{"id":193670,"date":"2025-07-15T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/?p=193670"},"modified":"2025-07-16T15:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:45:07","slug":"elizabeth-and-beverley-glenn-copeland-return-to-the-algonquin-theatre-july-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/elizabeth-and-beverley-glenn-copeland-return-to-the-algonquin-theatre-july-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth and Beverley Glenn Copeland return to the Algonquin Theatre July 26"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this show has been cancelled<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a show that promises to combine all the exquisite elements of Elizabeth and Beverley Glenn Copeland\u2019s vast artistry, both musical and theatrical, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts will present the husband-and-wife duo, along with their musical director Alex Samaras, accompanied by members of the Queer Songbook Orchestra, at the Algonquin Theatre, on July 26, 2025 at 2 pm. https:\/\/huntsvillefestival.ca\/event\/elizabeth-beverly-glenn-copeland\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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The concert holds special, personal meaning for both Elizabeth and Glenn, marking a return to the Huntsville Algonquin Theatre, where they staged, in 2007, \u201cthe Mother\u2019s Tree,\u201d an original musical written by B. Glenn Copeland, in a production involving 350 children from Spruce Glen Public School in Huntsville and collaborating with six professional artists in a performance combing song and multi-media images drawn by the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glenn and Elizabeth had been friends since meeting in 1992. Elizabeth\u2019s diverse career explored many successful avenues as a producer, short story writer, singer, theatrical artist in improv comedy, and acting. \u201cWe had been out of touch for a couple of years, and I actually had a dream about him. I told the universe I wanted my mate, and I went to sleep that night, and I had a dream, and I saw Glenn backlit against the full moon,\u201d Elizabeth recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2007, after meeting again at a friend\u2019s wedding, Elizabeth sold her business in arts education and moved to Huntsville to live with Glenn, getting married soon after. \u201cComing back to Huntsville has a lot of connections in terms of our love, but also in terms of our connection with that particular theatre. From there, we started a program that we ran out of Dwight, a children’s program, and that was the beginning of our Kid Playhouse productions, which we then carried out to the Maritimes for 12 years,\u201d Elizabeth outlines.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huntsville is an integral aspect of Glenn\u2019s long vocation as a song writer and thoughtful sound experimentalist. Glenn began his professional career in the early 1970\u2019s as a guitarist and singer, possessing a commanding and genuinely emotional vocal range, effortlessly integrating jazz, gospel, blues and classical music into his compositions and enthralling live performances. Known for his rich and nuanced vocals, Glenn was regularly engaged to sing with various artists\u2019 projects of that era, including Bruce Cockburn, Ken Friesen and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glenn discovered the north in his late twenties. \u201cYou know I was born in Philadelphia and I went to school in Toronto, [and] in Montreal to McGill. And, you know, there was something going on there, but when I ventured north, and I just kept going, all of a sudden, I hit these rocks. And I thought, oh, oh, this is home,\u201d Glenn remembers. \u201cI was only about 26 or so when I discovered that. And I actually managed to get a place in the middle of winter to be able to stay for almost nothing, and I would listen to the few pieces of music of other people (Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye were among the few Sony Walkman tapes he had with him) that I really loved. And I sometimes would troop through the woods in the snow, listening to their things, that I thought was just outrageously gorgeous, and yeah, then that was my beginning, my love affair with Muskoka.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1986, Glenn recorded a seminal album called \u2018Keyboard Fantasies\u2019 in Huntsville, aided by producer Collen Veitch. At that point in his career, Glenn was primarily known for composing music for children\u2019s television, such as Sesame Street, and for his performance on Shining Time Station and Mr. Dressup, where he appeared for over twenty years. Restricted in writing material that expressed his own inner feelings, experiences, and insights, Glenn recorded \u2018Keyboard Fantasies\u2019 in an attempt to keep his own musical work alive through his own self-realized recordings.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music Glenn discovered during that recording process is challenging to classify, especially given the time period in which it was recorded and the fact that the technology Glenn employed was still in its infancy. Spectacularly, he achieved a work of art that has proven to be, and remains, timeless.  \u201cMy favourite art form is not music. It’s actually dance. But I was supposed to do music in this lifetime. So, I ended up doing it,\u201d Glenn points out, describing his attraction to the equipment he utilized, particularly the Roland Drum machine, at the heart of those singular tracks. Remarkably, he managed to encapsulate the natural environment in which he immersed himself and recorded \u2013 the deeply forested environs of Limberlost. Ethereal, hypnotic, and richly spiritual, experimental and startlingly relevant, it underscores the compositional grace that has informed Glenn\u2019s subsequent works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE LAKE SUTRA: Beverly Glenn-Copeland\u2019s Keyboard Fantasies (Short Film)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/xiHDP1qqmuU?si=EuzQHzHfCfjNDf_R\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The album received modest, disappointing attention upon its release, but astonishingly, in 2015, it was rediscovered by an audiophile fan and Japanese collector named Ryota Masuko. That rediscovery ignited a massive resurgence and international acclaim for B. Glenn Copeland\u2019s work, paving the way for him and Elizabeth to collaborate on and develop several productions, both musically and theatrically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glenn continues to record and produce albums. His 2023 release, \u2018The One\u2019s Ahead,’ is a perfect synthesis of poignant elegiac lyrics \u2014 his voice resonant and loving, and evocative songwriting, informed by Glenn\u2019s lifelong practice of Nichiren Buddhism and his pursuit and advocacy for justice and equality for all minorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The One\u2019s Ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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