Katherine Wasiak
Photography: Unique Images Photograhpy
1923 was a good year for beginnings–Time Magazine hit newsstands for the first time, Yankee Stadium opened its doors in the Bronx, the late Queen Mother got married, and the Playgoers Club of Lethbridge was formed.
EIGHTY-SEVEN YEARS LATER, Playgoers is busy preparing its next production, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, and still fulfilling its original mandate: To advance, encourage, and promote the enjoyment of theatre arts.
“Playgoers is one of the oldest amateur drama groups in Canada,” says George Mann, the club’s Historian and Playgoer for the past 47 years. The impetus for starting the club was a letter to the editor in the Lethbridge Herald written by Ernest Sterndale Bennett, which suggested the development of a group “to promote amateur theatre–a playgoers’ club–comprised of lovers of theatre.” George has a copy of that letter in one of the many albums in which he has carefully documented the organization’s long history. Within a few weeks of the letter appearing in the paper, almost 60 people came together to form the Playgoers Club of Lethbridge. Their first production, Going Up, appeared onstage in April 1923 and was enjoyed by more than 1,000 people.
“Sterndale Bennett kept good records,” says George turning the pages and pointing out the playbill for that original production. Admission was $1. Sterndale Bennett and George were not alone in doing a good job of keeping track of things. Doris Balcovske, a Playgoer whose father was a founding member, still has the original musical score from Going Up.
For the full story pick up the current issue of Lethbridge living Magazine
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