Elora Community Theatre Alive and Well

From Arts in Guelph - November/December, 2002

by Anna Contini

The Elora Community Theatre (ECT) is alive and well and busy rehearsing for its 2002-2003 season opener on November 15, 2002. Although the recent closing of the Theatre on the Grand in Fergus delayed ECT's publicity plans, it has not altered this Centre Wellington-based amateur theatre group's plans for its 30th-anniversary season. As with most of its productions since its inception in 1972, ECT will perform in the attractive Fergus main street theatre.

Now renamed Fergus Grand Theatre and operated by the Township of Centre Wellington, the 1920s structure originally operated as a movie theatre, according to local historian Pat Mestern. In the early 1960s the building was bought by Jake Milligan who ran the first local cable station. It went on to become a storefront that sold televisions. Finally, in 1968 the theatre was cleaned up, and Elora Community Theatre was one of the first users of the space. In the early 1970s a local promoter brought in a variety of first-class entertainers including Murray McLauchlan, while in more recent years the resident Theatre on the Grand organization presented many quality professional theatre productions. Now, just as the Grand Theatre has been a place of entertainment in the past, so it will continue to be so in the future.

Elora Community Theatre's 30th-anniversary season will kick off with the production An Inspector Calls, a mystery with a social message written by J.B. Priestley. Set prior to World War I, a prosperous family is in the midst of celebrating their daughter's advantageous engagement. When the inspector calls, however, their lives are turned upside down and irrevocably changed. An Inspector Calls runs November 15 to 23.

ECT will perform two other plays this season: Who's On First? February 14 to 22, 2003, and Amnesty April 24 to May 3.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday/Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday of the first weekend, as well as 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the second weekend. Tickets are $13 each or 3 plays for only $30. They are available at the Fergus Grand Theatre (519) 787-1981.