Forty years ago a few amateur actors living on the Sunshine Coast produced The Lover, a Harold Pinter play, at Gibsons Elementary School, the first of many productions for a new theatrical group known as the Driftwood Players.
Actress Colleen Elson (then Colleen Johnson) remembers that there were at least 20 people in the audience. Because there was no money for set construction, one of Driftwood's founders, George Matthews, tacked together a backdrop of strips of tar paper and butchers' paper. When the group took the play to the province's zone competition, the adjudicator told them that the set was so bad he had to close his eyes and just listen.
Pinter was not a typical choice. As Elson, who still performs with her own CE Productions, explains, "Over the years we made our money doing comedies rather than drama, and it was that money that allowed us to put on the other shows."
Allan Crane, now involved with the Coast's Music Society, was an early performer. Elson remembers that as the troupe travelled to Powell River for a show, she noticed the men, former Coast News editor John Burnside and Crane, still rehearsing their lines on the ferry.
"We're in trouble," she said.
During the first scene, the dialogue jumped somehow to scene two and Crane walked off stage in confusion. Elson, standing in the wings, pushed him on again and the two actors were forced to adlib until they could move the play back on track.
Shortly after the first year, Driftwood's Eileen Glassford invited Elphinstone Secondary School textiles teacher Nest Lewis to her home to talk about a new production, with the hope that Lewis would sew costumes. Soon, Lewis was not only making costumes, but she began her amateur theatre career.
Elson and Lewis became the backbone of Driftwood Players for most of its 40 years and the two performers recently shared some of its history with Coast Reporter.
The two have been raised on British comedy - Elson in her native Australia and Lewis in Wales. One of Lewis' favourite productions, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, was full of British wit and laughter and was a huge success.
Money was tight, but they always found ways.
"The company couldn't really afford to go travelling," Elson said, though they managed to take several shows to B.C.-wide theatre competitions. "We all paid our own way. One person would book a motel room for two and the rest of the cast would pile in and sleep on the floor. Whoever had a truck would transport the scenery."
The competition entries brought kudos. Suddenly Last Summer earned a number of awards, including that of best actress for Lewis who played a major role.
The venues were difficult. Gibsons Elementary School had available seating, but the acoustics were terrible. Roberts Creek hall was better, but the risers were the heaviest they had ever struggled to lift. If they were performing during a two-weekend run, the troupe had to take downthe entire set between performances because of bingo night. Lewis and volunteer Dianne Evans sat up all night for several nights sewing bolts of black cloth into backdrops to hide the ugly risers.
Gibsons United Church provided another venue and one year they presented Waltz of the Toreadors in the church hall. The part of the French maid was played by a young Barbara Williams who has continued her career on TV during episodes of Bones, CSI and an award-winning special, Mother Trucker. Elson recalls that two weeks before the show a parishioner became disturbed that the play's subject matter involved adultery. Elson had to promise to add "Not Suitable for Children" on all the posters.
"We had the biggest audience after that," she laughs.
Volunteers continued to contribute.
Fred Inglis built sets, and on one occasion, Lewis recalls, he built a pair of French doors hinged to open inward. Lewis, playing the part of a maid, threw them outward to sweep her dust, and one of the doors went flying. Inglis gallantly held up the broken door, off stage, for the rest of the performance.
Elson and Lewis both performed in plays directed or written by Betty Keller, Coast author and co-founder of the Festival of the Written Arts. Among Keller's cast was politician Gordon Wilson, who produced and performed in his own original play. Young Ruth Madoc-Jones also got her start with Driftwood. After performing in Blithe Spirit in 1983, she went on to direct theatre companies across Canada, and recently was awarded the 2008 John Hirsch Directors Award.
Elson and Lewis remember many others who helped build theatre on the Coast, who have since passed away: George Cooper, who played an excellent butler, and Pam Feichtner who, for many years, produced Driftwood's plays.
"We miss her terribly," Elson said.
One favourite production for both Lewis and Elson was a sort of pantomime-style musical, Dick Whittington and the Sunshine Kingdom, in which the cast adlibbed most of the dialogue that spoofed familiar Coast figures. Musician Ken Dalgleish composed the music and Gordie Hauka wrote the songs. It was a roaring success, but when the cast took it to competition, the adjudicators didn't know what to make of it. Eventually it was awarded a prize for Best Community Effort.
The search for the perfect venue continued. Chatelech Secondary School's portable tin stage was rickety and noisy. The top floor of the museum was hot and stuffy. Once Raven's Cry Theatre was built it was used to mount several favourites, Lettice and Lovage (1995) and the Cemetery Club (1996), but for a good 30 years there was no true Driftwood home.
Elson recalls that during the slow years, when cast and crew attended to their work or families, it was Lewis more than anyone who kept Driftwood going.And soa concerned Inglis turned to Lewis one day in 1989 when he had heard about plans to demolish the old Women's Institute Hall. Together, and with many other willing participants, the two formed the Gibson's Landing Heritage Society (GLHS). The task propelled them into years of planning, a search for financing and grant funding and a call for volunteers and for contributions from every small business in the community, who readily complied. Eventually the building was converted into today's Heritage Playhouse.
Currently, the GLHS administers and runs the theatre building while Driftwood Players, incorporated as a society since 1979,are the resident company. The Playhouse opened in 2000 and the first actors to set foot on the new stage were Elson and Lewis who played the two murdering ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace.
This summer, Driftwood will mount an ambitious production, Quilters, that combines music, dance and drama. It runs Aug. 14 to 23 to coincide with the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival. Also, the travelling Driftwood crew known as Wagon Tales will take their story theatre to local parks and festivals. More about these productions can be seen at www.driftwoodplayers.ca.
