About The Lakeside Players
Who we are, what we do, a bit of history...
The Lakeside Players is a non-profit community theatre group formed in January of 1990 in the Britannia neighborhood, and based at Lakeside Gardens in Britannia Park, West-End Ottawa. The spring of 1990 heralded our first production, a 2-hour variety show that included musical and comedy acts, and two dramatic scenes from full-length plays.
In each theatre season since its founding, The Lakeside Players has mounted 2 or 3 full-length productions; these have included an evening of one-act plays, dramas, comedy and farce, and traditional British pantomimes. Many productions incorporate musical elements and dance. The group also tries to include one work by a Canadian author or with a Canadian theme in each season.
In the 90/91 and 91/92 seasons, the group performed at the Manotick Fringe Festival. The company has also entered the Eastern Ontario Drama League annual full-length and one-act play festivals, winning awards for acting, directing, and set design.
While the group started in the Britannia area, membership and audience are now drawn from communities reaching to Orleans, Smith's Falls, and Braeside beyond Arnprior. From its inception, the group has liased with the City of Ottawa regarding the use of Lakeside Gardens; the Capital City Chorus with whom we share rehearsal and storage space; the NAC and many community theatres to acquire props, lights, set pieces, and costumes; and various local retailers to obtain donations of cash, materials, and services. We participate in various City and Community events such as Touch the Sky, Promenade of the Arts, the Central Canada Exhibition, Festival of Spring Flotilla, and Lakeside Gardens events.
Starting in the 1991/92 season, we performed Aladdin - A Traditional British Pantomime and have continued this, now a Lakeside Players tradition, with successful productions of Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The Princess and the Sentinel, The Wonderful Story of Mother Goose, The Sleeping Beauty, Robinson Crusoe, Red Riding Hood, Hickory Dickory Dock and Puss in Boots . These productions have included up to 25 children dancing and singing, and 10 - 15 adults in the casts. Much of the music for these productions has been written by our members and up to six musicians have performed the arrangements. Our audiences look forward to BOOing the Bad Guys and CHEERing the Good Guys, and joining us in the many familiar songs that are included. The traditional Pantomime animals in our productions have included a dancing Camel, Daisy the Cow, Moosesense, and Pricilla...the goose that lays golden eggs.
In 1993 we produced our first Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre as a fundraiser, and now have 9 mysteries that we perform for a fee wherever you need us. These Murder Mysteries are a valuable source of revenue for our operating budget. Like the vast majority of community theatre groups, we operate on a budget of shoestring proportions and a very small shoestring at that.
Membership is open to anyone and we have approximately 70 active members - Junior and Adult.
Contact us lakesideplayers@gosympatico.ca