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Dr. Alex Fancy (Image: submitted by Mount Allision University)

Last curtain call for Mount A’s Tintamarre theatre project

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What started as a way to help students learn French turned into a 58-year tradition.

Mount Allison University’s award-winning bilingual theatre project called Tintamarre has come to an end.

Professor Alex Fancy is the founder, and he took us back in time, “I was teaching already at Mount Allison University, I was teaching French, and first and second year literature. I was teaching a play to a group of second-year students, and I thought there must be a better way of bringing this play to life, because it’s hard to teach a language when students are sitting in rows and have some trouble really understanding the power, the impact of a dramatic piece.”

He decided they would direct stage plays every year, after discovering that theatre is an excellent way of teaching and learning other languages.

“That was great for me because I had a secret passion for theatre. I’d been a student in Paris and had seen a lot of theatre and really wanted to direct,” Fancy added.

He decided to write plays about local and more immediate issues, and the students also got involved.

“So we toured the schools for about 30 years, with original comedies, but the comedies were bilingual, and dealt with contemporary issues. We took these plays to schools, we had talkbacks in the schools and met tens of thousands of wonderful young people who were interested in our work,” Fancy added.

The tours came to an end when the COVID pandemic hit, but they continued to perform at Mount Allison University.

The last major production called Exit 26 was performed last week. It was the first play directed in 1968, and now the last as well.

Mount Allison’s award-winning bilingual theatre project has staged more than 150 productions of classical and contemporary plays as well as original activist comedies.

Fancy has decided to retire and do other things, but he says the history of Tintamarre has impacted the lives of hundreds of students.

“They’re really using the skills they learned in theatre in their professions. For example, I’m just suddenly thinking of a graduate who is now a criminal lawyer who told me that every time she is about to go into a courtroom, she stops, meditates for a minute, and thinks about her experience with Tintamarre, being on stage and delivering a script and a character to an audience,” Fancy explained.

He added that looking back, he had no idea Tintamarre would go on for so long, but it touched so many students who brought their curiosity and desire to work in two languages.

“I want people to know how theatre can play a big role in our lives, and how theatre can help us to ask serious questions about the world in a safe space, while having fun doing it,” Fancy expressed.

Mount Allison University is located in Sackville, New Brunswick.

Oh, the Places You Wil Go poster Oct 2025

Oh, The Places You Will Go starts Wednesday at the Townshend Theatre

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Fort Frances High School students are looking to take you places.

Oh, The Places You Will Go is the title of this year’s musical revue.

It takes place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night at the Townshend Theatre.

Grade 10 students, Woods Parent says they will take spectators on a musical trip around the world.

“The theme this year is places, so it’s songs that come from all around the world and reference places. We try to implement that in the choreography throughout eras and such as different,” says Parent.

“We’re to go to the Copacabana. We’re going to go to the Pacific. We’re going to go to New York. We’re going to go all across the globe. Broadway, every corner of the globe,” says Grade 13 student Jameer Cornielle.

“We’re going to Babylon, Waterloo, and Istanbul,” adds Grade 12 student Qianna Bell.

“I think we’re all going to do amazing, and that everybody should come and see the show,”

Bell agrees, knowing that students have put in a lot of work and time for this week’s performances.

“Students have choreographed their own performances. People have been working on this. It’s been a tight time crunch for everyone. It’s been a lot of work at home and on our own time,” says Parent.

“I think this one definitely has potential to be the best of them,” adds Cornielle.

“I’ve done every revue since we’ve come back from COVID, and there’s been some really great ones. I don’t know what it is about this revue, but I think it can be the greatest view we’ve ever done.”

Tickets will be available at the Townshend Theatre, but you get a better deal online by visiting Ticketscene.ca.

“It is actually better if you buy your tickets there because you can choose a seat in advance, and it’s also cheaper if you buy your tickets online. They’re $12 if you buy them at the ticket booth when you come in, and they’re $10 if you buy them online,” says Cornielle.

Parent is making his second appearance in a musical revue, adding to two other performances, most recently starring as Bobby Pepper in last spring’s staging of the Broadway musical Curtains.

“A lot of the people here are very experienced because there are a lot of grade 12s this year. So, a lot of the people here have been doing this (for many years),” Parent says.

Cornielle has made 14 appearances in musical revues and others.

“It started with the fall play when I was in grade nine, which is now called the Christmas play. My friend just needed someone to audition with. I had no interest in it. I was the only one who was willing to audition with her. From there, I fell in love with it,” says Cornielle.

Bell also found the acting and singing bug early on.

“I accidentally stumbled into the fall play back in my grade nine year. I meant to sign up for the musical revue, and I didn’t get into it that year. But I started with the play and went through all of it and loved it,” says Bell.

You can see all three perform with others in the show at the Townshend Theatre, beginning at 7 p.m. each night.

A link to tickets can be found by clicking here.