 
Sackville’s Festival by the Marsh is in its 20th year. In a phone call this week, reporter Lara MacMillan had an opportunity to speak with Ron Kelly-Spurles about the offerings at this year’s festival.
He was particularly excited to talk about the youth and family programming.
“This year we’ve got actually four plays, for young people, which is really exciting.Three of them are on Saturdays so each Saturday of the festival. But then we have a really kind of special one coming in from Fredericton called Magic Beings the Musical, and it’s by a group called, the Spirit Project a group of about, 40 people and, some of them have autism, some of them have other disabilities or combinations of things, and some of them don’t have any disabilities or autism. But, so as a group, they’ve created this show with their own, words, their own music, everything. And now they’re doing a little tour around, new Brunswick and we’re really fortunate to have them come here. I think it’s gonna be a really eye-opening and incredible experience for anybody who can come and see it.”
And having come directly from Ireland, TULUA, a young traditional Irish music group will perform on July the 24th at 8pm at the Sacville Legion as part of their Eastern Canada tour.
For comedy lovers there are two offerings: Whimsy State, which is a true story of some Nova Scotians who decide to declare, independence from Canada. They setttle on an island near Nova Scotia and all kinds of crazy things that happen because of that. And the Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged where five people try to put on all of Shakespeare’s plays, in one form or another, in just a couple of hours.
There is real attention to the readings and to the creation of theatrical works, and that’s intentional.
“So when we started the festival, we also saw that there was so many kind of creative people around Sackville and area, theatre artists and people who were starting to develop writing. We’ve always encourage that. We’re really trying to give people the opportunity to express themselves and people, the public as well, like audience members, the opportunity to see something new that’s in development. A lot of times people will go out and just see a play that’s done, you know, it’s ready to present as a fully. Produce show. So I think it’s really interesting to go and see something before it gets to that point and just find out how it’s been put together and, there will be some talkbacks after the shows and maybe you’ll be able to give an idea of the playwright that will help them to, move their story forward and move the artistic process forward.”
With lots to choose from, there truly is something for everyone at this year’s Festival by the Marsh.
Find a full list of performances, workshops, readings and other offerings go to: www.festivalbythemarsh.com
