Playmaking and Placemaking in Early Prince Albert

Date
2011-04-02
Authors
McWilliams, Ian
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Publisher
University of Regina Graduate Students' Association
Abstract

To explore the panel themes of Creating Community Consciousness and Expanding Knowledge & Creativity, this paper will focus on the Prince Albert Town Hall Opera House. Topics explored will include placemaking in the Town Hall Opera House and its community during the turn-of-the-lastcentury in Saskatchewan, an era of booming settlement and community building on a rapid, perhaps even epic, scale. What did the Town Hall Opera House mean to early Prince Albert? In what ways did the building, and performative events held therein, serve as a point of negotiation for this community’s sense of place? Many of the performative events in the Town Hall Opera House were produced by local, often amateur, entertainers. They were people of the community making entertainment for their community. Beyond the entertainment value of these events, there was often a fundraising purpose to the performances. The performative events took social capital (volunteers’ time and talents) and generated physical capital (funds) as well as more social capital (community good will, social networks, etc.). Local groups often took capital raised by performances to literally build in the community. For example, the Victoria Hospital Ladies’ Aid Society used performances and dances as means to raise the seed money for the building of the region’s first hospital in 1903. Touring, professional shows also played an important placemaking role in the Prince Albert Town Hall Opera House; for the sake of restraint, however, this paper - an example of an ongoing larger study - will focus on locally produced events in early Prince Albert. The Prince Albert Town Hall Opera House was built 1893. It is the earliest example of such a multi-use structure in Saskatchewan and one of the few 19th century examples of such a structure on the prairies. In 1970, the building was converted into an arts centre, and is still in use today.

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Keywords
Placemaking, Drama, Theatre, Saskatchewan, Prince Albert, History, Community, Town hall opera house
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