For the second summer in a row, the Peninsula Players and Muse Winery and Bistro will be teaming up.
This month, the winery will play host to the Players’ newest production, Gone With the Wine — A Musical Romp with Rum Runners. The play, written by Sasha Moriarty-Schieven, directed by Gerald Schieven, and produced by Chantelle Schieven, is a musical comedy loosely based on some of Vancouver Island’s most notorious prohibition-era bootleggers.
“It’s really great because it’s a combination of fiction and a bit of local history,” said winery owner Jane Ellmann.
Ellmann and her husband Peter are very excited to be hosting the Players again this year. “Peter is from a community in Wisconsin that is quite similar to the Peninsula,” she said. “He loved the idea of open air theatre (like the one) he grew up attending in his home town. So when we came here and found the Peninsula Players we knew right away it would be so neat to have an open air theatre event.”
The Ellmann’s, who bought the winery in November of 2007 and reopened it to the public in May of 2008, built a small, stage behind the winery two years ago. Now, they are offering a wine tasting and meal through the winery’s bistro and hope to make the theatre productions with the Peninsula Players an annual event.
For more information on show times, tickets, and reservations visit www.peninsulaplayers.bc.ca or www.musewinery.ca.