Daytripping Summer 2022

Lake Huron
MI
ONTARIO
NY
We’re in EAGLE, WALLACETOWN, WEST LORNE, RODNEY and PORT STANLEY
Bring The Family To Mackie's
On the beach
in Port Stanley
Since 1911
Try our famous homemade french fi
fries,
our own special sauce & delicious Orangeade...
Over 111 YEARS the Same!
Mackie’s Parking Lot is (as it has always been) FREE for customers!
OPEN DAILY 11 to 7
THROUGH LABOUR DAY
Weekends Year Round
Indoor/Outdoor Seang
& Take Out Available
519-782-4390
Daytripping...
With a Touch of Drama!
Story and photo by Frank Prothero, Port Stanley
Open 7 Days A Week www.peppertreespice.com
“The Play is the Thing!”
Hamlet’s famous quote rings true
today and a visit to one of Ontario’s
many summer theatres might be
just “the Thing” to add a whole new
dimension to your travel experience.
Ontario is blessed with many fine
local theatres that offer a wide variety
of viewing experiences throughout
the summer months. To illustrate
the point we introduce you to one
example of the genre, the Port Stanley
Festival Theatre, located in a Lake Erie
village that is both a quaint fishing
community and a tourist hot spot.
If you add the PSFT to your summer
itinerary, be sure to come early and
stay late. The village has a fascinating
history, evident throughout the
community. There are two splendid
beaches, an historic lift bridge across
Kettle Creek, rides on the Terminal Rail
which operates on the tracks of one of
Canada’s earliest railways, the London
and Port Stanley Railway. There are
numerous restaurants within easy
walking distance of the theatre. For
a rewarding dining service, consider
the noted Kettle Creek Inn or try
refreshments at Mackies, the Flag Ship
of Beach Restaurants on the Great
Lakes. Daytrippers are sometimes
known to indulge in shopping. Port
Stanley has an excellent array of
boutiques and art galleries. All of this is
to be found within an easy day’s drive
of most readers of this publication.
This enterprise, located in the former
Town Hall, has been functioning (and
growing) for nearly 50 years. The
theatre was first established by a
drama teacher, Jim Shaefer, in July of
1978. From the very beginning, live
theatre was a community endeavour.
Schaffer employed local talent,
particularly younger people, to act
in plays that he wrote dealing with
local people and events. The theatre’s
opening number was “Fraser House
Follies,” a combination of skits and
songs that revived memories of Port
Stanley’s most famous hotel which
was also, for more than a decade in
the 19th Century, the summer home of
the “Queen of American Stage,” Annie
Pixley. The play was warmly greeted
and was followed by two more dramas
that drew sellout crowds. Through
Shaefer’s efforts a whole generation of
Port Stanley and area youth became
lifelong supporters of local theatre.
Schaefer maintained the enterprise
for thirteen seasons but the Port
Stanley Summer Festival Theatre
finally outgrew the capacity of one
man to organize, write and direct a
program for an entire season. The
curtain closed at the end of the 1991
season and the future looked bleak. An
infusion of new talent, however, saw
the theatre enter a stage of vigorous
growth that made it one of the most
successful operations in the country.
The Port Stanley Town Hall was
constructed in 1926, the entire second
floor being taken up by a community
meeting room that served the village
well until larger and more modern
facilities became available. In a bold
move, the board of the theatre bought
the entire building in 1996.
Walls were knocked down and the
stage was moved. An addition to the
structure brought seating capacity up
to 203 guests.
A patio deck was added outside
the theatre with an impressive
view of the Port Stanley harbour
and its fleet of commercial fishing
vessels and pleasure boats. The
patio features a licensed bar and is
one of the unique extras offered by
this facility. Accessibility has been
provided throughout. An elevator has
been added and there are four, front
row spaces reserved for wheelchair
occupants.
As fast as the building changed, the
presentations changed even faster.
The emphasis is on local talent and
Canadian plays. For many years, the
theatre has produced five original
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223A Colborne Street, PORT STANLEY • 519-782-7800
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Canadian plays every season along
with a winter musical program. In
the 2022 season, the Port Stanley
Festival Theatre will present two
World Premiers of plays written in
this country. Hamlet may have spoken
the words we opened with but don’t
expect him to be on the boards at Port
Stanley. The theatre here is content
to let Stratford carry the burden of
classical tragedies. Norm Foster plays
have been typical of the fare offered at
Port Stanley in recent years. Comedy,
drama and even musicals are featured
with actors, most of whom are native
to the London and St. Thomas area.
Nothing has provided better proof of
the resilience of summer theatre in
Ontario than the past two years of
pandemic. Time after time, programs
had to be cancelled. Some plays have
been rehearsed for two years and have
OPEN DAILY
ALL SUMMER
11AM-10PM
AFTER LABOUR DAY
DAILY 11AM - 9PM
never seen the light of day because
of restrictions we all had to endure.
Some of those plays will finally be
staged this summer and they promise
to be flawless.
There is nothing quite like the
experience provided by live theatre
that will sweep you up in the humour
and pathos of the human condition. It
is the same catharsis that prompted
the Greeks of Ancient Athens in 500
BC to make attendance at the theatre
mandatory for all citizens.
When the curtain rises and
the houselights dim for another
presentation of the Port Stanley
theatre this summer, take your place
in the audience and enjoy the delight
of real, live acting, without the pesky
distraction of advertisements. You
will discover the thing you have been
missing.
Summer 2022 “Caution - risk of fire” (label on a package of fireplace logs)
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