DEAR RITA

DEAR RITA IS AN UNCONVENTIONAL MUSICAL CELEBRATION OF CAPE BRETON’S RITA MACNEIL. SURE, WE THINK WE KNOW HER STORY — CHRISTMAS SPECIALS, MEN OF THE DEEPS, A TEA ROOM...
BUT DID YOU KNOW:
  • THE RCMP HAD A FILE ON HER BECAUSE OF HER CONTROVERSIAL WOMEN’S RIGHTS SONGS?
  • SHE PLAYED THE RIVERBOAT COFFEE HOUSE WITH JONI MITCHELL AND BOB DYLAN? WHEN RECORD LABELS WOULDN’T SIGN HER BECAUSE OF HOW SHE LOOKED,
  • SHE STARTED HER OWN LABEL — UNHEARD OF FOR A WOMAN IN THE 1980S?
  • AND DID YOU KNOW SHE IS NOW A REVERED QUEER ICON — LOVING WHO SHE LOVED WITHOUT APOLOGY?
FIVE PERFORMERS OF DIFFERENT IDENTITIES PLAY RITA AT ONCE, FOR, AS RITA ONCE SAID: “MY STORY IS ABOUT ONE PERSON, BUT IT’S SOMETHING YOU'D PUT ANYONE ONE IN.”
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PRODUCTIONS
2024 — NEPTUNE THEATRE, HALIFAX, NS
2024—TWEED & CO, TWEED, ONTARIO —
TOURED TO ST. JOHN’S, NL, WITH TERRA BRUCE 2022/23 — SAVOY THEATRE, GLACE BAY, NS
2021 —CHARLOTTETOWN FESTIVAL, PEI — PREMIERE

AWARDS
  • MERRITT AWARDS — “OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE,” “OUTSTANDING MUSICAL DIRECTOR” & “BEST ENSEMBLE”
  • ​BROADWAYWORLD AWARD — “BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR”
  • BROADWAYWORLD NOMINATIONS — “BEST ENSEMBLE” & “BEST MUSICAL”
  • AWARDED “OUTSTANDING CONCERT SHOW OF 2024” BY ENTERTAIN THIS THOUGHT! 
Developed with Rita’s son Wade Langham and featuring a cast of five performers + band, DEAR RITA's story is told through a script by​ Cape Breton playwright Lindsay Kyte, and features new, re-imagined arrangements of her music by PEI composer/musician Mike Ross. From Rita's popular hits to the lesser-known songs that made her bandmates cry like babies, DEAR RITA weaves Rita’s lyrics into new perspectives and invites her spirit into the room as her songs live through our own experiences. Who is “Rita” in this show? It’s not one person. We all are — everyone on that stage, and everyone whose hearts she has touched with the musical prayers of her people.
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​All inquiries can be directed to Colin Rivers at Marquis Entertainment at 416.960.9123 x 223 or at [email protected].

TOMPKINSVILLE

What if someone told you you could have the life of which you've always dreamed? All you have to do is live dangerously and create furiously—together. Once upon a time, a group of miners did just that. Tompkinsville is the true story of a Cape Breton mining town transformed from despondency to independence thanks to a rebel priest's belief we can all become "masters of our own destiny" — with a book in one hand and our neighbour's hand in the other. Tompkinsville is the story of Father Jimmy Tompkins, Joe Laben, and the co-operative movement.

Winner of two Robert Merritt awards,  nominated for three, having toured NS and premiered in Oakville, ON, and named one of the top plays in Nova Scotia in 2016, and featuring original music by Ian Sherwood & Lindsay Kyte, Tompkinsville has been declared "a classic. An important addition to the canon of Cape Breton literature."

Read more in our press kit (download below). All inquiries to Lindsay Kyte.      
tompkinsville_press_kit_2021.pdf
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File Type: pdf
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TORONTO ADVENTURES

In 2004, Lindsay Kyte moved from Nova Scotia to Toronto. As she experienced the humour and wonder of culture shock in the same country in which she grew up, she began to write a series of back home to family and friends about her "Toronto Adventures" in the land of subways and smog. Little did she know, these e-mails were being forwarded on. And on. And on. Suddenly, the phone began ringing with people requesting more "Toronto Adventures."

​An article in The Toronto Star featuring an almost life-size picture of Lindsay resulted in television production companies calling, as well as Internet channels. Theatre companies got in on the action. When Lindsay stopped hyperventilating from all of the attention, Toronto Adventures had been turned into a stage play, a comedic Internet series and a blog in the Cape Breton Post. 

The stage play of Toronto Adventures premiered at Festival Antigonish in 2007. Since then it has been produced at Victoria Playhouse, the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre and the Atlantic Fringe Festival, as well as by the Grand Bank Theatre Festival in Newfoundland, where Lindsay had the otherworldly experience of watching someone else play "Lindsay Kyte" on stage. Who knew a bunch of seemingly silly little emails about being a fish out of salt water would result in all of this? 

​To view some Toronto Adventures, click this link:
https://vimeo.com/1158209
A second episode is available below!