EMILY HSUEH
PONTIAC Jan. 23, 2021
The Pontiac Community Players held their annual general meeting on Jan. 23 via Zoom to discuss electing a new board, recount the last year’s events and plan for the future. Their last meeting was held in 2019, as the pandemic threw a wrench in their plan for a 2020 meeting.
Their first order of business was to . . .
select their executive board which would make it easier to achieve non-profit status. Their main goal is to plan the group’s regular shows, manage finances and find new members to join.
“We don’t have non-profit status yet … we’re just a group of friends that get together and act, basically,” said Greg Graham, who hosted the meeting. “Be that as it may, it is important that we have some sort of executive going forward.”
They elected Graham as president, Valerie Twolan-Graham as vice-president, Graig Young as secretary/treasurer, Cadence Beck as youth representative, Leona Lalonde as community liaison and Zion Lekovic as community liasion backup. Only one vote was needed, which was for the role of vice-president between Twolan-Graham and Lalonde. Votes were emailed to Chris Schaler, who was the night’s secretary of election.
The second portion of the meeting went over the events of the last two years, where members could chime in and speak about how their shows went. Directors and actors alike were present and gave their views on the performances.
They moved onto the standing of their non-profit status application, which is something the group has been working towards for a while.
“We applied two times; the first one got rejected for some minor reason. We’ve filled them out and sent them back out again, and got rejected a second time,” Graham said, stating that the second rejection was due to the “players” in Pontiac Community Players being referred to sports rather than theatre.
In regards to the name, the group must have a French name to apply for non-profit status, thus they will use the term Théâtre Pontiac as the official legal name with alternative, non-official names including Theatre Pontiac and Pontiac Community Players.
“There’s no reason why we would get rejected again once we sort those things out,” he added.
Later on, the group unanimously approved a motion to bring back their 2020 summer show, Out of Order, as their 2021 summer show.
“Only a fraction of our normal audience got to see the play, and it was a particularly good one,” Graham said. “Because of COVID restrictions, we might not be able to do rehearsals in April or May or June. If we did a new play, it would require a lot of rehearsal and practice and we need that summer time. If we did Out of Order again… it would not require near so much rehearsal.”
They also agreed to put on another radio show closer to Christmas, as to not interfere with another show they will be putting on called Steel Magnolias. The show has been cast but the show dates are yet to be decided, but the goal is for November 2021.
Finally, the group is hoping to host a three-part workshop covering the basics of stage craft which Twolan-Graham explained was supposed to be held last spring. The workshop will be hosted by Natalie Fraser, a professional in the field who is familiar with theatre in the Pontiac. The new date for this will be announced once in-person group meetings are permitted again.
