Philippe’s Tales of the Great North

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BullWhat inspired me was the personal experiences of a student from our Hanmer tour whose intervention with my character was also an open confession of how he himself understood ‘Rick”s problems; because quite simply, he had lived through these issues himself. He sympathized with my character’s experiences and tried warning me of terrible pitfalls when it came to consuming drugs and alcohol. “You’ll end up regretting it. Trust me. Problems with the law, your friends, your family. Trust me. You don’t want any of that. I should know, because it’s all happened to me.” These were statements of true sincerity that made my character see the world a little differently and with a little more hope. I opened myself up to him by revealing ‘Rick’s’ feelings of depression. In this he definitely felt akin and assured ‘Rick’ that he wasn’t alone. This was incredibly encouraging to ‘Rick’ and obviously a pretty successful intervention.

Afterward, Mattawa in Ontario was nothing less then relaxing and picturesque. Having experienced beautiful views of the large river banks from the Valois Motel, we nestled our heads for the evening; but not before I indulged my taste-buds to a homemade sugar pie, a piece of true Canadiana.  We also spotted a Newfoundlander dog whose size was almost akin to a full grown bear! Yikes!

Lastly, in Mattawa we visited the birth of a school, which opened a mere 2 months ago for their inaugural scholastic year. You could smell how fresh the painted walls, the linoleum floors and the varnished gymnasium was. This beautiful bright school with an even brighter future dubbed our show the very first show performed inside the new building. Mixed Company Theatre having been chosen for this sacred spot in its future history, wishes nothing but the best for its faculty members, students and all families associated with this institution.

Enjoy our future blogs and follow us everywhere on the social media Trans-Canadian highway. YOLO! 🙂

– Philippe Poirier actor playing ‘RICK’ in Projet Actif!

Adventures up North… Janie

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In the little town of BlindRiver, on a snowy morning, we….“la gang du Projet Actif” bought our daily Tim Hortons timbits, ate and were on our way to the beautiful Jeunesse-Nord school.

The cast and I were all relieved to have survived the spooky Halloween night in this tiny unfamiliar town and to finish the week with a group of 70 students. The quiet, though attentive group reacted well to the 1st part of the presentation and one student in particular surprised me during the interventions. Improvising with the students, I’ve heard many similar phrases or tactics in order to help Shona with her eating disorder, the one student pointed out something new! Shona’s character was comparing herself to stars like Taylor Swift or models in her Seventeen Magazine and clearly stated that she NEEDED to become as slim as them. The student answered with complete confidence and simplicity saying “Well Shona, have you heard of Photoshop? Everything in your magazine is photoshoped and unrealistic!!”

It brought me great joy to know that teens out there are aware of this and this was a wonderful moment for our joker, Cassandra, to elaborate on! Later …. We listened to MJ the whole way to Sudbury, MAMA SE MAMA SA MAMA KUSA!

T’was a lovely day indeed!

Touring beautiful Northern Ontario… Serge

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New Liskeard LandmarkDriving hundreds of kilometres, meeting a 40 foot: lumberjack, bison and trout was not something we expected, but definitely took advantage of and took record of.
Drive to Timmins, stop in New Liskeard at a truck stop where the nacho portions were massive.
Continue….stop at a convenience store….”These speakers are free?!?!?!?!?! Now we can listen to our ipods since there’s no auxiliary in the van.”
Continue to Timmins…Rocking out with the free speakers that produce very minimal volume…show in Timmins where everything is 24hours, WHY????.
Continue to Cochrane…show…check!
Go straight to Smooth Rock Falls…show…check!
Go immediately back to New Liskeard where we collectively chant “Pool, pool, pool, pool, pool, pool,” like 5 year olds at the sight of the hotel pool.
Sleep in an amazing room…Thank you Holiday Inn Express…Thank you Kristin!!!!
Show the next day…what to do in New Liskeard…What? Karaoke on a Wednesday night…What? The locals are asking us where we’re from every few minutes….What? We rock it out in New Liskeard.
Sleep…day off of performing…have conference call…good stuff!!!!
Hike a beautiful trail…fantastic….Afternoon tea? Don’t mind if we do.
Sleep…show…check!
Drive back…ending with Bohemian Rhapsody…AWESOME!!!!