A to Z Blog Challenge -- J is for John Knowles

Some days it's good to have a plan, and other days it's good to remain open to whatever shows up unannounced.

To wrap up Week 2 of the A to Z Challenge, I couldn't ask for a better windfall than my friend arriving in town from Australia.

On Day 10, J is for John Knowles.

That's John, second from left, top row. I'm second from right, front row.

We met in high school when we both sang in the Prince Andrew Chorus. We were fortunate to have a thriving arts community within our working-class high school. To me, it felt like we were in a Fame-style school, where our choir basically arranged our own end-of-the-year variety shows as well as performed in the Kiwanis Music Festival under the direction of our choir director, Jim Farmer.

We also took part in one large-scale musical production every year, which were separate from the plays produced by the drama department. Somewhere in there we also managed to squeeze in some schoolwork.

So, getting back to John.

If you look up the phrase "stole the show", well, that's John Knowles in a nutshell.

He and I were cast several times as the secondary comedy-relief couple. That started after our first foray into musical theatre, when John's tiny part in the sprawling Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat -- starring Not John -- quickly became whispered warnings to "Watch Knowles!" and "Here comes Knowles!" 

By our second year and our second musical, The Pajama Game, John was stealing the audience's attention away from center stage during Hernando's Hideaway just by making his 'extra business' the funniest material we'd ever seen.

By our graduating year, when I was sharing choreographer duties with Heather shown at right (that's me at left) John and I were the B-story couple of cowboy Will Parker and Ado Annie in Oklahoma!

John and I were good friends and we had great chemistry onstage. However, there was one aspect where John's performance style and mine did not line up.

I preferred to learn all of my lines, rehearse our scenes and know what to expect once we stepped out of the wings.

John knew the lines. He knew the scenes. He remembered what we rehearsed. He simply preferred to improvise, because that's where his light shines brightest. It's what made those "Here comes Knowles" whispers ripple through the audience.

As much as it personally freaked me out back in the day to be onstage dealing with improv when I'm not an improv person, when John moved from eastern Canada to his mom's original home country of Australia I wasn't too surprised when he proceeded to forge out a career doing theatre sports and improv theatre.

Fast forward to his latest trip to Canada.

Another friend from high school is involved with a live-performance theatre in the Annapolis Valley. He says to John, "Well, you have to do your show while you're here. I'll set it all up." 

My husband and I hop in the car and make a two-hour drive to the Evergreen Theatre in Margaretsville, close to Kingston and Canadian Forces Base Greenwood.

John proceeds to do his one-man show, pulling a rabbit out of a hat for a full house.

John settles in and begins regaling us with stories running the gamut from laugh-till-I-cry to tears of emotion. Some of the stories I know because of my friendship with John, but most of them I don't know and experience like any audience member.

He touches on childhood stories, on how he managed to survive some rather wild teenaged exploits and moves into rather touching manhood stories. He jumps through time back and forth with the story thread driving the evening, making it all seem like he's not in front of an audience at all but just sharing moments of his life with us over a coffee or a beer. Yet that's classic Knowles. His talent for drawing us in seems so natural that we forget he's actually constructing a verbal autobiography with the clarity of mature perspective.

I especially enjoyed the montage sequence at the end, quickly recapping the highly-charged bits like a movie trailer.

For those of you in the Sydney, Australia area on Apr. 28th and 30th / May 2nd all at 7:00 pm, and May 3rd at 6:00 pm -- John 's Storytiller one-man show is part of the Sydney Comedy Festival at The Factory Theatre. 

Wordless Wednesday - 169

Summer Stock Sunday - 25

My vintage look at summer for Summer Stock Sunday, hosted by Robin at Around the Island.

Just got back from a Girls' Overnight in Halifax, which for me and my friend Shelley amounts to a staycation. I have to say I'm a major fan of staycations. Several years ago my friend Lisa came for a visit from Ontario, and we stayed at the Westin Nova Scotian - walking distance to everything, luxury, pampering and the freedom to enjoy ourselves without having to take a flight anywhere (for me, at least.)

