Miss Caledonia

How does a farm girl in 1950s Ontario escape the stall-cleaning, cow-milking, hay-baling drudgery of life on Rural Route 2? She becomes a movie star, of course! The quickest route to Hollywood for a plucky gal in the mid-twentieth century was to enter as many beauty pageants as possible and to sing, twirl and pivot her way into the hearts of judges.ÊAnd so Peggy Ann Douglas did just that, as did so many other young women of her generation, hoping to follow in the footsteps of starlets like Debbie Reynolds.

How does a farm girl in 1950s Ontario escape the stall-cleaning, cow-milking, hal-baling drudgery of life on Rural Route 2? She becomes a movie star, of course! The quickest route to Hollywood for a plucky gal in the mid-twentieth century was to enter as many beauty pageants as possible and to sing, twirl and pivot her way into the hearts of judges. And so Peggy Ann Douglas did just that, as did so many other young women of her generation, hoping to follow in the footsteps of starletts like Debbie Reynolds. This tour-de-force memory play looks back at one young, optimistic farm girl's search for fame. By turns hilarious and poignant, Miss Caledonia paints a picture of one Ontario Scottish Protestant farm family and a vanished era.