Wasaga Community Theatre celebrates its 25th production season this year. The group produces two plays per year in the spring and fall, including children’s productions, performed at the Wasaga Beach RecPlex. In 1996, a group of adults intent on producing a musical version of Scrooge for a cast of young people formed the Clearview Community Theatre to make it happen. Since then the group staged performances for all ages in various community halls throughout Clearview, with special emphasis on the development of young people’s theatre. At the other end of the region, Thornbury Community Theatre mounts amateur performances in the spring and fall at the Marsh Street Centre in Clarksburg.
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nother interesting theatre success is the Roxy Theatre in the historic downtown neighbourhood of Owen Sound. The Roxy has had an unbroken performance history since it opened in 1913 as a vaudeville theatre that could seat 1,200 people. Since that time, despite two World Wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression, the theatre has remained the only performing arts centre in the town and has consistently been used for performances of one kind or another. In 1948, Odeon Cinema bought, gutted and renovated the Roxy, taking out the balcony and dramatically reducing the seating capacity, and it remained a movie theatre for almost 40 years until Owen Sound Little Theatre (a not-for-profit, charitable organization) purchased the building in 1986. The group raised funds and invested in renovations until, finally in 1994, they were able to hold a grand opening gala with a lively production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. Every seat in the 400-seat theatre was full. Now celebrating its 53rd year, the theatre company recently mounted a Build and Burn Campaign to successfully pay off the mortgage on this “wonderful but aging” building.
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APPLE HARVEST 2016 MEAFORD
at the Meaford Community Centre & the Meaford Curling Club on Collingwood Street West SATURDAY OCTOBER 1ST 10 A.M. TO 6 P.M. SUNDAY OCTOBER 2ND 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. ADM: $5, UNDER 12 $1 Proceeds to Community Projects
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SIMCOE STREET THEATRE
F I N E C R A F T S , FA S H I O N , A RT I S A N S
ABOVE: The cast of a February comedy and cabaret show in the green room at the Simcoe Street Theatre (l-r): Christel Bartelse, Paul Hutcheson, Christine Aziz, Rouge La Rouge, Jen Chow.
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ON THE BAY
SUMMER 2016
Owen Sound Little Theatre is made up of volunteers who stage four productions annually: a fall musical and three non-musical plays throughout the rest of the year. This year’s playbill consists of ambitious productions such as Carousel, To Kill a Mockingbird and Blithe Spirit. According to Cathie Locke, president of the board of directors of the Owen Sound Little Theatre, “We couldn’t manage without all the volunteers. Lots of them get bitten by the bug and want the glow of the floodlights, but there are lots like me who just like being part of the process. Sharing a love of theatre is a great bond and leads to close friendships.” It is exactly this passion that keeps theatre alive in any small community, whether it’s a professional group like Theatre Collingwood (which depends on a hundred volunteers every year) or an amateur company run entirely by volunteers.