Gateway Theatre Guild                                                                     

 March 17, 2008

Gateway’s first play this season (November, 2007) was Crimes of the Heart, directed by Bob Clout.  The cast included Leah Philpott as Babe (coming into the role two weeks before curtain because of a death in the family of Jen Ritchie, who was cast originally as Babe), Nancy Slater as Lenny, and Tania Ciccerelli as Meg.  All three women are new to the Guild.  The remainder of the cast included Greg Springall (GTG president) as Doc Porter, Victor Crowther as Barnette Lloyd, and Kristin Shepherd (who also came in two weeks before curtain) as Chick.

The run was enjoyable but inadequately attended and convinced us, as a Guild, that we have some work to do in building marketing and public relations skills.

Our winter production (February, 2008) brought Vern Thiessen’s Apple to North Bay.  Thiessen is the author of Einstein’s Gift, and of Shakespeare’s Will, which appeared at Stratford in 2007.  The play was chosen by the Guild’s recently revived reading committee.  Rodney Roy volunteered to direct, but withdrew in late summer when spectacular acting opportunities presented themselves in Toronto.  Our promotional material had already gone out for the season, so we set about finding another director who might enjoy the challenge.  Rob McCubbin, who had hoped to audition for Apple, stepped in.  The cast included Mitch Belanger, Kelly Boegel, and Kristin Shepherd.

We enlisted the help of Paul Baker (of the North Bay Symphony) in our PR work for Apple.  With his help, our producer, Cheryl Miller, formed a partnership with The Warriors of Hope (dragon boat racers and breast cancer survivors) who acted as ushers for the production.   Our houses were considerably stronger for this show.  We hope to learn from this for next season.

Apple went on to the QUONTA festival in Elliot Lake (March, 2008).   It would be impossible to describe how welcomed and encouraged we felt by the festival and its participants.  We emerged with the enthusiasm necessary to make some constructive changes over the next year.   More importantly, it reacquainted us with the FUN of theatre and a sense of community in theatre.  Many thanks.

Not to mention our nominations and awards!  We were nominated for an award for ensemble work.  Kelly Boegel was nominated for Best Actress in A Supporting Role.

We won an adjudicator’s award for contributing to QUONTA through our choice of script, challenging regional theatre to do challenging work.  We won an adjudicator’s award for the magical moment on stage during the festival (Kristin Shepherd) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Kristin Shepherd).  We are pleased and inspired to move on toward world domination (or at least making it back to QUONTA next year).

Rather than doing a Spring show, Gateway is hosting Theatre Ontario in May, 2008.  Our subscribers will receive a ticket to the show of their choice.  The festival has been organized by Rex Hiscock and Gabe Giroux, and will be stage managed by Carri Johnson and Jane Capstick.  QUONTA will be represented by Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, from Sault Ste. Marie. 

That’s it for now.

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