Tales from the Road

  • 2009-03-23 18:29:33
  • Hockey Day in Campbellton, NB - Feb 20/09
  • I shoot I don’ score! No I not talk about my lass moose huntin’ trip when we spend more time in da disco bar in St Quentin dan in da woods. . Like everybody on da nord shore, I all hexite about da ‘Ockey Day au Canada, when dat young fella Rockin’ Ron McLean wit’ his crazy arse sidekick Dandy Don Cérise pass by on da way from da Pond Hockey Plaster Rock full blast man party . Me I always taught dat Plaster Rock is what ‘appen when you get hammer in Newfoundland. Talk about dat, wit’ da crazy global warning all over da planet, pretty soon de only pond hockey is gonna be under da water. But anyway dis is da big day for da Nord shore. If it wasn’t for da ‘ockey dere might not be any nord shore—225 year ago two young fellas went on da breakaway in St Louis du Ha! Ha! an’ didn’t stop until jus’ outside Atolville when dey hit MacKenzie’s Hill,. . Dat’s da hill da peoples from Campbellton call Seattle, because when you stand on top of McKenzie Hill, you can see, Attol. Unless you got too plaster on Morrisey Rock, because den you can’t see attle at all. We all ‘appy for Campbellton, dat’s da way tings are on da Nord Shore. When something big ‘appen like dis, we all stick togedder like NB Power Big Shots in a bonus meeting. I wasn’t always like dis. I mean when you da kid in school, an’ da teacher tole you dat you are on da far away planet, an dere’s somebody from Campbellton, Dalhousie, Bathurst an’ Amqui an da planet is gonna blow up in ten minute so who you gonna pick to get on dat playoff rocket—well. . . . But den you move down Moncton you all from da nord shore space station. When you gone Halifax, you jus’ a no good New Brunswicker, and if you gone Toronto, you jus’ a crazy Newfie like everybody else. Dose were day. . Dalhousie Ranger against da Campbellton Tiger. . Talk about action! De only action we got now is da lousy Stranger chasin’ da Campbellton Cougar. Dose Tiger Team sound like United Nation Pow-wow: Jean-Marie Bouchard, George “Da Chief” Berube, Owen Jelly, da Parker brudders board game, da Fuzzy Logga. . takin’ on da Ranger wit’ Clem da Mayor Tremblay, Bruce de ole gray mayor McIntosh, an’ when da dimplomaniac politics wouldn’t work, dey brang out Gordie Machine Gun Gallant. Da Tigers even had a communist for da boss. . ah oui, Gerry “Red” Oullette. Now dere’s no more senior hockey in Campbellton. . all da player move out west to Alberta, freeze dere arse in Ft McMurray. Maybe wit all de attention we gettin’ from dis Ockey day in Canada somebody might notice we got and bring some job to da nord shore. . . dat way all our young peoples could be back home freezin’ dere arse where dey belong!
