Our 1995-96 season wrapped up with the fabulous comedy I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick. We were thrilled to average 100%attendence for all 6 performances (we added extra chairs almost every night)! We haven't seen attendance like this in a very long time. I Hate Hamlet was the largest, most ambitious show that we've produced in Stage One, with a full size staircase, and a magic fireplace. Congratulations to director Linda Carson, the cast and the crew on a job well done. I Hate Hamlet was an ambitious undertaking that proved to be very successful.
This past season saw a total of 12 productions (and 12 Lip Service shows) that brought in a total of 1461 audience members. We started the season with Two From the Fringe, presenting two shows that were heading to last summer's Fringe Festivals. After a long time spent renovating our main floor, we celebrated with our November show, a successful remount of the one-woman show, Jewel by Joan MacLoed, featuring Lindsay Quinn. New Canadian Kid by Dennis Foon was our December family show, and the new year brought us a production of Islands by Margaret Hollingsworth. Following the theme of love for the month of February, we presented Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. In March, we tried something new with our Adjudicated Short Play Contest (Power Plays) and it proved to be wildly successful. And, as mentioned above, the season finished with Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet.
Our season would not have been complete without the regular presentations of Lip Service and the One Act Play Weekends. The One Act Play Weekends have proved themselves to be very successful, and we had a total of 5 weekends throughout the year. These weekends are designed to encourage new directors and new actors, we hope that we will see the results in more directors and more actors in the following seasons. A big thank you to all the people that have made these weekends possible!
Not only did we have productions, we also held some workshops. Heather Gurd did an excellent job at leading The Actor's Fitness Class. The popular Rod Carley (Power Plays adjudicator), ran a Directing Workshop that was well received. And Cathe Huras continued with her drama workshops for young people.
The Board of Directors would like to take this oppurtunity to thank everyone who was involved in any of the productions this past season. Without the willingness of people to take on projects we could not have had a season.