cktimes.ca Archives for Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Cultural Musings on Chatham-Kent
Our local past is good grist for great drama
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
A few articles ago, we mentioned, in passing, that local playwright, Mike McDonald had another play that he was mounting as a studio production at the Chatham Cultural Centre this January and we would like to spend a little time this week discussing Mike and his newest creation.You might remember that about seven years ago Mike mounted his first play in the studio at the CCC. It was entitled SO LONG SWEET ADELINE and it was the story of the murder a local hairdresser by the name of Adeline McDonald (Mike's great aunt) who was killed in the 1930s.
The play was a fascinating bit of theatre and was very well done by a local cast. We had anxiously awaited the production of his next play not only because we love local plays depicting our past but because the focus of his next play was to be on a man that was distantly related to me.
Arthur Pelkey ( Peltier) was my ( Jim's) grandmother's first cousin and because of this connection we had both been told the story of Arthur Pelkey and his relationship to the famous Canadian boxer, Tommy Burns, a number of times.
The story of Arthur Pelkey's boxing career is as interesting as that of Tommy Burn's but unfortunately, like so many other local Canadian characters and personalities, very few people are aware of even their names! Fewer yet, know of the many exciting, fascinating and entertaining details that made him a famous, and yet rather tragic, boxing celebrity in North America in the early 1900s.
Mike McDonald's play about Pelkey entitled WHITE CHAMP, hopes to educate, entertain and inform local audiences about Arthur Pelkey's journey from the lonely fields of Dover Township to the crowded boxing arenas of Canada and the United States. Knowing the story as well as we do, we know that every person who attends the play will be intrigued by it. It has all the elements of a wonderful story. It is, at once, uplifting, tragic, joyful, sorrowful and triumphant. If Pelkey had been born in the U.S., his story would have been a Movie of The Week presentation. However, since he was Canadian, it is only through the tenacity and creativity of someone like Mike McDonald that his story has been, dramatically, brought to life.
It's this giving of life and substance to past local people and events that we feel is so important for Chatham-Kent. It gives us, as a community, a personality. It provides the people who live in Chatham-Kent inspiration. It reinforces the idea that important things happen in our own backyard. We do not have to live vicariously through other people in other countries or other locales. Things of importance do happen outside of Hollywood, Los Angeles and New York. Quite often important things have happened just around the corner and exciting people live right beside us, but more often than not, we need others to direct our attention to these things and to those people. Thank goodness we have people like Mike McDonald (and his capable creative crew of Leonard and Sharon Jubenville)
to do that!
We strongly urge you to attend one of the performances of WHITE CHAMP this month. They are being presented in the studio at the Chatham Cultural Centre on January 17, 18, 19, 23, 24 and 25. All performances, except for the one on the 25th, are at 8:00 P.M.
( the one on the 25th is at 8:30 P.M.) Ticket information can be obtained by phoning 354-8338.
Make plans right now to get to know a local hero a little bit better! Oh – by the way Mike McDonald's next local hero he would like to celebrate on stage is Wallaceburg's own Jeanne Gordon. As we constantly keep trying to tell you, there is no shortage of local heroes worthy of examination. We just need to be an accepting and supportive audience!
Jim and Lisa Gilbert are local, national and international award winning educators and historians.
