Stage Door
OKTC STAGEDOOR. Special Holidays Edition, 2011
A Message from your Board
The Board of Directors of Original Kids Theatre Company extend to all parents, Original Kids, Kidlets, management, staff and volunteers, the very best wishes for the holiday season and the New Year.
The Board feels so very fortunate to be part of such a worthwhile organization and we commend all Original Kid team members for their invaluable contributions and dedication to the Company and to the Arts generally. Each of you plays an integral role in making the world that essential bit more enduring and exquisite.
To our sponsors and contributors we give a heartfelt thank-you and share with each of you, your staff and families the best of wishes for your respective communities, businesses and endeavours. You truly define the spirit of the holidays year-round in your generous and caring personal natures.
The danger in singling out certain groups and individuals for outstanding contribution in a group such as this is that the list would never be complete. But I sincerely believe that the greater danger lies in not trying. So, asking your forgiveness in advance for not being able to name each and every one of you, I would like to take a moment to thank a few specific groups and people.
We thank our long standing community partners and supporters such as Spriet Associates, London Life, The Ontario Trillium Foundation, Peter McMahon and Protek Systems, London Public Library, London Community Foundation, Buckland Customs Brokers, Eclipse Promotional Products and the City of London.
We recognize the contribution of one Board Member in particular, whose time, effort and attention made last year’s Sounds of Love Gala the success that it was. Jennifer Meister is hoping to follow up a stellar event last year with an even more delightful soiree this year on February 11, 2012 at Sunningdale Golf & Country Club. Since we need your support, please contact gala@oktc.ca with your suggestions, silent auction gifts, ticket requests and contributions, and ticket purchase.
We thank Dale Hirlehey for his dedication and passion for Original Kids and the arts. His management of the Company and the able assistance and guidance of his staff, Art Fidler, Leigh Folliott, Jeffery Crane, Kerry Hishon, Micah Richardson, Karen Hamilton-Macdonald, Ellen Mallett and Min Fidler, have propelled the Company to the very forefront of its craft. Under their careful guidance, the Company’s continuing metamorphosis and growth are assured.
Our friends and supporters are literally everywhere in and around the city of London. Many of you may have noticed that we are enjoying a new (to us) keyboard/piano and lighting for our performances. These were made possible through the generosity of the Jack and Barbara Hay Foundation.
Come next summer our campers will enjoy a generous donation by the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario. Our Company’s use of Althouse Auditorium was made possible this year through the actions and entreaties on our behalf of Jacqui Specht, Associate Professor, Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, frequent volunteer and mother of Dylan and Meghan, both long-time Original Kids.
Lastly, I want to thank my fellow board members for their own tireless and generous contributions to the Company, in whatever and all forms, including behind the scenes work and outrageous bidding on silent auction items at the Gala. You’re a special breed, as are all you multitude of OK volunteers.
In closing, I’ll share my favourite (and probably only) theatre quotation from Oscar Wilde. I think that he nailed it, as he so often did:
I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.
Happy holidays!
Harj Mann
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Original Kids Theatre Company
OKTC KIDBITS AND DETAILS
- Our production of LES MISERABLES left audiences emotional, and thrilled to have experienced such compelling and meaningful theatre. If you hesitate to attend these kinds of challenging productions at Original Kids, I think you need hesitate no longer. Our OKids are up to any challenge.
- Amazingly, only about a week went by after LES MIS closed until we opened our stunning production of the classic OLIVER! Hesitant ticket purchasers could find themselves out of luck on this one, unless this Stagedoor reaches you before the Tues, Dec. 20 or Wed., Dec. 21 performances, for which you MIGHT get tickets still. No guarantees, though.
- Breaking our pattern of the last few years, we’re presenting a January show, the world-renowned CATS! from Jan. 11 to 15. Ticket sales are pretty heavy for this blockbuster, and the cast feels they’ve got a big winner in their paws! Buy now! Not too late for the catnip of some Cats stocking-stuffer tickets!
- Challenge for spare time over your Christmas break: try to find another Canadian theatre that would dare to present, back to back, 3 musical like the above three!
- Our theatre and box office will be closed from Dec. 23 to Jan. 9. Anyone who has not picked up 2012 Casting Packages really needs to do so before we close.
- The first meeting of our 56 New York March Break Trippers and Parents is Sun. Jan. 15. If any trippers, parents or supervisors are unclear on any details, email art@oktc.ca .
- Tickets for the Feb. 11 Sounds of Love Gala at Sunningdale are now on sale at gala@oktc.ca. Have fun AND support our theatre’s future!
- I’ve procured 48 tickets for the October 11 matinee of 42ND Street at the Stratford Festival. I will begin accepting reservations in February from all Original Kids.
- OK’s Harvey family were in the cast of the new Canadian play, NARCISSE, presented outdoors last summer by the St. Joseph and Area Historical Society. This production has just been granted a Governor General’s History Award! What a tribute to a daring theatrical venture. I went to see the production and our Harvey’s in it, and loved everything about this event!
- We’ll have a guest editorialist for our January Stagedoor, as we kick off a big, daring new season. Our Artistic Director, Dale, has reserved the editorial spot. So you will all want to read that!
And now, our highest NEW YEAR’S HOPES to all of our OKTC families! Together we are an artistic force to be reckoned with!
