At the closing of the Hunter Street facility in December 2009, (l-r) Murray Oxley, Marco Matern, Jim Hartley, Laura Earle, Tom Faragalli.
Memories of Hunter Street
The building at 320 Hunter Street was recently sold. As this had been Home to Woodstock Little Theatre for nearly 60 years, we felt it deserved a warm send off and some remembering. First a little history:
In 1951, Woodstock Little Theatre reached an agreement with the Woodstock Badminton Club to add an addition to their building that would be owned by WLT and house a green room and storage area for the theatre. We had a rental agreement to use the upstairs lounge as a performance space and rehearsal hall. Sadly it had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1954. All that was left in one dressing room was a picture of the cast of the production called This Will Endure.
Many shows were work-shopped here, but major productions were staged at WCI where we would fill the space and often had audiences of more than 2,000. The line-up for tickets at the YMCA box office was often around the block.
By the late 60's it was decided to perform at Hunter Street and do longer runs to meet audience demands. The audience sat on risers at Hunter Street and seating capacity was a maximum of 120. We had a solid subscriber base but many patrons found the full flight of stairs an issue. Hauling building materials up to the stage level was also difficult.
In 1996, Theatre Woodstock (our new moniker) began performing at the Market Centre Theatre - a facility owned by the City. Hunter Street became storage for costumes, fabric and large props, and the doors that led into the Badminton Club side were bricked in. Gone were the days when we had 24/7 access to our performance space.
We began renting space in the old Woolworth building across Market Lane from the Theatre to use for rehearsals. With the growth of our young company CAST, we needed more room. We call this space The Annex and had used its basement area for storage of flats and construction pieces, but decided that we should bring the costumes over as well so that everything would be in one place.
So Hunter Street was sold.
Now to share some memories...
Memories of 320 Hunter Street
Janet Hutchinson Hoegg
A lot of happy memories in that building!! I was on stage there in my mother's womb - she was in Johnny Belinda and was pregnant with me - was on that stage a number of times in high school - ran two years of summer theatre there - and had a lot of fun!! Wonder what happened to the loaf of cheese sandwiches - we had to have food to have wine, but nobody ever ate the cheese sandwiches!! Thanks for the memories.
Bernard Calder
1968 was a watershed year for the Theatre. John Palmer was hired as Artistic director. He had been chosen for a year's study of theatre in Britain and was now ready for employment by an Ontario community theatre.
John persuaded the organization to stop using the Woodstock Collegiate Institute for performance, with its auditorium of nearly 1,000 seats and the need for transporting the sets and the very heavy cast iron lighting board each time from 320 Hunter St. He persuaded the Theatre to perform instead, in its own space at Hunter St.
There, the sets were built as before, but the party room, the upper lounge of the Badminton Club, which the theatre rented, was treated as a performance space, capable of seating 80 to 125, depending on where the performance area was in the room. The adjacent room, to the east owned by the theatre, was the Green Room and the office, which John made his own, doubled as the bar. The kitchen in the Badminton Club part, doubled as the control booth.
The first play, performed October 29 to November 2, 1968, was Ibsen's Hedda Gabbler, directed, of course, by John Palmer. Jane Carnwath was Hedda, and the cast also included Lee Bennett, Edward Theobald, Bernard Calder, Hugh Barkway, Ann Eberts and Millie Kirkpatrick. The show was designed by John Palmer. Production co-coordinator was Elaine Reed.
The play was performed in the middle of the floor in the theatre space.
Ken Nutt and Dianne Calder designed the theatre foyer and lounge. Edythe Smith was stage manager for the show.
The result, according to the Sentinel Review's critic, involved cast and audience in a way unique to amateur theatre in this city.... "Hedda will hit you in the eyes in a way you never dreamed possible from Row Z of the Collegiate auditorium".
Rachel Lambe Pryce
My favourite memory of Hunter Street was the first show I ever did there. Tom Foolery was the show - directed by Brian George, with Matt Cassidy, Sean Jones, Steve Young, Peter Pownall, Nancy Jeffries and myself. I had recently returned to Woodstock and despite growing up there, many of my old friends had moved on and I was in need of something social. It was the show that introduced me to many friends that would be with me for life.
