[BCMA] CANADIAN comedy legends to help celebrate Barkerville's Mid-Autumn Festival

Tue Aug 17 13:41:47 PDT 2010

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	CANADIAN comedy legends to help celebrate Barkerville's 
Mid-Autumn Festival
Date: 	Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:41:53 -0700
From: 	James Douglas <JDouglas at barkerville.ca>

For Immediate 
Release                                                                 
            August 17, 2010

*CANADIAN comedy legends to help celebrate Barkerville's Mid-Autumn 
Festival*

*BARKERVILLE, BC *-- /For one night only/, Bob Robertson and Linda 
Cullen will host "An Evening of British Music Hall" on stage at 
Barkerville Historic Town's Theatre Royal on Saturday, August 21^st .

The comedy duo is best known for the Nellie Award-winning comedy series 
/Double Exposure/, which debuted on CBC Radio's national network in 
February 1987.

Initially, CBC had ordered only 13 episodes, but midway through the 
first run decided to expand the number of weekly shows. After only a 
couple of years it was running every Saturday morning on CBC Radio One 
and repeated Sundays on Radio Two in the afternoon.  During the summer, 
it was repackaged into a series of "The Best of /Double Exposure/."  By 
August 1997, /Double Exposure/ had produced more than 400 shows.

During the 1980s and 1990s, /Double Exposure/ was nominated for a number 
of awards, including the ACTRA Radio Awards (also known as the 
"Nellies").  In 1990, /Double Exposure/ won the Nellie for Best Comedy.  
In 1995 Robertson and Cullen began writing, performing and producing an 
annual New Year's Eve comedy special for CBC called "A Swift Kick in the 
Year End."  The special ran for three years and boasted exceptional 
ratings of over a million viewers each year.

In 1997, after ten and a half years on CBC Radio, /Double Exposure/ 
moved to CTV and the Comedy Network with a weekly half-hour comedy show. 
By the time it ended its run three years later, the TV series had 
garnered a number of awards and nominations - including the Chrysler 
Canada People's Choice Award, presented annually to the six top-rated 
Canadian programs on television.

In 2004, Robertson and Cullen were inducted into the BC Entertainment 
Hall of Fame, along with such stars as Randy Bachman, Terry Jacks, and 
Janet Wright. Their names can be found on the Walk of Fame across from 
the Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street in Vancouver.

Today /Double Exposure/ continues to entertain Canadians and people all 
around the world with a weekly comedy pod-cast, /Double Exposure 
Radio/.  Much like the material Robertson and Cullen performed weekly on 
CBC Radio, the show is loaded with topical satire of various newsworthy 
events of the week.  It can be found at www.doublexposureradio.com.

And now, for one night only, these Canadian comedy legends will appear 
on the stage of Newman and Wright's Theatre Royal in Barkerville, BC, as 
part of the 12^th Annual Mid-Autumn Festival.  The show begins at 7 pm 
on Saturday, August 21^st .  It starts just after the finish of first 
sitting of a fabulous celebratory banquet at Barkerville's Lung Duck 
Tong restaurant, and ends in time for the lantern parade.

For more information about "An Evening of British Music Hall" or to 
reserve tickets, please contact Barkerville's Theatre Royal at 
250-994-3225.  To reserve a seat at the Lung Duck Tong's Mid-Autumn 
Celebration Banquet, please phone 250-994-3458.

-30-

* *

* *

*About the Mid-Autumn Festival*

Barkerville Historic Town possesses a rich Chinese heritage and a vast 
collection of Chinese architecture, artefacts, archival material and 
photographs.  On Saturday, August 21, Barkerville will celebrate 
Mid-Autumn a little early - early enough in the season that is to share 
this special day with the town's summertime guests. 

