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4th Line Theatre Upcoming Events
admission to all events is free

Breaking Ground (excerpts from New Plays in Development)
Sunday, March 21st  at 2 p.m.
Peterborough Museum & Archives
Museum Drive at 300 Hunter Street East (Armour Hill)
Public reading of excerpts from Shirley Barrie’s Queen Marie, based on the life of Marie Dressler from Cobourg who became one of the greatest and best loved stars of Broadway and Hollywood.
Admission is Free.  Seating is limited; call the Museum (705-743-5180) to reserve your free ticket


Artist Talk
Sunday, March 28th at 2 p.m.
Peterborough Museum & Archives
Museum Drive at 300 Hunter Street East (Armour Hill)
4th Line Theatre’s Founding Artistic Director Robert Winslow takes you on a visual journey through the past eighteen seasons with recollections, anecdotes and readings from selected productions.  
Admission is Free.  Limited seating available on a first come, first serve basis.


Maplefest
Saturday, April 10th at 2:00 p.m.
Old Town Hall, King Street, Millbrook
Kim Blackwell, 4th Line Theatre’s Artistic Producer, leads a public reading of excerpts from the upcoming 2010 season production of Eldorado Town – The Port Hope
Admission is Free.  Limited seating available on a first come, first serve basis.


Artist Talk
Sunday, April 11th at 2 p.m.
Peterborough Museum & Archives
Museum Drive at 300 Hunter Street East (Armour Hill)
Kim Blackwell explains the process of how new plays are developed and environmentally staged on 4th Line Theatre’s unique outdoor stages plus a sneak peek into upcoming productions.
Admission is Free.  Limited seating available on a first come, first serve basis.  

Come to the Peterborough Museum & Archives early and see the exhibit Places Of Power: Objects of Veneration on loan from the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, until March 21.

7th Annual Breaking Ground at 4th Line Theatre
4th Line Theatre is proud to announce the 7th annual Breaking Ground featuring a public reading of excerpts from Shirley Barrie’s Queen Marie based on the life of Marie Dressler, a self described “ugly duckling” from Cobourg Ontario who became one of the greatest and best loved stars of Broadway and Hollywood, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931.  Peterborough Museum and Archives will host this event on Sunday, March 21st at 2 p.m.   Breaking Ground is part of 4th Line Theatre’s New Play Development program, designed to support, nurture and encourage the creation of environmentally-staged historical plays. This ongoing process of dramaturgical support, workshops and public readings is vital to 4th Line Theatre’s commitment to provide audiences with the highest quality Canadian drama.   

“Public readings are an important part of the creation of plays,” says Robert Winslow, Artistic Director of 4th Line Theatre.  “This forum gives the writer the opportunity to figure out what works.  The audience’s feedback during the discussion afterward may be the most valuable lesson learned.”

Joining Winslow and Barrie in the reading of Queen Marie are 4th Line Theatre Artistic Producer Kim Blackwell as director and Maja Ardal as Marie Dressler.
 
The reading begins at 2 p.m.  Admission is free, though seating is limited.  Complimentary tickets are available from the Museum’s Reception.  There is plenty of free parking available and the museum is fully accessible. For more information contact the Museum at 705-743-5180, 4th Line Theatre at 705-932-4448 or visit www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca.  Tickets are also available at the Museum for 4th Line Theatre’s 2010 performances of Eldorado Town – The Port Hope Play and The Right Road to Pontypool.
 
Shirley Barrie, the playwright of 4th Line Theatre’s 2007 production of Beautiful Lady, Tell Me…, has written and produced plays for young, family and adult audiences.  She is the co-founder of the Tricycle Theatre in London, England and Straight Stitching Productions in Toronto.  She has received two Chalmers Awards and a Dora Award for her work with Straight Stitching. 
 
Kim Blackwell, in her 16th year at 4th Line Theatre, has directed The Right Road to Pontypool, Schoolhouse, The Art of Silent Killing, That Summer, Crow Hill, The Cavan Blazers, Attrition, and Gimme That Primetime Religion.  She also directed a sold-out run of Freedom 85! in the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival and at the 2009 New York City Frigid Festival where it received excellent critical attention, the Audience Choice Award and the See It Twice Award.
 
Maja Ardal is an actor, playwright and director and was the Artistic Director of Young People’s Theatre (now the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People).  She is the writer and performer of You Fancy Yourself which was nominated for three Dora awards and won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female.  Her production of Whale at YPT received the 1992 Dora Award for Outstanding Production.  Ardal also played Mrs. Clara Potts on “The Road to Avonlea” for seven seasons.
 
Robert Winslow is the Founding Artistic Director of 4th Line Theatre and has written or co-written:  The Cavan Blazers, Gimme That Prime Time Religion, Cavan Casanova, Two Rounds and a Square, Fair Play, The Bell of Batoche, The Orchard, Crow Hill: The Telephone Play, The Winslows of Derryvore, Doctor Barnardo’s Children, The Last Green Hill and Welcome Death.