During our final dress rehearsal I had finished a monologue and was exiting when a fellow cast mate, late for his cue, chose my exit for his entrance. He hit me so hard, he knocked me out cold. When I came to, I had a bag of frozen peas on my head, folks all around making sure I was okay, and I distinctly recall Matt's voice on stage saying "If Rachel were here, she'd tell you..." - he'd taken over my next monologue while I recuperated backstage. Since then, I don't get on stage much!
It was a great time in my life and the shows we did at Hunter Street bring a smile to my face. There really was something special about that place. In fact, when it finally came time to say goodbye, I stole the "No Refreshments in the Auditorium" sign from the lobby. Considering how many refreshments were consumed in there (by members NOT patrons) that sign was just something I had to have!
Rob Utting
In Boiler Room Suite (1984) I was a janitor and had to crawl under the stage (only 2 feet of space) until I appeared three quarters of the way through the first act through a trap door. The techies in the booth kept hoping that I wouldn't fall asleep under there. In the second act I had to make a pile of several large pails. One night the pile collapsed and one of the pails landed right in the middle of the stage. I, being a novice, just left it there and Dale Bell and Nora Harding had to play around it for the rest of the act.
In Arsenic and Old Lace (1989) the drapes fell off the dining room window and Doug Bale the Free Press reviewer said that old pros like Edythe Smith and Rob Utting just carried on. The joke is that I wasn't even in that scene.
Then there was The Night of January 16th when on Opening night the prosecuting lawyer lost his lines and about a third of the first act. All carried on making it a very short act.
Well there are a lot of stories that I could share up but I think three is enough. Then of course there are the back stage stories, OH my what a time we had.
Edythe Smith
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1967). The play takes place in Australia where it was hot & dry and we were desperate for rain. In Woodstock it was poring rain and the roof over the stage was leaking - really testing our acting skills. We were definitely upstaged by Mother Nature.
You're Gonna Be Alright Jamie Boy (1980). The Father in the play is a real Archie Bunker type who was always yelling at his wife to do this or get that. One night a man in the audience called out, "Don't you do it!!"
Arsenic and Old Lace (1963). I was pregnant and played Aunt Abby. We did the show again in 1989 - I was Abby again. Mark Coles went to open the drapes and they fell off the window. Very calmly he said - "I'm sorry, I'll have that fixed".
In The Gazebo (1966), the gun did not go off. Hugh Barkway yelled "bang", the other actor dropped to the floor and no one in the audience seemed to notice.
Tango (1969) We took the play to the Dominion Drama Festival in Kelowna BC. The airlines were on strike and we had to book our own plane. Lots of funny things happened on that trip.
Brian George
Here are two brief stories...
In the fall of 1974, I first entered 320 Hunter to audition for A Flea in her Ear to be directed by Barry McGregor. Having just moved that summer from Toronto where I was born, raised and educated, and having done performances in fairly good sized theatres there, I asked some of the other people auditioning where the theatre was? I was a little surprised to discover I was in it. But what good times we had there and what wonderful theatre we created in that small space.
As we were preparing to leave Hunter St. and move to The Market Centre, Don Hastie was casting Barefoot in the Park which would be the final play staged there, and I decided to audition for a small part and was cast as the telephone repairman who has two small scenes. The apartment in the play was supposed to be on the top of a six or seven story building so I started my entrance in the basement so that I would be appropriately out of breath when I emerged three stories and a little bit later on the stage.
I've heard that there were many people who feared for their safety after they had climbed to the top of the curving staircase and entered the performance space, but for many years we had sold out houses night after night and patrons without season's tickets would be extremely lucky to get a seat. The Market Centre has allowed us many different opportunities, and forced us to become more businesslike in our operation, but let's hope we'll get back to sold-out houses someday.
Bonnie Hartley
The 'booth' at Hunter Street was a platform built on top of the kitchen counters with a small hole in the wall about 8 by 6 inches that allowed only the Stage Manager to see the stage. The sound and lighting crew were working 'blind' - simply working from verbal cues.
