This performance is part of the BrokerLink Presentation Series and is show sponsored by Camrose Morning News.
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About Billy Bishop Goes to War
Billy Bishop Goes to War is The Governor General’s and Los Angeles Drama Critics Award‐winning musical documenting the heroic First World War exploits of Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop. Written by Order of Canada recipient John Gray with former Corner Gas star Eric Peterson, the play has been the recipient of multiple awards since it premiered in 1978 and is one of Canada’s most successful musical dramas of all time. Billy Bishop Goes to War continues to re‐create this true war‐time story for new generations of theatre audiences as it attempts to reconcile the horrors of battle with the ecstasy of flying, in the process capturing the complex but indomitable human spirit of its unlikely hero. Billy Bishop Goes to War is a truly heart-warming, often funny, always captivating narrative of a genuine Canadian World War One flying ace. It is told through the eyes of Billy Bishop, who at the age of 21 left Owen Sound, Ontario to fight the Hun in the muddy war in Europe. While floundering in the mud with his cavalry horse, he saw a British pilot land lightly in a field and take off again — all clean, no mud — he immediately transferred to the Royal Air Force, where he was told the average lifespan of a pilot was 11 days. He signed up anyway and became one of only a handful of Canadian pilots in that war. William Avery ‘Billy’ Bishop was officially credited with 72 victorious flying missions, making him the top Canadian ace in the First World War, and one of the few Canadian pilots to ever win the Victoria Cross for his daring early morning solo attack on a German Aerodrome in 1917. The play stars actors Damon Calderwood and Chris Robson of Ace Productions, a British Columbia‐based, small‐cast touring musical theatre company. Billy Bishop Goes to War premiered in November 1978, at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Since then, it has gone on to be one of two internationally acclaimed Canadian musicals — the other being Anne of Green Gables. Billy Bishop Goes to War was presented with the 1981 Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Award, the 1982 Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the 1983 Governor General’s Award for drama. Billy Bishop was born in Owen Sound, Ontario on February 8, 1894 and died on September 11, 1956 in Florida at age 62. When WWI broke out in 1914 he joined the Mississauga Horse Cavalry Regiment, then transferred to 7th Canadian Mounted Rifles, a mounted infantry unit and arrived in Plymouth Harbour in England on June 23, 1915. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps a few months later. During the period of time he flew over France he claimed 72 victories, won the Military Cross, the Distinguished Service Order and the Victoria Cross, was promoted to Major and then Lieutenant-Colonel. The Canadian Government was concerned that if he were to be killed, public morale at home regarding the war would plummet, and much to his chagrin he was sent back to England in 1918.
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Director Bio:
Gerry Mackay, a founding member of Bard on the Beach, is very well known in the Vancouver theatre scene as both a director and actor. He has a BFA from UVIC, an MFA from UBC and spent three seasons with the Stratford Festival. Gerry grew up in North Vancouver and graduated from Windsor Secondary School.
Piano Player/Narrator Bio:
Chris Robson: UBC Graduate (BFA: Acting, MFA: Directing) Theatre acting highlights include: apprenticeship – Stratford Festival; Ontario tour – Cascade Children’s Theatre; Carousel/Axis Twelfth Night tour: Count Orsino/Aguecheek; Vancouver Fringe Festival Picks of the Fringe: The Brontë Brothers, The Maenads, ‘Nucklehead Fever New Wit, Blandiloquence, David Mamet’s Romance. Directing: Suburban Motel, In The Beginning, Our Country’s Good, The Last Five Years, Freud’s Last Session, and Tour Director/Accompanist/Moriarty in Holmes and Watson Save the Empire!
Damon Calderwood (Billy Bishop) Bio:
Damon was born in Vancouver, grew up in North Vancouver, and began acting at a very young age. Some of his favorite roles include John Merrick in The Elephant Man (Pacific Theatre), Dylan Thomas in Dylan (Elder College), Billy Bishop in Billy Bishop Goes to War (Ace Productions/First Impressions Theatre), Bardolph and Orleans in Henry V (Bard on the Beach), Man 1 in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Oregon Cabaret Theatre), Sherlock Holmes in Holmes and Watson Save the Empire! (Ace Productions/First Impressions Theatre), and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (Royal City Musical Theatre). Recent credits include Franz in The Sound of Music (Arts Club Theatre), Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum (Blue Bridge Theatre), Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd (Snapshots Collective), Herr Schultz in Cabaret (Royal City Musical Theatre), Mr. Harari in Ruined (Dark Glass/Pacific Theatre), C.S. Lewis in Freud’s Last Session (Ace Productions), King Triton in The Little Mermaid (Align Entertainment), Mr. Bumble and Bill Sykes in Oliver! (Theatre Under the Stars), and Burl Sanders in Smoke on the Mountain (Pacific Theatre). A passionate bird photographer, Damon is the author of four books on bird photography with his latest, Birding for Kids, coming out in the near future. Damon is also the proud Daddy of an 11 year-old son, Riley, and a 7 year-old son, Corey.
*Active service members can save up to 20%! Call our Box Office to find out how!*
This performance is part of the BrokerLink Presentation Series and is show sponsored by Camrose Morning News.
