Anne of Springhill coming back to stage in Sackville, N.B. and Amherst

The popular theatre production, put together for the first Maritime Music Fest in Springhill, will have three more performances of the sold out show at the Sackville branch of the Royal Canadian Legion on Sept. 14 as part of the Sackville Fall Fair, at the Amherst Golf Club on Sept. 29 and Sept. 29 at the East Botsford Recreation Centre in Murray Corner, N.B.
Rhindress wrote his first dinner theatre for Live Bait in 1994. He and Karen Valanne co-wrote the show, The Krazy Family Christmas Reunion, as a fundraiser for Live Bait, having no idea how popular it would prove to be.
Rhindress and Valanne ended up writing 30 more dinner theatres, many featuring Granma Krazy and a host of her wacky relatives.
When Rhindress resigned as Live Bait’s artistic director in 2007 he left dinner theatre behind to work as director of education and associate artist at Neptune Theatre and then artistic director of Eastern Front Theatre, both in Halifax.
Last year he moved back to the area to work as a freelance artist, most notably writing I’m Not What I Seem, a best selling biography of Rita MacNeil.
He also decided to return to dinner theatre and remounted his show, Anne of Springhill, as part of the Maritime Music Fest for the Anne Murray Centre this past summer.
Live Bait Theatre was looking to start producing interactive dinner theatre more regularly and they decided to work together on the show.
“I worked on a lot of dinner theatres over a 13-year stretch and it was nice to have a break,” Rhindress said recently. “But working on Anne of Springhill reminded how much fun the format can be.”
The musical dinner theatre tells the story of a group of wacky Anne Murray fans who get together to create a tribute to their hometown hero. It features songs from the 50s to today as well as a number of classic songs made famous by Anne Murray.
The show features a number of local actors including James Hand and Erin Lewis from Amherst, Liam Cole, Ron Kelly Spurles and Heather MacIntyre from the Sackville area and Carley Varner of Springhill.
Tickets for the Sackville performance of Anne of Springhill are available by calling Live Bait at 506-536- 2248. Tickets for Anne of Springhill in Amherst are available at the Amherst Golf Club or by calling 902-667-1911.
Tickets for the Murray Corner show are available at Coles Grocery in Port Elgin and Lakes in Murray Corner or by calling 506=538-7343 or 506-538-2834.