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Our President Albert Lightstone on the set of A Sherlock Carol - Photo by Maria Vartanova.

Greetings everyone,

How can we already be at the tail end of our 112th Season? We’ve completed eight truly successful shows and are finishing with one final blockbuster. When the curtain comes down on the closing performance of A Sherlock Carol, we will have given over 126 performances plus additional ones due to popular demand, plus charitable previews, plus comedy shows, plus parties, plus one-act plays, and the list goes on and on.

Now imagine if every one of the plays were one of your children and you had to plan an elaborate wedding for each one as special and elaborate as the last. Well, that’s exactly what we’ve done every year since 1913. You know what? Our team of over 300 volunteers does some pretty fine work!

Congratulations and thank you everyone.

Now, once again please permit me a moment to fill you in on what’s been going on at your theatre since I last wrote to you in July.

The Season to Date

I won’t tell you again about the success of our first six plays (The Shawshank Redemption, Now and Then, And Then There Were None, 37 Postcards, Always a Bridesmaid, Five Alarm) because you can remind yourself through my previous messages on the website. They were great successes!

The seventh show of the season was our annual Norm Foster entry titled Jonas and Barry in the Home. This three-hander made us laugh and cry as we followed the antics of two completely opposite personalities in a senior’s home as their friendship grew. Sarah Hearn once again did a fabulous job with the script and even recruited several members of our theatre community to be additional residents of Gateway Gardens. Our very own OLT director and actor Riley Stewart created the music to accompany the lyrics of Jonas’s hit song from 37 years prior.

From feel-good comedy, we took a complete turn (pardon the pun) towards classic horror with Turn of the Screw. Ian Gillies directed a truly creepy version of the classic tale with lights, sounds and special effects. How did they do the ghostly chalk-writing sequence? The cast left us with some horrifying images that remained long after the curtain dropped.

The season closes with our Christmas mash-up of two OLT favourites – Sherlock Holmes and Ebenezer Scrooge. Wow, Josh Kemp and his team have totally nailed the look and feel of Victorian England with a minimal set and six actors portraying 20 roles with plenty of costume changes and accents galore. A perfect Christmas play for fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved character and Charles Dickens’ tug-at-your-heart Christmas classic.

The show has possibly set an OLT record having sold out all 14 of its regular performances plus one additional show a week before it even opened.

Promotion and Publicity

Along with our regular monthly promotions in various social media, next year we will be trying a pilot project. Our neighbour theatre, the Bytowne, will be promoting our content during their pre-show.

The idea is that their movie-loving audiences who live in the vicinity, or like coming downtown, are potential patrons who might be enticed to try out live theatre. We will see how this works and if it is successful.

Student Pricing

In addition, in order to attract a whole new generation of OLT enthusiasts we have slashed the student prices in 2026 to $10 to get the university and high school youth to check out our shows. Pass on this message to all the students you know.

Our Annual General Meeting

To close the 2024-2025 fiscal year, we held our Annual General Meeting in the theatre on November 29th. All members of the Board provided an overview of the projects they are responsible for. Our financials were presented showing that once again we had a very profitable year.

In addition, our auditor presented the audited report as required by a registered charity. We were also fortunate to have MPP Lucille Collard attending to present us with a $10,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Fund which will be used for training related to voice coaching, sound and lighting design.

The day finished up with an election to replace the Board members whose terms were completed. It was a very close vote.

Here is the 2025-2026 OLT Board of Directors in alphabetical order:

  • Michel Cormier
  • Christian Giansante
  • Marilena Guerra
  • Paul Hession
  • Bob Hicks
  • Lindsay Laviolette
  • Venetia Lawless
  • Albert Lightstone
  • Michelle Shortall

We want to thank Brian Cano for his invaluable contributions to the OLT Board of Directors for the past 5 years. We are sure to see him around the theatre as an actor, director, technical expert and even as a viewing patron.

Parties, Parties, Parties!

Photos by Maria Vartanova

As a social hub, we have certainly been busy of late with a trifecta of parties.

The first was in September where we saw the theatre transformed into a truly elegant venue for a celebratory event – the OLT Donor and Volunteer Appreciation Gala coupled with the presentation of this year’s esteemed Cornerstone inductees.

The Cornerstone was established as part of our 100th anniversary celebrations to recognize and acknowledge the contribution made by select volunteers who have gone above and beyond to make the OLT the thriving community organization that it is today; they are the human cornerstones of the theatre.

