The rather motley collection of folks pictured above got together at the Evergreen last week to officially launch the Evergreen Renovation. 
Pictured above from the left are Roy Beals (Mid Valley Construction chief project carpenter), Ron Baker (board member), Peter Henry (Peter Henry Architects), David O’Leary (Evergreen manager) and Peter Gillis (operations manager, Mid Valley Construction).
Foundation work should begin shortly and if all goes well our official opening should be sometime this fall. As most of the work will not effect the auditorium we do not expect that any of our upcoming shows will be affected.
We will have a few special guests at the Evergreen on Wednesday at the Young’Uns concert. West Nova MP Colin Fraser will be in attendance with a representative from Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA, our major funder) to wish us well on the project. There also may be representatives from the Province and the Municipality, both of whom were also major supporters.
We at the Evergreen are very excited that after more than three years of work we are finally here!
The Official Announcement
Evergreen Theatre in East Margaretsville is excited to announce that our long anticipated addition will become a reality in 2017. After sixteen years of hosting a wide variety of the performing arts from Nova Scotia, the rest of Canada and beyond we are looking forward to upgrading our theatre to offer proper washrooms, dressing rooms and other amenities.
We are happy to salute the 150th birthday of Canada (almost as old as our building), and fittingly major funding of $100,125 is being provided to this project by the Government of Canada through the Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program (CIP150). An additional $50,000 has come from the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. Other amounts have been received from business (notably RBC, Scotiabank and Investors) and many individuals.
Construction will start this spring as soon as weather allows. Meanwhile a last fundraising initiative aimed at the community will take us over the top of our financial commitment to this project.
As you may see (if you were paying attention) our planned addition has shrunk somewhat from our initial grander plans. We have kept our bold design and are still focusing on the essentials, those being washrooms, a dressing room and a modest lobby with a servery for the Middleton Band Association’s coffee and sweets (and perhaps something a bit more potent).
The interior of the auditorium will remain relatively untouched. The previous front door will remain as an emergency exit and the box office will most probably be converted to a sound and light booth. The main entrance will be off the new front deck.
The five (to code) new bathrooms will each bestand alone and gender free. Finally the Evergreen will be fully accessible and barrier free.
While we do have the funds on hand to complete the addition we are not quite finished with our fundraising. To get to this point we have raised and actually spent $60,000 on a septic system and numerous fees and studies. We have another $25,000 on hand that we have also raised.
In order to guarantee that this project would be finished on schedule (a requirement of our funders) we did take out a temporary line of credit (yet untouched) of $30,000. We do not wish to access this credit line if at all possible, and we certainly cannot afford to maintain it if we do. So we are doing one further funding push and appealing to all our supporters to dig deep in the next while.
https://chuffed.org/project/evergreen-theatre-addition
Gala scheduled for early May 2017
Our Evergreen Annual Dinner Gala will take place on May 7th
Dinner will begin at the Margaretsville Community Hall at 6 pm with a concert scheduled for the Evergreen at 8 pm. The Band that evening will be Eh440.
Tickets are $100 each. For this ticket you attend the dinner and show that evening and you also become a Gala Passholder which entitles you to invitations to three or more 2017 shows at the Evergreen (our choice). You will also receive a charitable tax receipt for $50 per ticket.
Tickets must be purchased at Scotiabank’s Middleton or Greenwood branches. If this presents a difficulty please contact us and we will work something out.
Tickets for the show only ($25) may be available. Please contact us.
Menu for May 7
- First Course: A selection of Mediterranean starters
- Second Course : Salmon baked in Filo with Spring vegetables
- Dessert and Coffee at the Evergreen before the show (no charge)
Cash bar available
Volunteer Opportunity
Because of our Gala rescheduling and busy lives, we find ourselves a bit short of helping hands for Gala dinner preparation. If you can spare a few hours on May 6th and or 7th we would love to hear from you.
Gala Pass
Included as part of your admission to the Gala is the Annual Gala Pass
The Gala Annual Pass give you admission to our special Gala Dinner (menu to be announced) at the Margaretsville Community Hall (Dinner at 6pm) and to the Eh440 concert following at the Evergreen at 8 pm.
This pass also entitles you to invitations to at least three free shows in 2017 (our choice and probably more than three, as we offered at least four to passholders last year).
Please order your tickets at either Scotia Bank Greenwood or Scotia Bank Middleton
Members and or Volunteers.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the Fundy Folk Association please e-mail us at evergreentheatre@gmail.com (or phone us at 902-825-6834) and we will send you an application form. These forms will also be available at the AGM.
