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The Sault Opera LegacyA look back at the seasons and productions of Sault OperaPrinter-Friendly Pages |
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1989
The year kicked off with the rock musical "Little Shop of Horrors" in mid-February with a cast of 11 featuring Francine St. Jules, Dave Kettles, Wilf Beauchamp, James MacGlashan, and the puppet Audrey II (rented from a high school drama department in St. Catharine's), voice by Raymond Gassi and manipulated by Walter Venables. Steve Ballantine directed the show with Raymond Gassi directing the music, choreography by Judy Ross, and set design by Dirk Becker. "The Skid Row Orchestra", a four-piece rock band, provided the accompaniment. The show got a very good review, but was a disappointing box office draw leaving a net deficit of over $3600 due to the fact that the normal audience of Sault Opera productions were not interested in novel rock musicals and somehow the slack was not taken up by the younger generation.
Sault Opera's production committee originally picked "Paint Your Wagon" for the May show but the would-be directors lost interest after the perusal of the script, so a new title had to be found. After some discussion, the committee decided on Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" for May. However, the show had to be postponed until September due to problems with rehearsal scheduling and turnover of production personnel.
As the old saying goes, the show must go on! And it did thanks to choreographer Lana Morden who was able to take over the direction of the cast moves in all musical numbers, Arno Ambel who took over the direction of the show, and Frank Elliott directing the music. Most of the cast that "stuck it out" throughout the summer include Sonya Ostrowski-Masotti, Francine St. Jules, Desirée Ostrowski, Elaine Brown, Ted McKinney, James MacGlashan, Jo Ramakers, and 18 other dedicated and talented people along with a 23-member pit orchestra. The show was very well received by the local audience of 1600 and was the first production in the last two seasons to make a modest profit of over $1300. It could honestly be said that Lana Morden was the "miracle worker" that saved the show.
A 30-minute presentation of eight musical numbers was presented on May 16 at a banquet for the members of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, and was received enthusiastically by the guests from all over the province.
A great help in the period of transition from the spring to the fall rehearsal periods was the professional input of the stage manager Ms. Jane (Osborn) Vanstone, who also trained two local people for the job with great skill and understanding at the same time. This was made possible through a training grant from Theatre Ontario.
Sault Opera continued to sponsor The Sault Youth Theatre (formerly The Sault Opera Summer Youth Theatre) under the artistic direction of Steve Ballantine, which the company had nurtured for two seasons. However, as the artistic director was making it clear that he wanted his new-found theatre group to be more independent of the close financial scrutiny of Sault Opera representatives, the executive and board of directors of Sault Opera mutually decided to let the Sault Youth Theatre attain independent professional status. This was made possible through the assistance of a "Job Creation" grant from the Federal Government. Upon termination of this grant in November, Sault Opera would terminate its sponsorship.
During Sault Opera's sponsorship, Sault Youth Theatre produced two Canadian musical plays: "Tangleflags", which was toured throughout the district of Algoma at fairs and later in the schools; and "Rock and Roll" by John Gray in Dinner Theatre format at the Ramada Inn ballroom in August. In addition, The Sault Youth Theatre conducted several well-attended workshops in schools by its artistic director.
Because of these activities and the inavailability of production personnel, Sault Opera had a period of rest until it started to produce stage shows again in the fall of 1990.