When Sheryl Scott takes the stage at The Bank Theatre on Saturday, May 24 to perform her one-woman play The Downs, audience members will be reminded of comfortable surroundings and people from their past, and just may take away a valuable message.
Growing up in Miramichi, New Brunswick — now living in London, Ontario — Scott was auditioning for a local community theatre play that required her to write an original five-minute piece and act it out as part of the audition.
She decided to dig into her childhood memories of her grandmother and became Millie Johnston — New Brunswick farm wife of the 1940s.
It so impressed the directors that they encouraged her to write a longer version, which became a 20-minute version that won the People’s Choice Award at the London One Act Festival in 2013.
Two years later, The Downs became 45 minutes long and won yet another award at London Fringe and followed that with a three-year stint at the Blyth Festival.
Today — over 10 years from its first incarnation — The Downs is a full one-act, one-hour-and-15-minutes of heartwarming, comical and thought-inducing theatre.
Sheryl Scott takes her play all over, helping organizations raise much needed funds.
That’s where Community Living Essex County comes in.
Tony DeSantis, Manager of Community Relations at Community Living Essex County (CLEC), saw The Downs a few years ago and loved it, so he reached out to Sheryl, who has agreed to come to Leamington to perform on The Bank Theatre stage.
That one-time performance will be Saturday, May 24 at 2:30 pm.
“With May being Community Living Month, we are excited to bring Sheryl’s performance to The Bank Theatre,” said DeSantis. “It has a wonderful message and shows how far we’ve come in terms of acceptance.”
The stage will be set as a farmhouse in the 1940s in rural New Brunswick and Scott, as Millie Johnston, talks about the highs and lows of life on the farm, how she finds joy in life despite the difficulties she faces.
“It’s a tribute to my grandmother — actually women in general — and to the hard work on the farm,” she says. “I’m looking forward to this show in Leamington.”
Scott promises you’ll laugh, empathize, reminisce and maybe even shed a tear or two as she presents The Downs.
Tickets are $20 plus tax and available at banktheatre.com or at The Bank Theatre Box Office Thursday through Saturday from 11 am to 1 pm.
