Latest news with #Bettys
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Many outstanding plays, actors highlighted in local Betty Award nominations
With 27 nominations, Theatre Calgary is the darling of this year's Bettys nomination committee, who agreed that TC's A Streetcar Named Desire, Alberta Theatre Projects' The Seafarer, Vertigo's The Da Vinci Code, Lunchbox's Go For Gold Audrey Pham!, and Sage's Mary Stuart were highlights of the 2024/25 theatre season. Article content The Bettys, now in their 26th year, recognize excellence in the city's professional theatre houses. Article content Article content TC's musical Legally Blonde is the season's most-nominated show, having received seven nominations. In addition to being named one of six outstanding productions of a musical, Legally Blonde received nominations for actors Kelsey Verzotti, Daniel Fong and Patricia Zentilli, Rachel Cameron for direction, and another for choreography, plus Rebecca Toon for costume designs. Article content Article content Article content Legally Blonde, which is a co-production with Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, is competing with Forte Musical Theatre's Austentatious, Ammolite Opera's Proving Up, Lunchbox and Forte's Twelve Days, and Handsome Alice's Two Moons: A Folk Lullaby for outstanding production of a musical. Article content Theatre Calgary dominates the outstanding production of a play category, with nominations for Awoowaakii, A Streetcar Named Desire – a co-production with the Citadel Theatre, and The Lehman Trilogy. Also competing for this award are Vertigo Theatre's The Woman in Black, and Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers, and Little Brothers – Makambe K. Simamba's solo show presented by Verb and Handsome Alice, which originated in Toronto with Tarragon Theatre. Article content Article content This year's nominees for outstanding performance by an ensemble include Ghost River Theatre's Echoes of a Land, TC's The Lehman Trilogy, ATP's Liars at a Funeral, Vertigo's Murder on the Links, and TC's The Play that Goes Wrong, a co-production with The Citadel and The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Article content Article content Nominated for outstanding lead performance in a drama are Lindsey Angell in A Streetcar Named Desire, Joe Perry in The Woman in Black, Makambe K. Simamba in Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers, and both Lauren Brotman and Norman Lewis in Mary Stuart.
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Many outstanding plays highlighted in local Betty Award nominations
With 27 nominations, Theatre Calgary is the darling of this year's Bettys nomination committee, who agreed that TC's A Streetcar Named Desire, Alberta Theatre Projects' The Seafarer, Vertigo's The Da Vinci Code, Lunchbox's Go For Gold Audrey Pham!, and Sage's Mary Stuart were highlights of the 2024/25 theatre season. Article content The Bettys, now in their 26th year, recognize excellence in the city's professional theatre houses. Article content Article content TC's musical Legally Blonde is the season's most-nominated show, having received seven nominations. In addition to being named one of six outstanding productions of a musical, Legally Blonde received nominations for actors Kelsey Verzotti, Daniel Fong and Patricia Zentilli, Rachel Cameron for direction, and another for choreography, plus Rebecca Toon for costume designs. Article content Article content Article content Legally Blonde, which is a co-production with Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, is competing with Forte Musical Theatre's Austentatious, Ammolite Opera's Proving Up, Lunchbox and Forte's Twelve Days, and Handsome Alice's Two Moons: A Folk Lullaby for outstanding production of a musical. Article content Theatre Calgary dominates the outstanding production of a play category, with nominations for Awoowaakii, A Streetcar Named Desire – a co-production with the Citadel Theatre, and The Lehman Trilogy. Also competing for this award are Vertigo Theatre's The Woman in Black, and Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers, and Little Brothers – Makambe K. Simamba's solo show presented by Verb and Handsome Alice, that originated in Toronto with Tarragon Theatre. Article content Article content This year's nominees for outstanding performance by an ensemble include Ghost River Theatre's Echoes of a Land, TC's The Lehman Trilogy, ATP's Liars at a Funeral, Vertigo's Murder on the Links, and TC's The Play that Goes Wrong, a co-production with The Citadel and The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Article content Article content Nominated for outstanding lead performance in a drama are Lindsey Angell in A Streetcar Named Desire, Joe Perry in The Woman in Black, Makambe K. Simamba in Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers, and both Lauren Brotman and Norman Lewis in Mary Stuart. Article content Recognized for their comedic performances this season are Karen Johnson Diamond in Verb Theatre's Every Brilliant Thing, Ashley King in Inside Out and Chromatic Theatre's Static: A Party Girl, Julie Orton in ATP's Charlotte's Web, Mera Reyes in Downstage's The Strategy of War, and Marshall Vielle in TC's Awoowaakii.
