We love live entertainment. Maybe it’s in my blood coming from Stratford. Who knows. But whether it’s music, theatre or sports, we thoroughly enjoy watching it live.

Fortunately we live in an area where the choices are vast. Aside from sporting events (where we have to travel a bit) there’s simply a ton of other live action in the Georgian Bay Area. One of our regular favourites is The Beacon in Wasaga Beach. This humble roadhouse is the venue for The Freakin Band every Wednesday night. We love Freakin at the Beacon! The band is a collection of Canadian music relics that jam each week and feature s special guest in their second set. The talent is bar none and the dance floor hops!

Last night we enjoyed a solo act that took my breath away. https://louisepitre.com/ took to the stage at a local church (Theatre Collingwood has to scramble for venues this year when their home base theatre jacked the rent up to the moon). On the longest day of the year we sat in wooden pews (luckily the seats were padded) as the sun shone brightly through the stain glass windows and were mesmerized by the passionate vocals of one of Canada’s artistic gems.

Louise took “the stage” in a sparkling one shoulder gown and wooed us with La Vie en Rose. Louise is completely bi-lingual and switches effortlessly between English and a French. She was accompanied on the piano (another stellar artist). In between songs she shared snippets of her career (spanning over 40 years) and endearing personal anecdotes.

Two of her stories were particularly heartwarming for me. The first about her beloved dog Tasha (a lab shepherd mix) who was super smart. She could open doors of any kind and did so often. They had to board her for a few days while. Tasha was placed in the older dog section and made many new friends. On the first night the security camera picked up a loose dog on the grounds so the staff decided to watch closely the next night. They were astounded to watch as Tasha opened her kennel door and proceeded to let her friend’s out, too for a little after hours romp in the yard. Louise is a self-professed dog person so I was smitten.

The other story was about her performance in London Ontario one year. Her husband wrote the show around WWII and it featured musical hits of the day. Since it was around remembrance day they decided to visit the veterans hospital/long term care and sing for the patients. Louise told us that it’s impossible to sing while weeping. You can’t get the words out. And that’s just what happened while she was singing and the vets joined in with smiles on their faces. Her husband had to jump in to rescue the show so Louise could cry. I can’t imagine the feeling of bringing such joy to those men on that day. What a gift.

We’ve already booked tickets for the next show “Summer of 69” ; a tribute to Woodstock. And for the annual Meaford International Film Festival; last year we watched “Into the Fade” with Diane Kruger. The film was in German with English sub-titles.

Last week I went with a friend to “Billy Elliott ” in Stratford. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

There’s more to come … Collingwood is starting their summer movie by the bay series. The first flick is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s ” one of my favourite classic films. Of course, given the unseasonably cool summer thus far, we will have to bundle up to watch outside. Come on global warming! Bring us some heat!

That’s a wrap!