Last night I left work, walked through the pedway as I would if I were catching the ferry home, started the walk through the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel which forms part of the indoor route for commuters - but instead of continuing on, I turned down the corridor toward our room and met up with three of my high school choir friends.

All four of us moved away after high school, but two of us returned while one of our group lives in British Columbia and one lives in Seattle. Whenever possible, we get together when the stars align and we're all in the same city. A few weeks ago, Maureen was here for a family event but wasn't expected to be here this weekend - but Shelley told her to catch a quick flight and what a great surprise when I walked in and there she was!

So for my walk down memory lane for Summer Stock Sunday, here's a few shots taken in 1981, when I was heading into grade twelve and many of my close choir friends had just graduated and were about to head off to university.

The four of us who reveled in our Girls' Overnight were part of this close-knit crew, though only Maureen and I were at this particular barbeque.














Clockwise from left: John, Maureen, Michael, me, Philip, Ted and Katherine
















Clockwise from left: Mark, Philip, Ted, Katherine and John















Me with Katherine



















L to R: Philip, John, Katherine and Mark


















L to R: Maureen, John, Philip and Michael

Thursday Thirteen - 19 - 13 Things About My 25th High School Reunion

This past Saturday, my husband Brad bravely accompanied me to my 25th high school reunion. Here are 13 things about the reunion and my high school days, all mishmashed together in true reunion fashion.


1 - I'm the sort of person who enjoys celebrating milestones. Rather than be horrified that I'm 42 and where did all the time go, I'm so thankful that I'm here to celebrate this reunion. We had a memorium to 3 alumni who are no longer with us, so I'm very grateful to be alive and kicking.








2 - Here's Brad sitting down to dinner after some meet-and-greet chatting with people I hadn't seen in decades. I thought everyone looked pretty good! A couple of the hottie guys were still hot if not hotter. Some of the ho-hum guys had morphed into hotties while I wasn't looking. And most of the women looked amazing. It's hard to be objective about yourself, but I feel I'm in the fine wine category - getting better with age.















3 - Brad and I sat at a table by ourselves when dinner started, and I said, "Let's just sit here and see who joins us." Within a few moments, friends from my crowd descended on us with hugs and filled our table like a magic wish. It couldn't have turned out more perfectly.



4 - Next to Brad was ( I believe) Wayne Pace, someone I went through school with but never really knew very well. But next to Wayne was Pat Savage, brother of my Very First Boyfriend.
















He has quite a resemblance to Philip (He Who Gave Me My First Kiss), don't you think?
That's Philip there in the little photo below.



A recent one - he's now an assistant professor of Communication Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. This comes after working for over a decade at CBC Radio in Ottawa and then Toronto.

Brother Pat hasn't done so badly for himself, I must say - he's now the vice-principal at Dartmouth High School (our old rival school.)













5 - I really enjoyed talking with Pat. He pulled up a chair, sat next to me once dinner was over, and said, "So. The next afternoon," he said, meaning after our graduation, "what did you do?" He wanted it all! The whole story. I've stayed in contact with Philip over the years, but it was nice to spend time with Pat, who sat behind me in grade 12 Canadian Literature class.



6 - Moving along the table, there was a lovely couple, Amer Ahmad and his wife, who ended up being charming dinner companions though I never really knew Amer when we were in school together.




Jazz East



But next to Amer sat Chris Elson, here on the left, current professor at Kings University and active member of Jazz East, an organization that promotes and facilitates jazz performance in Nova Scotia, including the Atlantic Jazz Festival. Chris was a good friend and frequent bandmate of my second boyfriend, Pat Kilbride. Neither boyfriend was in my year. First boyfriend Philip was a year ahead of me, while Patrick was a year behind me. Both of them are very positive influences in my emotional development, so having two people so closely connected to them sitting at our table gave the evening a very full-circle feeling for me.