  • 2008-10-31 13:39:20
  • Fredericton- Order of NB
  • A comedian, an industrialist and a foster mother were among the 10 people inducted into the Order of New Brunswick on Wednesday. At a ceremony in Old Government House, Lt.-Gov. Hermenegilde Chiasson said the inductees helped others and took little in return. He said they made the province not just a better place, but a different place. He said the honour isn't important because it's handed out by him. "It is remarkable because it comes from the people of New Brunswick," said Chiasson. "They nominated most of you. Your peers see something in you so outstanding, so important and so crucial to life here in this place." One of the inductees is Marshall Button. A playwright, actor, comedian, artistic director and teacher, he's best known to New Brunswickers as Lucien, the province's Acadian blue-collar philosopher. He began playing the character for friends at parties. He's played Lucien more than 1,800 times across Canada and the United States, and in Afghanistan to entertain Canadian troops. After the ceremony, Button said his first reaction was to wonder how he came to be honoured. "When I read the accomplishments of the others, I am honoured to be in the audience, frankly," said the Dalhousie native. Reporters couldn't resist asking what Lucien would think of the honour. "Well, you know something," he answered, immediately slipping into character. "Dey told me I got da odour of New Brunswick. "Je pense, I tink it is because I've been stinking up this province for so many year. I dunno." James K. Irving was named to the Order of New Brunswick for his drive and entrepreneurial spirit which has expanded J.D. Irving Ltd. into a company with 15,000 employees and operations in Canada and the United States. Irving is also the founder of Partners Assisting Local Schools, which has the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty for students in vulnerable neighbourhoods in Saint John. The program involves 10 schools and more than 60 local businesses. "It is a very nice honour and I appreciate it very much," Irving said about the award. "I have lived and worked in New Brunswick all my life and it is extra special to me." He said he started the program because the only way to tackle the problem of poverty is by helping children and the community. "It is coming along quite nicely," said Irving. "It is going to make a tremendous difference." If the province is going to reach its goal of self-sufficiency by 2026, it must start with young people, he said. "If we get young people off to a good start, the sky is the limit," he said. Jacksontown native Dorothy Rosevear was also inducted into the Order of New Brunswick. She started fostering in 1958 and over the years has cared for more than 700 children in her home. Today, at age 81, she's still fostering one girl until January, although after that she said she's going to retire. "I feel very nice," said Rosevear. "I really appreciate my award." She said when she first started acting as a foster parent, she never imagined it would be a lifelong pursuit. Rosevear said fostering is the best thing a person can do and the demand for foster families is high. "You are helping," she said. "We take in children from broken homes and we give them the opportunity of knowing what a real home is like." Other inductees are: * Bernard Imbeault, executive chairman of Imvescor Inc., formerly Pizza Delight, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year; * George MacBeath, former curator of the New Brunswick Museum's Canadian history department and former deputy minister of New Brunswick's historical resources administration; * Peter MacDonald, an aboriginal educator for four decades; * Marguerite Maillet, an Acadian author and teacher; * Fred Ross, an artist; * Eldred Savoie, a Radio-Canada journalist; * and Marianna Stack, a teacher.
  • 2008-10-31 13:34:14
  • Woodstock--Ducks Unlimited Show Nov 8
