Greetings all,
I hope that everyone is in good health and enjoying our Ottawa summer.
Well, in that we are six months into 2024 and the OLT has just completed its fourth production, I figured it was time to touch base with an update. So, halfway through the year and to paraphrase almost every American President’s state of the union address, the state of the theatre is strong. Our shows are excellent and entertaining, our financials are robust and our audience is happy.
It was definitely an emotional start to the year with the passing of our beloved Geoff Gruson. But, with his prior strong guidance, our capable Board of Directors members (now joined by Geoff’s wife and long standing OLT volunteer Venetia Lawless), alongside our experienced and talented committees, have achieved presenting what the OLT has been known for the past 111 years – great entertainment.
The Season to Date
The 111th season began with a truly spectacular production which proved to be both a critical and financial success. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express or “Murder Train” as it is affectionately referred to, had not only two directors on board (pardon the pun) but a 47-foot moving train on stage. The sets, acting, lighting, and sound all contributed to 14 performances sold out before the show opened, with an additional 15th added which sold out as well. This harkens back to the “good old days” of sold out live theatre and Venetia Lawless and Lindsay Laviolette as co-directors definitely recreated those ooh ahh moments on stage.
Next up was Grand Horizons and it was such a pleasure welcoming back director Chantale Plante after a hiatus. The show was a side-splitting comedy very much relatable to many of our golden age audience members (I will be one soon) and different from our normal approach to comedy. It was daring for OLT, with language and content that was edgy and mature. The reviews were excellent, and one lesson we learned was to emphasize our subject matter warning in order to prepare our audience members. We would love to hear from you; would you like to see this type of theatre occasionally as part of the mix?
Third up was another comedy, based on a truly Canadian tradition – Stag and Doe. Under the skilled hands of director Greg Hancock , this physical laugh riot had swinging doors, competing parties and a physical fight between two brides and their partners carefully choreographed to include hair pulling and wrestling. The set seemed to be airlifted out of those numerous community halls that we have all experienced, and the food props just kept coming and coming. Congratulations to everyone involved in this one. We hope you had a chance to sample the Stag and Doe inspired jello shots served at the bar.
Recently completed was John Muggleton’s An Act of Grace directed by Lindsay Laviolette in her second directorship in four months. (Please note that she also has a fulltime job that pays the bills). John has been associated with the OLT for many years and it is such a pleasure to put on another of his suspense thrillers. The set was truly inspirational, described as using negative space, lacking walls with a visually striking floor resembling a human chess board. The show will next be going on the road to the Edinburgh Fringe Fest hoping to achieve the success of his earlier play Burn when the OLT took it to Scotland in 2022 . We wish the team safe travels and much success in Auld Reekie.
The 83rd annual National One-Act Playwriting Competition was once again held, and in April we announced the winning plays from 57 entries across the country. In the past, the winning play was shown as a special gift to our patrons and entered into the Eastern Ontario Drama League Competition. We hope to repeat that once again this year.
Upper Lobby
We have made a few improvements to the “past productions” commemorative wall and to our bar selections.
After a long and illustrious 30-year history, we have retired the head shot/production photo board. It has been replaced by an electronic monitor which not only increases the number of show photos that we can display but also truly exhibits the beauty and crispness of Maria Vartanova’s artistic expertise with a camera. Many thanks to Bob Hix for the many years bravely dangling from a ladder taking down the required head shots from the wall, and spearheading this digital advancement.
The past production boards (posters with images of photos, cast shots and cast and crew lists from earlier seasons) are rotated every show and we have now added those from the 2010-2011 season. Going forward, we will be producing and displaying an additional two seasons every year. The new seasons are sprinkled amongst boards from previous years. Please take a look and reminisce of shows gone by.
