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The First 20 years. By Laurel A. Beechey Founding Member and 75+ Show Life Time Member
It was rather daunting to purchase the old Hungarian Home but we did so in the spring of 1989 and began intense fundraising so renovations could begin. The Rotary Club of Tillsonburg who at that time was putting on a large musical a year as a fundraiser for their charities partnered with us in this endeavour. Tillsonburg and area industries, businesses, service clubs and individuals gave most of the money necessary and government grants helped with the rest. The only time we did not put on a show was that fall as we were busy demolishing much of the building interior as much had to be renovated to bring the building up to newer safety codes. In truth a show should be written about the antics that went on during this time as members and friends did as much work as possible to save money. We had not the talent for building but we found we were excellent at destroying. One of the few building projects we did do ourselves was transforming the small ‘bingo/band’ stage to a full 40’x 23’ stage. The first performance in the Playhouse was our 1990 spring show, ‘Play It Again Sam’. The project was by no means completed however we needed the revenue and you know the old adage about ‘the show must go on’. The stage was completed and our lights hung, but that was about all. The exterior grand staircase which would eventually join the basement ‘green’ room and the stage had not yet been built so the only access to the stage that the actors had was a straight ladder up through the stage floor. It was no easy feat for the ladies in dresses and heels to get upstairs to perform. The Theatre Tillsonburg Teens managed to get ‘Alice In Wonderland’ on the stage too, which allowed the community who was investing in our building a chance to come out and see how things were going. The big push was on to have everything complete for our fall show which was to be the Gala Opening. We had a community contest to name the building and the Otter Valley Playhouse received its most appropriate moniker, for the Otter Creek flowed through the back of the property. ‘Man Of La Mancha’ our 25th show/event, was the first show performed in the completed Playhouse and it was our first musical. It seemed like everybody wanted to be on stage or help. The show was magnificent, our seats were full. We had achieved the dream of all ‘little theatre’ groups, to own your own theatre, but with that dream comes reality. Our small group now had the responsibilities that come with being a property owner. We had the upkeep of a building and property, taxes, utility bills, insurances and a thousand and one things which no one really thinks about when they come out to be in a or see a show. Having the Playhouse increased the number of people wanting to perform or work a show but there was little increase in those planning, managing and running the shows and the building. First order of business was to expand our season. This was rather overwhelming as the core people were stretched pretty thin. I had no experience directing but had been involved in theatre for 20 years, with most of my experience in musicals, so I decided to mount a review of Broadway melodies. The Tillsonburg and area citizens are very gifted and have little outlet for their talents so all musicals attract not only people for the shows but are great at filling the seats. The Rotary Club performed many of their musicals on the Playhouse stage and after their final production they were kind enough to gift their storage kiln to Theatre Tillsonburg. For a few years when Glendale High School was heavily involved with their theatre program, they too performed on our stage. Over the years some professional shows were brought in as fundraisers and occasionally other music or dance groups would rent our stage. Theatre Tillsonburg has performed over 80 shows or hosted other events in the Playhouse. One of the most technically ambitious plays we did was ‘Noises Off’, which called for a two story set which filled the stage and had to be turned around to show the backside to the audience. Although the stage is a good size for our needs we do not have much height and the set was measured to within half and inch of the on stage air ducts. We have slowly built up equipment for our stage that makes us the envy of other groups, for we not only have good lighting and sound equipment we now have turntables, rolling backdrops, extra travelers [curtains] to divide the stage and a scrim! Theatre Tillsonburg has allowed many dreams to come true on the Playhouse stage. Not only has performing on stage been a dream of many people but so to has the opportunity of writing and performing a fully original show. Esther, The Concubine Dream was a monstrous musical set in Persian, 483 BC. This show also had the dubious honour of being the first in the history of the Playhouse to loose all electricity before the final curtain. The show must go on, however, so it was completed on a very cold November night in the parking lot with car headlights lighting the improvised asphalt stage. The cast rose to the occasion, including the scantily clad, barefooted belly dancer! This parking lot show is firmly entrenched in the annals of our illustrious history. During the two decades of playing in the Playhouse we have been fortunate to have had no major set malfunctions. No flats or drops have fallen. We have had a couple of costume malfunctions when strategic costume pieces were accidently removed to bare sections of bodies not normally seen by the audience. The phrase ‘break a leg’ has been used for centuries to wish luck on an individual or show. In Theatre Tillsonburg however we shy away from this tradition as we have had many broken legs and other limbs. During Man of La Mancha, [Gala Opening of the Playhouse], we had two broken legs and one arm, fortunately none occurred at the Playhouse but the cast members still had to perform. In total over the years we have had over 8 broken or cracked limbs. So in our case a more appropriate phrase to wish us luck would be ‘May Your Curtain Always Rise!’ After 20 years there are many needed repairs to the building. Seats are getting harder to fill as home entertainment centers grow and the economy dwindles. More work is needed to entice the public to fill the seats and keep our revenues up. But we have new dreams too. For our patrons comfort, we would like to expand the lobby into the no longer used kitchen area and for cast and crew we would like to build a passage way behind the stage, on the outside wall to link stage left with stage right. Too often, to accommodate more ambitious set designs we must trap cast and crew on the far side of the stage, where they must do costume changes with no privacy and wait long periods in very cramped space before returning to the stage or having a black out during which they can run for the other sided. 20 years after purchasing the building we performed our 107th event/show, Neil Simon’s ‘God’s Favourite’. The show was picked without realizing it marked this anniversary, but the title is almost prophetic to the remarkable past we have had and the future to which we aspire. |
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Otter Valley Playhouse The First 20 years. By Laurel A. Beechey Founding Member and 75+ Show Life Time Member
It was rather daunting to purchase the old Hungarian Home but we did so in the spring of 1989 and began intense fundraising so renovations could begin. The Rotary Club of Tillsonburg who at that time was putting on a large musical a year as a fundraiser for their charities partnered with us in this endeavour. Tillsonburg and area industries, businesses, service clubs and individuals gave most of the money necessary and government grants helped with the rest. The only time we did not put on a show was that fall as we were busy demolishing much of the building interior as much had to be renovated to bring the building up to newer safety codes. In truth a show should be written about the antics that went on during this time as members and friends did as much work as possible to save money. We had not the talent for building but we found we were excellent at destroying. One of the few building projects we did do ourselves was transforming the small ‘bingo/band’ stage to a full 40’x 23’ stage. The first performance in the Playhouse was our 1990 spring show, ‘Play It Again Sam’. The project was by no means completed however we needed the revenue and you know the old adage about ‘the show must go on’. The stage was completed and our lights hung, but that was about all. The exterior grand staircase which would eventually join the basement ‘green’ room and the stage had not yet been built so the only access to the stage that the actors had was a straight ladder up through the stage floor. It was no easy feat for the ladies in dresses and heels to get upstairs to perform. The Theatre Tillsonburg Teens managed to get ‘Alice In Wonderland’ on the stage too, which allowed the community who was investing in our building a chance to come out and see how things were going. The big push was on to have everything complete for our fall show which was to be the Gala Opening. We had a community contest to name the building and the Otter Valley Playhouse received its most appropriate moniker, for the Otter Creek flowed through the back of the property. ‘Man Of La Mancha’ our 25th show/event, was the first show performed in the completed Playhouse and it was our first musical. It seemed like everybody wanted to be on stage or help. The show was magnificent, our seats were full. We had achieved the dream of all ‘little theatre’ groups, to own your own theatre, but with that dream comes reality. Our small group now had the responsibilities that come with being a property owner. We had the upkeep of a building and property, taxes, utility bills, insurances and a thousand and one things which no one really thinks about when they come out to be in a or see a show. Having the Playhouse increased the number of people wanting to perform or work a show but there was little increase in those planning, managing and running the shows and the building. First order of business was to expand our season. This was rather overwhelming as the core people were stretched pretty thin. I had no experience directing but had been involved in theatre for 20 years, with most of my experience in musicals, so I decided to mount a review of Broadway melodies. The Tillsonburg and area citizens are very gifted and have little outlet for their talents so all musicals attract not only people for the shows but are great at filling the seats. The Rotary Club performed many of their musicals on the Playhouse stage and after their final production they were kind enough to gift their storage kiln to Theatre Tillsonburg. For a few years when Glendale High School was heavily involved with their theatre program, they too performed on our stage. Over the years some professional shows were brought in as fundraisers and occasionally other music or dance groups would rent our stage. Theatre Tillsonburg has performed over 80 shows or hosted other events in the