The Beaver Theatre For The Performing Arts Wishes Everyone A Warm and Cozy Winter!

While it’s been unusually balmy and warm, everyone who lives up here in the Highlands knows it’s not going to be long before we’re shoveling each other out of ditches, climbing up on house or cottage to shovel off the roof, or wake up to find that three feet of snow have fallen through the night, and that you… well… you can’t find the car… or the shovel.
 
Yep, winter.  Love it or hate it, it’s on its way.  Time to hunker down, dust off the puzzles, the skates, the snowshoes, and get the sleds ready.
The Beaver Theatre, taking a page from nature, will be going into hibernation over the winter.  Our first season, although short, was by all accounts, an extraordinary success.  
 
Brigitte Gall (Creative Managing Director), Sarah Delroy (Associate Producer), Joe McManamy (Technical Director),Tammy Rea (Highland Media Arts) and a cast of volunteers, support from the local community, the RD Lawrence Centre, as well as owner, Fionnuala Martin, brought an incredible line up of first season events to the community.
 
Kicking our short season off was the standing room only August 1st. launch.  An Oscar worthy night of local story-tellers, music, short films, Beaver Tales (local people talking to camera about their memories of the Beaver Theatre) and comedy highlighted the multi-purpose capabilities of the theatre.
In partnership with the RD Lawrence Centre, and with the assistance of a Canada Council Grant to the Arts, The Beaver Theatre and the RDL Centre brought award winning author’s Wayson Choy, Guillermo Verdecchia and Priscila Uppal to Minden on September 26th.  The event was spellbinding.  The audience laughed and was collectively brought to tears as they listened to the authors read, and share the inspiration for their works.
 
The many events programmed in an incredibly short period of time ranged from the awe-inspiring calypso-reggae styling’s of ‘Kobo Town’.  The fundraiser for H.A.V.E. was supported by local merchants, volunteers, and the many fans of the internationally known group.  For the final number, the band led the entire audience out onto the street in a conga line.
 
The newly restored silver screen shimmered with Those Other Movies (TOM), Rocky Horror Picture Show for Halloween, Paschendale (introduced by Paul Morrisette) on November 11th, the Third Annual HIFF (Highland International Film Festival), 48 Create, and a number of other amazing NFB documentaries, short animation, and movies.
 
The theatre, true to it’s announcement at The Doors Open Ontario event in June, continued to program and provide a multi-purpose, multi-event driven calendar.
Inviting local artists to hang their works on the walls, The Beaver Theatre was honoured to have had Karen Sloan, Gary Blundell, and ‘Transformations’ (a weekend over the Studio Tour highlighting emerging artists) grace the newly renovated theatre.
The Beaver also hosted the Halliburton Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting which was well attended by representatives of local business, and the Canadian University Women’s Federation meeting which also included an incredibly impassioned speech buy owner Fionnuala Martin, and a comedy performance by our own Brigitte Gall.
 
The Beaver Theatre’s first season was a huge success and there is much to be proud of.  A deep heart-felt thank you to the incredible people in this community who volunteered their time, energy, and expertise (Steve Smith, Tammy Rea, Lisa Kerr, Erika Walter and… well… everyone else within a 150 km radius). While there are too many people to acknowledge in this article, we invite you all to visit www.beavertheatre.ca were a list of those who generously supplied their time and promotional items will be posted shortly.
 
While the season will officially end on December 12th, we would like to remind and invite the community to come out to our final two events of the calendar year.  Former NHL referee-in-chief and vice-president, Scotty Morrison will be speaking at the theatre as part of the ULINKS lecture series on Wednesday, December 9th (6:00pm).  On December 6th, the YWCA presents the first annual ‘Guardian Angel Awards’.  This event will include a panel discussion, and an Awards Gala celebrating and honoring five women in the county who have worked to improve the lives of women.
 
Over the long, cold winter, fear not – you will still be able to attend the once-monthly presentation of Those Other Movies. For information on memberships and tickets, you can go online to www.haliburton-movies.com.

 During the winter months, the Beaver Theatre will continue to develop and plan programming ideas and sponsorship opportunities.  We are all incredibly proud of the support from the community, the volunteers and staff who brought these events to fruition, and our amazing, albeit short first season.  You can watch for updates on this and other notices of events online right here on the website or by calling 705-286-0335.

Until spring, The Beaver Theatre wishes everyone a warm and cozy winter!