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From ‘three little maids’ to three grandes dames of the PC Stage
HMS Pinafore
James M. Beer ’63 reflects on the grand era of theatre at Pickering College in the '40s and '50s.
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When Pickering College re-opened in 1927 in Newmarket, a bright young man named Robert E. K. Rourke joined the staff, assembled by Joe McCulley, as a mathematics teacher. Bob, as he was called by his friends, quickly became involved in the many student activities that the PC life had to offer, including clubs, drama and sports. In addition to being an excellent math teacher, Bob was soon known for his limitless energy and wit, as well as his love of the operettas of Sir W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
For the first few years of the ‘new’ Pickering, music was found primarily in the form of afternoon recitals. Then during the 1932-1933 school year, a Glee Club was created and, to quote the Voyageur, “Under the direction of Messrs Rourke and Godden; a membership of about 35 has been attained, including Messrs Widdrington, Blackstock, Veale,”—all such familiar names in the Pickering story.
On Sports Day in 1933, they presented their first Gilbert & Sullivan (G&S) operetta, Trial by Jury. The Voyageur goes on to mention that, “Miss Alice Strong and Mr. Leslie Mardell of Toronto took solo parts.” This was so well received that in 1934, the Glee Club took on a more ambitious Gilbert & Sullivan project, The Pirates of Penzance. Among the leads, one finds Bob Rourke, Mrs. Alice (Strong) Rourke and Miss Elizabeth (Betty)
Holmes. Pirates was a critical success. Bob, Alice, Betty plus Gerry Widdrington (the first in a long line of Widdringtons who have trod the boards at PC) and Reg Godden (long time music teacher) had mounted a production worthy of D’Oyly Carte’s Savoy Theatre on the Strand.
The Pickering College stage in the Joseph McCulley Meeting Room.
I would be remiss if I didn’t add to this list the names of Rudy Renzius, who was in charge of the craft shop, and Fred Hagan, who taught art and became a well-known artist in his own right. These two designed and painted the sets and scenery for Pickering College’s dramatic productions for many years, setting a very high standard for those who would follow. Perhaps prophetic of a nascent tradition, the following year they forged ahead with The Mikado. The word tradition here is not used lightly, for the names of Bob Rourke, Alice Rourke, and Elizabeth Holmes (soon to become Mrs. Harry M. Beer) would be listed among the dramatis personae until 1953 when the Rourkes left Pickering College. Betty Beer would carry on for another 12 years.
Starting in 1938-1939, they were joined by Miss Maire Davies (future wife of Pickering teacher, Barney Jackson), a contralto who sang in the G&S operettas until 1952. For all those years with Bob, as the Admiral or the Major-General, leading, or led by Alice, Betty and Maire, Pickering College produced theatrical entertainment of a very high calibre and their impact on the Pickering College stage was both inspiring and long-lasting.
Alice. Betty. Maire. All three women arrived at Pickering to sing; they all soon married Pickering College teachers and would spend many years on the PC stage. They approached their many roles with professionalism and enthusiasm, never forgetting that joyful Gilbert & Sullivan spirit. Even as they grew older, they never lost that youthful sparkle, influencing generations of Pickering dramatis personae. It is often said that in life, whenever we accomplish something, we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. The countless number of Pickering musicians and actors, past and present, stand on the sturdy and gleeful shoulders of Alice, Betty and Maire.
In the school annals, these three remain the ‘grandes dames’ of the Pickering dramatic tradition. As they often sang in H.M.S. Pinafore:
And so they did, and so we pay them tribute threefold.
Alice (Strong) Rourke
Miss Alice Strong, a classically-trained soprano, came to Pickering in 19321933 to sing in some recitals and then took the lead role of the plaintiff in Trial by Jury. The following year, she once again journeyed north from Toronto to sing the role of Mabel in the Glee Club’s production of The Pirates of Penzance. In the playbill for Pirates, she was now listed as Alice Strong Rourke, having married Pickering’s G&S wunderkind, Bob Rourke. This dynamic and talented duo would play an integral role in the annual operettas for the next twenty years.