Box Office Now Open!
Call our Box Office for Tickets, Season's Subscriptions and Gift Certificates for our 2010 Season.  Click here for more information.

Call us at 705-932-4445 or visit one of Box Offices at 4 Tupper Street, Millbrook, Kent Bookstore in Lindsay (55 Kent Street West) at the Peterborough Museum and Archives (Museum Drive) or online at Tickets. Gift certificates can be redeemed February 1, 2010 for performances on days of your choice.

Alex Poch-Goldin joins 4th Line Theatre as Playwright-in-Residence
4th Line Theatre is pleased to announce that Alex Poch-Goldin, playwright of the wildly successful The Right Road to Pontypool, has received a grant through the Canada Council of the Arts to do a playwright residency at 4th Line Theatre.   Poch-Goldin will be in residence from January to September of this year developing a new production that recounts the 1961 botched bank robbery in Havelock, Ontario.  After a daring daylight heist which netted the thieves nearly a quarter million dollars from the Toronto Dominion Bank and a police chase through the Bancroft area, five armed men were arrested.  The newly issued currency was never found or circulated and its whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.

“Having participated in play development programs at several theatres I would say the development program at 4th Line Theatre is the finest I've taken part in,” Poch-Goldin states. “The mentoring, workshops, and public components are brilliantly designed to help the playwright find their voice in their own time.  I have garnered great success because of their development structure and have enjoyed working for 4th Line tremendously.”

4th Line Theatre Founding Artistic Director Robert Winslow states, “As a playwright myself, I have tried to create an environment in which talented people such as Alex can thrive and create works that will one day be presented at our stage.  We are very fortunate that Canada Council of the Arts supports residencies and makes these opportunities happen.”   

Alex was a playwright-in-residence in 2007 while developing the script for The Right Road to Pontypool.      Other 4th Line Theatre Playwrights-in-Residence have included Leanna Brodie (For Home and Country, Schoolhouse) and Keith Roulston who is working on a production titled Trains Coming.  
 
In 2009, The Right Road to Pontypool, Poch-Goldin’s loving chronicle of one man’s sun kissed dream for Toronto’s working class Jews in the early 1900s became a sold-out audience favourite and the critics called it “remarkable,” “magnificent” and said it “should not be missed.”  The Right Road to Pontypool will be presented again in 2010 from August 2nd to the 28th.   Don’t be disappointed; tickets and season subscriptions for the 2010 Season are now available. 

4th Line Theatre Announces it's 2010 Season !
4th Line Theatre's is proud and excited to announce the return of The Right Road to Pontypool and the world premiere of Eldorado Town (The Port Hope Play).   From the radium craze of the 1930s to the beginnings of the Cold War, Eldorado Town (The Port Hope Play) examines how a small Ontario town played a significant role in ending WW II and in the coming of the nuclear age.  Playwright Charles Hayter, an oncologist as well as a playwright, sets his play between 1930 and 1946 and tells the story of the two brothers who founded Eldorado Mining and Refining.   But it wasn’t until a use was found for the by-product of radium refining – uranium - that the world was changed forever.  Eldorado had and continues to have a profound impact on the town and residents of Port Hope today.  Eldorado Town: The Port Hope Play is scheduled for July of 2010 with previews on June 29 and 30th and running Tuesdays to Saturdays  until closing on July 24 (with an additional performance July Monday 19).

The wildly successful The Right Road to Pontypool returns to the Winslow farm for another season.  This loving chronicle of one man’s sun kissed dream for Toronto’s working class Jews in the early 1900s became a sold-out audience favourite and had the critics calling it “remarkable”, “magnificent” and saying it “should not be missed”.  In its heyday, Pontypool, in the heart of Protestant southern Ontario, was a summer haven for thousands of Jewish immigrants.  Not only was last season’s production sold out, but it attracted theatre-goers from across the Ontario and, perhaps not surprisingly, many people who spent their summers in Pontypool.  The Right Road to Pontypool will run Tuesdays to Saturdays with previews August 2 and 3rd until August 28 (with an added performance August 23).

4th Line Theatre has moved !
The Administration and Box Office Centre is located at 4 Tupper Street in the heart of the historic Village of  Millbrook at the former location of John Tinney Auto Sales.  All contact information remains the same - PO Box 403, Millbrook, Ontario, L0A 1G0 & 705-932-4445.

4th Line Theatre scripts for sale!
Five of 4th Line Theatre's best-loved plays have been published and are available for gift giving.

$15 includes tax

'The Cavan Blazers' by Robert  Winslow
 
'Crow Hill: The Telephone Play' by Robert Winslow and Ian McLachlan

‘Doctor Barnardo's Children' by Robert Winslow and Ian McLachlan
 
'For Home and Country' by Leanna Brodie
 
'Schoolhouse' by Leanna Brodie
 

4th Line Theatre Adminstration Office
4 Tupper Street
Millbrook, ON
Telephone: 705-932-4445
Hours: Monday - Friday 9 :00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
 
The Winslow Farm
(open only on performance dates during July & August)
779 Zion Line, Millbrook
Tuesdays through Saturdays from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.