An anglo neighborhood, a dramatic society and the singing mayor of Côte-St-Luc

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Côte-St-Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein figures it’s time for town’s English neighborhood to have a bit little bit of enjoyable.

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Usually what you hear from English Montrealers are considerations about the way forward for the neighborhood, with many feeling anglos are underneath siege from a provincial authorities that doesn’t appear all that pleasant towards les blokes. Brownstein is a neighborhood member who has voiced precisely these considerations.

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However there’s one other, lighter facet to Brownstein: He simply needs to rise up on stage and sing.

That’s a part of the rationale that — means again in 2010, when he was a Côte-St-Luc councillor — Brownstein went to Anisa Cameron, who was working the theatre program at Bialik Excessive Faculty, to ask whether or not she was concerned about working a theatre firm.

That was the start of the Côte-St-Luc Dramatic Society. Greater than a decade later, Brownstein fortunately reminisces about what a blast it was to sing Magnificence Faculty Dropout within the beginner theatre troupe’s hit efficiency of Grease in 2012. The Dramatic Society is again after a three-year pandemic hiatus with an adaptation of the 2015 hit Broadway musical comedy One thing Rotten! It’s set to run on the Wagar Auditorium Might 25 to June 11.

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“This can be a great alternative for the English neighborhood all through the island of Montreal to see high quality theatre,” stated Brownstein throughout a telephone interview from his workplace at Côte-St-Luc metropolis corridor.

“The primary job of a municipal authorities is to offer providers, and what higher service can we offer than a chance for the neighborhood at giant — outdoors Côte-St-Luc as properly — to return and have a completely great second in time. One thing Rotten! coasts via the historical past of musical theatre and it’s so uplifting. Bringing this to the island of Montreal is actually particular, significantly at the moment when persons are craving extra English actions.”

Cameron, who’s the inventive director of the Dramatic Society, stated it’s nice to see a metropolis help the humanities.

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“I believe it’s distinctive, not simply in Montreal however throughout North America, {that a} municipal authorities sees the worth within the cultural improvement of its inhabitants. … It’s enriching for the individuals concerned. It’s fully transformative for myself,” Cameron stated.

The Dramatic Society raises cash from native donors and isn’t funded by town.

Its 2018 manufacturing of Joseph and the Superb Technicolor Dreamcoat had a sold-out run and was remounted the next 12 months on the Segal Centre.

One thing Rotten!, written by Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell, is a few pair of Renaissance-era sibling playwrights, Nick and Nigel Backside, who attempt to tackle the rock-star playwright of that point, William Shakespeare. They create a brand new type of theatre: the musical. Brownstein performs Nostradamus, which he calls a serious supporting position.

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As Brownstein talks of how enjoyable it was to play Wilbur Turnblad, the husband of Edna, of their manufacturing of Hairspray a couple of years again, it’s laborious to not ask la query qui tue: Will Brownstein flip to the stage full time if and when he retires as mayor?

“In all probability, you possibly can’t do every part ceaselessly,” Brownstein stated. “I do have a philosophy of life that guides me as mayor. It’s good to do issues in your life that you simply discover pleasure in and that present pleasure to others. That’s how I run town. It’s not simply the Dramatic Society. Whether or not it’s swimming packages or guaranteeing we offer the perfect service with our public works, it’s about making individuals really feel good and doing our greatest to make individuals really feel comfortable. And One thing Rotten!, for anybody who involves the present, you give them two and a half hours of happiness.”

One thing Rotten! runs Might 25 to June 11 on the Wagar Auditorium, 5785 Parkhaven Ave. Ages 10 and up. $31.44-$40.84, csldramaticsociety.com.

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