Playhouse. One of the most technically ambitious plays we did was ‘Noises Off’, which called for a two story set which filled the stage and had to be turned around to show the backside to the audience. Although the stage is a good size for our needs we do not have much height and the set was measured to within half and inch of the on stage air ducts. We have slowly built up equipment for our stage that makes us the envy of other groups, for we not only have good lighting and sound equipment we now have turntables, rolling backdrops, extra travelers [curtains] to divide the stage and a scrim! Theatre Tillsonburg has allowed many dreams to come true on the Playhouse stage. Not only has performing on stage been a dream of many people but so to has the opportunity of writing and performing a fully original show. Esther, The Concubine Dream was a monstrous musical set in Persian, 483 BC. This show also had the dubious honour of being the first in the history of the Playhouse to loose all electricity before the final curtain. The show must go on, however, so it was completed on a very cold November night in the parking lot with car headlights lighting the improvised asphalt stage. The cast rose to the occasion, including the scantily clad, barefooted belly dancer! This parking lot show is firmly entrenched in the annals of our illustrious history. During the two decades of playing in the Playhouse we have been fortunate to have had no major set malfunctions. No flats or drops have fallen. We have had a couple of costume malfunctions when strategic costume pieces were accidently removed to bare sections of bodies not normally seen by the audience. The phrase ‘break a leg’ has been used for centuries to wish luck on an individual or show. In Theatre Tillsonburg however we shy away from this tradition as we have had many broken legs and other limbs. During Man of La Mancha, [Gala Opening of the Playhouse], we had two broken legs and one arm, fortunately none occurred at the Playhouse but the cast members still had to perform. In total over the years we have had over 8 broken or cracked limbs. So in our case a more appropriate phrase to wish us luck would be ‘May Your Curtain Always Rise!’ After 20 years there are many needed repairs to the building. Seats are getting harder to fill as home entertainment centers grow and the economy dwindles. More work is needed to entice the public to fill the seats and keep our revenues up. But we have new dreams too. For our patrons comfort, we would like to expand the lobby into the no longer used kitchen area and for cast and crew we would like to build a passage way behind the stage, on the outside wall to link stage left with stage right. Too often, to accommodate more ambitious set designs we must trap cast and crew on the far side of the stage, where they must do costume changes with no privacy and wait long periods in very cramped space before returning to the stage or having a black out during which they can run for the other sided. 20 years after purchasing the building we performed our 107th event/show, Neil Simon’s ‘God’s Favourite’. The show was picked without realizing it marked this anniversary, but the title is almost prophetic to the remarkable past we have had and the future to which we aspire. |
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Otter Valley Playhouse The First 20 years.
By Laurel A. Beechey
Founding Member and 75+ Show Life Time Member
Oh the joy of performing in the Otter Valley Playhouse! In the first nine years of Theatre Tillsonburg’s existence we rehearsed at Till-Cable television studio and performed our two shows a year, at the Lion’s Auditorium in the Tillsonburg Community Centre. It was quite a feat to move lights and sound equipment; the flats for the set; risers; costumes; make-up and props large and small. Every thing we needed in a show was packed up and moved, then set up ready for a rehearsal on the same day. After the performances were over all had to be removed and taken back to our cramped space in the truck bays of Till-Cable.
It was rather daunting to purchase the old Hungarian Home but we did so in the spring of 1989 and began intense fundraising so renovations could begin. The Rotary Club of Tillsonburg who at that time was putting on a large musical a year as a fundraiser for their charities partnered with us in this endeavour. Tillsonburg and area industries, businesses, service clubs and individuals gave most of the money necessary and government grants helped with the rest.
The only time we did not put on a show was that fall as we were busy demolishing much of the building interior as much had to be renovated to bring the building up to newer safety codes. In truth a show should be written about the antics that went on during this time as members and friends did as much work as possible to save money. We had not the talent for building but we found we were excellent at destroying. One of the few building projects we did do ourselves was transforming the small ‘bingo/band’ stage to a full 40’x 23’ stage.
The first performance in the Playhouse was our 1990 spring show, ‘Play It Again Sam’. The project was by no means completed however we needed the revenue and you know the old adage about ‘the show must go on’. The stage was completed and our lights hung, but that was about all. The exterior grand staircase which would eventually join the basement ‘green’ room and the stage had not yet been built so the only access to the stage that the actors had was a straight ladder up through the stage floor. It was no easy feat for the ladies in dresses and heels to get upstairs to perform.
