Wellington Oracle

We’ve grown accustomed to it to the point where we hardly talk about it anymore, and with that silence we may be giving something up that will be impossible to get back.

But the quiet acceptance of ever-more-invasive security measures as we travel is precisely what a local theatre company will be running its own scanner over, starting with a public workshopping of a challenging new production called, appropriately, “Airport Security”.

Well-known actor Kris Joseph has been part of the project from the outset, and we caught up with him between rehearsals of summer Shakespeare in Prescott.

Check the audio link below to hear Kris reveal just what kind of experience audiences can expect to be part of at the Irving Greenberg next week.

A workshop performance of “Airport Security” will be performed by Gruppo Rubato in the studio of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre on July 19 at 7.30 p.m; admission is on a “pay what you can” basis.

 

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As the road construction on Wellington continues through a second summer, neighbourhood sidestreets continue to see a larger volume of traffic than they were designed to safely channel.

Spencer west of Holland is no longer actually a detour as Wellington has been restored to full traffic in that district, but the suspicion amongst area residents is that many drivers, having discovered Spencer’s long straightaway in last summer’s detour season, just can’t let it go.

The extra traffic can still surprise, and two drivers that may have thought they had the traditionally quiet intersection of Spencer and Huron to themselves got a nasty shock on the afternoon of July 3 when the collision pictured above took place at 2.30 in the afternoon, well before the rush-hour build up. Luckily, no serious injuries resulted.

Click on the image to see more photos from the aftermath of the accident.

Photo: Hintonburg Park will hosting two theatre productions in early July

And how did you get to be who you are?

The nature/nurture debate has been going for decades but after this upcoming Tuesday you just might come around to a new point of view; playwright and performer Eleanor Crowder claims that we are each the sum total of all the stories we have been told, starting with the ones we hear about our own families as we grew up.

That’s the premise of “Family Album” a performance booked to take place in Hintonburg Park on July 7, at 7.00 P.M. Click on the audio link below to hear Eleanor describe the kind of story that just might be revealed from her own past.

The show starts with stories from the performers’s own background using a “rehearsed improv” format and in the second, the stories are suggested by  audience members themselves. Perfect for children 6 and up, the play is the first of two coming to Hintonburg Park in the next fortnight. Company of Fools will be presenting their “Shakespeare in the Park” experience  with Much Ado about Nothing on the 15th, again at 7.00 P.M.

Both shows are free at the gate, but a hat is passed after the performance.

UPDATE: “Family Album” will also be featured in a backyard theatre performance on July 26, at 244 Northwestern Avenue, in Champlain Park. The show starts at 2.00 P.M. Tickets are available on-site at $10 for adults and $5 for children; proceeds go to the local charity “Achillea Endeavours”

 

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Recent data released by the Ottawa Police would suggest that despite 15 years of negative media messaging about needles, crack houses and street prostitution, Hintonburg is tied for the region’s lowest rate of “calls to police”, at least within the Greenbelt. Only the adjacent civic hospital area has a similar low-call profile.

Lorrie Marlow of the Hintonburg Economic Development Committee (HEDC), long known for its community organizing around street crime issues, has a theory about why the news appears so good for safety and security in Hintonburg. (more…)

Gatineau-based photographer Terry MacDonald’s daily route to work takes him into Hintonburg and smack through the middle of this summer’s roadwork.

We asked him to choose a sunny morning to get out of bed a little earlier, and earlier this week he picked his day and brought a camera with him as he passed through the construction zone.

Click on the image to see Terry’s evocative slideshow as he walks from east to west during another busy and noisy morning in the ‘burg.

That’s the upside for  Hintonburg businesses and customers as they consider the effects of “Phase Two” of the Wellington Street West road reconstruction currently underway from Parkdale eastbound to Hilda.

The downside is a little scarier. Listen as Nat Myles from the Elmdale House explains just what is at stake for many of her neighbouring mechants who depend on daytime trade along the strip.

 

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