About

History

  • From Wikipedia:

    Stephen Butler Leacock (1869 – 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. From 1915 to 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humourist in the world.

    Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature. The fictional setting for these stories is Mariposa, a small town on the shore of Lake Wissanotti. Although drawn from his experiences in Orillia, Ontario, Leacock notes: "Mariposa is not a real town. On the contrary, it is about seventy or eighty of them. You may find them all the way from Lake Superior to the sea, with the same square streets and the same maple trees and the same churches and hotels."

    This work has remained popular for its universal appeal. Many of the characters, though modelled on townspeople of Orillia, are small-town archetypes. Their shortcomings and weaknesses are presented in a humorous but affectionate way. Often, the narrator exaggerates the importance of the events in Mariposa compared to the rest of the world. For example, when there is a country-wide election, "the town of Mariposa, was, of course, the storm centre and focus point of the whole turmoil".

    The story of the steamboat Mariposa Belle sinking in Lake Wissanotti is one of the best-loved in the set. The apparent magnitude of this accident is lessened somewhat when it is revealed that the depth of the water is less than six feet. Men from the town come to the rescue in an un-seaworthy lifeboat which sinks beneath them just as they are pulled onto the steamer, and the narrator earnestly remarks that this was "one of the smartest pieces of rescue work ever seen on the lake." It is widely believed that the Mariposa Belle disaster is inspired by the Enterprise disaster on July 31, 1903, in which she suffered a mechanical failure and sank at its wharf in Barrie, Canada.

    Sunshine Sketches, based on Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, aired on CBC Television in 1952–1953; it was the first Canadian broadcast of an English-language dramatic series, as it debuted on the first night that television was broadcast in Toronto. In 2012, a screen adaptation based on Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town was aired on CBC Television to celebrate both the 75th anniversary of the CBC and the 100th anniversary of Leacock's original collection of short stories. The recent screen adaptation featured Gordon Pinsent as a mature Leacock. In the summer of 2018, a live musical theatre adaptation by Craig Cassils and Robin Richardson based on Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town premiered at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words and the RuBarb TheatreFest in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

    Additional information:

    Several concert-version performances of the Cassils-Richardson musical Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town were presented at the Leacock Festival in Orillia, Ontario to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Leacock Museum in July, 2014. The years following the Orillia and Moose Jaw productions saw a series of revisions of the book and score, with additional songs being added, with Jeff Christmas coming on board as orchestrator, with the involvement of a dramaturge, and with demo recordings being made of all the music.

    READ THE BOOK:
    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3533/3533-h/3533-h.htm

Biographies

  • Book, Music & Lyrics

    Craig Cassils is a Canadian composer, born and raised in rural Manitoba, and currently living in Winnipeg. A graduate of Brandon University, he enjoyed a career as a music teacher in Manitoba schools for 30 years. During those teaching years, Craig directed countless musical theatre productions for all grade levels. As well, he conducted many school, church and community choirs. He is still very active as a composer and arranger, with many published songs with a variety of international publishers. Works include choral music, musicals, and educational song collections. Craig is well known for his hit song Child of the Universe, and his award-winning musical Clowns, both published by Hope Publishing. These continue to be performed around the world. Craig has also written Broadway-style musicals – Neighbours and Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Neighbours won a Canadian search for a new Broadway-style musical and premiered in Toronto. Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town had its inaugural showing as a concert version in Stephen Leacock’s hometown of Orillia, Ontario in 2014.

  • Robin is a retired high school classroom and resource teacher with 35 years of experience. He is an avid traveler and reader with a keen interest in politics, economics, and the global community. Robin has a lifelong interest in live theatre and has enjoyed the opportunity to direct school and community theatre productions. Directing credits include Annie, Fiddler on the Roof, Anything Goes, Tom Sawyer, A Christmas Carol, and Hello, Dolly!.

    Robin participates on a local justice committee and a community foundation. Raised in Winnipeg and a graduate of the University of Winnipeg (B.A. Hons. Sociology), he found his new home in Gladstone, Manitoba where he met and worked with Craig on numerous musical projects at the school and community level before collaborating in writing the musicals 2000 Together, Neighbours, and now, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.

  • Jeff Christmas is a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, drummer and percussionist who studied at York University (Toronto), Western University (London) and Berklee College of Music (Boston). His extensive background and versatility encompass the classical and contemporary worlds. Jeff’s compositions and arrangements are in demand internationally and have been performed by symphonies and ensembles worldwide. He has conducted and performed with symphony orchestras across Canada and the USA. He is also a sought-after studio conductor and has various recording projects throughout North America to his credit.

    Jeff’s original compositions embrace a wide variety of genres. He has worked on various feature films and television programs as a composer, orchestrator and musical assistant. He has many TV jingles to his credit. Musical theatre has also been an outlet for Jeff’s musical talents. With a strong background in that particular genre, he has been involved in theatre shows from a very early age. His more recent experience includes original music and arrangements, and he has performed as a drummer and percussionist as well as musical director in countless productions internationally. As busy as Jeff is composing and arranging, he still finds time to juggle a heavy performance schedule. As the drummer and guest conductor for the popular Jeans ‘n’ Classics series, he travels extensively throughout the USA and Canada.

    Jeff has received many London Music Awards for composing and conducting, and was recently inducted into the Western University, Don Wright Faculty of Music “Wall of Fame”. He is currently the principal pops conductor at the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and conductor and musical director of the Canadian brass ensemble, Brassroots. Jeff also teaches music theory at Fanshawe College in the Music Industry Arts program. He resides in London with his wife Wendy and two sons Jayden and Cameron, where he continues to write and maintain his online music store and publishing company “Write On Music”.

  • Geoffrey Tyler spent over 30 years as a professional actor, singer, dancer, and musician in Canada and abroad. Involved in musical theatre since age 10, Geoffrey never missed a beat when it came to his career path. For him the seminal moment came when he looked out into the audience in his middle school production of Oliver, playing the Artful Dodger. He had a moment where he felt that being on stage felt right, and that musical theatre was something he wanted to pursue.

    Geoffrey attended the Etobicoke School of the Arts just as it opened, which was the first publicly funded school for art in Canada at the time. He went on to study at Sheridan College, and from there, performed in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

    His career has taken him from Mirvish productions in Toronto, to London England’s West End, and to many of Canada’s premiere regional and provincial theatres. As well, he has done stints in film, television, and commercials over the years.

    He currently lives in the Niagara, Ontario with his wife Laura, where they own a small hobby farm, Three Acres Family Farm.