The Theatre Tillsonburg Teens managed to get ‘Alice In Wonderland’ on the stage too, which allowed the community who was investing in our building a chance to come out and see how things were going.
The big push was on to have everything complete for our fall show which was to be the Gala Opening. We had a community contest to name the building and the Otter Valley Playhouse received its most appropriate moniker, for the Otter Creek flowed through the back of the property.
‘Man Of La Mancha’ our 25th show/event, was the first show performed in the completed Playhouse and it was our first musical. It seemed like everybody wanted to be on stage or help. The show was magnificent, our seats were full.
We had achieved the dream of all ‘little theatre’ groups, to own your own theatre, but with that dream comes reality. Our small group now had the responsibilities that come with being a property owner. We had the upkeep of a building and property, taxes, utility bills, insurances and a thousand and one things which no one really thinks about when they come out to be in a or see a show. Having the Playhouse increased the number of people wanting to perform or work a show but there was little increase in those planning, managing and running the shows and the building.
First order of business was to expand our season. This was rather overwhelming as the core people were stretched pretty thin. I had no experience directing but had been involved in theatre for 20 years, with most of my experience in musicals, so I decided to mount a review of Broadway melodies. The Tillsonburg and area citizens are very gifted and have little outlet for their talents so all musicals attract not only people for the shows but are great at filling the seats.
The Rotary Club performed many of their musicals on the Playhouse stage and after their final production they were kind enough to gift their storage kiln to Theatre Tillsonburg.
For a few years when Glendale High School was heavily involved with their theatre program, they too performed on our stage.
Over the years some professional shows were brought in as fundraisers and occasionally other music or dance groups would rent our stage.
Theatre Tillsonburg has performed over 80 shows or hosted other events in the Playhouse. One of the most technically ambitious plays we did was ‘Noises Off’, which called for a two story set which filled the stage and had to be turned around to show the backside to the audience. Although the stage is a good size for our needs we do not have much height and the set was measured to within half and inch of the on stage air ducts.
We have slowly built up equipment for our stage that makes us the envy of other groups, for we not only have good lighting and sound equipment we now have turntables, rolling backdrops, extra travelers [curtains] to divide the stage and a scrim!
Theatre Tillsonburg has allowed many dreams to come true on the Playhouse stage. Not only has performing on stage been a dream of many people but so to has the opportunity of writing and performing a fully original show. Esther, The Concubine Dream was a monstrous musical set in Persian, 483 BC. This show also had the dubious honour of being the first in the history of the Playhouse to loose all electricity before the final curtain. The show must go on, however, so it was completed on a very cold November night in the parking lot with car headlights lighting the improvised asphalt stage. The cast rose to the occasion, including the scantily clad, barefooted belly dancer! This parking lot show is firmly entrenched in the annals of our illustrious history.
During the two decades of playing in the Playhouse we have been fortunate to have had no major set malfunctions. No flats or drops have fallen. We have had a couple of costume malfunctions when strategic costume pieces were accidently removed to bare sections of bodies not normally seen by the audience.
The phrase ‘break a leg’ has been used for centuries to wish luck on an individual or show. In Theatre Tillsonburg however we shy away from this tradition as we have had many broken legs and other limbs. During Man of La Mancha, [Gala Opening of the Playhouse], we had two broken legs and one arm, fortunately none occurred at the Playhouse but the cast members still had to perform. In total over the years we have had over 8 broken or cracked limbs. So in our case a more appropriate phrase to wish us luck would be ‘May Your Curtain Always Rise!’
After 20 years there are many needed repairs to the building. Seats are getting harder to fill as home entertainment centers grow and the economy dwindles. More work is needed to entice the public to fill the seats and keep our revenues up. But we have new dreams too. For our patrons comfort, we would like to expand the lobby into the no longer used kitchen area and for cast and crew we would like to build a passage way behind the stage, on the outside wall to link stage left with stage right. Too often, to accommodate more ambitious set designs we must trap cast and crew on the far side of the stage, where they must do costume changes with no privacy and wait long periods in very cramped space before returning to the stage or having a black out during which they can run for the other sided.
20 years after purchasing the building we performed our 107th event/show, Neil Simon’s ‘God’s Favourite’. The show was picked without realizing it marked this anniversary, but the title is almost prophetic to the remarkable past we have had and the future to which we aspire.
