the WHO’S WHO:

Ray Baltzer: The Principal Actor

One day at school I was sent to the principal’s office… why I went is not the issue, I’m innocent I swear… but what a long walk down the hallway to get to Ray Baltzer’s Office… who would have thought some twenty years later I’d be on stage with him, sharing a bow!

Ray Baltzer was born in Annapolis Royal in 1943. He was raised in Middleton, calling the town his “Norman Rockwell painting” and although he played many sports, Ray excelled in theater, performing and singing in musicals, choirs and doing Solo acts in Church. He married his high school sweetheart Muffy in 1964 and they’ve been together ever since. Ray graduated from Acadia with a BEd in 1966 and got a teaching job at Central Kings Rural High School a year later. The following year he became vice- principal and eventually principal of that school. In 1979, the year I was born, Ray transferred to Kings County Academy where I fondly remember him (and his office!) and he remained principal there until 1988 when he transferred again to Evangeline Middle School, the first school of it’s kind in Nova Scotia.

Ray helped do a lot of really innovative things there to create a more appropriate environment for early adolescents. He retired from EMS in ‘97 and did 5 years of consultant work on Middle School Philosophy and Programming.  He says, “To have the opportunity to set up EMS as a school dedicated to that concept of a better kind of place for this unique age group, was a highlight of my career and then to have the opportunity after retirement to work with teachers all over the Maritimes on the same theme was a great way to wind it all down.”

And then the call of the golf course got too strong, as well as the curling rink and the stage so Ray packed the consulting in and became just your average sports and theatre bum.

Ray’s acting experience began in 1952 in a two person play, The Honeymooners, at the age of nine!  Ray was involved with acting in school, church and university, and after a long hiatus, in 1993, Ray took a role in the Wolfville Centennial musical, Song of Mud Creek.

Over the last 12 years, Ray has played Mr. Fezziwig in five Fezziwig Productions and then in the last three years, he’s had stand out parts in the Fezziwig Pantos Cinderella, Snow White and Get Hooked! 2013 has been busy so far, preparing for 2 shows back to back: 42nd Street with Quick as a Wink in Windsor (opening May 31st) and Stage prophets Peter Pan (playing now in Wolfville), playing Mr Smee again for the second time this year and Ray is loving every minute of it. Check out www.quickasawinktheatre.ca for 42nd street details.

Ray’s future plans include more acting, fishing, travelling and enjoying the best part of the province: Wolfville. Ray says “What a great place to grow up, live your life and raise your kids!  I am fond of telling people that I came to Acadia and never left Wolfville.  Why would you?  It has it all! “ And so do you Ray… so do you!

~ Mike Butler

“Whittle Big Man”:

a celebration of Al Whittle’s 60th anniversary as theatre manager at Wolfville’s Acadia Cinema

It was a very young Al Whittle who first stepped off the train in 1953 into his “first adventure in Wolfville…I was amazed.” Whittle began a lifelong career that day that lasted until his retirement in 2000. In celebration of Al’s contribution to the cultural life of the Annapolis Valley, he is being honoured with a gala event of live performance and film on Friday, April 26.

Al Whittle was hired in 1953 by the Spencer family of Saint John, at the time making him the youngest theatre manager in Canada. The Spencers had rebuilt Wolfville’s wooden Orpheum Theatre (1923) into the modern, well-equipped Acadia Theatre (1947).

When Whittle arrived “[Wolfville] was a booming town with four gas stations, four grocery stores – anything you wanted, it was in Wolfville. There were no bars or lounges, so the place for entertainment was the theatre.”

Built with steel and bricks, the theatre Al began managing in 1953 was not only “fire proof” but also had the first radiant heating system in a Canadian theatre, using “two miles of piping under the concrete floor.” The theatre was capable of holding approximately 700 people. A “Sweets Show-case” tempted customers as they passed and the interior boasted “velour curtains in wine, edged with gold”, matching “beautifully upholstered spring seated chairs.” Whittle supervised later renovations that saw the main theatre divided into two, and later three/separate cinemas to counter the advent of competing multiplexes.

Whittle, now an honorary board member of the Acadia Cinema Co-op, is still a fixture at events., As a founding and honorary board member of the Fundy Film Society, Al can be found most taking tickets for their Sunday matinee screenings.“It was an interesting career. I wish it was still going, because I still miss it.

Tickets for the gala celebration are $15, $12 for students, and on sale now at the Box of Delights 902-542-9511

For more information please contact:

Mary Harwell, Al Whittle Theatre, 542-3344 or manager@alwhittletheatre.ca

People, London’s National Theatre

Friday, March 22, at 7  p.m., the Al Whittle Theatre is launching its new technology: a satellite feed allowing the capture of high-definition broadcasts of cultural events from all around the world.

Theatre, dance, opera, rock and classical music, art from major world museums, sponsored by local businesses and individuals–the possibilities are exciting.

The opening performance is People, a new comedy from the National Theatre in London, written by Alan Bennett, known for The History Boys and The Madness of King George.

People stars the award-winning Francis de la Tour as ex-Sixties model Lady Stacpoole, facing old age in a huge house she can no longer afford to keep up.

Should she hold an elaborate garage sale? turn the place over to the National Trust to become a museum?  or rent it out to a porn movie company who need a place to film Reach for the Thigh?

Like all comedies, there are important issues under consideration. If something doesn’t have a price, does it have a value? Should people and houses just be allowed to age as gracefully as possible–or “have work done”?

To get on a mailing list, contact Kathy Day: kathy@justuscoffee.com