February 2024 Message from the Interim President

Hello everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Interim President of the Ottawa Little Theatre (OLT) Board of Directors.

First and foremost, I would have preferred not to be writing this message. I would rather be reviewing a President’s message written by Geoff in his distinctive folksy manner.

It’s been almost two months since Geoff Gruson’s passing and our collective sorrow and missing him continues. We had a memorable Celebration of Life for Geoff in his favourite place in the world, our theatre. Thank you to all who were able to attend. For those who were not able to be there on that wintery day, we will soon have a video available.

The morning of Geoff’s passing, the first message that I received from his family was “the Theatre must go on”. That is exactly what I and all the volunteers, committee heads and staff have endeavoured to accomplish. It was challenging at first, but we are doing it for the theatre, for our members and for Geoff.

Who am I? I have been a member of the Board of Directors for the past six years handling a number of diverse and important files such as Front of House, Communications, and Theatre Outreach. I am a member of many committees such as the Season Planning Committee, the Volunteer Committee, the National One-Act Play Competition Adjudication, and the Finance and Operations Committee. I have worked on 14 productions, mostly behind the scenes as crew, and I wrote the biweekly blogs appearing on the website.

Having been retired from the federal government for the past three years I have dedicated a lot of my free time to the theatre. In addition, I am the chair of the BGC Ottawa (formerly Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa) scholarship subcommittee and a member of its planning committee. Earlier, I served as President of the Ashbury College Guild, co-chair of the College’s year-long 125th anniversary celebration and an Ex Officio member of its board of governors. Currently, I am an adjudicator for the TD Bank’s Leadership Scholarship Program. In my 30 years with the federal government, I worked on corporate planning and reporting to Parliament and was the co-chair of the committee representing the interests of over 4,000 managers across Canada in our agency.

As you can gather, I have a good deal of experience that I feel can be applied to the OLT for its benefit. However, the greatest gift I had was the experience of working with Geoff on an almost daily basis for years during and after the pandemic. In shadowing him and listening to his advice and his stories of past experiences, I could not have asked for better training for stepping into this role. However, it is still not enough and I could have used another 20 years of just sitting by his side and taking it all in.

Last year the theatre did very well. We had nine wonderful shows, one of them setting a new ticket revenue record. We have continued to improve the infrastructure of the theatre and tweaked our operations resulting in a more enjoyable experience for all who attend. Our members were once again very generous with their donations; we couldn’t do what we do without that generosity and we are so appreciative. We even had two additional offerings: a winner from our One-Act Play Competition that went on to the EODL Festival to win best director; and, a week-long spectacular show between Christmas and New Year’s with Outerbridge Magic.

Under Geoff’s leadership, the theatre returned to its grass roots – community theatre led and driven by volunteers and drawing on their immeasurable talents and skills to run the theatre and produce our shows. This approach has allowed us to operate in the black and weather our two years of COVID-induced closure. Going forward, we will continue this approach with a tweak here and there as required and as the community theatre landscape continues to evolve. The one item that we won’t change is our focus on continuing the high quality of our productions.

This coming year we have many treats, kicking off with an Agatha Christie blockbuster, followed by dramas, a Norm Foster comedy, a play by the creators of the TV series Columbo and another play by John Muggleton who wrote the memorable ghost story thriller Burn produced on the OLT stage in 2022.

Some of you may ask why “interim” is part of my title. Well, all of us on the Board are shaken by the sudden loss of Geoff and each of us is still finding our footing. We can always revisit the title later on, perhaps at the next AGM in the fall. In the meantime, I am pleased and honoured to step into the role with the support of the amazing Board members, volunteers, part-time staff, and you, our patrons.

In the past, I would always ask myself, “What would Geoff have done?” This would be followed by my picking up the phone and speaking with him. Now that’s not possible, but as a theatre family speaking together, we can discern what he would probably advise us to do, all the while allowing us to learn important lessons in the process.

My door is always open. I live literally next door to the theatre and am available if any of you wish to talk. This is your theatre. This has always been the case for the past 111 years and will continue to be so for the future.

The Theatre is very lucky to have a strong leadership in its Board members. Please take a moment and read about the background of each member here: Chris, Paul, Brian, Lindsay, Michelle, Marilena, Bob and Venetia. Each has a specialized skill and together as a team, we have you well-covered.

I hope that you will enjoy what the theatre has to offer for 2024.

Best Regards