Our lighting board was manual - each cue set by a series of small levers. There were two master switches so you could have one cue playing and be setting another - then cross-fade the masters. This could be pretty wild in shows like Fifteen Miles of Broken Glass (1976) - a series of short scenes and 187 lighting changes. There was barely enough time to set up a cue. Fingers were flying and hearts were pounding. One night the actors got confused and skipped a scene which threw those of us in the booth into a panic. The sound technician (Bernard Calder) was using a reel-to-reel tape deck. In his attempt to fast forward to the next cue the tape broke and was flapping in circles. So of course when the wrong light came up and the sound cue did not appear - the audience assumed it was the techies' fault.
We had a rudimentary walkie-talkie system to keep in contact with back stage. However, the frequency was often used by taxis, CB users and one night a baby monitor could be heard - but not the voices we needed to hear. That too added to some tense nights (and some funny ones) in the booth.
Memorable moments:
Great Entrances
- Brian George's entrance through the window dressed as Superman in Heroes (1983)
- The Sound of Murder (1977) Bernard Calder (whom the audience believes to be dead) has been doused with water backstage and enters through the French doors by breaking a pane of glass. It is the middle of a thunder storm and his entrance is lit by a bolt of lighting. The audience would scream and literally jump out of their seats. Each night backstage we did the "countdown to liftoff".
Great Covers
- Wait Until Dark (1978). During a chase scene, the round top of a pedestal table was dislodged and rolled slowly off the stage where it was caught gracefully by a man in the front row who just propped it at the side of the stage. Unfortunately it had also taken the telephone with it so when Greg Musico entered as a police officer who was supposed to use the phone - he covered quickly by saying - "Hmmm .. no phone - I'll have to call from the squad car" - the audience erupted in applause.
- In Finishing Touches (1986) a pocket door got jammed. I turned to my 'husband' Richard Talbot and said, "Honey, how many times have I asked you to fix this?". A resourceful ASM handed him some tools offstage and he repaired it while we continued the scene and no one in the audience was any the wiser.
In addition to being used as a performance space we also held Hallowe'en and New Year's parties at Hunter Street.
For many years we also used the space for our annual Cabaret Nights where the entertainment ran from vaudeville style recitations (Norah Harding) to stand-up comedy (Keith Falconer), with ragtime piano (Bernard Calder) and satirical songs (Brian George) in the mix. A very talented and versatile group.
Don Hastie
I simply have too many good memories of our old home to try and narrow it down too much. But I guess I'll give it a shot.
The very first show that I saw Woodstock Little Theatre perform was the infamous Tango in 1969. The Company had brought the show to WCI to perform for the public as a fundraiser before heading to Kelowna for the Dominion Drama Festival. Well I can only say that I don't remember much about the plot line but I was hooked. I can claim this show as my first time on stage with WLT as members of the audience were invited onstage to dance with the actors at one point in the show and I went up.
That was 40 years ago and it still ranks as one of those moments that I can't forget.
I was fortunate enough to direct some really good shows which went on to be shown at the WODL Festival: Deathtrap, Jennie's Story and Mass Appeal brought home several awards for the actors, crew and myself. WLT was a group which went to Festival often, and every year that we entered we brought home our share of the Awards. Simply put, we were good and we still are.
I could go on and on about all the good times and the fantastic shows, but I could fill several pages, so I think I'll save them for my Memoirs.
I want to pay tribute to the Founders of WLT. They were people just like you and me. They had a love of the Theatre and wanted to bring it to the citizens of Woodstock. They did a great job getting us started and we have done them proud by keeping the lights on for so many years. Thank you to all those who were there at the beginning. Your dreams have allowed me to live out my dreams on the stage and in the background.
One more memory - I miss the nip of Brandy we used to fortify ourselves with before going on stage. I think that it is a tradition that should be revived.
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If you have memories you'd like to share please send them to our newsletter editor, . If you'd like to check out our production history, visit the Archives right here on theatrewoodstock.com.
Release dated: 02 February 2010
