Players grateful to be able to help PHC

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Gabriola Sounder 5 August 2018

Like every other performing arts group, Gabriola Players has been hit hard by the pandemic. Two of their four performances of their annual One-Act Play Festival were cancelled in March, as was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which they’d planned to perform at the Commons in July, with half of the ticket sales going (as always with their Shakespeare readings) to support People for a Healthy Community.

Another victim in March was an acting workshop the Players had planned to offer with Tamara Gorski.

Full marks to Tamara, who, with the Gabriola Players workshop cancelled, decided on her own to offer acting classes on Zoom (a platform of which few of us had ever heard, let alone used prior to lock down). These workshops led to Tamara forming her group Gabriola Green Room and filming readings of a one-act play and a number of monologues, which were broadcast with a viewing fee in early July.

Tamara, who performed with Gabriola Players in the March 2019 production of Whisking Eggs by Jackie Lines, very thoughtfully offered the Players the $250 proceeds from her filmed broadcast.

Times are indeed tough. No one has any idea when live theatre will be feasible again. (As heartbreaking as it was for the Gabriola Players board to make the decision, there will be no pantomime at the Community Hall to kick off the festive season this winter.)

Times are even tougher for others. Never before has the work People for a Healthy Community does on Gabriola been more important. There are families on the island who might not have enough to eat if it weren’t for PHC. For that reason (and because the pandemic prevented them from making their usual Shakespearean donation) Gabriola Players decided to pass on the $250 they’d recently received to support this invaluable work.

Gabriola Players would like to thank Tamara Gorski for her generosity and hopes that those who can will also help PHC help others.

Miranda Holmes (right) of Gabriola Players presents a cheque for $250 to Brenda Fowler, PHC Executive Director.