Check out our new facebook page
Important Update from the Belleville Theatre Guild
As we celebrate our 75th Anniversary Season, we're starting fresh with a new Facebook page. Unfortunately, we no longer have access to our previous page, so this is now the place to stay connected with everything happening at the Guild.
If you've been part of the Belleville Theatre Guild family, or if you're just discovering us, we're excited to have you with us as we celebrate 75 years of community theatre and look ahead to the next chapter.
Please help us reconnect with our community by:
- Following this page
- Sharing it with your friends and family
- Inviting fellow theatre lovers to join us
Thank you for your continued support. We can't wait to share this milestone season with you!
75th memory project
Helen Rumbles
The Theatre Guild was a huge part of the time I grew up in Belleville in the 1970's and early 1980's. My parents were involved before me, my father Frank Martin was the musical director for Mother Courage And Her Children, Oliver, The Music Man and Three Penny Opera.
My mother was also involved doing some lighting work. Through my amazing Theater Arts teacher Steve Forrester I was the stage manager for several years of Theatre August. I loved every minute of it and wish I had gone on to a career in theatre. That was a great summer program for children back in the day. I left Belleville in 1985, was home last in 1995 and stopped by the theatre to see all the renovations that had been done. Gone was the old revolving stage lol. I love that the Theatre Guild is still active and thriving. I've kept up following this page and with friends I made back then and greatly miss theatre work, so wish I was back in Belleville.
Lola Jay
My first experience with BTG was back in the late 70s or early 80s when my sister Cher Lyford-Cowen and I went to an audition for Play it Again Sam. We both got a part and that sparked the fire and passion for theatre for both of us. I went back to University and earned my BA in Drama and had an amazing career within the theatre world in Toronto. I did manage to do one legit stage production and one film but my calling was as a Publicist for most of the big shows all through the 90s. I did come back to Belleville and performed in Crimes Of The Heart with the amazing Moira and we even won an award. Thank you for providing the opportunity to experience the most rewarding time of my life.
KTG
I’ve been acting since I was in elementary school but that’s not the reason I joined the guild. I joined for the community aspect. I had just graduated and read an article that said “to beat the post-grad blues stay busy, join an organization or develop a hobby that keeps you going!”. Right around that time the guild was casting The Importance of Being Earnest, a show I loved. So I auditioned and became an understudy. I made lasting relationships on that show. From Dave Henderson, who is still a prolific director with the guild - did you see One Man, Two Guvnors?!?! JK Lott (directing her first play this Theatre August), Nancy Garrod (stage manager extraordinaire), Ian Feltham (directed me in 7 Stories earlier this year). These connections we form at the guild become part of us. I’ve met some of my best friends here. The community has become an extended family.
John Wannacott
I have engaged the Playhouse stage many times over the years, a mixed bag of plays, nothing recently. I have lived well and died on that stage a few times! However, my first cameo was a bulge in my mother's Joan of Arc armor in the spring of '55, a carefully constructed piece of silver painted plexiglass breastplate constructed by father Spence to accommodate Joy's growing tummy (me). I know there is an archival photo of this out there. Just saying.
Diane Burley
I first saw the wonderful production of “ The World of Carl Sandburg”, done for some reason in the elegant room at the Hotel Quinte in 1967. It’s impossible to pick only one production as a favourite.
