Further to Rebecca’s post on production pics, I love these ones sent to me by actor Damon Calderwood promoting his company’s 30th anniversary production of the musical Billy Bishop Goes to War at the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre.
I’m a sucker for anything WWII related, especially the RAF (I wanted desperately to be a Spitfire pilot when I was eight). I don’t know where they sourced the plane from, but they obviously went to a great deal of effort to put these shots together. Very cool.
First Impressions Theatre celebrates its 25th anniversary season with one of Canada’s most popular and internationally renowned musicals: Billy Bishop Goes to War, by John Gray with Eric Peterson. This heart-warming, funny and moving narrative is based on a true story about Canada’s World War I flying ace, Billy Bishop.
Audiences will fall in love with Billy Bishop as he recounts his days in combat as a rebellious young Canadian fighter pilot and unexpectedly becomes the most decorated Royal Air Corps officer and heroic figure of the Great War.
Veteran Vancouver actors Damon Calderwood and Gordon Roberts are teaming up in this two-man show with Equity director Gerry McKay to bring the iconic Canadian musical Billy Bishop Goes To War to the Deep Cove Shaw stage. Damon Calderwood will star as the feisty Canadian WWI flying ace Billy Bishop performing 18 different characters while Gordon Roberts will perform the role of Narrator/piano player.
Simon Ogden 
Damon is a dear friend of mine, an an excellent photographer. I’d recommend him, as well, to do your production shots. I also have to recommend his acting–which I think is fantastic, and completely egoless. This role is his Hamlet–go see it if you can.
Damon is FANTASTIC.
Moments of applause throughout the performance
Standing ovation at the end.
This is a show you wished you had seen earlier, so you could tell all your friends about.
Billy Bishop is a remarkable piece of written theatre. And Damon really makes each of the 18 different characters he plays distinct and real.
It is a showcase for:
Canadian WW1 history
Canadian theatre
playwright John McLachlan Gray
Damon’s talent
I only met Damon earlier this year, we we played against each other in the Celtic Fest’s “Battle of the Bards”
see my blog article and pictures:
Toddish McWong’s “Robert Burns” wins Battle of the Bards at Celtic Fest
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2008/3/13/3579503.html
Back in high school, I wrote an essay in my last year of history (Grade 13, in Ontario) on Billy Bishop. I wrote it based on the controversy at the time about an NFB film (The Kid Who Couldn’t Miss) that had come out recently that painted Bishop in a bad light – calling into question his “kills”; and how the War Amps group fought the “sullying of Bishop’s name” by the film.
The NFB film had in it scenes and stills from a play that had opened only a few years earlier (at the time)… called Billy Bishop Goes to War… at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre – a place I’d never heard of or seen. In it was a (now) famous Canadian actor – Eric Peterson.
I’ve always wanted to see this play, and I’m sad I missed it this time around.
Thanks Mark, what a cool story. These guys are continuing the run on Nov. 30 in New West, I believe. Stay tuned for more info…