Contrasting the Swingin’ Sixties with the last days of one-room schoolhouses
In April, Stone Fence Theatre hits the road with a five-community tour of its 2024 hit, Miss Pringle’s Mini-Skirt, by Eganville Leader columnist Johanna Zomers. With music that goes between Beatles-style and old country, it tells the story of a young teacher who comes from the city in 1965 to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. She and the whole community are in for culture shock in this heart-warming story! Above: Schoolgirls played by Ruby Kubishesky, Willa MacDonald, Avery Wright, Lora Bennett and Mira Frolander imagine a wedding. (Photo submitted)
The show will be performed April 27 in Rankin, May 4 in Deep River, May 11 in Arnprior, May 25 in Maynooth and June 1 in Almonte.
Miss Pringle’s Mini-Skirt, directed and choreographed by Shirley Hill and Sarah Wright, features eight children and youth who came together last year as a cohesive and joyful team plus five experienced adult stars – Tabitha Green, Will March, Ambrose Mullin, Ryan Webster and Sarah Wright. A red-hot band made up of Peter Frolander, Will March, Peter Sattelberger, Ish Theilheimer, and Clint Degarie back up the performers on 17 new original songs in contrasting styles that represent the cultural clash of the day – Beatles-style pop music vs. Mac Beattie-style traditional country music.
Written by Johanna Zomers with Ish Theilheimer and Kathy Eisner, the two-act play casts a fond look back at the final days of rural schoolhouses as the Ottawa Valley discovered the Beatles, the Cold War and Hockey Night in Canada.
Inspired by Ms. Zomers’ nostalgic weekly columns in The Eganville Leader, the musical comedy sees a young, inexperienced first-time teacher “from away” learning to cope with her first teaching job in a schoolhouse on the Opeongo Line, the historic settlement road that winds through the hills of Renfrew County. From threshing to chicken killing, from chimney fires to putting on the Christmas concert, Miss Pringle and her students get an education in rural life, love, family and friendship. Inset: Playwright Johanna Zomers, who attended one-room schools as a girl, based her script on her columns in The Eganville Leader. (Photo submitted)
Miss Pringle, the rambunctious “big boys,” the dreaded school inspector, deaf old Father Crabby, rebellious teenage Loretta and her exhausted mother tell the story in the songs and dances of the era – from Mac Beatty to the Beatles, from a polka to the Mashed Potato. Whether it’s the warnings of missile attacks on the NORAD Pine Tree Line, or the rapidly changing role of women, Miss Pringle’s Mini-Skirt promises a lively fast-paced look into a time when everything was changing all at once.
The show will be performed on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. at these venues:
April 27: Rankin Culture & Recreation Centre, 20 Rankin Rink Rd. (off Highway 41 between Pembroke and Eganville)
May 4: Deep River at Mackenzie Community School, 59 Brockhouse Way
May 11: Arnprior at the Christian Education Centre, 269 John St. N.
May 25: Maynooth at Emond Hall, 33011 Hastings County Rd 62
June 1: Almonte at Almonte Old Town Hall, 14 Bridge St.
Tickets, which cost $45 or $15 for youth, can be purchased online at www.stonefence.ca or by phone 613-401-1497 or 1-866-310-1004 toll-free.
Theilheimer,I.(2025,Apr.8) Stone Fence Theatre takes Miss Pringle’s Mini-Skirt on Spring tour [media release]