  • (Editor's note: Lucien, the mill-worker with a heart of gold from Dalhousie, will be in Woodstock on Nov. 8 for a Ducks Unlimited fundraiser at the Knights of Columbus Hall, starting at 6 p.m. He was interviewed recently by his North Shore-raised-cousin-from-another-mother, Bugle-Observer sports editor Jeffrey Bento-Carrier, on such diverse topics as the state of his life on E.I.; the upcoming U.S. election, and his pleasure to come to Carleton County to help "da ducks and all the peeple in Woodstock, where dat place is not da same place as that rock concert.") Lucien outside a baie de Chaleur smelt shanty. Bugle-Observer: Is this your first trip to Woodstock/Carleton County? Lucien: Non, non! I been down dat way before. I tink it was when we had dat young PC premiere a few year back, because when I got pass da Grand Fall place, I see da big sign on da highway by da Cover Girl Bridge, and da sign say: "Prepare to Meet thy Lord." Anyway, nice spot for da potato an' for passin' tru. Bugle-Observer: What have you been up to lately? Lucien: Ah ben, ah ben, me I been tryin' to figure out how to build my own airplane, so I can make lotsa money flyin' all da layoff worker from da nord shore out to da Ft. McMaritime, Alberta. Oh an' I been waitin' for da bay to freeze over, because I tink dat hell already freeze over when dey shut down our mill. Bugle-Observer: What have you been watching on television lately? Lucien: Been watchin' lotsa dose ‘untin' and fishin' shows, especially da ones where dey hook and release. I also watch da ones where dey shoot birds outta da sky ... not so easy to release after you shoot. Bugle-Observer: Who are you supporting in the U.S. election? Lucien: Well, I dunno who gonna win, but I'm pretty sure all dose people down your way pretty darn excite because da McCain in dere ... dat's a big step from makin' frozen french fry to tryin' to fix dat mess up economy down dere! Bugle-Observer: Do you think Palin will ever become president? Lucien: Who da frig is Palin? Do you mean like when we is piss off wit' something on da nord shore, we say "Palin de bin!"? Ahh! You mean da born again moose huntin', cheerleader, who don't want kid to practice safe sex so dey can be mudder at 17, an' she don' mind pullin' her string to get her brudder-in-law fire because he cheat on her sister ... I tink she is perfec for dat country – wit da VP as Jerry Springer! Bugle-Observer: How are things in your hometown of Dalhousie since the mill closure? Lucien: Iss no Dollhouse, I can tole you dat! But anyway, we still can make da nice party. Bugle-Observer: Why have you decided to help Ducks Unlimited? Lucien: Hein? I taught I was ‘elpin da local Slammin' Hockey team dere ... I taught I was comin' to help wit da Pucks Unlimited. Jus' like Sarah Palin. She was only da goaltender daughter, but a lotta rubber got pass da crease. Bugle-Observer: Why do you think protecting wetlands is important? Lucien: I tink dis is very important! All da world need is for more rubber boot factory to close down. We already loss enough job already! Bugle-Observer: Since Dalhousie's mill is closed, where are you working now? Lucien: How do you spell U-I-C? I workin' for da Queen, wit everybody else up here. I'm tinkin' bout goin' in for de Orderly trade. Dere's a big future in changin' old people diapers up here. I'm jus piss off because we can't make da paper dat go in to dose Diaper no more. Bugle-Observer: Any last words you want to pass on to our readers? Lucien: I hope all youse people like yer Duck as much as you like yer puck. Jus' don' get stuck. Take a break, an' don't be like us crowd up here ... don' work yerselfs outt've a job! Lucien is the well-know alter ego of Dalhousie-born actor-comedian Marshall Button, who currently serves as artistic director of the Capitol Theatre.
  • 2008-10-20 17:58:31
  • partout n-b une nouvelle experience
  • DISPONIBLES EN LIBRAIRIE de Marcel-Romain Thériault Mise en scène : Andréi Zaharia Scénographie : Alain Tanguay Musique originale et environnement sonore :Jean-François Mallet Éclairages : Marc Paulin Interprètes : Marshall Button et Katherine Kilfoil Une comédie désespérément romantique! Deux êtres solitaires ré-imaginent l'amour& Un homme, une femme, une librairie, l'amour des livres, l'amour de l'amour, la peur de l'amour. Un homme, une femme, le secret d'une lettre d'adieu, le passé qui pèse sur nos vies. Une femme, un homme, des âmes en peine, des corps esseulés, ils vont devenir amoureux, faire fi des obstacles, on le sait, on le sent, rien de plus banal. Rien de plus tentant aussi. Parce qu'on en a envie, parce qu'on se dit : « Et si c'était vrai qu'on peut tout recommencer ? » Voici votre chance de revoir Katherine Kilfoil sur nos planches, après plus de dix ans d'absence, accompagnée du comédien Marshall Button, bien connu pour avoir donné vie à Lucien sur d'innombrables scènes canadiennes. En tournée, à 20 h Caraquet 15 novembre Ï Néguac 19 novembre Ï Moncton 20 et 21 novembre Saint-Jean 22 novembre Ï Fredericton 23 novembre Ï St-Quentin 25 novembre Edmundston 27 et 28 novembre Ï Bathurst 29 novembre Ï Dalhousie 30 novembre Shediac 2 décembre Ï Miramichi 3 décembre Ï Shippagan 4 décembre Tracadie-Sheila 5 décembre
