FOLKS – It has been a couple of months since we’ve talked, but it is by no means an indication of a lack of attentiveness! I just thought, who needs more bad news.
With an unfinished 19-20 season, and a new season yet to be announced (though sitting expectantly in the wings), and an awful year passing (not quickly enough) into our rear-view mirrors, these have been truly unprecedented times for your community theatre (BTW, that word was a top vote-getter in this year’s WOTY – right up there with doomscrolling).
I should note that good things did happen last season – you’ll remember the laughs of the “Ladies Foursome,” the grip of “Gaslight,” the bombast of the “Bennet’s Christmas,” the risqué of the “Roommate,” and the galvanizing “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
And then the excitement in early March for our opening of “Burn” was extinguished – as COVID closed, literally, almost everything! A season to partially remember, and a year we’d love to soon forget!
Looking back, it was a year of firsts:
- the first time in 107 years we have not finished a season;
- the first time we have cancelled rehearsals indefinitely (though the casts/crews of “Burn” and “Witness for the Prosecution” and “The Columnist” didn’t give-up easily, staging ZOOM rehearsals well into the summer);
- the first time the box office was unstaffed for over 7 months;
- the first time we resorted to a ZOOM Annual General Meeting – but maybe not the last given how smoothly the AGM unfolded; and
- for the first time in 107 years, that we are not at all certain if and when our people will be returning to the theatre!
But enough of the rear-view.
There now appears to be a bright light on the horizon! With science’s unprecedented development and roll-out of vaccines, we are being told we may soon be seeing the backside of COVID 19!!
With the dispensing (see the bon mot there) of that wonderful news, the questions have been coming in:
- When are we going to open?
- What will the first show be?
- When will it be safe to sit in a dark theatre with 300 other people wildly cheering and applauding our next triumph?
Unfortunately, we haven’t a concrete answer. The conservative guess, and most fervent hope, is that by September 2021, we will have our wonderful volunteers healthily and happily deep into rehearsals for a November or December production, and a new season will have been launched. We always remain optimistic, so stay tuned, there will be breaking bulletins as the vaccines roll-out, and masks are removed from our pale but happy faces! Immunity might just be the next Word of The Year! Hopefully, we can retire doomscrolling and unprecedented very soon.
Sadly, although we won’t be ending this year in the joy and comfort that comes with family and friends gathering in celebration, the whole OLT-family enthusiastically sends out our very best wishes to all, with hearty hopes for better times and better memories in 2021!
Finally, I’d be negligent if I didn’t offer a virtual tip-of-the-hat and sincere thanks to the many passionate supporters of the theatre. Whose kind donations have allowed us to endure through this difficult and unprecedented period (there’s that darn word again) and have enabled us to sustain our old building on life-support – until once again the lights will blaze and the words will ring-out! Quick aside – contributions to our operations are always appreciated. And since our box-office is closed the simplest means of making a contribution are by sending a cheque or an e-transfer directly bank-to-bank using: president@ottawalittletheatre.com.
We will meet again, and until then, stay safe, stay healthy and stay connected – socially distanced, of course – and, here’s to all of you finding joy in the waning weeks of 2020 and much happiness in 2021!!
-Geoff
