The Borelians have been part of the cultural fabric of Scugog Township since 1971. As a community theatre group, we value the comradery, connection and shared memories forged through play-making; theatre creates family. This feeling of togetherness has become essential to our identity as residents of this township and as rural Ontarians. Now the Borelians would like to use their craft to cultivate a stronger identity for all of Scugog Township, one that will celebrate Scugog’s past, evoke civic pride in today’s residents, and resonate for generations to come.
Find out more about this exciting new endeavour by visiting: Palmer Park Project
Do you have a story to share? Click here to share it!
THE PROJECT: The Palmer Park Project will collect, document, and dramatize the shared experiences of Scugog residents by using a much-loved geographic fixture as a symbol for their collective identity: Palmer Park. This project will: research the park’s historic significance; it will ask residents to contribute their personal stories and experiences; it will document this information through a website; and it will dramatize this information in an original play written and produced by the Borelians.
TO COLLECT: Through historic texts, newspapers and photographs, this project will research the significance of Palmer Park by looking at how the space has changed over time and the ways it has been used as a public space. This project will also reach out to various institutions of Port Perry (public schools, seniors clubs, business associations) and ask residents of Scugog to contribute their personal memories of Palmer Park through one-on-one interviews, through social media, and through this very website designed to allow people to record their stories.
TO DOCUMENT: This project, through a website and through social media, will make available to the public a selection of the histories and personal stories that are collected during the research process. The website is designed dynamically so that users can add their Palmer Park stories to the collection. The end-goal of this website is to one day be integrated into the Scugog Shores Museum digital archives. This project will also commission a local playwright to write an original script that will retell some of the collective history of Palmer Park using the information amassed from research and interviews.
TO DRAMATIZE: This project has commissioned local playwright, Graeme Powell, to write an original play based on the history of Palmer Park and the personal histories that residents of Scugog Township will share with him in interviews. The original script, a dramatic comedy, will then be fully mounted and produced by Borelians Community Theatre as part of an upcoming season at Town Hall 1873 Centre for the Performing Arts. The production will be entered in the ACT-CO theatre festival as a representative of local arts and culture with the potential to represent Central Ontario in the Theatre Ontario Festival.
Do you have a story to share? Click here to share it!
