The Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-02-28, Page 49.0.
Mt
oderich fortunate in theatre availability
BY JOANNE
- BUCHANAN
• Goderich and area
residents are fortunate in
the amount and variety of
live theatre offered to
them.
G.1).C.I. has a fine
drama club which
presents Trigon, a"
variety of one, act plays,
to the public every year.
And Goderich Little
Theatre presents three "
full length productions,
each season.
For a few summers, a
group .known as the
Pendulum Players,
presented plays outdoors
in the jail yard.
Within the last ten
years, two theatrWs have
sprung up close by.
The Huron Country
Playhouse at Grand Bend
staged its first produc-
tion, Two For The See
Saw, on July 26, 1972 in a
circus tent holding 300
folding chairs.
- The Playhouse was
founded by James
Welcome
Centre
opened
in 1972
BY JOANNE
BUCHANAN
• On May 19, 1972 a
tourist information booth,
known as the Welcome
Centre, opened at". the
corner of Elgin Avenue
and -Victoria Street,. ,
•• Tourism is an im-
portant industry
Goderich. Tourists bring
new dollars to the
community,' when they.
visit. There are many
attractions -the Huron
County Pioneer Museum
with its thousands .of
• exhit?its.,_the_13.04en
Huron Historic Jail, the
harbour, the Square, the ,
beautiful sunsets, historic .1
Arts and friendly people,
homes, the Festival of the •
to name a few.
In 1977 alone, about
10,000 tourists .; passed
• through Goderich's
Welcome Centre, with
July and August being the
peak tourist months.
Ever conscious of the
• importanceof tourism to
the community, the
. Goderich Tourist Com-
mittee • has made
progress in this area. In
1975 the Tourist of the
Week program was
started. Each week
during the summer
months, tourists stopping
into the Welcome Centre
• were' , picked • at random
and then taken out to
lunch and on a tour of the
town. A courtesy car
service was also provided
to drive tourists from the
harbour to the core area.
In 1978 a tourist
seminar was sponsored
and the citizens of
• - Gifiderith—leartiett - that- '
tourism is big business
and everybody's
business.
Murphy,. a- Toronto
producer who purchased,
three and a half -acres of
land on a farm, including
a barn., two miles east of
Grand Bend hoping to
turn it' into a. slimmer
base for his Toronto
theatrical -troupe,
The,year 1972 was a test
-season for the Playhouse.
After the third record
breaking season, it was
decided that the
Playhouse had Outgrown
its 100 foot rented tent. A
grant from the Ministry
of Colleges and
•Universities allowed a
feasibility study to be
carried out and in 1975 the.
concept for a permanent
summer theatre building
I• was accepted by the
' Playhouse board.
That winter builders
started front scratch .to
convert the five acre
farm site into the
Playhouse as it is known
to area theatre goers
today.
Playhouse productions,
usually current popular
• plays and old hits, have
been seen by dare than
109,000 people. today.
Founder Jaxnes Murphy,
artistic director, left this
past season but the
Playhouse itself con-
tinues •to be a populak
cultural addition to the
area.I
Thi Blyth Summer
Festival staged its first
two productions in 1975 in
the Blyth Memorial Hall,
a hall built as a memoriat
to World War I veterans
in 1921. The productions
staged were Agatha
christie's Mouse Trap
and an adaptation of
three novels by Harry J.
Boyle, a native of S.
Augustine, entitled•
Mostly in Clover. This
latter, play, a comedy
based on Boyle's
recollections of rowing
up in Huron County,. far
outdistanced the Mouse
Trap in popularity and
set the tone for the Blyth
Summer Festival which
now presents Canadian
works of local revelance
IPage 31
and interest, preferrably
original.
Like James Murphy,
founder of the Playhouse,
James Roy, artistic
• director and founder of
the • Blyth Summer
Festival, left his position
this Srear.„But the festival
too continues as an im-
portant addition to area
. culture,
Improvements. to both
theatres are being made
all the time with the help
of local support and
government grants.
GODERICH
1951 -NEW STORE 1973
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