and youth unemployment and apprenticeship reform. If you are interested in the issues that will impact you and your community, come check out John O'Toole's community information videotape series at the library. The videos are available for loan and are located at the Bowmanvillc branch of the Claringlon Public Library. by Lorraine Manfredo Staff Writer Pat Marjcrrison has put a smile on plenty of faces in this town. Having spent 20 years in real estate, she's made hundreds of couples couples happy by finding them the home of their dreams. Now, as constituency assistant for Durham East MPP -John O'Toole, she can make someone's day just by answering a question about student loans or Workers' Comp. But mostly, Pat Marjcrrison gets people grinning through her work with the Bowmanvillc Drama Workshop. An actress as well as director, she has taken on the challenge of directing the club's spring production, "Opening Night," which runs March 4, 5, 6, & 7 at the Bowman ville High School auditorium. A cast of eight stars in this comic two-act play about, of all things, people watching a play. The script was a delight for Marjcrrison. It's a hilarious look at the complicated web of flirtations and jealousies that surround a group of theatre-goers as they lake in opening night of "Whisper on the Wind." "The big difficulty with this show was the set," says Marjcrrison. ■ Being a play within a play, it calls for onstage action to go on while actors look on from opera boxes. "We really had to think about that," she says. She and her set construction wizards arrived at the perfect solution. solution. It's an extension of the stage apron at each side out to the stairways stairways at the wings. Theatre boxes will be built on these platforms and the play-within-the-play can go on in.the centre. Marjcrrison has given her veteran cast an extra challenge too. "I've cast everybody almost opposite to what they should be." Reverse typecasting will force them to stretch their acting muscles, she points out. And, of course, no director can avoid the rehearsal schedule nightmares. A major obstacle in any production is making sure the people who share scenes together can find a mutually agreeable time to rehearse together, and not having anyone wait around too long for their cue. No one gets paid for amateur theatre, but that doesn't stop them from giving 100%, "The reward is the process" Marjcrrison explains. "I get a real the director is lousy, the actors run off in different different directions. You need a single vision and, right or wrong, it's got to be the director's." charge when I hear somebody reading a part for the first time and it's deadly dull. Then you get an inspiration. They do it and, bang, it's perfect. That's fun." Her first directing job was Thurbcr Carnival back in the 80's "I was awful," she confesses. "I had no idea what to do." Granted, it was one of the most difficult plays a director could take on, she realizes now. The script had the famous humorist sitting in a chair chatting for about 15 minutes. "1 could do a better job today, I'm pretty sure." She has taken theatre courses with Theatre Ontario and spent an intensive week studying theatre production at Queen's University. Today she is a confident, enthusiastic director, fully aware of her responsibility. "The director makes or breaks the show. If the director is lousy, the actors run off in different directions. You need a single vision and, right or wrong, it's got to be the director's." Marjcrrison first got involved with the BDW back in 70's doing up posters by hand with her girlfriend on the way to play badminton. That led to her acting debut as a news reporter. "I was discovered sitting in the audience during rehearsal." They needed some extras and we were right there. From there it was helping with publicity, ticket sales, and back- stage work. "Next thing I knew I was president of the club." She's watched the club's popularity grow over the years. In its early days, the club had a hard time finding people willing to be in the plays. Now, the casting calls can get crowded. "There was a huge turnout for for this play. I had to turn away people I would have been happy to cast." So, as opening night for 'Opening Night' draws near, Pat Marjerrison's life is dominated by final rehearsals and perfecting her production. After all, she knows the cruel reality of show biz: "It's the actors who make the show exciting and good, but it's my fault if it stinks." • Curtain time is 8:00 p.m each evening. 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