Here are a few recent pictures of my second boyfriend, bassist Pat Kilbride. In the first picture, from the Toronto production of "The Lord of the Rings" orchestra, left to right: Nick Coulter, David Quackenbush, Pat Kilbride, Levon Ichkhanian



At the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto, Sasha Luminsky on accordian and the String Quartet left to right: Bogdan Djukic, Jonathan Craig, Pat Kilbride, Wendy Solomon





7 - And here's the man who finally, truly won my heart - Brad Smith. Had to move to Toronto to find my true love, but I enjoyed the journey.




Brad was attending The New School of Drama in Toronto when we met. We both worked as ushers at the Runnymede Theatre (Famous Players cinema) at the time. He went on to appear in most of my student films when I went to Ryerson.









8 - Here's a man who takes 25th reunions very seriously. He flew in from Australia to attend this!



John was in choir with me, and that meant we performed together in several musicals. For some reason I always played the comedy relief roles opposite John. In "Oklahoma!" he was Will to my Ado Annie. And because John is a natural improv virtuoso, that's exactly what he did once we stepped onstage. Was I thrilled? I kept threatening him, wanting desperately for John to stick to the script, but it never happened. Only the onstage magic. Somehow I held on for the rollercoaster ride.

"Actor, Writer Director and Theatresports legend, John has featured in such comedy combos as "The Bouncing Sheep" and as the mad evangelist Billy in "God's Cowboys". He has made films and starred in the long-running Theatresports spin-off "Improzac". He's currently playing The Rookie in "Cops on Heat", fresh from the Melbourne Comedy Festival." Celebrity Theatresports Challenge










9 - Next to Chris is Sean Day, who was the longtime boyfriend of one of my choir friends, Dawn Dort. That meant he attended all the choir parties and we had many spirited times together. Dawn and I stay in regular contact, going away on Girls' Nights when she comes home from Seattle, along with Shelley, who also lives here in Halifax, and Maureen, when she's home from British Columbia. Sean himself stays in contact with Dawn, and stood up for John Knowles when he got married in Australia.

Sean now works as the town planner for Antigonish, NS, a beautiful university town halfway between Halifax and Cape Breton.


10 - This is a photo from high school days of the art teacher/play director, the infamous Sheila MacLean. A hearty Yorkshire lass transplanted across the sea to Nova Scotia, Mrs. MacLean had a personality that projected easily to the back row. She had a wickedly sharp temper that kept all her student actors quaking in their boots. I used to do a perfect impression of her: "LOOK, you TURKEYS!"



Photo by Rhonda Burke






"Funny, every time I think of PA Drama, the phrase, "STOP BEING SUCH BLOODY TWITS", pops into my head. It haunts me." - Peter Yorston, Prince Andrew High School Drama Geek

11 - The reunion was split into three events. The night before the dinner, there was an informal gathering at the Celtic Corners pub which I didn't go to, having been socked with the same migraine I'm still fighting off 7 days later. I wanted to be certain I was at the main event at Brightwood Golf Club. But I soon found out that the pub night was probably the best fun anyone had had in a long while. Musical alumni, including John Knowles and Chris Elson formed an impromptu jam session and played the night away.

12 - The following day was family day out at Rainbow Haven beach. My best friend Connie and I drove out and spent awhile walking up and down a very crowded beach. No one had erected a sign or flag or anything indicating a reunion group. So we sat on our towel, had a great afternoon enjoying the sunshine and fresh sea air, and headed back not having bumped into a single Prince Andrew alumni. Ah well. C'est la vie!

13 - I really enjoyed my 25th reunion. The only thing that would have made it any better would have been if more people had been able to come. But like most east coast migrators (due to limited economic opportunities out here) a lot of our class of 1982 has flown far and wide to seek their fortunes. For 13 years, I was one of them, having the time of my life in Toronto. But I felt so glad to be back in town for this reunion. I would have hated to miss it.