latest news
It’s been a while since we wrote. What an amazing tour we had across the prairies. Thanks to all our fabulous hosts, and everyone who came out to the shows.
We are now on a flight to Vancouver loading in at Presentation House Theatre for our shows Nov 11, 13, 15 and 17. Very excited to be back at PHT! Please join us if you can. Tickets and times are on our touring page.
We had a fabulous time in Brandon, Manitoba. We had our first shows of the Fall Tour at the beautiful Lorne Watson Recital Hall, and had a great turn out for the student matinee and the public evening show on October 18th.
Thanks to the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum for hosting us, and to everyone who took the time to come out to the show. So many men and women from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta joined up in WW2. It’s always a privilege to bring Jake’s Gift back to the Prairies.
Next stop: Mayerthorpe Legion. October 23 @ 8PM. Hope to see you there!
It’s a cloudy lightly snowing day today in Hinton, AB. We just left our hotel and are on route to Brandon, MB, for our first shows of the Fall 2019 Tour. We had a gorgeous drive yesterday to Hinton from Wells, and are excited to arrive in Brandon tomorrow. If you have friends or family in or near Brandon, please let them know about the show! We have 1 public performance at 7PM on October 18th at the beautiful Lorne Watson Recital Hall. The kind folks at RCA Museum are hosting these performances. We have a student mat ealrier in the day on Friday. We’ll update you on our travels soon!
#LestWeForget #honouringourveterans
Three weeks today we hit the road for our Fall Tour! We are so grateful to be in our 13th year of touring Jake’s Gift. This Fall we are excited to be going back to some really wonderful theatres in Alberta that we had the honour of performing at in 2016, and we are also making a return visit to Presentation House in North Vancouver and to the Quesnel Legion. We will be performing at some brand new places too; Brandon and Prince Albert.
This Fall will be the first Fall Tour without our dear friend Bud Schaupmeyer. Bud passed away on July 20th. He always hoped we could get to his home town of Mayerthorpe to perform Jake’s Gift, and we are finally doing just that on October 23rd at the Mayerthorpe Legion, Bud, and his brothers Johnny and Charlie’s home Legion. I wish Bud could be with us. He was a gem of a friend and a proud veteran.
The truest gift we have received from all of the touring we have done is the friendships we have made along the way with so many people and especially so many WW2 veterans. I hope you can come and join us at one of our performances this Fall as we pay tribute to our veterans and to the thousands of Canadians who never got to come home.
We Will Remember Them.
Bud & Jules • May 1st 2018
September is upon us and as most of us usually end up saying each year, “Where did summer go?” Granted, we still have a few weeks left, but I truly cannot get over how quickly the season flew by. We were so busy with Jake in May and June. Performing Jake’s Gift/Le Cadeau de Jake in French and English in Normandy was a beautifully moving experience for Juno75, and then we landed back in Wells June 18 just in time for the Sunset Cabaret, and hit the ground running hosting some incredible performers every week throughout the summer, and we still have more to come this month!
We just wrapped up the most wonderful weekend on Gabriola Island, (Gulf Islands, BC), and we were thrilled to be part of the line-up for the 2019 Cultivate Arts Festival. We had a sold out show on Friday, Aug 30th, and got to perform on the Antony Holland Stage. Antony was a true mentor and friend, and the first veteran to see Jake’s Gift. We are so grateful to him for all he did for us over the years, and it was a great thrill to be back performing on Gabriola, ten years after the last time we performed Jake’s Gift on Gabriola. The Audience was amazing and the Festival is a real gem with an incredibly kind and welcoming staff. We can’t thank Mitch and the whole team enough for having us. We also had the best billets anyone could ask for in Bill and Madye, who opened up their beautiful home to us, and sent us on our way with a hearty delicious breakfast on departure day.
We are now spending the final day of the long weekend of summer in the beautiful Okanagan Valley with family and enjoying the gorgeous sunshine.
Happy Labour Day to all. This day is of course to remind us of the many people who fought tirelessly years ago for fair labour laws. We are ever grateful to those souls who created the Unions and better working conditions for all. There is still much much work to do, but much changed because of the work done before.
Aug 29 2019 - On our way to Gabriola Island for Cultivate 2019!
The summer feels like it is just whipping by. We’ve had a very busy time running the Sunset Theatre w/ Karen and Dave Jeffery, Amy Collison and Maggie Lees. We’ve welcomed some incredibly talented Theatre artists and musicians from BC and Alberta. #LuckyUs
This past weekend was the annual ArtsWells Festival, and it was an incredibly rewarding and exciting Festival w/ artists from all over the world arriving in our little town for the August long weekend.
As well as the business of the Sunset, we of course are looking forward to working on the upcoming performance of Jake’s Gift at Gabriola’s Cultivate Festival and our Fall 2019 Tour.
