Bringing “Ring Rats” to the big screen

You’re reading the March 27, 2025 edition of the Peterborough Currents email newsletter. To receive our email newsletters straight to your inbox, sign up here.

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Hello, and welcome to the arts and community newsletter from Peterborough Currents. I’m Alex, and I send this newsletter every week to catch you up on what’s happening in Peterborough.

Ten years ago, Peterborough couple Chris Lawson and Emily Minthorn launched a radio program that would become a cult favourite for Trent Radio listeners. The duo takes to the airwaves every Sunday evening, with Lawson reading a different Choose Your Own Adventure book each time. Listeners write in to tell him which of the many branching story lines to follow, while Minthorn curates the background music.

I joined the couple inside the radio studio to watch a live show unfold and learn more about the community they’ve created over the airwaves.

Also in this week’s newsletter:

• Improv fundraiser supports local film project  
• Plus, more things to do around town this weekend

Let’s get started!

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Choose Your Own Adventure story hour celebrates 10 years on Trent Radio

It’s a Sunday evening and Chris Lawson is sitting inside a radio booth at Trent Radio. He opens the cover of a yellowing paperback and gets ready to start reading live on air.

The book he has in his hand is Space Vampire, the 71st installment of the Choose Your Own Adventure series, which was hugely popular with children in the 1980s and 90s.

Lawson has been reading the series live on Trent Radio since 2015. Listeners write in during each episode to decide what twists and turns to follow in that week’s story. 

Lawson’s co-host, Em Minthorn, sits beside him, preparing a playlist of spacey and spooky background music to set the mood for this week’s adventure.

Listeners across Peterborough are tuning in, ready to play along. Will the pre-teen cadet at the centre of Space Vampire save his fleet from doom? Listeners will decide.

“There’s something really compelling about being in the centre of choosing where the story goes, rather than just having it relayed to you,” says Liam Kennedy-Slaney, a devoted listener who has tuned in almost every week since the show launched 10 years ago.

Kennedy-Slaney says he’s also a fan of Lawson’s storytelling. “The recurring highlight is Chris’s attempt to do as wide a variety of accents as there are stars in the universe,” he said.

By encouraging people to gather around their radios and play along in real-time, Choose Your Own Adventure has created a bond among listeners. “You feel like you’re part of a little group,” says Jo Sippola, another fan from the show’s early days. “You get to feel like you’re in a little community. It’s not big, but it’s cozy,” she says.

Before donning their headsets and diving into Space Vampire, Lawson and Minthorn — who are married — spoke with Currents about how the show got started.

The couple moved to Peterborough in January 2015, Lawson explained, and began listening to Trent Radio to get to know their new community. “Part of the novelty of living here was attuning to what the town had to offer, which included the community campus radio station,” he said.

After a few months of listening, the pair wanted to try hosting a show themselves. They decided to make use of the huge collection of Choose Your Own Adventure books that Lawson’s older brother had gifted him. “And then the idea just became, what if we made other people play these games?” Lawson said.

The nerdy hilarity of the books, combined with Lawson and Minthorn’s obvious chemistry, have attracted a following of loyal listeners to the show over the last decade. They occasionally host the show before a live audience, so fans can meet and play along in person, and in 2018, they published their own book in the style of the original series, called Choose Your Downtown Peterborough Adventure.

The show will soon wrap up for another season, with only a few more Sunday evening broadcasts on Trent Radio until the hosts take a break until the fall. Tune in on Sundays at 7 p.m. to 92.7 FM or online at www.trentradio.ca.

To play along, send your choices for each week’s adventure to Lawson and Minthorn on the social media platform X, using the handle @cyoa_ptbo. You can also text in your choices to a number Minthorn gives out during each live broadcast.

To learn more about the history of the show, read the full story on the Peterborough Currents website.

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Ring Rats movie fundraiser at TTOK this Friday

Local theatre company Planet 12 Productions is taking its acclaimed play “Ring Rats” from stage to screen, with plans to release a full-length feature film version of the story next year. To help pay for production costs, Planet 12 will host three fundraiser events in the coming months. The first is this Friday at The Theatre on King. 

“Ring Rats” was first presented at The Theatre on King (TTOK) in February, 2023. Local actors Samuelle Weatherdon and Brad Brackenridge embodied the characters of a young wannabe wrestler and the washed out has-been she hires to teach her the ropes.

The play, written by Planet 12 Productions artistic director Derek Weatherdon, was a love letter to professional wrestling fandom and a smash hit, selling out its three-night run. Building on that success, the team—now joined by additional local creatives—is working to bring “Ring Rats” to the big screen.

“We’re lucky that we have the two original actors that played the role on stage, and they’re back to play the characters in the film,” said Ring Rats movie director Derek Weatherdon, who reworked his original script into a screenplay. “Really, there would have been no sort of film without them. I couldn’t imagine two other people in the roles.”

Weatherdon says the film is “very much a Peterborough production,” with all-local cast and crew, and scenes shot at downtown restaurant Fork It and other recognizable Peterborough locations.

Much of the filming is already done, but they need to raise $35,000 to finish production on the movie. To help fundraise, Brackenridge and Weatherdon will return to TTOK this Friday, March 28 at 8 p.m. to reprise their roles and go head-to-head in a game of “Password.” They will compete to see which competitor can correctly guess the most password prompts.

Local improv comedians including Dan Smith, Marc Ludwig and Naomi DuVall will round out the night with performances, and the fundraiser will also feature a raffle with prizes available to be won. Tickets cost $25 and space is limited, so reserve a seat online. 

Those interested in supporting the “Ring Rats” movie can also contribute directly to the production’s Indiegogo campaign, with perks like a film credit, poster, t-shirt, and more up for grabs.

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What’s happening in Peterborough this weekend?

• Birdbone Theatre company presents a shadow puppet show at Sadleir House tonight (Thursday, March 27) at 7 p.m. Called Broom Dance, the production tells tales of witches from different European storytelling traditions. One of them is Baba Yaga, from Slavic folklore, who lives in a hut propped up on chicken legs that is “perched on the realm of the otherworld.” This is a show for all ages, with tickets available for $20 online.

• The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra brings its Spring Sunrise concert to Showplace Performance Centre this Saturday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m. Music will include Beethoven’s “Pastorale” symphony along with Prokofiev’s First Violin concerto. Seating is limited and tickets are going fast. 

• The Repair Cafe is back at Dreams of Beans this Saturday, March 29 from 1 to 4 p.m. Volunteers will be on-hand to assist with fixing different items, from clothing to pottery to small appliances. The group Clean Up Peterborough will also collect hard-to-recycle items at the event, including toothpaste tubes, deodorant packaging, floss, plastic bread tags, dead batteries, and more.

• The Central Ontario Arm Wrestling Championships are this Saturday, March 29, at The Gathering Place, 431 Hiawatha Line, in Hiawatha First Nation.The tournament is open to all skill levels, with right and left-handed divisions by weight and age. Weigh-ins start at 10 a.m., and entry costs $50, with cash prizes for the top three arm-wrestlers in each division.

• The Trent Evening Quilters is holding an event to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary at Trent University this weekend. Taking place in Champlain College’s Great Hall on Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30, the quilting showcase is free and open for all to join. Quilters will mingle and demonstrate their techniques and beginners can take a crack at using a sewing machine. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days.

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