MANITOWANING—The cast and crew of the Burns Wharf Theatre Players (BWTP) are in full rehearsal mode as they get ever closer to curtain time of the reprise of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. While the production won’t be at their home base this summer, the dream of taking to the Burns Wharf stage once again is starting to look within reach.
Last week, architects from Castellan James and Partners Architects based out of Sudbury were in Manitowaning, measuring the Burns Wharf in order to prepare drawings for area and dimensional calculations required to undertake Ontario Building Code (OBC) and Ontario Fire Code (OFC) reviews.
The Burns Wharf Theatre became closed to the public last year due to new regulations related to the two codes and the theatre’s inability to meet them, leaving the popular theatre group without a home. Last year was the first summer in over a decade that did not see a full production by BWTP, but the group is back in action for this year, utilizing the space at the Debajehmujig Creation Centre. (There was a series of “best of” events last spring, also at Debajehmujig.)
The cost for the measuring, discussion of issues and proposed solutions with town staff, final report and cost estimate comes in at $9,800 plus disbursement and HST and this is being covered by the municipality.
Elwood Wohlberg, a member of the board of directors of BWTP, was effusive in his praise for Assiginack council for moving forward on this file which has proven to be an important one to the community, as highlighted by a recent community survey.
BWTP has been fundraising since the closure of the Burns Wharf and, so far, has raised a little over $5,000 for the cause. The profits from the production of HMS Pinafore this summer will also go towards the Burns Wharf building fund.
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Assiginack CAO Alton Hobbs confirmed that the architects were on-site last week.
“After, the architect is supposed to plan a schedule in order to get it up to standard,” he said. “We will wait and see what the report says.”
“We are optimistic to say the plan is to move ahead (with getting the Burns Wharf up to code),” Mr. Hobbs added. He noted that it will likely be a multi-year process.
“It’s doubtful that anything will happen this year beyond the report,” the CAO said.
