By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  October 23, 2012   It was a lovely fall afternoon; people were out and about – and hundreds, close to 1000 actually gathered at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre to walk around the place and kick the tires and look into every nook and cranny they could find.  Few if any were disappointed.

The Burlington Teen Tour Band took over the Family Room of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre the day the city turned the building over to the community.

There was a festive sense to the day – all the politicians were there but all they were able to do was say hello to people they knew and to people who wanted to know them.

Mayor Rick Goldring was very much the man of the moment even though the building that was being handed over symbolically to the Burlington Theatre Board got its genesis from two men who asked the right question and motivated people to begin something that resulted in the building we have today that sits on a site that used to house the city`s police station.

Babies and politicians - something magnetic about the two. Here Burlington MP Mike Wallace greets a little one. Some day that child will vote..

One citizen, pushing his Mother in a wheelchair wanted to say hello to the Mayor and did so – the Mother had a shamrock pin in the lapel of her jacket which the Mayor picked up on and asked is she was Irish – she was Irish and the conversation was amiable, the kind of thing that takes place at events like this – and then they asked – when the Pier was going to open – the Mayor just can`t get away from that one.  He now has an answer – sometime in 2013.

One couple mentioned that a restaurant north of the Centre was sold to the current owners by her Father. `That used to be where our orchard was`, she commented and her husband added Ì used to come to the police station that was on this site for my papers to be a volunteer.

Actors from Burlington Student Theatre were on hand for the turning over of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.

Everyone had a comment, hundreds picked up a cup cake or a cup of coffee and just milled around until the Burlington Teen Tour Band marched into the building through glass doors on the east side that opened up fully to the plaza.  And in they came – all the redcoats you would ever want to see in one place.  They played a couple of tunes and marched smartly out the building.  The Main Theatre has great sound and we now know that the Family Room has even greater sound.  The sound from those drums reverberated off the walls and just filled the large hall.

David Vollick, the Town Crier for Burlington did his first official gig for the city and read out the proclamation that had the symbolic key to the building placed in the hands of the Burlington Theatre Board president Allan Pearson.  Didn’t see Pearson turn over the $1. annual rent to the city – perhaps that cheque is in the mail.

Our Town Crier was at his very best – a full force voice boomed out as he read the proclamation.

“Oyez, Oyez, Oyez” he began.

“Citizens of Burlington draw near and bear witness to an historic event in the growth of our fair city.

Today we celebrate the beginning of a new era for comedy, tragedy, aye for theater in all its forms in our newest and most favourably furnished facility –

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre.

It was a proud day for former Mayor Walter Mulkewich, standing center with his hands in his pockets. The Centre has been a gleam in his eye for more than 20 years.

Mayor Goldring and his wife look on as the Burlington Teen Tour Band entertains hundreds in the family Room of the Centre.

The centre is a gift from the City of Burlington to all the citizens of our fair city. It will encourage local talent of both our performers and our technical producers and will draw performers from across the great Country of Canada, and also from the world at large — to grace its stage.

To mark the significance of this occasion His Worship –

Rick Goldring – The Mayor of Burlington, will present the Symbolic Key to the Performing Arts Center to Mr. Allan Pearson — Chairman of the Board of Directors.

I call forth His Worship Mayor Goldring”

And with that the Mayor came on stage and the transfer and presentation of the key began.  The building was now in the hands of the Burlington Theatre Board which is the organization that oversees the working of the staff at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.  But the building is still very much a people place..  With the Burlington Teen Tour Band having sort of blessed the place with its sound people were milling about as if they were on a village square meeting friends and chatting away.  The chatter and the exchanging of gossip was all part of the day.  Our Theatre had been launched and the people of the city were there to witness the event.

Sometime in December there will be a very fancy $400. a ticket event and then the Centre will move into its Christmas Season program.  The Nutcracker Suite has been sold out.  Stuart McLean’s The Vinyl Café was sold out and – an additional performance added and it too was sold out.  Both are tried and true events.  As we move into 2012 the staff at the Centre can begin to bring in more innovative programs and begin to stretch the artistic imaginations of the community.  Expect some birth pangs.