Laura Adamo and Mairtin O’Carrigan star in Educating Rita on the outdoor stage at the Hockley Valley Resort. Contributed photo If a family owns one of Canada’s most prestigious hotel/resorts and one of its members is a renowned actor and writer, it only makes sense to bring theatre into the mix.

Certainly, this is how the Adamo family felt in introducing “Educating Rita” for eight performances this August in their beautiful Hockley Valley Resort.

It was Laura Adamo’s idea originally.

Ms. Adamo is an actor, who, having trained at My Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York, has had a successful career in theatre and film acting, as well writing and producing films.

After four years in New York, training and acting, and one year in Las Angeles doing film work, she returned to Toronto just as SARS was depressing the local economy, and where she found there was not a lot of work for an actor at that time.

So she started to write and produced a small film called “Drama Queen” which “won awards,” as she put it.

“It did so well that I thought if I could make a short film, I could make a feature film,” she said. “So, I went back to New York and made ‘Last Call’.”

She has returned to Toronto, where she is working on writing for television and producing Educating Rita at the Hockley Valley Resort.

Mairtin O’Carrigan, Frank in this production, is a well-known actor of theatre and film: “I’ve done tons of theatre all around the world and loads of film and television,” was his comment. He played the priest with the less-than- savoury brothers in the two “Boondocks Saints” films.

Mr. O’Carrigan is not only costarring in this production of Rita but is also directing it. And he is clearly having a lot of fun.

Asked what brought him to Hockley Valley, he told me he loves the play and wanted to work with Ms. Adamo.

He saw Ms. Adamo in Norm Foster’s play, Love List, in Collingwood and thought her unusual, inasmuch as “she is attractive and can actually act.”

“Why does an actor take on a play? What is the role? Who is the director? Who are the other performers? Well, I am the director and the co-star; I wanted to work with Laura and I love the play,” he said.

They have taken some liberties with Willy Russell’s original Liverpool-based play, bringing the tone of it from the obscure English dialect of Liverpool to a more easily comprehended Boston-ish accent, with the story taking place in New York.

The play itself remains the same – a very funny two-person play with thoughtful, even sad, aspects. Just to put the play firmly in your mind, it was made into a film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters.

It will be performed on an outdoor stage at the resort. This is the romantic in Ms. Adamo – summer theatre makes one think of performances in parks, rural theatres and, even, converted barns.

“There is no summer theatre in this immediate area, now that Theatre Orangeville has a regular season,” said Ms. Adamo. “It’ll be nice to have this culture here in Hockley Valley. I just told my brother (John Paul Adamo, President and CEO of the Hockley Valley Resort) that I would do it all and he agreed it’s a good idea.”

They have decided that there will only be the one production this year, coming as late in the season as it does.

They realized that to put off producing the play now would be to delay the whole project another year. With the success of this theatrical presentation, though, next year they look forward to entering really into the world of summer theatre.

While staging ‘Rita’ outdoors is the plan, naturally, in case of rain or excessive heat, the audience and performance will come indoors to one of the resort’s many large conference rooms. that could easily accommodate such an event.

Whichever the case, it will no doubt be great fun to see.

And as Mr. O’Carrigan observed, “This is the inaugural performance of professional theatre at the Hockley Valley Resort.”

There are eight performances: August 11, 12 and 13 evening shows at 7 p.m., with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 13; then, August 18, 19 and 20 at 7 p.m. and, again, a matinee on Saturday, August 20.

Keeping in mind that the resort’s other business is to feed and accommodate people, there are packages of dinner or lunch/ theatre and dinner/theatre/overnight stay, as well as tickets for the play only.

Tickets and reservations are available at the resort, phone 519-942- 0754 or online at www.hockley.com.