Have you ever sat in The Next Act and glanced over at Walterdale? We certainly have a beautiful building, situated in a most desirable location. What is missing, however, is anything prominent announcing that there is theatre going on inside this historic fire hall. Many of you may remember the old cement sign that used to be on the sidewalk in front of the building. This disappeared years ago – I presume to upgrade the sidewalks. Since then, we have only had the marquee to signify our presence but it often gets overlooked when crowds are on the sidewalk and it is not very visible when driving past.
Over December, we had a false fire alarm and 6 fire trucks arrived at our theatre; we were told in no uncertain terms that they had difficulty finding us due to lack of signage and confusion about our name on their registry. This prompted the Board to look at our building from an outside perspective and think about the need to advertise our theatre and to become a more prominent feature of Old Strathcona and in Edmonton's theatre community. We know who we are, but does anyone else?
The Board had a professional sign company design several signs for the front and West side of the building. In May, a final design was chosen and we would like to share this with the membership at two informal sessions – Saturday, May 11 from 4pm-5pm and Sunday May 12 from 3pm-4pm upstairs in the Glenfield Rehearsal Hall. We have had to work with the Heritage City Planners on the sign design and installation and this design has met with their approval as well as our landlord – The City of Edmonton.
Over the past 55 years,Walterdale has called itself both orally and in print: Walterdale Playhouse, Walterdale Theatre and simply Walterdale. The fire registry has us listed as Walterdale Theatre and our registered legal title is Walterdale Theatre Associates. In an effort to keep all of our information consistent with our legal name and to remain theatrically current and easy to find in electronic media, the Board would like to have the signs say: Walterdale Theatre. We have fielded this idea to a few of our long-time members who have all thought this was an excellent idea; in fact, long overdue. The Board hopes that the greater membership will agree with this proposed name affirmation and invites you to come to either
Saturday the 11th at 4 pm or
Sunday the 12th at 3pm to look at the designs. If all goes well, the signs should be up for the Fringe Festival and one will not help but see Walterdale Theatre behind every busker, every food vendor, and every shot of the Fringe on the news and in papers and magazines.
If you cannot join us on these two dates, please feel free to contact me at
walterdalepres@gmail.com or Sarah Van Tassel at
walterdalead53@gmail.com, or leave us a message at the theatre and we will make every effort to show you the designs and hear your thoughts at a more convenient time.
Thank you for your consideration.
Clare Mullen
President
Walterdale Theatre Associates
I wrote my first play, Sitter, for the New Works Festival at the University of Alberta in 2011; it was short and goofy and I adored the process of watching it come to life. The following year, I wrote another play, Walter Alone, for the same festival and that’s when I came to the realization that writing plays and watching them hit the stage was more fun than eating marshmallows and peanut butter. So I promptly replaced one hobby for another. Just kidding, I would never give up marshmallows and peanut butter.
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