7/30/2019 How Geordie Productions Came to Be

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Elsa Bolam. How Geordie Productions came to be.

Me . Had helped my husband start Centaur in 1969. By 1979 I was working at NTS andhad 2 children in public elementary school, and I saw there was not much theatreavailable to them in the educational system. Also, even though Montreal has four English theatre schools, Centaur had to import actors from Toronto, because the youngtrained actors were all leaving town immediately after graduation.

Idea - a school touring company to benefit pupils and create work for young actors sothat they could gain experience here. I wanted both to create jobs and to build up a localtheatre community in English. Aided and abetted by Michael Thomas, Senior EnglishConsultant at the PSBGM, who convinced me to incorporate as a non profit organization.

Support. Roped in friends and neighbours, one of whom, Jim Wright, a lawyer, helpedme with the incorporation. Company incorporated in 1980, got charity number about ayear later. Chose the name Geordie Productions as an in-joke, because Im a so-calledGeordie from Newcastle-on-Tyne, in England. Jim also wrote a letter to the Samuel andSaidye Bronfman Family Foundation, who gave a promise to contribute $1500 towardsthe first production if I could match it, but for a long time I couldnt.

Money. Knew a politician from Centaur days - David Payne, also a Geordie, the onlyAnglo Pquiste lu. He kindly recommended that the Ministre des Affaires culturellesshould support the venture, and they offered $3000, so the company began in March1982 on $4500, with a tour to 19 PSBGM schools, and all the actors got paid! The nextyear, another small grant followed, and despite a school strike, Geordie toured to 24schools, including some from the Catholic School Board. By 1984 we were touring atleast once a year to 65 schools, but everything was still being run from my kitchen table.One big plus was the free use of the Centaur rehearsal room.

A base. I had a visit from a bureaucrat, Louise Pelletier, from MAC. I told her I hadsaved enough money to pay an administrator for a year, but that I also needed enoughmoney to rent an office. She listened, we got it, and from then on we were able to expanddespite various problems, (like having a hard time finding the English schools in the

Rpertoire des organismes.) We had to learn everything: the regional associations, theschools, the teachers and how to get round the province. Sometimes the schools didnthave enough money, so we instituted a Top Up fund, using our charity number toenable local sponsorships to happen. We also had to build a Board of Directors.

Expansion As we ventured further afield, the weather, and Quebecs heroic geographycompletely set the touring schedule, and for the rest we had to steer round the conflictingagendas of the government granting agencies, the unions, and the public, as well as dealwith the roller-coaster of balancing the budget each season. It took years to build anaudience, but eventually most of the Province was covered, and we sometimes tourednationally and into the U.S.

Aims. Geordie has always had a strong community focus, believing that to be a greatstrength. Our actors and theatre personnel have always come from all parts of Quebecsociety. To that end, we joined La Maison Thtre, opened a small theatre space in our building in 1992, which is still used by companies from all over the city, and started atheatre school for youngsters.

Mainstage Season. Eventually we were able to start a family season in town, at first inthe D.B. Clarke Theatre, and now at Centaur. This necessitated greater fundraising, andthat in turn brought in much greater involvement from the community. Geordie nowreaches an audience of about 80,000 a year, and has an annual budget of $700,000 withsupport from all levels of government.