President Jerome and Doug Fisher thank Neil for his interesting and informative presentation.
Neil and President Jerome present Bob McKillop a Drayton Gift certificate courtesy of Melloul-Blamey Construction.
Announcements
Leo Tobi discussed the online procedure for selling the Vacation Fantasy Lottery tickets simplifying the process for recording sales.
KidsAbility Fun Fair June 8, 2019.
32nd Mayors Dinner April 13, 2019
No anniversaries or birthdays this week.
Club Anniversaries:
Mac Graham-3 yrs; Brandon Flewelling 5 yrs; Karin Voisin 18 yrs; Tim Bradich 16 yrs; Gary Auer 32 years.
50/50 Pot:
$155.00 Guests Denise Benninger, Bob McKillop and Rotarian Judy Nairn tried in vain to grasp the elusive black marble.
Guest Speaker
Rotarian Neil Aitchison provided an entertaining and informative history of the Drayton Festival Theatre which was launched in 1991 by Neil and Alex Mustakas. Alex received his Masters degree in Theater Arts in England. Neil introduced Alex to the town council in Drayton who approved the use of the Drayton theatre building at the cost of $1.oo per year, a building erected in 1902.
The theme of the theatre is music and laughter. The first production, Vaudeville and the 2nd the Pirates of Penzance, sold 14,792 tickets. A donation basket was used at the theatre which raised $100,000 in two years, which was used to re-cover the seats in the theatre.
Five theatres have been built since then, the St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre (1997) seating 150; the Kings Warf in Penetanguishene (1999), seating 400; The Huron County Playhouse (2001), main stage with 650 seats, the Playhouse a 300 seat theatre; the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse (2005) seating 400 and the Cambridge Dunfield Theatre (2013) since renamed the Hamilton Family Theatre after philanthropist Terry Hamilton, which seats 500.
The Drayton Festival Theatre has never received government funding for operations and has never been in a deficit. For every $1 spent at the theatre $8 is spent in the community in tourism related expenditures. Last year the theatre had a surplus of $1.6M and 250,000 seats sold. The budget is $13.6M and provides employment for 800. Drayton gets first option on plays from NYC.
Doug Fisher thanked Neil for his very entertaining presentation.