There is still plenty of summer left, and we are enjoying our days! We hope the same is true for you.
Happy August!
Dear Bud,
It's hard to imagine that we won't see you again. You have been the dearest of friends these last 9 years. When we met back in March 2010 after you came to see Jake's Gift, I knew we were kindred spirits. We are so lucky to have had the time we did with you. You were always so kind and welcoming - sharing your home with us every time we ventured out your way, be it for Fringe (#bestbilletever!) or holidays or just passing through. We shared so many laughs and amazing meals, shows and conversations. It has been the greatest honour to be your friend and to meet veterans like you over the last 15 years. You were such a gift to us and to so many people. Both Dirk and I will never forget all the good times we shared. We hope you and Johnny and Charlie are sharing a beer or three somewhere in the cosmos. Thank you for your service to this country that you loved so much and thank you for your fierce friendship. Rest in peace my dear dear friend. You've earned it. We will miss you more than words can say. <3 :( xoxo
We arrived in Normandy last night, May 28th, via Ferry from Portsmouth, UK. A rocky ride, here and there, but nothing compared to what our the D-day soldiers must have endured on June 6, 1944.
My dear cousin, Rachel, had arrived at our accommodation a few hours before us and set up the place with french food and wine and beer and we had the most wonderful reunion. She has been working so hard on the tour and has been our rock solid translator and invaluable team member. We could not have done this tour without her.
This morning we made our way to Bernieres-sur-Mer, where we met the Mayor Lapoitier, and his assistant Caroline, at La Salle de la Mer, where we will have 2 performances on June 3rd @ 2PM in English and 8PM in French. Everyone was so kind and welcoming, and they seem keen to see the show. This afternoon, we had the same warm welcome at OMAC in Courseulles-sur-Mer, where our first performance will take place this Saturday, June 1st in French at 8PM. We had toast with Normandy Apple juice and delicious biscuits and a reunion with Jackie Lamay, the very kind woman, who first hosted a performance of Le Cadeau de Jake back in June 2014 in Bernieres-sur-Mer for the 70th Anniversary of D-Day.
So Day 1 has been a fabulous start to our tour. We are now nestled back in our lodging and each of us is working away on prep for the upcoming shows. Rehearsing soon, then a long walk along Juno Beach…we are so grateful to be here.
Spring sprung and it’s hard to believe we are already here at May 9th, and I have no idea where how the days are slipping away so quickly. We started our Spring tour in Nanaimo April 25 to 27 as part of Theatre ONE’s MainStage Series, and we had an incredible time. Four performances at the Malaspina Theatre, and we met so many people after the show who had generously stayed after to share their own Jake stories. It was a fabulous time, and we’re so grateful to the whole team at Theatre ONE for inviting us to be part of their Season.
After Nanaimo, we headed East to Lethbridge for a fundraiser performance on May 4th for the Lethbridge Unites Services Institute. We helped raise some funds for a beautiful Bronze statue they are having commissioned to commemorate the last gun fired in WW1, which also happened to be from Lethbridge. We had a great turn out, and a very appreciative crowd.
May 7th had us in Red Deer, Alberta, for a performance to raise money for the Red Deer Legion Pipe Band’s 2020 trip to Europe. We’ve been back to play with the RDLPB a few times over the last 4 years, and they’ve become dear friends. We dedicated the show to our dear friend and WW2 veteran, Alex MacAskill, who passed away in Nova Scotia on May 6th. Alex was a vibrant, loving and caring soul, and we are so grateful for the time we had with him. He will be missed by so many.
Tomorrow we head to Drumheller for our final Alberta show on this spring tour. Saturday, May 11th @ 8PM we’ll be performing for the AB Yukon Royal Canadian Legion Convention at Badlands Community Facility. You can find out all the details on our Where We’re Going page.
We’ll are doing a Fundraiser at the Sunset Theatre on May 18th to help get us over to Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. We cannot wait to be back in Normandy for such a special anniversary. Exactly 15 years since Julia first travelled to Normandy for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. The very experience that inspired the creation of Jake’s Gift. We’ll be sure to update you on our adventures as they unfold.
We are loving this first day of spring! It’s 22 degrees outside and the four feet of remaining snow is melting quickly.
Today is the day we launched our new website, which we hope you enjoy. Dirk Van Stralen has re-designed the whole site and got us into the 21st century. Our old site was no longer editable as iWeb has long since expired.
We have about 4 weeks to go before starting our Spring 2019 Tour, which will take us to Vancouver Island, Alberta and then onto Normandy, France, for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day.
We learned yesterday that our Touring Initiatives Grant Application was accepted by the BC Arts Council so we are extremely grateful to BCAC for their amazing support of this very special bilingual tour of Jake’s Gift. See our Touring section for full details on our shows. Have a great week and Happy Spring!