There will be a variety of activities and entertainments to observe 
Mid-Autumn Festival, and to commemorate Barkerville's Chinese-Canadian 
pioneers.  The day will be filled with lion dances, lantern-making, a 
tea ceremony, games for all ages, moon cake tasting, and more.  A 
special celebration banquet, featuring sittings at both 5 pm and 7:30 
pm, will be hosted by the Lung Duck Tong restaurant.  At dusk visitors 
can venture out under the stars for a parade of illuminated paper 
lanterns, enjoy a show presented by dedicated Wells-Barkerville 
volunteers and, weather permitting, finish the evening with a beautiful 
firework display.

According to ancient Chinese astrology, the moon is at its roundest in 
the middle of the autumn season.  Since the round shape of full moon 
symbolizes family reunion and togetherness in Chinese culture, one of 
the pre-eminent festivals in the Chinese calendar is celebrated on this 
day.  It is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the second most important occasion 
in China after the Lunar New Year.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival.  During the 
festival, family members gather to eat moon cakes and appreciate the 
bright full moon - an auspicious token of abundance, harmony and luck.  
People who are away from home will express strong yearnings toward their 
native soil and sadly miss those family members who live far away.  This 
was especially true for the lonesome Chinese pioneers working and living 
in Canada during the Cariboo gold rush.  They left their families on the 
other side of world and worked industriously in the goldfields in 
pursuit of a better life for their loved ones.  A line from traditional 
Chinese verse, "the moon at the home village is exceptionally brighter," 
expresses the nostalgic feeling of these Chinese sojourners.  Their hard 
work and sacrifice have been recognized as an irreplaceable contribution 
in forming the Canada we know today.

* *

*About Barkerville Historic Town*

BARKERVILLE HISTORIC TOWN is the largest historic site in western North 
America (www.barkerville.ca <http://www.barkerville.ca/>).  Barkerville 
is provincially, nationally and internationally recognized for its 
historic significance associated with its place in western Canada's gold 
rush era and the role the gold rush played in BC joining Canada.  
Barkerville is widely known as a "must see" for travel itineraries in 
western Canada.  The historic town is also a significant contributor to 
the Cariboo regional economy and is widely regarded as a unique 
component of the regional identity.

The Barkerville Heritage Trust, as Barkerville's operating and managing 
partner, works in conjunction with the Province of British Columbia, the 
owner and statutory guardian of Barkerville's heritage resources,  to 
ensure that Barkerville is efficiently managed, entertaining and 
educational to visitors,  and financially stable as the premier heritage 
resource and tourism attraction for the Cariboo.  The ultimate aim is to 
maintain and enhance Barkerville's position as a nationally significant 
heritage resource and tourism attraction for British Columbia and Canada.

Barkerville is situated 80 km east of Quesnel, British Columbia in the 
foothills of the Cariboo Mountains, close to Troll Mountain Ski Resort 
and Bowron Lake Provincial Park.  The nearby community of Wells (8 km 
from Barkerville) is the service and housing centre for the area 
(www.wellsbc.com <http://www.wellsbc.com/>) and is itself a dynamic 
cultural community, home of Island Mountain Arts, the acclaimed Toni 
Only Artists' Project, the International Celtic Harp School 
(www.imarts.com <http://www.imarts.com/>), the dynamic indie music 
festival ArtsWells (www.artswells.com <http://www.artswells.com/>), and 
the Sunset Theatre (www.sunset-theatre.com 
<http://www.sunset-theatre.com/>). Wells is also situated close to a 
wide variety of winter and summer outdoor activities

* *

* *

*Media Inquiries*

* *

*
*

* *

*James Douglas*

Marketing and Communications

Barkerville Historic Town

Box 19

Barkerville, BC V0K 1B0

250-994-3302 ext. 41

888-994-3332 toll free

250-994-3435 fax

james.douglas at barkerville.ca <mailto:james.douglas at barkerville.ca>

www.barkerville.ca 
<https://mail.barkerville.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.barkerville.ca/>

_barkerville.wordpress.com_

Skype: barkerville.historic.town

Twitter: #barkervillebc

Watch: youtube.com/barkervilletv 
<https://mail.barkerville.ca/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://youtube.com/barkervilletv>

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