#Yearof50. Entry 8: Aylmer Youth Theatre

So it’s May 1993 and I am on the STO bus between Aylmer (Quebec) and Ottawa. I see a friend from Philemon Wright high school named Stephanie Turner. We get to talking, and by the time we reach our respective stops, Aylmer Youth Theatre is born.

We somehow wrangled in Dave Shoebridge and Mathieu Astieu and we had the founding directors of an amateur theatre company. Our mission was to provide a gathering place for Francophone and Anglophone youth in the Outaouais region to come together through live theatre.

It appeared we helped to fill a vacuum, as we ended up engaging over 60 youth from 6 high schools as talent and production staff (waving to folks like Scarlett Hawthorne, Josh Turner, Geordan Turner, Karen Mackay, Mw Cb, Joelle Lefebvre, and Michel Bailey).

Our debut show “Resurgam” was dedicated to Wendy Glover, and featured a play from our junior company, “The Knight Before Glasses”, and a play from our senior company, “Sisters” (David Curtin might recall an infamously missed lighting cue).

Our second production, “Go Ask Alice”, added Allan Farley (we forgave him for being a Darcy grad) and Michael Wilson to the executive team.

Our third production was “Jitters”, and we added Kevin Payne and the indomitable Jen Curtin to the leadership team.

We also later produced an original murder mystery theatre dinner, “A Shot in the Dark”, on the waterfront.

The video still is from CBC Ottawa’s “Newsday” when yours truly still had hair. I have such fond memories of AYT. Our budget was shoestring, but my nascent fundraising talents always enabled us to get just enough sponsors to run each show. And there were always team members who went above and beyond, offering both financial and labour support, to ensure the show went on.

AYT came at an incredibly challenging time and it literally saved my life. It gave me a purpose and a cause. It gave me hope. It gave me the courage to say I would soldier on. I am eternally grateful to each soul who signed on to the audacious journey that was AYT. You made me fight for a future.

In loving memory of Jim Turner.