  • 2008-08-17 15:50:49
  • North Shore
  • This is taken from the August 13 edition of the Campbellton Tribune: The thumbs-up sign Marshall Button flashed to spectators as he rode in the Bon Ami Parade concealed a secret. He had recently learned that he would be named to the Order of New Brunswick, but was sworn to secrecy until the announcement last week by Premier Shawn Graham. Although he lives in Moncton, the announcement listed him as from Dalhousie, where he was born and grew up and the place he still calls home. Fredericton - There's no doubt that 2008 is Marshall Button's year. In May, he received an honourary degree from St. Thomas University. Last week, Premier Shawn Graham announced that in October he would be made a member of the Order of New Brunswick. In an interview shortly after the announcement, Button said that he was very honoured by the nomination. "One of the things in my career or my approach to this is that I've always been extremely conscious of my ‘New Brunswickness,' if you know what I mean. People say that my mother is an Acadian or my father is this, but I really only think of myself as a New Brunswicker, or like they say in French, un neo-brunswickois," he said. Button also spoke about his connection to the Town of Dalhousie. He explained that he is forced to live elsewhere because of the career he has chosen, but that "I've never really lost my touch of the home town." That touch is perhaps best revealed in the character he has created and for which he is best known: Lucien, the millworker-philosopher who has a comment on everything. Button is a playwright, actor, comedian, artistic director and teacher. He has performed as Lucien over 1800 times, in every Canadian province and in the USA and Afghanistan, where he entertained Canadian troops. He has contributed several commentary performances for CBC Radio and Television, including a guest appearance on Royal Canadian Airfarce, and on Sportsnet during the 2006 Memorial Cup Hockey Tournament. His benefit performances have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for New Brunswick charitable causes such as sports groups, cultural institutions, literary projects, health care and churches. Button is the founder and president of Moncton's HubCap Comedy Festival, which recently celebrated its eighth anniversary. He is also a founding member of a Moncton comedy troupe, which has toured New Brunswick with its annual HubCap Comedy Revue since 2000. In a six month period of this year, he achieved a rare feat for a professional actor, having performed, in March, a major role in English for Theatre New Brunswick and in French for Théâtre populaire d'Acadie in July and August. He has served as master of ceremony at numerous events including the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, the Bobby Orr Tournament in support of Breast Cancer Research and the NB Peter Gzowski Invitational. He has also been a moderator of federal leadership debates. Button has been a member of the Boards of Directors of various organizations, including The Association for Community Living, National Theatre School of Canada and Downtown Moncton Centreville Inc., where he recently served as president. As Artist-in-Residence at the Capitol Theatre, Button serves on the theatre's board of directors and several board committees. He established a Summer Drama Camp at the theatre twelve years ago, which has grown into year-round theatre training since the opening of the Capitol School of Performing Arts in 2005. Programs are offered in both official languages for students of all ages. Total registrations in the Capitol Theatre's training programs for 2007-2008 exceeded two hundred students. Button was named one of the 100 exceptional people of Dalhousie (2005) and is considered an ambassador for the community. In May of this year, he was bestowed an honourary Doctorate of Letters degree from St. Thomas University in Fredericton. Button is receiving the Order of New Brunswick for his contribution to the cultural landscape of the province and for his dedication and commitment to Dalhousie and to New Brunswick as a whole.
