Peterborough Theatre Guild
364 Rogers St K9H 1W7 Peterborough, ON, Canada

We are pleased to announce that a production of Annie, directed by Jerry Allen will take place at Showplace in November, 2021. With concern for the health and safety of our patrons, cast, crew, and volunteers, the Board of Directors made the difficult decision to move the production to November, 2021. The dates, at present, are November 12, 13, with a matinee on November 14, November 17, 18, 19, with a matinee November 20 and closing night, November 20. Patrons who currently ...hold tickets for Annie will have their tickets automatically transferred to the parallel dates. For example, if you had opening night tickets, you will still have opening night tickets for the new run of dates. If the new dates do not work for you and you would like to transfer tickets to another date, please contact our box office at 705-745-4211. Our volunteers will get back to you as soon as they can. We look forward to continuing to provide the kind of quality theatre to which you are accustomed. With our reintroduction of Annie, the message of hope will touch the hearts of adults and children alike. Remember, ‘the sun will come out tomorrow’, and normalcy will return! Thank you so much for continuing to support Peterborough Theatre Guild and the outstanding efforts of our volunteers.

The Peterborough Theatre Guild is holding an online auction of select costumes from January 4th until February 1st. All proceeds will go to support the Guild to pay operating expenses while our theatre is 'dark'. To see the costume selection and make a bid, visit the auction website below: A very special thanks to Gwen Hope and Gayle Fraser (and our lovely models) for putting the auction together.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT It has been some time since we updated you regarding the reopening plans for The Peterborough Theatre Guild. We began the 19/20 season with very strong productions of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, directed by Bea Quarrie, The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee, directed by Brian Macdonald and Pat Maitland, Little One, directed by Lee Bolton, The Paper Bag Princess, directed by Laura Kennedy, 33 Variations, directed by Chris Lee, and Frozen Dreams,... written and directed by Rob Ainsworth. We had planned the production of Annie, directed by Jerry Allen, to take place at Showplace in May, then COVID hit and everything came to a halt. Given the current situation with Covid-19, the increasing numbers of cases, and our concern for the health and safety of our volunteers and patrons, the Board of Directors has moved the production of Annie forward into the 21/22 season, a decision not easily made, but very necessary. With the introduction of effective vaccines in the near future, we are hoping to reopen in the fall of 2021 with the production of Annie in November at Showplace. Further information will follow in the new year regarding those who currently hold tickets for Annie. To all of our patrons and members, I wish you the very best for the holidays. May the new year, and 2021, be full of the joy of celebration with family and friends once again! Marion Griffin, President / Chair

The Guild is looking for members' fun, sad, memorable Christmas stories. Please contact Bea if you have a great story to share at our Christmas reading event.

Tonight at 7:00 in person and live streaming...

#PTGProfile: John Martyn: John was teaching at St. Peter’s High School when he heard about a PCVS teacher who could help him with makeup for a student show. That’s how he met Nora. They married the next year and have been driving forces at the Guild over its 55 years. John started with House Management for the musicals held at St. Peter’s Auditorium. He and Nora organized the first local Sears High School Festivals. He did some acting, but what he has most enjoyed are the f...our shows he has co-directed with Nora. Of the Fields Lately in 2016 brought challenges when one of the leads fell ill on opening night causing one of the few show cancellations the Guild has seen. Kathy Loucks stepped in and the directors had the show up and running two days later. #PTGProfile: NORA Martyn: Nora, a teacher at PCVS, was dating her soon-to-be husband, John, when they responded to an invitation to the meeting that would launch the Theatre Guild. They both became Charter Members. Nora’s training in make-up had her giving a workshop for the Guild’s first production Ah! Wilderness. She would go on to do costumes, props, set decoration as well as acting and directing. Nora played Lady Alice in A Man for All Seasons. With John, she would direct Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me which won the Ontario Festival in 2006. At that award-winning performance in Sarnia the lighting board failed and the designer (their son, Mike Martyn) had to re-program each cue with the Stage Manager while his parents sat in the audience with bated breaths!

