Fall and Halloween events
VOLUME 4 ISSUE 40
Pg B5
$2
OCTOBER 6 - OCTOBER 12, 2023
Be ‘Witch’ed
Ocala Civic Theatre’s new show, “Witch,” brings smart, snappy dialogue to an intimate, in-the-round setting. By Lisa McGinnes lisa@magnoliamediaco.com
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Joan Elizabeth McDonald as Elizabeth Sawyer rehearses a scene from “Witch” at the Ocala Civic Theatre in Ocala on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. The play runs from Oct. 5-15 and will be performed in-the-round among the audience at the Reilly Arts Center’s NOMA Black Box. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.
hat’s your soul worth? That’s the question weighing on the minds of four residents of the small, country village of Edmonton. Everyone’s hiding something, and devil himself is here to make deals. The setting is, according to playwright Jen Silverman, “then-ish, but equally of our moment.” For the audience, that means we get all the best parts of a Jacobean period piece—ornate costumes, from oversized Elizabethan ruff collars to brocade vests, lace cuffs and laced-up corsets, with the straightforward settings of a cottage and a castle, complete with silver chalices at the banquet table—with none of the “thees” and “thous” of Shakespearean dialogue. Instead, the 2018 reimagining of the 1621 play “The Witch of Edmonton” uses contemporary language to engage modern audiences with the original work’s timeless themes. “I think it’s brilliant because it’s not just of our time, of the moment,” said Greg Thompson, Ocala Civic Theatre executive and artistic director and the play’s director. “She does this wonderful thing of putting one foot back in history and one foot in the present,” he said of Silverman. “She’s hitting on so many issues that are right now.” Is Elizabeth really a witch? Or is she just the victim of small-town gossip? OCT veteran Joan Elizabeth McDonald plays the lead female with a quiet strength, wry humor, and just a shred See “Witch”, page A2
Sewer force main break causes construction, road closures in Ocala
A map depicts the area where there will be road closures until Oct. 15, along with what detours travelers will take to avoid construction. [Courtesy of the city of Ocala]
By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
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section of Southeast 17th Street in Ocala will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Oct. 15 to allow a contractor to replace an outdated and
leaking sewer force main pipe, according to a city news release. The closure, which began on Oct. 1, is linked to a $645,000 project put into action after the sewer force main broke recently, according to city of Ocala spokesperson Ashley Dobbs.
“The pipe was in poor condition due to corrosion and had a leak approximately two months ago,” Dobbs wrote in an email. “The Water Resources Department evaluated the pipe and the decision was made to extend the 17th Street force main See Road, page A5
Ocala International Airport project planning underway By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
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he city of Ocala has just accepted a grant of more than $300,000 from the Florida Department of Transportation to conduct an environmental study for the Ocala International Airport taxiway project. The Ocala City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to accept the grant at its Tuesday meeting. The agreement between FDOT and the city will last until June of 2025. The $324,017 in grant funds will be spent on conducting an environmental assessment to see how the project to improve the taxiway at the Ocala International Airport will impact wildlife and a number of other environmental factors, said Airport Director Matthew Grow. The project will also be funded $81,005 from the airport for a total project cost of $405,022. The scope of the project includes consultant fees, survey and data acquisition costs, and all labor required to complete the environmental assessment, according to the grant agreement. “This FDOT grant will fund the environmental assessment for those projects on the west side of what we call runway 1836,” Grow said. “It’s Taxiway Charlie.” This taxiway, which is a route that aircraft can use to move to or from the runway, is crucial for the airport’s need to move air cargo and accommodate large aircraft. A significant source of air cargo activity for the airport is moving horses, which is one of the main reasons for the improvements to the west side of the airport. The tarmac, runways and taxiways all must be expanded to keep up with the level of activity from the county’s growth as a livestock hub and from the industrial park, according to the airport’s masterplan developed in 2014. The environmental study will pave the way for construction, which can begin when the Federal Aviation Administration approves the project based on the study’s results. “They look at noise. They look at the different traffic levels. They look at the birds and the bunnies and look at all the wildlife issues and look at groundwater. They look at any kind of stormwater impacts. They look at any endangered wildlife issues. They look at air quality during construction,” Grow said. Grow said he would come back to the city council with more details on the scope of the project at the next meeting. “This is a full-blown environmental assessment that will take a full year to complete, so it’s a massive undertaking,” he said.
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