New one-man musical tells the story of Timmins, Ont.
CBC
A new one-man musical tells the story of the gold rush that helped create what is now the city of Timmins, Ont.
MINE! True Stories and Legends of the Porcupine Gold Rush, has already premiered in North Bay, but will entertain a home crowd at the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre on Aug. 17 and 18.
Will Gillespie, the show's creator and performer, grew up in Timmins but now calls Hamilton home.
Gillespie said it was his partner, Susan Robinson, who convinced him his hometown could make the backdrop for a great musical.
"My partner, Susan, who is also the producer of the play, sort of was pointing out how interesting this history is in northern Ontario and how rare and unique it is, you know, because she grew up in southern Ontario," Gillespie said.
The show includes 12 songs that each tell a different story about the characters that founded the Porcupine mining camp, which eventually became the city of Timmins.
As Gillespie performs the songs, old photos of the real people and events he describes are projected on a backdrop.
A press release describes the play as a "musical journey back in time to a world of prospectors, pioneers, bootlegger-bandits, dog-sledders, high-graders and moonshiners!"
One song, for example, tells the story of Caroline Maben Flower, who was a Manhattan socialite who came to the Porcupine Camp for the gold rush and was known as the "lady prospector".
"And so there's great photos of her, too, where she looks almost like Annie Oakley," Gillespie said.
"She's got a pistol on her belt and she's wearing, you know, a very nice, high end fancy dress."
Gillespie said Flower's double life as a socialite and prospector made her story a great one to tell in the musical.
Although he grew up in Timmins, Gillespie said a lot of the stories he tells in the play are ones he only learned about when he started to research the city's early history.
"It's been a bit of a gift to get to share the stories of my hometown that I was unaware of until now and to get to discover this stuff," he said.
Four-time Olympian Ellie Black and Mi’kmaw ethnologist Roger Lewis are among the latest Nova Scotian appointees to the Order of Canada.
Christmas is often a time of gathering and community for church communities, but one church on the outskirts of Fredericton found itself a victim of theft this holiday season.
A beloved Winnipeg comedian who was killed in a house fire was a "gentle giant" who had wanted to be a showman since he was a boy, his aunt says.
As the Town of Outlook continues to add up the cost of a recent incident that prompted fears about the safety of its water supply, the chief administrative officer suggests enhanced security measures are needed.
The motto for members of the Order of Canada stood out to Michelle Good when she got a letter in September, informing her she had been selected for the highest civilian honour.
Get your confetti and noisemakers ready and settle in to ring in 2026 with two back-to-back New Year's Eve specials on CBC.
A person has died after being caught and buried in an avalanche near Tumbler Ridge in northern B.C., according to Avalanche Canada.
How well did you keep track of what happened on P.E.I. this year?
For those hoping to ring in the new year in style, there are a variety of events across Toronto.
Small bridges around Paulatuk, N.W.T., are giving harvesters a safer way to get to their camps, as climate change makes travelling on the land more dangerous.
A year-end poll from Nanos suggests Canadians will want to see action from the Liberal government on major economic files in the new year.
City of Calgary officials say they have identified the location of what they are calling a second “catastrophic” water main break in the northwest in less than two years, but they do not have a timeline as to when it might be fixed.