Back by popular demand, Stevie Vallance is taking MY SHINING HOUR with Vivien Kershaw, Love Songs of WW2 on the road!
Vallance debuted her current musical-play MY SHINING HOUR with Vivien Kershaw, Love Songs of WW2 to full-houses on Victory Day 2025, at the Southampton Legion, and in November for Remembrance Day 2025, presented by the Bruce Playhouse, at Southampton’s Town Hall.
Portraying her aunt dressed in uniform as an RCAF clerk, Vllance captures the period of 1938 to 1945 by singing the popular love songs of WW2, while photos of local veterans and historical scenes of Saugeen Shores, supplied by war-researcher Bill Streeter, are projected on a large screen in the background.
When the war ended in 1945 the military awarded Vivien (who spelled her name in the masculine sense) with a scholarship to study classical art, and this is where the play begins.
“The story is told from the perspective of my aunt as a young woman who has just married her soldier-love on a weekend leave,” says Vallance. “We follow Viv through the war, through the loving and the leaving, the letters and the worrying, the waiting and the wondering.”
Vallace requests that the audience bring/wear family War memorabilia such as ribbons, caps, and jackets, and that they stay after the show to share their stories with each other.
Vallance also wrote, directed and starred in The Night Guy Came to Town, a musical-play about Guy Lombardo’s performance at the Southampton Dance Pavilion, during the Great Depression. The show was staged at the Southampton Town Hall in 2023, and the audience, a cast of descendants in Southampton (including Jane Kramer, Art Knechtel, Elizabeth Greathead-Campbell) portrayed their ancestors who attended Guy Lombardo’s Dance at Southampton’s Dance Pavilion during the Great Depression. The show featured Roxy-fame actor Matt Evans as “Biscuit Knowles” and Natalie Robataille as “Irene Knowles”. Grammy-winning Drew Jurecka starred as “Guy”, Stevie as “Eliza Knowles”, and Charlie Bell was the Music Director for the 11-piece orchestra who impersonated the Royal Canadians.
“I hope to garner repeating fans who come back every year on important military dates, and that they bring their mum, dad, and grandparents with them (in person or in their hearts) to sing along with “Viv” as she performs the well-known popular love songs from the Hit Parade!” says Vallance.
MY SHINING HOUR with Vivien Kershaw’s, Love Songs of WW2, first performance coincides with VE day on May 8th at Southampton Legion Branch 155 from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
The second performance is on July 17th, the Canadian Legion’s 100th Anniversary, at the Port Elgin Legion Branch3 340 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Both performances feature Stevie Vallance as “Viv” and John McLelland as “Harry” (piano).
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 on the night of performance
Proceeds go toward helping Animals.
Where to buy Tickets:
Southampton Legion Bar (available now for May 8)
Port Elgin Bar (on sale in June for July 17)
Food & Drink available to purchase, offered by Legions.
Special DATE-to-REMEMBER for NEXT YEAR 2027:
The Southampton Art Gallery will be presenting Vivien Kershaw’s Art for 3 weeks during the summer of 2027. A performance of MY SHINING HOUR with Vivien Kershaw presented by the Bruce Playhouse in the Town Hall, will kick off a very special Art Opening of Vivien Kershaw’s paintings. The Southampton Art Gallery is thrilled to be featuring Viv’s Art on their walls in 2027, twenty years after she was the “featured artist” for Southampton’s 150th Anniversary, in 2008. See www.vivienkershaw.com.
