‘Small but mighty’ army guides local theatre group

“You have to be a bit crazy to do live theatre,” say Deb Stanton and David Tanner.

They’re both leading lights in the Elora Community Theatre -and they cheerfully admit that staging shows involves a colossal amount of work, all done by volunteers.

Yet, after more than a decade of volunteering themselves–while holding full time jobs elsewhere – they’re both still as gung ho about ECT as when they started. 

‘A lot of fun’

“We’re a small but mighty army,” says Stanton, the group’s president, who guides virtually everything they do. “And we have a lot of fun. We hustle, we pull in all kinds of people in the community, adults and kids, and somehow a show comes together.”

Adds David, a self-described techie who directs plays, lights them and willingly takes on many other chores: “I love the creativity of being involved in something that’s different from my regular life.”

At Elora Public Library on Feb. 26 the pair gave insights into what it takes to keep a volunteer-led community theatre going. They also revealed how phenomenally successful ECT has been at surviving the odds. The group operates “from paycheque to paycheque” (with most funding coming from government grants), but they celebrated their 50th anniversary last September. In fact, ECT is now the most active community theatre in Ontario.

“We even kept going during the pandemic, doing shows on line,” says Stanton proudly.

“And since July 2022, we’ve performed seven shows in locations like Fergus Grand Theatre and Bissell Park.”

Their most recent production was Murder at the Howard Johnson’s in mid February. 

Coming up is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at Fergus Grand Theatre on two consecutive weekends, May 5 to 7 and 12 to 14. They’re hoping for a big turn-out for this popular witty classic, which will be directed by Scott Lale.

Stanton and Tanner are also thrilled about their new headquarters, located on the third floor of the Fergus Marketplace buiilding.

“For once, we have plenty of space to store stuff. And we have a lot of it,” Stanton says with a grin.

Volunteers wanted

ECT is also looking for people to help with everything from building sets to finding props for their productions.  If you’re interested, go to their website. eloracommunitytheatre.com

Their presentation was part of a winter series of talks organized by Elora Fergus Arts Council.

The last one is by local weaver Dianne Kennedy Cruttenden at Fergus Library on March 12 at 2pm.  Tickets are $10 at the door.

Sonia Day