Gladstone Theatre opened their new season to rave reviews and an additional two productions.
The Gladstone Theatre was for sale and facing a very uncertain future until a few weeks ago when two local production companies assumed its management. They opened the new season to rave reviews and have just announced the addition of four more performances.
Audiences can now enjoy four new performances, in addition to the fall lineup by the two production companies that recently assumed artistic direction of the theatre. Plosive Productions and SevenThirty Productions teamed up last month in an effort to keep the theatre alive. Their initial program consisted of four plays and opened with The 39 Steps, partially adapted from a novel by former governor general John Buchan, who was Canada’s vice-regal official – Lord Tweedsmuir – in the 1930s.
“We’re moving into a theatre which is an important cultural centre in Ottawa,” says John P. Kelly, artistic director of SevenThirty Productions and director of The 39 Steps. “It’s up to us to keep that going and to develop it, and we think we can.” The play received rave reviews after its opening on Sept. 7.
The theatre’s owners Steve Martin and Marilisa Granzotto put the building up for sale earlier this year due to dwindling ticket sales last season. They removed the listing in August and threw their support behind hosting the two companies.
But Plosive and SevenThirty are not the only organizations to support the new season, titled Larger than Life. The Preston Street Business Improvement Area is also a new sponsor.
The theatre is a fixture and an important cultural institution and its sale listing shook the area says Lori Mellor, executive director of the BIA.
The dual effort of Plosive and SevenThirty has been greeted enthusiastically, she says.
“That’s the kind of partnership that’s critical to theatre surviving in Ottawa,” she adds. “It’s a tough town!”
The Gladstone dates back to 1982, when the Great Canadian Theatre Company converted an old garage into performing space. In 2008, the company moved to a new location at Holland and Wellington and entrepreneurs Martin and Granzotto bought the building.
They undertook massive renovations and received some praise for the venue’s theatrical productions, but the theatre could not be sustained as an independent business venture and was put up for sale in 2010.
The theatre is integral to the local community because it draws in crowds to other small businesses in the area as well, Mellor says. Restaurants on Preston Street have created dinner and show packages, offering discounts on theatre tickets when patrons dine out at certain locations.
Preparations for the winter tentatively began before the premiere of the fall shows, says Plosive’s co-artistic director David Whiteley. Whiteley is also directing one of the winter performances, Cyrano de Bergerac. Subscribers were the main motivation behind preliminary plans, he says.
“We’re doing this for them, and we wouldn’t want and couldn’t afford to do it without them. And so, on faith which has since proved itself with huge crowds attending The 39 Steps, we put our winter lineup into the program of that first show, committing ourselves to going ahead,” he says.
The 39 Steps finished its run on Sept. 24, and the Gladstone’s second production, Speed-the-Plow, is scheduled to premiere Oct. 5. Whiteley says he has full confidence in both the fall and winter shows.
“[The theatre companies are] now thoroughly convinced we have an approach which can keep the Gladstone filled with theatrical activity indefinitely.”