Six million spectators and counting
Mermaid Theatre achieves performance milestone, launches new program for schools
Hot on the heels of reaching a significant milestone in its history, Mermaid Theatre is launching a new initiative that will benefit students from across the province.
Theatre Beyond Classrooms starts next week and through it, students will be able to watch live theatre at a fraction of the cost.
“That initiative is to allow schools to come here with their students to see our theatre for young audience productions either at a subsidized rate or free of cost to the school,” said Danny Everson, Mermaid Theatre’s general manager.
“As much as Mermaid Theatre is well-known, I think sometimes money gets in the way of things and we don’t want that to be an issue anymore (for schools),” he said.
On April 18, Windsor Elementary School will be the first to benefit from the innovative program. The students will be watching, free of charge, Manxmouse — a production from Kwatta Theatre, of the Netherlands.
Although the Windsor-based business already welcomes schoolchildren on a regular basis, they’re hoping Theatre Beyond Classrooms will increase that number — and introduce the fine arts to more children from areas like the Valley and Halifax.
Whether watching one of Mermaid Theatre’s beloved plays, or seeing an international performance in downtown Windsor, Everson said students reap the benefits.
“Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See and the Very Hungry Caterpillar are part of North American reading curriculum. It’s really fantastic for teachers to have that as an outreach program that they can then teach the children the book inside the classroom and then see it represented visually on stage,” said Everson.
“It adds, I think, to their education tenfold.”
Reaching a milestone
Sara Lee Lewis, who cofounded the theatre in 1972 with Tom Miller and the late Evelyn Garbary, currently serves as the organization’s public affairs con- sultant.
When they were sitting around her kitchen table in Wolfville discussing forming the theatre, she said she never imagined the theatre would go on to reach so many people.
“We got a grant, we set up an office in my house and we took the first steps. We hired 10 of Evelyn’s graduating students and we started the company,” recalled Lewis.
That group of students toured the province in a modified school bus.
The first school they performed for was in Aldershot.
“We started out doing an adaptation of a Gogol short story called the Nose, which Tom had adapted. It had lovely puppets and masks in it,” said Lewis.
“The masks and puppets allowed us to have a cast that was much bigger than our 10 people.”
They charged the schools they visited $15 that first year.
Since its humble beginnings, Mermaid Theatre, which is headquartered in Windsor, has grown to become a household name not just in Canada, but around the world.
“Now it’s 46 years later, we’ve played to six million people in 19 countries, on four continents,” said Lewis, smiling.
The theatre currently has four touring companies on the road — each one performing a staple show for Mermaid Theatre: The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Classics; The Rainbow Fish; Guess How Much I Love You and My Little Storybook; and Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.
The theatre troupe’s six millionth spectator was recorded in March when a Goodnight Moon company was at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, Somerville, New Jersey.