A corporate donation will allow Barkerville to open the Theatre Royal a little bit earlier this year.
Stewart Cawood is the Manager of Public Programming and Media.
“We’ve received 80 thousand dollars from Osikso Development as well as two of their executives, and that is allowing us to start our rehearsals early and to get to work on putting up our new show so it is ready for previews on June 3rd.”
Cawood says that is about one month earlier than what has become normal.
“Before COVID we were able to start on the May long weekend, but since COVID last year due to financial constraints, we had to organize it so that the theatre was opening on July 1st. That will still be our grand opening for this year but this way we get to have the theatre open for audiences just as soon as our season starts, and we get to start to test our show in front of audiences as well.”
Cawood says opening in July presents challenges to the actors because they would be trying to provide programming on the street, while also trying to find time for rehearsals for the theatre.
On the show itself, he says they have some new acts this year, including a couple of tributes to London.