Jan Rainey is drawing on her love of history, theater and previous experience to bring people back to Lynnwood Arts.
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“It’s a beautiful building, it’s a national historic site and I got to think about how best we can encourage people to visit now that we’re open again,” Rainey said. “I had put together the Lantern Tour, which ran in Waterford for 10 years, and wondered if I could do something similar for Lynnwood.
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“I pitched it to the folks at Lynnwood, they liked the idea and so here we are.”
The result is The Governor’s Visit, a play that takes the audience back to 1874 when the Governor General of the Day – Lord Dufferin – and his wife Lady Dufferin visited Lynnwood.
The production, featuring a cast of 32, will be performed Feb. 22 to 25. It is delivered in a format similar to that of the Lantern Tour.
The tour took the audience to various houses in Waterford to get an appreciation of how Christmas was celebrated in 1900.
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For The Governor’s Visit, the audience will move from room to room at Lynnwood.
“I love history and I knew a governor had visited but I have to confess that I had thought it was Governor Simcoe who had come to Lynnwood,” Rainey said. “They (Lord and Lady Dufferin) were the most recognizable couple in Canada at the time.
“They traveled throughout Canada, generating terrific press coverage everywhere they went and it was fascinating to learn more about them.”
But, Rainey said, the play is not a historical reenactment.
“It takes one nugget of historical fact and the rest is entertainment, what might have happened, what could have happened that night when someone important stayed overnight at Lynnwood.”
The production includes humor and live music and is a bit like Downton Abbey, the popular British historical television series. The audience will hear the honored guests during dinner, hear what the upstairs maids have to say as well as the servants in the kitchen, Rainey said.
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“It’s a really challenging production because the actors aren’t performing on a traditional stage,” Rainey said. “They’re performing in an art gallery that has exhibits and we can’t do our rehearsals in the space where we’re performing.
“Rehearsals are done elsewhere so the actors really have to be aware of their movements.”
Moreover, the production doesn’t have the traditional distance between the stage, the actors and the audience. Instead, the actors and audience are all in the same room.
The format also puts limits on the size of the audience. The 8 pm performance each night has been designated for those who require an elevator to move throughout Lynnwood to follow the production.
The play requires a big commitment from the performers and all are keen and working hard to make The Governor’s Visit a success, Rainey said.
“Norfolk County is really rich when it comes to the arts,” Rainey said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s amateur actors, singers, artists
“People love art in Norfolk County and want to be part of it.”
Tickets are available at Lynnwood’s website at www.lynnwoodarts.ca.
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