This year’s recipients were:

You can read their bios in the Cornerstone section of our website.

Photos by Maria Vartanova

Next up on October 25, 2025, the Ottawa Little Theatre held its annual Halloween party combined with a whole slew of extra goodies including the performance of our annual one-act play and a special whiskey-tasting event.

Over 135 guests, many decked out in their most creative costumes, attended the evening’s celebration with the upper lobby transformed into a truly festive (and spooky) atmosphere.

For the Better, directed by Karine Charland, an original one-act play written by teenager Camheron Mulhern, winner of the Sybil Cooke Award for a play for Children or Young People at this year’s 84th National One-Act Playwriting Competition, was seen in preview prior to its performance on November 7th at the EODL 2025 Festival. There the play won the Adjudicator’s Award for Best New Director (Karine Charland); Award for Outstanding Contribution by a student (Sierra Sparks, for her maturity and holding her own in an ensemble cast of older actors), and Acting Award (Grant Moore, notably for the physical creation of two contrasting characters).

Finally, immediately after our Annual General Meeting, we held our Holiday Party. After absorbing the financials and narratives from the presentations of our past year, it was nice to relax over a pint or glass of wine.

We actually had tough competition that night as that many of our volunteers were involved with the Linden House production of Hay Fever at Elmwood School. We were happy to share our volunteers, but sorry they couldn’t all stay at our party.

Theatre Improvements

We finally have fully functional new front doors. Gone are the days of iffy locks needing overnight reinforcement with chains. Also, there is no longer a gap between the doors allowing the wind to come howling into the building and blowing around the corner in front of the box office and into the lower lobby. And as an added bonus, they look great!

We have also improved our onstage lighting system with a new state of the art system which will enhance the overall experience of the audience watching our shows.

Bank Fraud

Unfortunately, as you may already know, the OLT was the victim of bank fraud where some of the payments for subscriptions made by Interac transfer were diverted to an outside account. I detailed this in an email to all ticket holders back in September. It potentially impacts those who sent Interac transfers to the theatre between September 19th and September 24th. We are covered by our insurance, have opened a police file, and worked with the cyber crime unit at our bank to enhance the security of our accounts to ensure that any possible reoccurrence has been eliminated.

We will be honouring all subscriptions that were paid and hacked but need your help. What we require is the bank acknowledgement of the subscription payment sent to our box office. This could be the email receipt or the receipt for the transfer that you can access within your online banking portal. This information will be shared with our insurance investigator and will provide the necessary evidence so that we can recoup the funds. Please send this information to the box office or you can send to Marilena Guerra by email to treasurer@ottawalittletheatre.com.

Please rest assured that your tickets are safely in the system. If you have any concerns, please contact the box office to verify your account. Also please contact us if you had included a donation with your subscription renewal as there may be a challenge issuing a receipt for a donation that we have not received.

We apologize for the inconvenience. This is the fault of Interac and not the theatre and possibly not the bank.

The 2026 Season Subscription

If you have not renewed your season subscriptions, please don’t delay. The deadline is past but you may still be able to keep your seats if you act fast. Soon we will begin allocating seats to new subscribers.

Our price has not changed; it is still $180 for nine fabulous shows. That’s only $20 a performance!

Check out our roster! It will surely be another great season with something for everyone.

Our 2025 season ends December 20, 2025, and our 2026 season begins Feb 25, 2026.

Video: Dan Akroyd at Ottawa Little Theatre

When we describe the Ottawa little Theatre and its history either in print or speaking with someone on the street, we often refer to the rich slate of celebrities who got their start on our stage.  Names such as Saul Rubinek, Rich Little, Robert MacNeil, Adam Beach, Luba Goy, Raoul Bhaneja and of course Dan Aykroyd are always mentioned. Perusing YouTube I came across a video produced by Downtown Rideau celebrating Mr. Aykroyd’s return to the halls of the OLT. He may have even been sipping his own named brand wines which we served for several years at the bar. It’s a fun video to watch and the food served certainly looked good. See if you can catch glimpses of people that you know from 11 years ago.

Please enjoy.

Well, that’s it for now. I want to wish everyone the best health and happiness during this holiday season. May you and your loved ones greet and embrace the new year truly blessed in whatever is important to you.

Please rest up because our 2026 season will begin before you know it.

Best Regards,

Albert Lightstone
President
Ottawa Little Theatre