Rex Deverell.
Rex Deverell, the playwright who brought the community ‘Swimming for Shore’ returns to The Assembly Hall Jan. 27.
Courtesy photo
"I can't think of any (plays) that (have) given me as much of a charge as that experience." - Rex Deverell
The playwright who brought the community 'Swimming for Shore' returns to The Assembly Hall later this month.
Rex Deverell will share stories and anecdotes from his career as a professional playwright and read from some of his works on Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. Free admission.
The evening is a precursor to Deverell's revising and remounting of the community play a decade later with Humber College acting and production students this April.
Deverell penned 'Swimming for Shore' 10 years ago after spending two years interviewing residents on decades of life lived in the area of the Lakeshore.
The $100,000 production that boasted 77 volunteer actors headlined the official opening of The Assembly Hall in 2001.
"I remember being high for two or three weeks afterward," Deverell said in an interview this week from Halifax, NS of the "overwhelming enthusiasm" of performers and the community to the sold-out show. "I've done a lot of theatre and had a lot of my own plays produced. They've all given me a charge. But I can't think of any that has given me as much of a charge as that experience."
Last fall, Deverell returned to the Hall to create a new vision of the production, this time acted and produced by Humber College students.
The fresh look at 'Swimming for Shore' opens Friday, April 8 at 6:30 p.m. at The Assembly Hall. Tickets are $50, including show and reception. Call 416-338-7255.
'Swimming for Shore' takes its title and theme from a favourite saying of the late Etobicoke swim coach Gus Ryder. Ryder coached Marilyn Bell, the first swimmer to cross Lake Ontario.
Ryder encouraged Bell by urging her to "swim to shore."
The saying is also a metaphor for the community that was, and remains, swimming to shore.
"The framework of the show is 'keep at it. Keep building.' The person swimming across the lake is symbolic in the background," said Deverell, who lived in a Mimico lowrise 36 years ago when his son was born.
Diana Belshaw, director of Humber College's theatre performance program, directs the new 'Swimming for Shore.'
Acting students researched and interviewed residents to prepare for their "golden opportunity" to participate in the popular community production, Belshaw said.
Change has come to the Lakeshore in the past decade, including Humber's Media and Arts Studio's new home in revitalized, former decades-old Lakeshore Lions Arena.
That change will be reflected in the play's updated version.
"I've done a fair amount of work in (community plays) in my own professional career," Belshaw said. "It's huge when you talk to a community, residents you're representing. It changes the way you look at the work and the bigger world. It's no longer about you and your ego. It's a much bigger picture."
Some 21 Humber student actors and an equivalent number of student production crew will mount the play.
Rehearsals begin in early March.