How to save a theatre The creative minds at Theatre Orangeville were not about to be upstaged by a pandemic. BY LIZ BE AT T Y
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pening night. March 13, 2020. Friday the 13th. Usually David Nairn’s lucky day, a quirk of his celebrated and prolific 22-year career as artistic director of Theatre Orangeville. With Nairn at the helm since 1999, Theatre Orangeville has become the blueprint for professional regional theatre in Ontario. From Dan Needles’ homespun Wingfield series to the 2021 world premiere of John Spurway’s The Third Life of Eddie Mann, the Opera House stage in Orangeville town hall – serendipitously located “on Broadway,” the town’s main street – has hosted many an opening night for Canadian play wrights. It has also launched more than a few theatre careers.
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That Friday shouldn’t have been any different – or so Nairn and his team had hoped. The journey that began that night, however, would brim with unthinkable disappointment and uncertainty, but also with opportunity. It would open the door to a new chapter in Theatre Orangeville history, one that no one could have imagined. “We were selling out and just coming off the high of Little Women over Christmas. Our subscription numbers were up,” recalls Nairn. “We had brought in a show based on the music of Gordon Lightfoot. That sold out. Then, that Friday night, we were looking forward to the world premiere of a new play, Too Close to Home by Alison Lawrence, a delightful comedy.
