The Team On The HIll

World Premiere Drama

May 9 - 26, 2013

By Dan Needles
Directed by David Nairn

Austin Ransier, the patriarch of the Ransier family, has farmed his whole life on the north side of a drumlin. He watches as his son and grandson wrestle over the future of the land and wonders, whether it will survive as a working farm ... or be gobbled up by a developer and become a golf course! Austin sees things that others don't and the family assumes that he is lost in the past. But Austin's dreams are about possibilities ...

Starring
Brandon Crone
Perrie Olthuis
Deborah Tennant
Jonathan Whittaker
Mairtin O'Carrigan

Creative Team

Set Designer - Sarah Scroggie
Sound Designer - Dan Nagle
Lighting Designer - Steve Lucas
Costume Designer - Vandy Simpson
Stage Manager - Charlene Saroyan
Apprentice Stage Manager - Laura Grandfield

Production Team
Production Manager - Beckie Morris
Technical Director - Dan Nagle
Assistant Technical Director - Ryan Oliver, Paula Stewart
Properties - Sarah Scroggie
Scenic Artist - Cathy Dalton
Carpenters - Ryan Oliver, Sarah Scroggie

Dan Needles (playwright) spent half of his childhood in the city and half on the family farm at Rosemont, Ontario. After university, he went to work as editor of the local paper in Shelburne where he created the character of Walt Wingfield, the retired stockbroker turned farmer, who told about his adventures on the farm in a series of weekly letters to the editor. Dan is also the winner of the 2003 Leacock Medal for Humour for his book, 'With Axe and Flask, The History of Persephone Township from Pre-Cambrian Times to the Present'.

Playwright's Notes (Dan Needles)

Farm families are famous for the battles that occur when it is time to hand the land to the next generation. It is a decision that involves the heart as much as the mind because, over time, the land develops a life of its own and becomes a member of the family. I remember a farmer in Mono Township once telling me that "fathers farm for their sons and sons farm for their fathers." I found that remark very wise but it still only explains part of what is going on, especially if there happens to be any women in the house.

Team On The Hill is based on a script I wrote about twenty years ago, but never finished. It didn't exactly get shoved in a drawer and forgotten. I have been cobbling and quoting from the script ever since and little snips and snatches have popped up in other plays. David Nairn noticed one of those snips a couple of years ago and he asked me where it came from. When I told him he said, "I want to do that play."

Farming is very much like the theatre because it requires a lot of imagining and a willingness to take a leap of faith every day. Many thanks to the people at Theatre Orangeville for taking the leap with me.

Dan Needles