Newmarket and Toronto newspapers would send their music critics to review the performances of Gilbert & Sullivan productions including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers, Patience, and Iolanthe. In 1946, one critic wrote that, “Mrs. Rourke was unsurpassed as Phyliss in Iolanthe,” and then in 1948, another wrote of The Mikado, “Mrs. Rourke was excellent as usual—in fact, of professional quality. The power and clarity of her voice were thrilling—her control generally perfect. She was most affecting in dialogue.”
In 1953, the Rourkes departed from the Pickering College family. Citing his love of teaching mathematics, then Headmaster Rourke had accepted the position of Head of Mathematics at the Kent School in Connecticut. Later the Rourkes moved to Rome, where Bob taught at St. Stephen’s, an American international school.
Elizabeth (Betty) Greenway (Holmes) Beer
Elizabeth Greenway Holmes from London, Ontario, who was studying at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, was encouraged by her brother, John W. Holmes, who had just joined the Pickering College staff as English teacher, to come and sing in Newmarket.
Thus, in 1934 she headed up Yonge Street on the streetcar to join the Glee Club in their second Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance in the role of Edith. Little did she know perhaps, that this was a life-changing journey as she would spend the rest of her life as a valued member of the Pickering College and Newmarket communities.
In 1937-1938, Harry M. Beer returned to teach French and German at Pickering College. In the 1938 production of Patience, the publicity was handled by Harry M. Beer and the makeup by John W. Holmes. Love was in the air, or at least in the airs of Gilbert & Sullivan, for Harry and Betty would marry in June 1939. Over 30 years (19341964) she would be involved in 25 G&S productions, for the most part on stage but a couple of times as director and consultant. Her final performance was as the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe. The following year, for her last singing role at PC, she was the Grand Duchess of Anastasia in The Student Prince.
Her last appearance on the Pickering stage, at the age of 61, was in 1974 in the role of the Queen Mother in Jean Anouilh’s play, Becket. Like Alice and Maire, she too enjoyed much praise from the critics: 1946 - Mrs. Beer as Iolanthe was “better than excellent;” 1948 - Mrs. Beer “was particularly charming” in The Mikado; 1952 - “... in Iolanthe, Betty Beer gave beauty to a difficult role”; 1954 - in H.M.S. Pinafore, Betty Beer “was warm and melodious in voice and convincing in her acting.”
To this day, the Beer family has maintained close ties with Pickering College. In fact, granddaughter Stephanie Forgie is a current teacher at the school. The Beers continue to be active contributors to the school’s present direction and future.
Maire (Davies) Jackson
As mentioned before, Miss Maire Davies joined our merry band in 19391940 performing as Ruth (a Pirate of all Work) in The Pirates of Penzance (a spelling note—in the Voyageurs, Maire is consistently spelt with an ‘a’ with a couple of exceptions in the early 1950s when it was spelled Moire, which would seem more fitting for the pronunciation by which we always called her—Moyyah.)
That same year, Berners Wallace Jackson, aka Barney, joined the Pickering College staff as an English teacher. He also helped out with the stage sets for dramatic productions like the operettas. The contralto and the English teacher would marry in April 1942. As with Alice, the critics were quite acclamatory of Maire’s singing and acting. In The Mikado of 1948, one critic wrote, “Also up to snuff was Mrs. Jackson whose rich well-controlled contralto voice and superb acting always afford a thrill.” Two years later in The Gondoliers, another wrote, “Maire Jackson performed in her usual competent manner, forceful and pleasant fashion. The College is fortunate to have Mrs. Jackson as a member of the community.”
Maire also appeared in many Pickering College dramatic productions, her last one in 1952, the year she and Barney would bid adieu to Pickering friends and head to Oxford University for Barney to pursue graduate studies. The Jackson family would later move back to Canada with Barney going on to become an English professor at McMaster University in Hamilton and a well-known literary critic who was regarded as a Canadian authority on Shakespeare.
