By Bradley Turcotte
The Ottawa Gay Men’s Chorus (GMC) sings through the decades Aug. 21 with a Capital Pride performance of Let’ Dance at The Gladstone.
Founded in 1986, the same year the city first officially celebrated Pride, the GMC is a non-audition choir with member ages ranging from twenty-something to 88.
Centretown West resident Charlie Thompson joined the chorus in 2023 when a neighbour asked him to be “choir buddies.” His friend dipped, but Charlie “loved it” and plans to perform with the chorus “for the foreseeable future.”
As a non-audition collective, Thompson says you can read this many ways. Thompson says he reads this as the GMC being “non-judgmental.”
“In multiple dimensions of that term. Not only in the queer dimension of it but also in the musicality,” Thompson continued. “We have people who have robust backgrounds in music. Then we have people who are shower singers, and we have people who have never sung at all. It is very rewarding to see people come into their own voice through their participation in the choir. Unlike other organizations of this type where you might feel constrained, whether it’s your natural talent or your baggage or privilege you may bring, you can leave that at the door in this choir because you are going to be welcomed.”
Thompson previews Let’s Dance as “very lively” with dancing being part of the show.
“I don’t mind saying that I am one of the dancers,” Thompson laughed. “We call it the ‘choralography’ contingent.”
Let’s Dance features “everything you used to hear in the discos in the ‘70s to house parties in the ‘80s and ‘90s and into the 2000s.”
GMC president Guy Delorme, a member for 13 years, said the repertoire includes songs from the Black Eyed Peas and Lebanon-born singer Mika.
A historic first
This is GMC’s first Pride show in its 38-year history. Delorme said that since the show is on a Wednesday, “it breaks up the Pride week, just before the full festivities.”
Gay men are shown to suffer from high rates of mental health issues, and singing regulates the central nervous system, in addition to other positive effects.
“It helps you to focus your mind on one activity for a period of time. Now people are multitasking on everything and anything. When you perform a song, you really have to pay attention, which is very positive for the brain,” Delorme says. “For the older singers, it is a good activity that keeps their mind sharp because it is a matter of being able to assemble some information and use it to sing a song.”
As connections through technology replace in-person activities, Thompson said getting together with like-minded people to do something you enjoy is paramount.
“A lot of the infrastructure we inhabit, such as social media, makes it more and more difficult to actually get together and do a thing. It’s easy to register your opinion online but it’s hard to get together with people and do something that is fun. We forget that that is what the best parts of living are – to have a sense of community in a world where it is getting harder to maintain these communities.”
Gladstone Theatre 2024-2025 lineup
The Gladstone Theatre has unveiled its 2024-25 season lineup.
The local talent will begin Oct. 17 with Cautionary Tales: A Daniel MacIvor Double Bill, presented by Plosive Productions and Sunny Ryan Productions. Other professional productions include The Children by Lucy Kirkwood from Feb. 20 to March 8, and Silent Sky from March 20 to 29.
Brand new theatre companies will also be part of this season’s mix. Misery, based on the book by Stephan King, will be performed from Jan. 24 to Feb. 1 and Late Company by Jordan Tannahill will take the stage from Feb. 5 to 15
On the community side, audiences can look forward to seeing their neighbours in shows from the Phoenix Players, TotoToo Theatre, and the uOttawa Theatre Club. A highlight of the community theatre lineup is 1979 by Michael Healey, presented by the Phoenix Players, which examines a monumental moment in Prime Minister Joe Clark’s career.
“As you all know, the beauty of independent theatre is how different each show is,” said Robin Guy, the Gladstone’s theatre manager in a news release. “And yet, as unique as all these shows are, they share a common theme: the desire to know and be known, which is something we can all relate to. We can’t wait for theatre lovers to see these stories come to life.”
Visit thegladstone.ca for more information.