Our new Board of Directors: Marion Griffin: Chair / President P: 705 741 8756 E: [email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected]... Sarah Warburton: Corporate Secretary P: 705 874 7989 E: [email protected] Gillian Kunza: Treasurer P: 705 868 2742 E: [email protected] Ian Burns: VP of Productions P: 416 450 2519 E: [email protected] Laura Kennedy: VP of Community Engagement P: 705 772 1478 E: [email protected] Steve Russell: VP of Operations P: 705 933 8350 E: [email protected]/ [email protected] Beth McMaster: Member at Large (Historian) P: 705 745 8937 E: [email protected] Nadine McFarlane: Member at Large P: 705 760 2923 E: [email protected] Chamaine Mcgumbe: Volunteers / CRC / Anti-Harassment P: 705 977 1709 E: [email protected]/ [email protected] Christopher Spear: Grants / Sponsorships / Fundraising P: 705 559 6700 E: [email protected]

Free Play Reading: Red by John Logan Sunday, October 25th 7:00pm in the main theatre (Guild Hall)... It has been a long time since we've been able to enjoy an evening of theatre, so we are extremely excited to be opening up the doors again (ever such a tiny bit) with a FREE play reading featuring J.P. Baldwin and Dan Curtis Thompson (a young actor last seen in the Stirling Festival). This event is being produced by Bea Quarrie, who will also read stage directions for the production. Safety protocols will be in place. Patrons must wear masks and maintain physical distance from others. There will be NO bar service or food service. (Feel free to bring your own water bottle). Signs will direct patrons to properly maintain distance if using washrooms. Hand sanitizer will be provided and its use required upon entrance to the building. The audience size will be limited to 50, but as most play readings in the past were for audiences of fewer than that, we are hopeful that nobody will be turned away. Patrons must sign in and provide a phone number in case contact tracing is later required.

#PTGProfile: Ina Stenner In the late 1960’s, Ina was encouraged to get involved at the Guild by her neighbour, Beth McMaster. She started to usher, and in 1970, when Beth was President, Ina reorganized the ushering so that it fell under House Management. She did props for many shows. Her wildest prop memories include having to shoot an arrow across the stage and timing a backstage starter pistol shot (now illegal). Ina began her producing career with the children’s play The Magic Icicles. She has gone on to put together the production team for many shows and has mentored many young producers at the Guild. Most recently, she produced Rob Ainsworth’s Frozen Dreams, the 2020 Festival entry. In 2012, she took another of Rob’s plays, The Mouse House, to Sault Ste. Marie where it won the Ontario Festival.

On October 25th at 7:00p.m. we will be hosting a play reading, play to be announced. We are very excited to finally be welcoming our patrons back into the Guild for this special event. We will be following all proper Covid-19 procedures to ensure the safety of our guests and volunteers. We can't wait to see you there!

#PTGLifetimeMemberProfile: Jack Burke Guild parents often get their kids involved in theatre but in Jack’s case it was his son, Peter, who got him involved. When Peter was ten, he was cast as the nephew, Patrick, in Mame. Each night he had a quick costume change in the show and his Dad was there to help him. Jack went on to build sets and specialized stage effects. Once he created an exploding stove lid by triggering a loaded rat trap and adding gusts of machine-made smoke.... Jack served on the Board, but he was onstage as well. In The Last Real Summer, he captured the audience with an emotional speech recounting his World War One experiences. When he was to enter by a screen door in On Golden Pond, the door fell off its hinges and landed on top of him. The director wanted keep the moment until he saw Jack’s bloody leg!

#ThrowbackThursday Mouse House This was an outstanding production at the Guild that swept awards at the festival and helped to launch the professional career of Matthew Finlan. These videos are presented at no cost to the viewer, but if you like these productions and wish to support the Theatre Guild, we hope you will kindly make a donation. Follow the link below to watch this terrific play. theatreguild.org/guild-productions/production-videos/

#ThrowbackThursday Rob Ainsworth got his start as a playwright at the Peterborough Theatre Guild. Since then, his plays have been shown throughout Canada the US and the UK. Rob and the cast members from Frozen Dreams have kindly consented to share these links to videotapes of his productions. They are presented at no cost to the viewer, but it is Rob’s hope and ours that, if you like these productions and wish to support the Theatre Guild, you will kindly make a donation. Follow the link below to watch this terrific play. theatreguild.org/guild-productions/production-videos/

#PTGProfile: Pat Spencer Ironically it was Waiting in the Wings that offered Pat her debut at the Guild. She loved being on stage. Recruited in 1975 by Gwen Johnston, Pat began her career with PTG by making hats for The Lady's Not For Burning, directed by Fern Rahmel. It was hat making to costumes to set decorating to preparing fabulous food for the after-show Green Rooms and for Festivals (including making 200 individual quiches for the 1995 Festival!). Pat's natural English voice worked well in her role in Me and My Girl, and she went on to produce convincing Irish or Welsh accents for various plays. Portraying Bridey O'Sullivan when Jane Werger directed the Newfoundland-based play, West Moon remains a highlight of her acting career.

