Reprinted from the Globe and Mail

Watch Bette in her recurring role as "Trudy" in the new CBC TV comedy Mr D starting January 9th.

Mr. D (CBC, starts Jan. 9) is dopey, deadpan and quietly hilarious. Comedian – and former high-school teacher – Gerry Dee stars as a seriously underqualified but ambitious teacher stumbling through classes and school politics. It's rare for a Canadian standup comedian to get a sitcom vehicle, and in this instance it works.

There's no laugh track, the tone is stoner-impassive and the humour comes from the perfectly plausible but utterly cringe-worthy attempts by the teacher to get through a class and please the principal.

The connection with Trailer Park Boys should explain the style of humour – Dee was in the second TPB movie, this show comes from one of the TPB producers and it's made in Halifax.

Copyright © 2012 Globe and Mail All rights reserved

(Halifax, NS) – Bette MacDonald, Maynard Morrison and Ralph Dillon are all set to celebrate the holidays with the 5th Anniversary tour of their hit comedy, "Tis The Season!" The cross-Nova Scotia tour begins December 2nd in Mabou and winds up in Glace Bay's beautiful Savoy Theatre for two shows on December 16th and 17th.

What began as a one night only holiday show has grown into a much anticipated annual celebration of all things festive. Mary Morrison, Martin MacKinnon, Wayne Tomko, Cujo (not his real name), Da and poor old Fr. Gillis, along with assorted other characters, invite you to celebrate the holidays Cape Breton style. All fruitcakes welcome!

After a busy summer working as part of the cast of the upcoming CBC comedy series, Mr. D. starring Gerry Dee, Bette has been busy scripting this year's show. Along with some brand new material, the show will feature a few of the sketches that have become favourites of the Tis The Season audience.

Come join us as we revel in this most exciting, most stressful, most annoying, most wonderful time of the year!

Tour Dates

• Friday Decenber 2 - Mabou - Strathspey Place
• Saturday December 3 - Port Hawkesbury - SAERC (SOLD OUT)
• Sunday December 4 - Musquodoboit - Bicentennial Theatre
• Tuesday December 6 - Truro - Marigold Centre
• Wednesday December 7 - Truro - Marigold Centre
• Thursday December 8 - Truro - Marigold Centre (Matinee)
• Thursday December 8 - Truro - Marigold Centre (Evening)
• Friday December 9 - Guysborough - Chedabucto Place
• Saturday December 10 - Pictou - Decoste Centre
• Sunday December 11 - Pictou - Decoste Centre
• Monday December 12 - Halifax - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
• Tuesday December 13 - Halifax - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
• Friday December 16 - Glace Bay - Savoy Theatre
• Saturday December 17 - Glace Bay - Savoy Theatre

Bette Mac-Donald’s character Mary Morrison stars in her church’s nativity play in Tis the Season. (Photo by Murdock Smith)

Festive show in Year 5, or ‘wood anniversary’

By Elissa Barnard - The Chronicle Herald

Bette MacDonald can't believe Tis the Season is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

The show that she, her husband Maynard Morrison and musician Ralph Dillon first threw together for a one-night performance at Wolfville's Festival Theatre is now rewritten, remixed and ready for a provincial tour of 14 shows.

"I thought we'd maybe do it for a couple of years," says MacDonald, on the phone from her Sydney home. "I didn't think we'd have a fifth anniversary.

"It is the wood anniversary; we looked it up."

The comedy and music revue is becoming a Christmas tradition for many Nova Scotians, particularly in Truro, where Tis the Season runs four times.

"It's very much a tradition for us, too," says MacDonald. "We look forward to it every year. We can't wait to get on the road. I love this time of year so we're into it."

Tis the Season 5 features skits most loved by audiences over the last five years, including the first skit in which Mary Morrison appeared in a nativity play at church. (Father Gillis is her flustered Joseph).