The NFOTA Drama Project Committee is delighted to announce the names of the three one-act plays chosen for presentation as staged readings during the Festival. Congratulations go to Donald J Anderson for his play Screwed, Christopher Cameron for Nail Polish and Karen Palmer for Wind on Weller’s Bay.

Eighteen local playwrights submitted, and an independent group with long and varied experience of community theatre collaborated with our directors, Matt Blundell and Kate Shuker, to read, discuss and come to consensus on building the programme.

To give audiences a chance to see these plays close to home, all three plays will be presented on three different days in three different venues:

• September 17, 7:00 PM at Trinity St Andrew’s United Church in Brighton
• September 23, 7:00 PM at St Paul’s United in Warkworth
• October 2, 2:00 PM in Victoria Hall, Cobourg.

Meet the Playwrights

Donald J Anderson is a retired resident of the village of Trent River living on a wooded property on the shores of Lake Seymour. Locally he’s known (euphemistically) as that miserable old coot who cuts his grass at 7 AM on Sunday mornings. He’s a graduate of Queen’s University with a degree in English literature. He has a love for humour of all kinds, from Chaucer to Monty Python, and is also a wood carver, cartoonist and composer of questionable campfire songs for the grandchildren when they visit. These, they often share with school friends, resulting in sharply worded notes home to the parents.

Christopher Cameron enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional opera singer, performing on stages across Canada and abroad and retiring in 2009. Ten years ago he began a new career as a freelance writer and copy editor. As editor of Watershed magazine and co-host of Word on the Hills, Christopher spends most of his days immersed in stories of the people, places, and events of Northumberland County. Christopher’s memoir of his singing years, Dr. Bartolo’s Umbrella (Seraphim Editions), was published in 2017. His second book, Thorneside Stories, will be published in 2022. Nail Polish is his first play.

Karen Palmer is the author of Spellbound: Inside West Africa’s Witch Camps. Her journalism has appeared in the Toronto Star, Washington Times, Sydney Morning Herald and South China Morning Post. Her fiction has appeared in Don’t Honk Twice: A Prince Edward County Anthology and the Dalhousie Review. She lives in Hillier, Prince Edward County. 

Northumberland Festival of the Arts will take place across Northumberland County from September 16 – October 2, 2022.

Northumberland Festival of the Arts is a volunteer-run not-for-profit arts organization.

To volunteer for NFOTA, please contact info@festivalofthearts.ca

To help support our events, please send your donation by Interac to fundraising@festivalofthearts.ca