The Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum will be hosting their seventh annual Remembrance Day performance on Nov. 11, a concert of wartime readings and songs commemorating the First and Second World Wars.
This year it will be a virtual concert, rather than a live performance by Shaw Festival performers at the museum as in the past.The performance has been recorded on video and will be posted on the museum’s website social media at 7 p.m. on Remembrance Day.
Barbara Worthy, the museum’s visitor and members services assistant, is directing the performance, and is joined by performers Gabrielle Jones, Peter Millard, Jenny Wright, Patty Jamieson and David Anderson. They will be accompanied by local musicians Doug Muncy and Penner MacKay.
With the exception of newcomer David Anderson, the others make it a yearly priority to participate in this event. As Worthy explains, “it means so much to them to be part of this kind of show.” The cast will also be joined by members of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 124.
Each year, Worthy “gathers stories from our locals, veterans and elders.” She says that this year will be different because she has asked locals to share some “homefront” stories from here to “Over There,” to be filmed sharing a memory.
She explains why this this event is so important to her.
“I’ve personally visited many of the battle sites in Europe, and once you’ve walked through those thousands of gravestones, or stood on the steps on the Vimy Ridge Memorial, you never forget it. So for me, it’s about ‘Lest We Forget.’”
In order to offer the event in an online format, Worthy recruited Dutch VandenBerg and his students from Niagara College to help out. VandenBerg is the coordinator of the broadcasting - radio, TV and film program at Niagara College.
Worthy and VandenBerg had worked together on a previous project. and she was impressed with the talent of the Niagara College participants, she says.
She approached VandenBerg to see if they would be interested in working on this program. She felt it would give them a good “window into history,” and the opportunity to work with the Shaw performers. They have continued this working relationship by having the same crew work on the Doors Open Niagara initiative, which the museum supports. Worthy has high praise for the team. “It’s wonderful to work with them. They’re very keen and dedicated,” she says.
For more information please visit nhsm.ca, @NOTLMuseum, or call 905-468-3912.
