50 years! How exciting for an all-volunteer, non-profit organization! We are very proud to be part of a vibrant community, bringing live entertainment and performing opportunities. Please join us as we celebrate a long history of theater and fun. Our first production of Season 50 is Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite”- first performed in 1975. Another performance was done in 1987.
Our beginnings
As we celebrate our 50th year we must begin with our founding members, especially Aileen Lau. Every organization needs a driving force and Aileen was the force. In her honor we recognize individuals who have lent their talents to us with the “Aileen Lau Award”. Past recipients are: David Corkum, Barbara Day, Patricia Haddock, Pam Soper, Linda Boutillier, Bill Guy, Sue Adams to name a few.
In researching through the Gateway archives, this article in the Southbridge Evening News by Mark Ashton provides the best insights into what Aileen Lau meant to Gateway Players Theatre and to our community.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
In 1975, upon arriving in Southbridge Aileen Lau said “ ‘What – no theater here? We have to do something about that!’”. According to Elaine Black, a founding member , “I think she put an ad in the paper and got about 60 people to attend a meeting at Holy Trinity Church (in January 1975). She wasted no time.”
Anyone who ever met Aileen Lau knows how instrumental she was in bringing the arts scene to life in Southbridge. With her husband, Ed, president of the Optical Division of the American Optical Co. at the time, she arrived in the Tri-Community about 1974 and – during the next four years – organized theatrical, musical, and other arts-related ventures into what remain vital today as the Quinebaug Valley Council on the Arts and Humanities and Gateway Players.
Not just a behind-the-scenes organizer and delegator, however, she was an orchestrator, at the forefront of whatever project she envisioned. In addition to directing, producing, and spearheading the first few productions for Gateway Players Theatre, she was also active in cleaning, restoration, and beautification projects that ultimately resulted in Southbridge’s being named an All America City about 35 years ago.