By Mike Renzella, Assistant Editor
I don’t know who needs to hear this, and it’s been said a million times before, but you are never too old to chase your dreams and sometimes doing so can lead you down the best paths in life.
Case in point: It’s been nearly a year since my child packed their bags and moved out of the basement and into a residence at Toronto Metropolitan University. At 45 years old, I thought I was too young to experience the doldrums of empty nest syndrome. How wrong I was.
While the whirlwind process of helping them prepare, pack their bags, and get settled in took up much of my time in summer 2025, it was the days and weeks that followed where reality hit me like a ton of bricks.
Without the responsibilities of being a dad to anchor my day-to-day life, I found myself with an abundance of free time and a yearning to fill it meaningfully.
Back in my younger days, I had a glorious, all-too-brief run immersing myself in the world of theatre. In the late ‘90s, I had the amazing chance to star in two musicals: Godspell at my old high school, and Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang as a member of the Lighthouse Theatre Young Company in 1998.
It was an exhilarating time in my life. I got to experience it all from the outside a second time as I watched my own child pursue their theatrical dreams, starting with a starring role as Wilbur the pig in Charlotte’s Web at just eight years old.
In my time as a reporter at The Press, I have had the distinct privilege of covering and reviewing shows for Lighthouse Theatre every summer. I genuinely love and get excited for every show, but the one that enthralls me the most each year is the community production.
Why? It’s simple. Watching those local performers step into the spotlight every April to stage a musical with the full support of Lighthouse’s in-house creative and technical team gives me the same sort of ‘butterflies in the stomach’ feeling I got taking part in those shows myself so many years ago.
I’ve known for a long time I wanted to challenge myself as an adult to see if I could tap into the energy and excitement that drove me to theatre earlier in life, but it was something I denied myself for many years, believing myself to be a mix of too old, not talented enough, and just lacking the time.
That all changed when I saw an audition notice last October for the Lighthouse 2026 Community Show, Curtains. For whatever intangible reason, the timing felt right, and I decided to go for it.
After an audition where I ill-advisedly chose to sing the theme song from the ‘80s sitcom Perfect Strangers, I figured I would get a pleasant ‘thank you very much for coming out, but…’ email. Instead, to my great surprise, I was offered a role.
As the character ‘Bobby Pepper’ in the show, I have spent the last four months of my life singing, dancing, learning lines and choreography, and having the best time ever with an amazing group of people putting this show together.
Now, as opening night looms, and the curtains are set to rise, I am filled with thankfulness.
Watching a production like this take shape from the inside is an eye-opening experience. There is just so much work that goes into bringing a show like Curtains to the stage.
From director David Leyshon and assistant director Valerie Grant Smith to choreographer Katie Edwards, production manager Heather Reicheld, technicians Hailey Parker and Andy Dominick, to musical directors Tony and Michelle Proracki, to the many others organizing the costumes, painting the set pieces, rigging up props, and working long hours aiming every single light, it’s truly staggering how many moving pieces a show like this contains.
I’m thankful to them all, but especially to my castmates. In four amazing months, I’ve gone from self-doubting to the point of nearly rejecting the offer to be in the show, to feeling confident in my abilities – and that’s all due to the friendly, welcoming environment in which this show has been put together.
It’s been a unique, unforgettable pleasure to tap back into the 18-year-old version of myself and find that not only is he still in there, he’s thriving.
I humbly encourage you to buy a ticket, come see Curtains, and feel a little bit of that magic for yourself. I promise you a night full of toe-tapping musical numbers, belly-laugh inducing one-liners, and all the razzle dazzle your heart can handle from a team that has poured their own heart and souls into this production from day one.
And beyond that, I humbly encourage you to chase your own dreams. Things that seem unattainable often are in fact fully attainable, you just have to take that first leap into the unknown. It’s so worth the risk.
Curtains runs from April 10 to 26 at Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover. I’ll see you there!
