The Sudbury Wolves made their on-ice debut, the city was recovering from a freak tornado and a brand new, double-lot home in Hanmer could be purchased for about $20,000.
The year 1971 also marked a rise in the city’s entertainment sector. The Thorneloe Chapel won an award for its innovative design, sculptured by Townend, Stefura, Baleshta and Pfister. The premiere Northern Lights Festival Boréal was taking place on the shores of Ramsey Lake and two groups of “big thinkers” were coming together to create what the city now knows as the Sudbury Theatre Centre (STC) and the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario (TNO).
Forty years later, STC and TNO have grown and found permanent homes, but some things haven’t changed. Quality programming is still at the forefront of both companies.
STC’s education co-ordinator Judi Straughan and TNO’s artistic director Geneviève Pineault took time away from the stage recently to reflect on the last four decades.
STC: ‘The jewel of the north’
“A group of people who believed this (city) deserved a professional theatre company” were behind the birth of STC.
Bob Remnant, Sonja Dunn, Peg Roberts, Bill Hart and Carolyn Fouriezos worked “tirelessly” to ensure a professional, English-language theatre company was part of Sudbury’s cultural landscape.
They were on the right track, according to Straughan.
“The city embraced it,” she said.
When theatre, arts and culture were booming in the late 60’s and early 70’s, STC was too. People were excited to see STC productions, and would follow the group around the city to watch them perform at various venues.
The 80’s saw the dawn of a more challenging time though. Straughan said funding cuts meant the number of actors in a single musical of yesteryear was now the number of actors in an entire season.
It took creativity and effort, but the theatre company persevered. Straughan said the reason STC survived was because of what it was doing on stage.
“We just have a bloody good product,” she said with a smile. “Our product here is extraordinary.”
She said if every Sudburian walked through the theatre doors once, they would be amazed. It would also help set the record straight — Straughan said people still phone Shaughnessy Street theatre, asking what flicks are screening on any given night.
Straughan said she has to laugh when calls like this come in. After all, the theatre was made for theatre.
“It was built with such vision,” she said. “This building just transports you.”
The group involved in creating STC’s permanent home in 1982 knew what they were doing.
“This city could accommodate slightly under 300 seats and survive,” Straughan said. Fewer seats would mean patrons would be out of luck, and more seats would mean empty spaces. “How brilliant that they chose the right size of space.”
The space, ideal for its audience, is also highly regarded by actors.
“It’s a treat to be able to come to an organization like this,” Brian Paul, a Toronto-based theatre actor who has been in five STC productions, said. He particularly likes that STC “insists on doing good things.”
Over the years, STC has hosted a variety of performances, from musicals to dramas to children’s productions. Straughan, who has been indirectly involved with STC from its inception, said she’s “surprised the roof ... didn’t blow off” during some performances, like last year’s Full Monty. Other performances have had her on the edge of her seat, breathless.
Surviving for 40 years, while putting out quality productions the entire time, is an accomplishment, Straughan said.
“We have so much to be proud of.”
TNO: ‘A double accomplishment’
The 1987-88 production of Le Chien was a “turning stone” for TNO.
Any theatre company that can survive for 40 years outside a major urban centre is worthy of mention. A company that lasts that long while catering to a minority group is certainly noteworthy. Pineault said TNO’s existence and continued success is “a double accomplishment” for those reasons.
For the last eight years, Pineault has been the artistic director of TNO. She said the best part of her job is being part of a team that offers professional theatre to the north.
“People don’t have to go to Toronto to see what’s being done in theatre,” she said.
Because TNO not only produces shows itself but acts as a stage for travelling performances, audiences are able to gain a broader perspective of theatre as a whole.
“Our work gets compared to that of other theatre companies,” Pineault explained. Bringing in outside performances also gives the company the opportunity to hone in on specific areas of productions, without alienating particular audiences.
“We don’t have to be a company that’s everything to everyone,” she said.
Offering variety has helped the theatre company stay afloat when funding cutbacks hit hard in the 80s. Something else happened during that era to save them from “crisis.”
Brigitte Haentjens, who went on to be artistic director at a national playhouse, “breathed a new life in the company,” Pineault said. Full of vision, Haentjens revived the Francophone theatre. She was behind the 1987 production Le Chien.
Pineault said the play was a turning point.
“It brought Franco-Ontarian theatre to a new level,” she said.
Since then, TNO has continued to produce quality. So much so that its audience is outgrowing its facility, located inside Collège Boréal.
In the last three seasons, the audience grew by 1,533 people. Last year, TNO had 55 show nights, averaging a 95 per cent attendance rate.
With “audience development” going well, Pineault said, “Now we need a bigger space.”
As the first Francophone theatre to go up outside of Quebec, Pineault said the challenge now is to attract people from various parts of the province.
Matinée performances and “super titles,” which project the script onto a screen in English, are just two ways TNO is hoping to reach more people. As the arts capital of the north, Pineault said its a fitting role for a Sudbury-based theatre to take one.
After all, arts are an asset to the city. “I doubt people just want to get up, go to work and go home,” Pineault said.
Posted by Jenny Jelen
