The Sault Opera Legacy

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1990

At the beginning of the year, Sault Opera held two meetings and the executive and board of directors decided not to put on any shows until the fall if stage directors for the next season could not be found. Theatre Ontario issued the company a $4000 training grant to engage a director of musicals and Richard Howard, who was making quite a name for himself in the Sault after the rousing success of two shows he directed for the company's friendly rival The Musical Comedy Guild, was approached to direct the show "Oklahoma!". Unfortunately, Richard would not be available until spring of 1991, so the company engaged him to direct "Oklahoma!" with production dates set for April of 1991. For this year's fall show, the company decided to produce "Calamity Jane" in mid-October and hire Lana Morden to direct the show since she was available.

"Calamity Jane" was cast in early June by Lana and the music director Frank Elliott and interest in the show was evident by a rather large number of people auditioning for the show; however, difficulties arose with the finding of production personnel as the show had no producer as of yet and the company tried to co-ordinate the efforts of several board members and the director to find people to work backstage and find a rehearsal pianist. Fortunately, things did settle down by the end of August with Cathy McKinney running the rehearsals smoothly as the stage manager, Doreen Bailey co-ordinating the costumes, Pat Mercier taking charge of the set construction as master carpenter, the talented Jeannette Clarida doing the set painting, and Mark Molinaro designing and operating the lights. Best of all, Sault Opera found a talented pianist, Pauline Henson, and all kinds of other people made themselves available for the production staff. There were a few snags, however, such as the set needing to be altered three times due to faulty rigging at the theatre and Dirk Becker was called in by Lana to do the final design and manage the production.

Francine St. Jules-Giroux played the lead title role of Calamity Jane with Luise Morano and Francine Marotta in the other female lead parts. Lyndon Bzdel, Walter Venables, and Dave Bumbaco played their respective male opposites with the great support of other secondary leads and players in the cast of approximately 40 people ably supported by a well-rehearsed pit orchestra under the baton of Frank Elliott. The well-attended show had sold out houses for its Friday and Saturday night performances in addition to standing ovations from an enthusiastic audience and a good review in which the major leads were singled out for special mention by the reviewer.

Another great help for the show was Merlene Lee taking over the box office, including the sale of season's tickets. In turn, just as many season's tickets were sold at the box office as were sold by mail order. In spite of the large attendance and excellent reviews, the show financially ended in a small deficit of less than $70 due to increased production costs and the show was produced without the assistance of any grants awarded for this production.

After a period of rest and a touch-and-go season, the company enters another decade of producing top-quality musical theatre with a great reputation and great audience support along with a new influx toward the participation in the affairs of Sault Opera by new members involved in new productions

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