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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1987, PAGE 15 LIT LE THEATRE ~ay it anymore ;es now" says us. "It's a better o-voiceovers for TV like the Craftmatic ' and was usually er actor during his ional actor. eone old, with a or accent, or ore a lot of makeup. my voice, always That's the plight of etor." using coconuts as and rattling tinfoil over. Any special re pre-recorded on ompact discs, and g performances. I effects that are Ome scripts is not like Whitby, it's an ge," says Henry e elected executive arge of the upkeep of the theatre. nake it look good on vhich takes a lot of r example, if rain i a performance, ys he would use the ng" to make a little r look li#e a lot of long thèse lines is ima. general, don't call ai effectsi" he says. audience is wild the dancing and >ing oi." Group. tg up t members of the in the midst of n, the younger st gearing up for for the annual although it helps, site for joining the luth Group, accor- year's new co- Stone. how to handle a i ow which end of a that's just fine," )tometrist who fin- patients to devote heatre. You don't :en drama classes me out. Just be rth an effort, and There is all sorts ide acting." i the youth group, ,bout 40, is geared aged 12-18, but ger members are . The group par- full-scale produc- well as numerous ghout the summer for the Christmas I"You're a Good vn," and auditions n will be held at iber. small cast," says acters are a group r-year-olds whose Pghts have been t for the kids to is no guarantee to get a part," he 'ing on a show that g to see, so we rng to who the for the new season DEB SCHREGARDUS (second from left), choreographer director feels would be best for the part." Stone is a relative newcomer to the theatre, who performed in the spring performance of "How to Succeed iri Business," first on- stage experience since high school. He took on the responsibility of youth co-ordinator this spring, hoping it would be "a good ex- perience, and a lot of fun," and has aspirations to become the director for the upcoming Christmas show. "I think it would be somewhat easier to direct youths rather than adults, because the younger people have a lot less preconceived notions about what to do in a performance.. A lot of things adults would be inhibited to do, the kids will. Adults are a lot more likely to get em- barrassed." One commonly used device in theatre performances that Stone is dead against using for the youth productions is prompting, which he says "cheapens a play. 'All of a sudden, you hear, 'murmur, murmur, murmur' - it blows the whole feel," he commen- ts. "Things are bound to go wrong, but that's all part of the ex- citement." Stone points out that a common tendency for actors, especially the younger ones, is to start "reading" bgk the lines rather than just saing them naturally, which is of- ten the cause of flub-ups. "I just tell (the kids) to talk like they're talking to their friends, and to try not to concentrate so much on the fact that they're reading lines. ."bfou become your own character, the it is he, not you, that is covering when a mistake is made." The workshops for the youths during the summer are put on by professionals, or amateurs with a lot of theatre experience. Topics in- clude auditioning, improvisation, special effects, stage make-up and sound and lighting. "And there is an I Can't Dance workshop, where you can learn to þandle yourself on stage even though you may have three left feet," adds Stone. On Sept. 3, Stone has organized a youth group general meeting to which all interested young people are invited to attend. The annual membership fee is $5 which covers all expenses. Al the administrative and decision-making processes in the theatre are handled by an annually elected board of directors. Board members are allowed to hold their positions for as long as four years, at which point they must step down. The original Whitby Theatre Guild, as it was called during the 1950's, was composed of a group of community theatre performers who put on a vaudeville-like show where the fire department now stands on Brock St. Although the group was well- known along the traveller's route between Toronto and Kingston, on some cold, winter evenings, the cast would outnumber the audien- ce. "'iiere weren't too many people then," says Heaver, who was one of the cast members. "Everybody had at least two jobs." When the acting guild became homeless in the early sixties when the Town hall was knocked down for want of better facilities, they acted in the brand new auditorium at the former Denis O'Connor High School in Whitby for a number of years. for "Oklahoma," leads cast members through dance But in 1966, when Heaver was asked to sit on a board of directors who were to decide on a project for the Centennial Building, he ex- pressed his interest in remodeling the old courthouse into a new home for the theatre group. BOYD TATTRIE (1) and Garvin Farr are shown in rehearsal for the Little Theatre's last produc- tion, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," presentedin May. Destruction of Famous Player's theatre provided new seats Permission was granted, and Heaver and his associates were 'faced vith the impossible task of cutting through a two-foot cour- thouse wall in order to cut out an area for a stage. With this feat ac- complished, and the old courtrooms gutted, all the theatre needed was chairs for the audience. For a while, chairs were used from the upper part of the building, but when the members heard that a Famous Player's Theatre in Hamilton was being destroyed and everything was up for grabs, including the seats, they jumped at the chance. "And we never went to the Town with our hands out, anythingwe have is from our own efforts,' says Heaver, adding that he has enjoyed the support of the Town and the parks and recreation department over the years. "We're not going along like mavericks. We've enjoyed carte blanche use of the theatre, although we do pay rental and-hydro and such. We've got a pretty modern facility in an otherwise convenient building."