March 2020 was a busy time for the Cambridge Community Players.
The nearly 90-year-old theatre troupe was getting set to host the Western Ontario Drama League, they’d just renovated their green room bar space and were excited to welcome a full house for a weekend of performances.
Then the pandemic hit, putting everything on hold.
“We had a lot invested in it,” says board chairperson Mallory Moxon-Carson, looking back on a bleak year that left the local theatre community wondering when things might return to normal, how they could expend their creative energy, and how they would pay the rent.
“We’ve been very lucky,” Moxon-Carson says.
As one of the few volunteer community theatre groups in the province to have its own space, the former Water Street Baptist Church, and the support of the City of Cambridge, they’ve been able to manage the lockdown and uncertainty better than most.
The Players applied for and earned a $13,000 Spinnaker Fund grant through the Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation to keep the lights on through the pandemic and an additional $10,000 grant from the province. Toyota kicked in $500 to help out, and the community stepped up in a big way by supporting two silent auctions featuring items donated by local businesses.
Some group members have used their pandemic pause to help renovate the theatre’s “green room” with a goal of showcasing the theatre troupe’s rich history, which began as the Galt Little Theatre Company in 1933.
Most of the members, in fact, have life-long connections to the Water Street stage through their parents and grandparents. Michele Hildebrandt, vice chair in charge of business for the Players, recalls how she was introduced to Moxon-Carson’s mom Valerie for the first time when the director was casting kids for a British pantomime.
“The shape of my legs worked for the role so I was cast as Prince Charming,” she laughs.
“Your mom is the lady that got me planted in this theatre,” Hildebrandt says to the surprise of Moxon-Carson, who’d never heard the story before.
They’re also working on getting their liquor license extended beyond the green room to take advantage of the drink holders in every seat. Those new theatre seats, by the way, were acquired from the former Frederick Twin Cinemas when it closed in 2019. They were originally purchased from the famed Grauman Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. The connection to Hollywood history is a bit of provenance Moxon-Carson is quite proud of.
The city-owned building is being maintained while it’s been vacant but there have been a few issues. Water damage had to be fixed after a pipe burst in the men’s washroom and Moxon-Carson found remnants of a homeless camp in the theatre’s garden space over the winter.
“Because we’re not around all the time, we’ve been vandalized,” Hildebrandt says.
“We don’t mind people coming to the gardens to rest and hang out,” Moxon-Carson adds. The problem is the mess they sometimes leave behind, including two mattresses, a tent, an old chair and “huge amount of litter” that had to be removed.
“We are very lucky to have a facility like this and we look after it the best we can. We want to see it thrive and be busy.”
But with the stage lights dimmed for the foreseeable future, the group has been dreaming up other ways the Players can gradually return to normal, including a possible summer theatre camp for kids.
Their goal once we return to whatever normal is post-pandemic is to get as many people in Cambridge excited about community theatre as possible, including the return of its senior teaching program that offers training in sound design and lighting. Moxon-Carson also wants to extend invitations to newcomers to Cambridge and members of the LGBTQ+ community with the goal of drawing a more diverse membership.
“We want to embrace the fact that we have a multicultural community,” she says. “We want to make this about community. We want to give people a chance.”
Membership to the Players is $15 annually and is in place mainly to cover insurance costs.
The group is constantly seeking donations to its prop and costume collection. They’ll even take leftover paint.
Later this month, the Players will be presenting the 1930s radio play “The Maltese Falcon” on the group’s YouTube channel, the first YouTube event they’ve hosted since Christmas.
“We don’t charge for those,” Moxon-Carson points out. “You can donate, but that’s not what it’s about.” We’re performers, she says. “That’s what we’re about — entertaining.”
