McMaster to be on hand for theatre grand opening

Juno award-winner Natalie McMaster has been signed on as the main act for the grand opening gala of the community auditorium, a.k.a. the Townsend Theatre, which goes Sept. 20.
McMaster, a renowned fiddler, will be bringing in a six piece Celtic band to do two concerts in honour of the event.
Her stop here on Sept. 20 will mark the beginning of her four-week long Western Canada Tour.
John Dutton, co-chair of the community auditorium committee, said a catered champagne reception is being held for both of the concerts, with a ribbon cutting ceremony being held for the first concert.
“Dignitaries hopefully will be coming,” Dutton said, noting the committee invited reps from the Northern Heritage Funding Corporation, past and present council members, local MP Bob Nault and MPP Howard Hampton, plus an invitation has been extended to Premier Mike Harris.
“We don’t know who’s all coming at this point,” Dutton said.
Reserved seating tickets for the event go on sale Monday at both the High School and Northwoods Gallery for $50 apiece. Dutton had a feeling ticket sales would go fast.
“[McMaster] came with ‘tour de Fort’ as an add on a few years ago, and she had 600 people at the curling rink,” he said, noting McMaster is releasing a new CD next week.
“And she also hosted the July 1 gala at Ottawa on TV,” Dutton said. “She’s a great personality.”
Dutton also expected many of those who donated to the auditorium project to buy tickets, hence the reason for doing two shows.
“We’ve got close to 800 people that made sizable donations to the auditorium,” he said. “To do one show and say we’ve got 430 seats, take your chances, just didn’t cut it.”
Meanwhile, the finishing touches continue to be done on the auditorium. All the sound and light equipment is on site and should be installed by the end of this week, Dutton said.
The only other item after that is to finish the surfacing on the stage, and the theatre will be complete.
“It’s exciting,” Dutton said, noting he’s been working on the auditorium proposal since 1994. “I finish school in June and it’s usually two months to get your breath–I’ve been excited to get back to school since I’ve gotten out of school.”
Dutton admitted there were some frustrations along the way to getting a completed facility but the support from the town has always been there.
He was certain people weren’t going to be disappointed when they see the end result.
“People are going to be thrilled because this is a professional theatre in Fort Frances,” he said. “It isn’t a ‘rinky-dinky’ theatre.”
Once the theatre itself is completed, the auditorium committee wants to get the recognition plaques in as soon as possible.
“There will be plaques on the seats and in the lobby of the theatre,” Dutton said. “I don’t know if they’ll be ready or not for the 20th, but we’re going to try.”