The public is welcome to join Courtenay Little Theatre’s event night on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at the CLT Space located at 1625 McPhee Avenue (on the corner of 17th Street and McPhee Ave.).
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. sharp. A $5.00 donation will be accepted at the door.
You will be sure to enjoy the play reading, Yesterday the Children Were Dancing which takes place during the tumultuous 1960’s, a time of the Vietnam War, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the summer of love, the Beatles, Expo ’67 in Montreal, the introduction of the Canadian flag by Prime Minister Lester Pearson and the FLQ, Le Front de Liberation de Quebec.
The FLQ was a revolutionary and terrorist movement that threatened the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. From 1963 to 1970, the FLQ placed bombs in mailboxes in federal armories, bookstores, McGill University and the Montreal Stock Exchange.
They kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner and murdered Pierre Laporte, the cabinet minister in Quebec’s liberal government. These events led to the October Crisis in October 1970 and the invoking of the War Measures Act by Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Gratien Gelinas captured this moment in history and brought it to a deeply moving and personal level in his play Yesterday the Children Were Dancing. It is a study of family tensions when federalists opposed separatists and there was a great divide between Quebec and Ottawa. Gratien Gelinas was a popular actor, director, producer and playwright in Quebec.
Coffee and tea will be served and there will be a short intermission.