#PTGProfile: Carol Waldron Carol is likely the only person at the Guild to die on stage, not once but twice! She was stuffed into an oven in Ladies in Retirement and was strangled by the dastardly villain in The Mousetrap. Carol did many jobs at the Guild including producing The Music Man where she had a different local school orchestra play the pre-show each night. And when pianist/orchestra leader Marion Griffin cut her hand very badly at 5:00 o’clock on opening night, it w...as Carol who burned up the phone lines finding a replacement. She played the bosom buddy, Vera Charles to Margorie McNeill’s Mame in the 1984 musical. And she was The Matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof when her husband did the lead role. #PTGprofile: Syd Waldron Dying on stage seems to run in the Waldron family! Syd fell to his death as Bill Sykes in Oliver! in 1982. He landed on a mattress unseen by the audience. The local theatre reviewer phoned Carol the next day to find out which hospital he was in! Syd was in the chorus of Finian’s Rainbow and the next year (1967) played The King in The King and I where he had twelve wives. But for Syd his most memorable and challenging role was as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof . It was directed by Doreen Dolman. Her husband, Joe, designed the show. Being Jewish they instructed Syd in his clothing, his movements and his moments of prayer. The show’s authenticity brought many compliments from the local Jewish Community.

Sign up for sunday outdoor improv classes for kids and teens at the Guild! Safe-inclusive-fun!! Get in touch! [email protected]

#PTGProfile: Gillian Wilson: 1966, Gillian and husband, Paul, moved to Peterborough when Paul was appointed Athletic Director at Trent. Two years later, Gillian played one of the wives in PTG’s production of The King and I. Gillian has acted in, and directed many shows at PTG, her favourite being Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She laughed when Graham Irwin, costume designer quipped, How can I dress a leading lady if she has not boobs! 26 years later, Gillian directed Lisa Devan in the same role. Gillian was welcomed back to the stage last year playing Lily in Rob Ainsworth’s Frozen Dreams, the 2019 Festival Play.

#FactFriday: 1959, St. Luke’s Anglican Church in East City is damaged by fire. 1964, discussion meeting takes place among theatre groups in Peterborough, and a Steering Committee is appointed. March, 1965, this new group opens its first play at PCVS auditorium, Ah, Wilderness? May, 1965, the Incorporation of Peterborough Theatre Guild is formed, and the Guildhall (St. Luke’s Anglican Church) is purchased. May, 1966, Peterborough Theatre Guild’s first musical, Finian’s Rainbow is produced at St. Peter’s auditorium. June, 1955, A Sleep of Prisoners, is the first production in the unrenovated Guildhall, while in March, 1967, the first production in the renovated Guildhall is Bousille and the Just. November, 1967, the official opening of the Guildhall takes place.

#PTGProfiles: Peter Adams: Peter was drawn into the Guild whenever Jill needed him. He then became more and more involved in ushering, bartending wherever he was needed. His most enjoyable moment at PTG was when he was asked to line up 12 men each night for the run of Arsenic and Old Lace where the group had to be sprinkled with flour and, at the end of the play, rose from the dead, climbing out of the cellar and onto the stage to a roaring audience!

#PTGProfiles: Jill Adams 1980, became hooked on producing for PTG in The Fantasticks with Catherine Ward showing her the ropes. Jill went on to produce, do props, handle memberships, be President, and sit on the Board of Directors. She produced The Beauty Queen of Leenane and handled the opening-day crisis when a leaky roof caused the stage to flood ruining parts of the set. The show went on to win the EODL Festival and the Theatre Ontario Festival. Jill enjoyed arranging travel to Sarnia where the TO Festival was held and being a part of a close-knit group.

#PTGProfile Bea Quarrie: 1971, Bea came to Peterborough to teach at Thomas A. Stewart. Was cast in PTG’s production of Under Milk Wood, the EODL Festival Entry. Over time, Bea has produced, directed, done sound, lights, costumes, served on both the Board and Executive. She loves organizing the Guild’s play readings, and is a respected Festival Adjudicator across the province. Memorable experiences include the Guild plays she directed for International Festivals. One, in par...ticular, was the Japan experience where Dave Carley’s play, Hedges, played to an audience that truly appreciated the message of putting an end to war. Bea recalls one play where she and Gwen Brown were sitting backstage waiting for their entrances and listening in horror as the lead actor completely changed the interpretation of the play. Gwen commented, Do you think that turkey is ever going to take off?