IOL News
16-05-2025
- General
- IOL News
Betty club proves age is just a number and Betty is just a vibe
Members of the Original Betty Club meet on March 3 at Good Samaritan Society-Hastings Village in Hastings, Nebraska. 'Either you're named Betty, or you go by the name Betty,' said Krueger, who is 99. They are the Original Betty Club, a social group founded in 1994 in Hastings, Nebraska, by Betty Krueger. There is only one requirement to join the club. The 15 women are all named Betty, so when they gather, they call each other by their last names as if they're on a sports team: Krueger, Mehmen, Bittfield. The average age of the women is 85, and one member is 102. Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Krueger got the idea to start the club after hearing a radio story about a similar group in California. Having recently retired as a social worker, she had free time, and 'it just seemed like a fun thing to do,' she said. But she hesitated, unsure if others would be interested in joining her Betty club. 'I pondered for three years before I had the courage to put an ad in the paper,' Krueger said. When she finally took out a notice in the Hastings Tribune, letters from local Bettys poured into the post office box she had set up. The Betty Club was born. 'I was just so thrilled with the response of these Bettys, and we went from there,' said Krueger, noting that 11 Bettys attended their first meeting. Over the past 31 years, the club has congregated four times a year, growing to 25 members at one point. The club is open to Bettys of all ages, though the name is much less common among younger generations. The name Betty - typically short for Elizabeth - peaked in popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Notable Bettys include former first lady Betty Ford, born in 1918, and actress Betty White, born in 1922. The Betty Club has 15 members, as well as several honorary members who are unable to meet in-person. 'I couldn't do this club alone; great people helped me through the years and that kept our club going so well,' Krueger said. 'This has been very enjoyable to me.' The Bettys take turns hosting quarterly meetings, and they assemble a committee to plan them. The club has a president, a vice president, a secretary and a historian, among other leadership roles. 'We always have a program of some kind. Usually it's a speaker,' Krueger said. People from organizations such as nonprofits, schools and churches speak at the meetings, which they often use to raise money for charitable causes. They also have lunch together and catch up on each other's lives. Sometimes they go on field trips. 'We go around and each tell the important things that our family has done since the last meeting,' Krueger said. 'I have so many friends that I never would have had.' Betty Mehmen, 84, moved to Nebraska from Texas in 2016. 'I didn't know anybody,' she said. Mehmen met Krueger at church, and Krueger urged her to join the Betty Club. Mehmen attended the next meeting, and she has been an active club member since. 'I was very impressed. Everybody was so friendly and just made you feel welcome,' said Mehmen, who became the club historian, responsible for archiving photos from each meeting and preserving programs. 'It really helped me know a lot of people in this area that I probably wouldn't have met.' Between meetings, the women keep in touch through written letters and a 'calling chain.' One Betty calls another, who then calls the next, and so on. 'If there's any kind of news, we keep up with the Bettys,' Mehmen said. The club's influence has spread beyond Hastings, inspiring another Betty club in Lincoln, Nebraska. Every other year, there is a Betty convention, where dozens of Bettys across Nebraska come together to socialise and participate in parades and events. 'The different towns take turns hosting the conventions,' Krueger said. 'It is very nice for the Bettys.' Other name-based clubs exist in the United States, including the Jim Smith Society, which was founded in 1969 in Pennsylvania, and the annual Kyle Convention in Kyle, Texas. But the Bettys say their frequent gathering and close-knit bond set them apart. 'Getting together is my favorite thing,' Krueger said. 'That's an important part of life - to visit and be aware of other people and share their joys. That's what makes life beautiful.' Krueger hosted the latest meeting on March 3 at the retirement home where she lives, Good Samaritan Society-Hastings Village. Staff admired the event and said they aren't surprised Krueger was the one who brought the club to life. 'She's just the perfect Betty to have started the club,' said Stephanie Uhrmacher, senior living administrator at Good Samaritan Society-Hastings Village. 'Her zest for life is contagious, and to us, she is a legend, a Betty legend. We are very honored to have her on campus.' Although Krueger remains a club leader, about nine years ago, she passed on her presidential role to Betty Bittfield, 72, the club's second-youngest member. She joined in 1996. 'When you say you have a Betty Club meeting, everybody looks at you like, 'What?'' Bittfield said with a laugh. Krueger said she's proud of what she started, and she wants to stay involved as long as she can. 'It takes time, it takes effort, but it's worth every bit of it,' she said. 'I've made such wonderful friends.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
From £400 eggs to live rabbits: the most extravagant Easter gifts
How much would you pay for an Easter egg? While most supermarket versions retail for anything between a fiver and £20, a chocolate maker in Yorkshire is betting on the big spenders. Betty's of Harrogate might just make the most expensive Easter egg in the land – their 'Grande' egg is half a metre tall, weighs 5.4kg and comes in at £395. Made with Swiss chocolate and decorated with perfectly piped flowers, it has 31,000 calories in it: enough to sustain the average man for two weeks. According to Julie Ward, product and innovation patissier at Bettys, they usually sell about 10 Grande eggs each year – but the figures may be higher this year as the egg features in a viral TikTok video by content creator Robbie Knox. 'We've known people use them as Easter wedding cakes,' she told a local paper. Celebrities are famous for pushing the boat out over Easter. Last year Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury put out a lavish spread for their one-year-old daughter Bambi, including three giant stuffed rabbits, a personalised letter from the Easter bunny, an enormous bouquet of roses, and various chocolates and hampers. Meanwhile, momager in chief Kris Jenner laid on a lunch for her grandchildren featuring racks of Easter themed clothes and a table filled with custom made rabbit-shaped cakes and treats. Our kids are so lucky to have the best grandma,' said Kim Kardashian on Instagram. Some will go to even more extreme lengths to make the perfect day, buying live rabbits for the delight of their children. This has led to British pet shop chain Pets at Home putting a temporary freeze on the sale of rabbits over the Easter weekend. 'This is a deliberate action to discourage any impulsive choices about owning a rabbit, given their close association with this time of year,' said a spokesperson from Pets at Home. The halt on sales will be in place across Pets at Home's 460 UK stores, including London branches like Camden, Wimbledon and Battersea. While it may seem like a publicity stunt, there is good reason for the ban. Most domestic rabbits can easily live to be 8 years old, and many can live for up to 12 years. But according to animal welfare charity PETA, around 80% of rabbits bought for Easter either get abandoned or die within a year. For those who want to create the magic of the Easter bunny? Consider investing in a stuffed animal instead, says the charity.
