Mumberley Inheritance

02/07/2023

After so many years of sitting on this footage of Mumberley, and saying to myself that one day I need to edit it into a proper video... that day is finally here! This is a unique show and this video will give you more of any idea of what the show achieved during the run.

"The Mumberley Inheritance" by Warren Graves was preformed at the Scarborough Village Theatre in June of 2015 and directed by Mike Ranieri. It is a wacky com...

02/07/2023

MIKE’S RANT

I’m sure you will agree that this is truly a funny and fun show. And all the performances are wonderful and hilarious. This was my last show and association with Scarborough Village Theatre. To show their appreciation they shunned me! Sadly community theatre leadership is fraught with politics. Power struggles, favouritism, and petty jealousies are common in most community theatre groups. Most of the performers and stage crew are wonderful people but they are brought down by a few insecure and self-centred leaders with a lack of vision and, frankly, just bad-taste! Really, only 10% of community theatre is watchable on an artistic and quality level, the rest is simply terrible. If this makes me sound bitter—I am.

If you love theatre, that’s wonderful, but not all theatre is good—just like not all movies are good. We all love to see our cute kids in a play and support our friends in a show but this does not encourage quality theatre. You are just supporting your kids and your friends—which is a good thing. We need to continue to support our communities.

But you should also support and especially encourage quality amateur theatre. I like to use the term “amateur theatre” over “community theatre.” Amateur theatre, like amateur sports, attracts people who studied, trained and practiced their craft, usually in an educational setting. People who might have been successful but decide not to continue to pursue the unstable and mercurial area of professional arts. Sadly these are often people marginalized and rejected by the community theatre leadership. You would think that would not be the case as these people could help increase quality. That said, some of these would-be professionals have an axe to grind and act just as badly as the wannabes. Perhaps that is the reason for the lack of respect by the community for anyone with theatre training—or perhaps it’s just jealousy.

Hey, there’s a lot of pretty bad professional theatre out there as well. Whatever the reason for the terrible state of non-professional theatre I encourage anyone interested in theatre to search out that 10% of quality amateur theatre hidden in a sea of bland, uninspired and embarrassing community theatre. It exists but you really have to look for it!

01/26/2016

This is a production of "The Mumberley Inheritence" which is quite unique. The acting, music, set and tech is amazing. And this is my swan song show for Scarborough Theatre.

A performance of the play "The Mumberley Inheritence" at the Scarborough Theatre Guild in June 2015. See the poster at: http://probability.ca/jeff/MI/poster.jpg

07/11/2015

Photos by Karen Koenig, of the rehearsal of the Mumberley Michael Jackson BAD song, choreographed by Emily Poirier. This was such an amazing show. There will never be another one like it!

06/21/2015

And that's a wrap! What a great run we had. Thanks everyone for making this play so special and successful. We did it!

06/19/2015

A meetup group saw our play last night, and the praise is pouring in (in the Comments section). There's another meetup group seeing our final performance tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon -- join them! http://www.meetup.com/Thumbs-Up-Theatre-Toronto/events/222623937/

So this is NOT on a Tuesday night, and it is NOT a movie, but it is sure to be a very fun-filled evening and a chance to support our friends, Jeff Rosenthal and Mike Ranieri in their artistic endeavou

06/19/2015

Our villainy proceeds apace!! Only TWO MORE CHANCES to see The Mumberley Inheritance - tonight (Friday) at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm.

Venue: Scarborough Village Theatre, 3600 Kingston Road (at Markham rd)
Buy tickets at
theatrescarborough.com
or call 416-267-9292
or buy at the door!

Glowing reviews, crowds of adoring children, Damien Gulde, theatre goers of all ages who were probably saying it but were laughing too hard for us to know for certain what they were saying and other semi-trustworthy sources all insist that seeing our show is not only a delightfully thrilling way to spend an evening or matinee, but also greatly preferable to the suffering the consequences for not seeing it inflicted by Marmaduke Mayhem!

06/15/2015

Scarborough Theatre Guild’s final production of the season now on stage

06/15/2015

Praise for our play is pouring in, including in the Comments section of this meetup event (which you can join to see the June 20 matinee if you wish). http://www.meetup.com/Thumbs-Up-Theatre-Toronto/events/222623937/

Join us forThe Mumberley Inheritance, a music-filled madcap melodramatic comedy directed by Thumbs Up's own Mike Ranieri and featuring piano accompaniment by Thumbs Up's Jeff Rosenthal. The

06/14/2015

This is basically a trailer for our show. Starting in just a few hours! 2pm, Scarborough Village Theatre. Get in if you can - I think we might be sold out!! :D

(But of course there are 3 more shows:

Thurs June 18th - 8pm
Fri June 19th - 8pm
Sat June 20th - 2pm

Snidely Whiplash (Alfred Molina) steals the town mortgages. However Dudley Do Right (Brendan Fraser) is more concerned with vampires. Subscribe to the Pict...

06/13/2015

Push the button, Cringe! An excellent film in the exact style to get you ready for our show! And you'd better be ready, cause you've only got 5 more chances to see it!

This is a clip from one of my favorite movies (The Great Race -- 1965) where Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) unveils his masterpiece car the Hannibal Twin 8 to ...