Local theatre group Pontiac Community Players (PCP) held its annual general meeting Saturday morning to go over its 2024 annual report and financial information.
Greg Graham, who was re-elected as the president of the PCP’s board of directors, took a moment to highlight some of the club’s successes in 2024, including the production of The Play that Goes Wrong, Having Hope at Home, and The Princess and the Goblin.
He also took a moment to celebrate former PHS student Ollie Côté, who was the 2024 recipient of the club’s bursary for a Pontiac High School graduate with a love for theatre, and is now studying theatre at John Abbott College.
Côté performed in PHS’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar and In the Heights.
“Ollie was fantastic and their whole family have been huge supporters of community theatre,” Graham said.
“We’re so excited to see what they do and foster local talent.”
Other 2024 highlights for the group included the purchasing of a new sound system, thanks to provincial funding administered by MRC Pontiac, and the designing of a new logo, thanks to a donation from Pontiac MNA André Fortin.
“I think it demonstrates exactly the kind of theatre company we have,” vice president Valerie Twolan-Graham said at the meeting. “It’s very adaptable to product and merchandise. We’re extremely pleased with it.”
The group ended the year with $6,338 in the bank, almost double their previous year. This was in part due to the PCP increasing their performance revenue by more than $4,000.
“We’re gaining financial security, making sure that if a play went sideways and we had torrential thunderstorms and we couldn’t sell any tickets, that we could survive for another year,” Graham said. “That’s a good feeling to have, but the community supports all our productions.”
This summer, the PCP hopes to continue to produce successful performances but also introduce some new theatrical endeavours.
Will Bastien, the club’s director, will be leading a “theatre in the park” style production this summer with a traveling cast and crew that will perform outdoors in different municipalities in the Pontiac.
Bastien said in the meeting that they’re still deciding what show they’ll be performing but that they hope to make use of the new sound system.
“The sound system is going to be a huge help,” Bastien said. “Outdoors, you can’t really help if a plane goes overhead or a truck drives by.”
Bastien said that they may also have a mobile stage idea in the works.
Graham also highlighted another new project called “An Evening with History” where a local historical figure is brought to life.
“They’re going to be small one-actor shows and they’re going to be the stories of local Pontiacers,” Graham explained. “We have three of them lined up so far. It’s the culture of the Pontiac.”
While Graham said that the troupe has been gaining lots of new talent, he hopes to see even more people sign up or audition in 2025.
“We have an incredible well of talent and we have stories to tell,” Graham said. “Every year, we’re increasing our artistic potential with new directors, different directors, new actors, different actors and people bringing all sorts of different skills and ideas to the table.”
