The little theatre company that could
From rural roots, Drayton has grown to encompass seven theatres and astonishing attendance numbers
Alex Mustakas, the founding artistic director of the small-town not-for-profit Drayton Entertainment, has always known acutely what his theatre company happens to be — and what it happens not to be.
“I say to people, if you’re interested in Shakespeare, come to Drayton — and I will drive you to Stratford,” he laughed recently. “That’s where they do it and they do it well. We do something else.”
And, 25 years after its modest opening, it seems that “something else” — a crowd-pleasing mélange of comedies, musicals and family-friendly fare — has heralded salad days for this rural theatre company.
As Drayton celebrated its 25th anniversary last season, it brought in a total paid attendance of 234,164 — surpassing the esteemed Shaw Festival, which brought in 232,671, although it’s worth noting that Drayton has three more theatres than Shaw,100 more performances per season and a season that runs three months longer. It’s perhaps more telling to compare Drayton’s 822-show season to its first, in 1991, when it staged three productions over nine weeks and sold 14,500 tickets, not enough to fill an NHL arena.
Just before, Mustakas had been studying arts administration at City University in London, England, taking in two shows a week and commiserating with classmates on where his career might carry him next.
“I said I would love to find a country playhouse. I could perform, I could direct, I could manage the place,” he recalled. “It fell into my lap.”
It was indeed a serendipitous union, bringing Mustakas to the tiny town of Drayton, Ont. — with a population under 2,000 and a total area under four square kilometres — and its landmark Drayton Festival Theatre, a regal 1902 opera house that had gradually fallen into disrepair until locals passionately rallied behind its repair.
That passion was clear to Mustakas in his earliest discussions with the community.
“There was a gentleman in the back row, a prominent farmer, who was stone-faced,” Mustakas recalled. “Then he said, ‘Our kids grew up on hockey, but why not expose them to theatre?’ “Then I knew we had something special.”
Back then, Drayton’s core audience “hadn’t been exposed to a lot of theatre,” and Mustakas programmed accordingly, emphasizing musicals and comedies.
While the audience’s appetites have changed since, allowing more dramas into the mix, this season’s programming still tends toward the broadly accessible, including productions of Little Shop of Horrors, Mamma Mia!, All Shook Up, Sister Act, Aladdin and Footloose.
“It’s more populist, but we do it really well,” he said.
“We don’t skimp. We hire the best artists and the best musicians, and our production elements are second to none. So I’m making no excuses for it at all.
“But obviously, I’m not going to program something in Drayton that I would necessarily program at the Tarragon.”
A chat with anyone involved with Drayton seems to inevitably wind up at the concept of community.
“I got the family vibe right away,” said Mamma Mia! director and choreographer David Connolly. “Everybody associated with it cared about the audience and about each other, and that’s an anomaly.”
Well, that community keeps growing. Drayton Entertainment now has seven theatres, ranging from the winsome 100-seat St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre to the 650-seat Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend.
In the early years, staff consisted of Mustakas and a team of volunteers; now, Drayton counts nearly 50 fulltime employees.
Mustakas also proudly notes that Drayton has “never received a penny of operating grants from any level of government.”
It helps that the theatre’s boosters remain generous with their time; last year, Drayton benefited from approximately 24,660 volunteer hours.
“If I’ve taught them anything about theatre, they’ve taught me about community,” Mustakas said.
“It took me many, many years to look up and say, ‘This is quite something.’ ”