There have been changes to the selection of refreshments at our bar. Returning after several years’ absence is our chocolate selection from local expert Stubbe. Working with Chef Heinrich Stubbe, we have experimented with a variety of offerings until settling with dark chocolate covered ginger, dark chocolate orange peel, milk/dark chocolate hearts and milk chocolate almond clusters. We have also sourced new packaging to avoid the dreaded crinkly noise of the bags during performances.
We have had two tasting committees to select new coffee, wine and ciders. Continuing with our aim of supporting local suppliers, the coffee continues to be supplied from Nine to Five but is now the milder European blend. Our resident Sommelier, Jeanne Gauthier, had a wine-tasting / Edinburgh fundraiser evening and after a large turnout vote we settled on our new white, red and sparking wines. In addition, we are now pleased to be selling local ciders from Saunders Farms. As always, we hope you enjoy our ongoing offering of beer from Kichesippi Brewers.
We continue to showcase our local artists in the Janigan Studio and the talent is truly remarkable. On a less positive note, the “waterfall” from the Janigan ceiling is still present and we are working with our roofers to once and for all rectify the situation.
Fundraising Activities
Throughout the year we have had several fundraising evenings. In order to subsidize the high production costs of Murder on the Orient Express, we held two lotteries with grand prizes including multiple Lego sets of the famous train each comprising 2540 pieces. This was a match made in heaven with the Danish company releasing these sets just in time for our show.
Edinburgh is a massive financial undertaking and we have held ice cream sales, wine tasting and a comedy night to help Venetia Lawless take the An Act of Grace team on the road to Scotland. The comedy night curated by Joey Walsh played out to a sold-out crowd with multiple local comedy legends entertaining the theatre with gut rolling jokes.
We are very interested to hear from you if you enjoyed these special events and would like to see more of them held throughout the year.
As always, we are thankful for all donations. Many of you top up your subscription purchases and we are very grateful. We have reinitiated the seat naming campaign. If you are interest in having a plaque with your name engraved on the armrest, please contact the box office. If you purchase three side by side, we can chat about the possibility of putting up a hotel like in a Monopoly game board.
Thank you to Dr. John Kershman for the donation of a whole rack of hearing assist devices which will certainly enhance the show experience for those who require such units.
We would like to single out two very special donations, one from Bill & Barb Turner (honouring the legacy of Geoff Gruson) , and the other from the Estate of Margaret Armstrong. Their contributions have been used to fund our annual reserves as well as financing some of our major infrastructure initiatives.
Infrastructure Improvements
In order to make the theatre experience more enjoyable and more secure we are in the process of putting up a security gate in front of the King Edward emergency exit. We are encountering some delays obtaining the required building permits and hope that it will be rectified soon and we can proceed with the installation. In addition, we are in talks with our neighbouring businesses and condominiums to improve the general look and feel of the street.
We are migrating our ticket/subscription platform over the next year to the industry leader Spektrix. The transition will be seamless and you, as users, will have the same great experience (perhaps with a few added improvements) purchasing your season subscriptions or single tickets.
Our actors will certainly appreciate the brand new Men’s and Ladies’ washroom and shower facilities in the downstairs changing rooms. We thank you for putting up with the old facilities for all those years and you are certainly deserving of the new ones.
One last very important modification (not really part of infrastructure, more of a stand alone). We have revised and updated our Respectful Workplace Policy and Procedures. This is an evergreen document and should be reviewed and revised periodically to reflect the changing norms in society and in the workplace. It is available on our website.
Coming up next
We have a stellar line up for the next five shows including comedies, thrillers and a hit Broadway drama. If you don’t already have tickets, please visit our website. We will also keep our eyes and ears open to some new ideas to make your theatre truly remarkable.
We hope that you are enjoying your experience with the OLT. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me, or any of the board members or committee heads.
Check out our website for articles as well as on our social media pages.
Finally, as that we are 99% volunteer run, if any of you have any interest in volunteer opportunities, we would love to chat with you.
Have a great rest of the summer and we will see you at the theatre.
Best Regards,
Albert Lightstone