  • 2008-05-20 22:23:53
  • STU FREDERICTON
  • Call me Doctor from now on! Marshall Button Citation 18 May 2008 Vice-Chancellor, it is a pleasure to present to Convocation Mr. Marshall Button, a distinguished New Brunswick Actor, Wit, Playwright, and Artistic Director. Mr. Button grew up in the bilingual town of Dalhousie in northern New Brunswick, the son of a Francophone mother and Anglophone father. Like many of his peers, he worked in the local NBIP (paper) mill to put himself through university. His summers there, however, did not precipitate his leaving or affirm his desire for another class or place, but cemented his loyalties to the people of his town. Rather than see illiteracy and defeat in the men he worked with, he saw wisdom and resilience, the strengths of a people historically marginalized by religion, language, and locale. A year after receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Drama at Bishops University, he captured those strengths in the comic character of Lucien, his most enduring creation. Conceived as a two-minute monologue in February 1984 to celebrate New Brunswick’s bicentennial, the first full show of Lucien premiered at St. Thomas University in March 1986. Over the last two decades, Lucien has become better known than any other literary character or dramatis persona in the province, a character that Peter Gzowski declared “a national treasure.” As a mid-career, suitably disgruntled, low-skilled mill worker, Lucien is the working-class New Brunswick (and Canadian) Everyman. A speaker of two languages, he is proficient in neither. Rather, his tongue is an amalgam of wit and slang, frustration and hope, English and French (what he terms “frenglish/franglais”). He is highly paid and ponderously slow, guardian of the shop-floor virtues of safety, rest, and moderation, all of which must be mastered if one is to endure years of button-pushing, level-checking, spirit-deflating shift work. Under utilized and unfulfilled, he is left alone for long periods with his imaginary assistant to ruminate on things metaphysical. While automation has freed him from physical toil, it has not released him from the hard work of self-knowledge, which he pursues in undirected talk. It is this talk that audiences overhear in Marshall Button’s shows. Most important for us, however, is his unique, place-based social gospel. Lucien bridges two linguistic communities (English and French), two cultural divides (Loyalist/Protestant and Acadian/Catholic), and two historically distinct socio-economic realities in the province (the administrative economies of the urban south and the resource-based economies of the rural north). His precarious position atop these social and economic fault-lines embodies the political history of our province, its unequal wealth distribution, and the always real though rarely discussed inequities around language, region, religion, and class. Lucien interrogates these inequities, offering audiences a glimpse into the real meaning of “robbing Peter to pay Pierre,” the rancorous slogan popularized in the 1960s to debase Acadian premier Louis Robichaud’s Equal Opportunity reforms. In classic comic fashion (subverting social hierarchy and bastardizing the King’s English), Button uses humour as an index of grievance in much the same way as Antonine Maillet does in Pélagie and La Sagouine. Just as la Sagouine uses humour to sustain herself while elbow deep in the dirty water of the rich, so does Lucien’s wit sustain him as he does penance on the paper machines. In the end, both are strengthened by their capacity to laugh at what they cannot easily change, and, in so doing, both are unique in displaying the quality of resilience characteristic of many rural, Catholic, working class New Brunswickers. Though they may be without urban educations, these New Brunswickers are not without the wisdom to see clearly through the double-talk of their leaders or the wit to bring them to their knees. But whereas Maillet gives a voice to the Acadian New Brunswick experience, Lucien gives a voice to the populations that are neither Scots, Irish, Loyalist, Brayon, nor Acadian, but a mix of those by varying degrees. His people count among their ancestors French-speaking Acadian grandfathers who married non-French speaking Irish grandmothers, and whose children became bilingual by accident of birth not by legislated decree. No one but Marshall Button, through Lucien, has ever spoken for these people or spoken in their tongue. And in that tongue is the endurance of a whole population. Staged over 1500 times now for audiences across Canada and the U.S., and recently for the troops in Afghanistan, Button has made Lucien a blue-collar ambassador who is recognized outside the province as a humane champion of the men and women in this