The Team on the Hill by Dan Needles
Few Canadian writers have had the kind of hand-in-work-glove relationship to rural audiences that Dan Needles has had. Winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Dan’s Wingfield series has been performed all over Canada, including on the CBC and at the Stratford Festival. Member of the Order of Canada, Dan is well known for his work as an artist with one hand on a hayfork.
The Team on the Hill carries all of Dan’s wit and unparalleled observation of farm life into a rich, funny, and moving family drama about life on the home-farm, complete with its nostalgia for the way things used to be, and struggles with succession.
The Ransier farm is a working cattle farm on the north side of a drumlin. Austin Ransier, the patriarch of the Ransier family, has farmed this land his whole life. An ambitious, hard-working farmer in his youth, Austin now finds himself relegated to mending the fences and sitting like a sentry on the porch. His grandson Larry, fresh from agriculture school, is ready to take on the mantle, and has a wellspring of new ideas from college, and a different approach to the inputs and outputs than those generations that have come before. But Ray, Larry’s father, wants none of it.
As son and grandson wrestle over the future of the land, a developer with motivated investors and blueprints for a golf course arrives to complicate matters. Are there ever enough acres for father and son to work side by side?
The Team on the Hill was premiered by Theatre Orangeville in May 2013.
(Photo: Larry (Kurtis Leon Baker), Leanne (Lucy Meanwell) and Austin (Layne Coleman). Photo by Terry Manzo)
Creative Team
Playwright DAN NEEDLES
Director SEVERN THOMPSON
Set & Costume Designer KELLY WOLF
Lighting Designer NOAH FEAVER
Sound Designer HEIDI CHAN
Production Stage Manager HEATHER THOMPSON
Assistant Stage Manager KATERINA SOKYRKO
Cast
LAYNE COLEMAN
KURTIS LEON BAKER
JULIE TAMIKO MANNING
LUCY MEANWELL
TONY MUNCH
(Image by Kelly Stevenson)
Production Co-Sponsors
Media Sponsor
Play Showings
Wednesday | July 31, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Thursday | August 1, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Friday | August 2, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Sunday | August 11, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Tuesday | August 13, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Thursday | August 15, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Friday | August 16, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Saturday | August 17, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Tuesday | August 20, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Wednesday | August 21, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Thursday | August 22, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Saturday | August 24, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Sunday | August 25, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Tuesday | August 27, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Thursday | August 29, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Friday | August 30, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Saturday | August 31, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Tuesday | September 3, 2019 | 8pm | BUY TICKETS |
Wednesday | September 4, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |
Thursday | September 5, 2019 | 2pm | BUY TICKETS |