country who work in the mills, the mines, and the woods. “The appeal of the play,” said Button recently in The Brockville Recorder and Times, “is its universal message that to overlook the ‘lowly’ is to overlook those who through their innocence speak the greatest truths.” His pan-Canadian success is evidenced not only in his consistently sold out shows in Gander, Abitibi, Timmins, and other working-class hinterlands of Canada, but also in the number of guest appearances he has made on national radio and television, where he has been a favourite on Sounds Like Canada, Sunday Morning, Morningside, Royal Canadian Airfarce, and Sportsnet. And, though, Lucien is indeed a regionally based comic creation situated in northern New Brunswick, his quizzical humanity rescues him from being parochial, proving, as the poet William Carlos Williams wrote, that “localism alone leads to culture.” In presenting Mr. Button for an honorary degree, I am recognizing a uniquely talented artist, a loyal son of northern New Brunswick, a leader in provincial theatre, and a humanist who has celebrated the marvelous idiosyncrasies of his people with warmth, respect, and an abiding affection. If real art, as V.S. Naipaul wrote, hallows place, then Marshall Button’s veneration of our New Brunswick home raises his art to lofty status indeed. Vice Chancellor, I ask that you confer upon Marshall Button the degree, Doctor of Letters, honoris causa. Dr. Tony Tremblay Professor and Canada Research Chair Department of English St. Thomas University
  • 2008-03-31 09:59:25
  • Questionnaire during Love List gig at TNB
  • Marshall Button and Ginette Mohr perform in the recent play ‘Love List.’ Salon questionnaire He created Lucien, the opinionated North Shore mill-worker, 24 years ago, and has now appeared in every Canadian province. Here he tells us he loves being paid to talk. Published Saturday March 29th, 2008 Appeared on page G2 q Age? a 49 (and holding) q Provenance? a Dalhousie - Moncton - I ended up here because everybody on the North Shore had seen enough of me. q Why theatre? a Being paid to talk is not a bad gig. q What was your breakthrough moment? a Making my own work! q What are you working on next? a Perfecting my work/life balance and getting my golf handicap down under nine. q What would you be if you weren't a playwright/performer? a A spy in a sea of love. q What place on Earth inspires you? a Normandy - I feel like I'm home. q What place in New Brunswick inspires you? a Northern New Brunswick, especially Dalhousie, now that the air is suddenly clean. q Secret indulgence? a Skinny dipping. q Your favourite hero of fiction? a Robin Hood - I agree with his socialist tendencies. q What is your greatest extravagance? a Paying $350 for a World Series ticket. q What is your greatest fear? a Not knowing my lines and bumping into the furniture. q Greatest joy? a My family. q Your favourite painting on Earth? a The Mona Lisa - I've seen it twice, and it really does live up to all the hype. q Favourite painting by a New Brunswick artist? a The Floral Portrait hanging in our living room, by my friend Marjorie Aitken. q What are you reading? a Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, by Jacques Poitras q What's on your iPod? a Dust. q What is the greatest misconception about theatre? a That we are funny all the time. q Your most treasured possession? a My sanity. q What is your motto? a With all this horse shit around here, there's bound to be a pony somewhere. q How would you like to die? a I have already died many times in front of a live audience; not a bad way to go. q What is your favourite art museum? a The Louvre. Like great music, it convinced me that we are slightly more advanced than other mammals. q What piece of artwork have you not seen in person that you'd like to see before you die? a The Great Pyramids . . . I hear it's warm in Egypt. After this winter, I need to be transported there immediately. Marshall Button performs as Lucien tonight at 8 p.m. at Théâtre Louis Vermeersch. 67 Ragged Point Rd., Saint John. For details visit saintjeanarts.ca.
  • 2008-02-02 10:42:10
  • Dalhousie
  • Black Thursday. .Jan 21, 2008. . Who would believe it would ever come to this. As Dalhousie goes, so goes Lucien. End of the mill, but not the end of the world.
  • 2007-11-21 06:13:14
  • Nord Shore
  • Headin' Up to Dalhousie, Bathurst, Miramichi for the famous Dixie Lee Swing.. Watch la! Tour in full swing. Too bad da bay is not froze yet, we could do some real smelt fishin' up dere.
  • 2007-09-15 11:39:06
  • Morrisburg, On
  • New show premieres tonight. The entire 3 1/2 run is completely sold out. Look for a New Brunswick tour later this fall. The show also runs late October/early November in Hudson Que.

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