History of Globe Productions
Globe Productions was originally started in1964, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, hence the name Globe.
Globe’s precursor was the Georgetown Rotary Minstrel Show, headed by Ralph Ursel, who acted as its producer, musical director and general dogsbody.
The members of the Rotary put on black face makeup and were backed up by a female chorus (not blackface) Members of that chorus are still with us today – Vera Macdonald, Edna Ferguson and Edna Turnbull.
Maureen Walker’s first involvement was typing out the jokes for the guys to put inside of their straw hats (she worked for one of the Rotary members). When Maureen found out that she could write new words to old songs, she became part of the writing team. This was in the late 1950s. Even then, blackface became politically incorrect, and the show switched to a musical review, still written by Ralph, Maureen and a few others.
For some unknown reason, it was decided to switch to English Pantomimes, and at the same time, Globe was born.
Rehearsals took place in various locations – old warehouses, gas stations etc. Scenery was made and painted in an old barn in Glen Williams and paintbrushes were washed by breaking ice in the Credit River and squatting on the bank with the brush in the water.
The pantos were preformed in the Secondary School on Kennedy Road in Brampton, because it had a decent stage. In the English tradition, we opened on Boxing Day. We did this for 3 years – Dick Whittington, Aladdin and Babes in the Wood. The scripts were imported from England and extremely corny.
Sandy Greig was Dick Whittington and the non-Brits had trouble with the concept of girls playing the parts of men, and the Dame being a man. On the 4th year we did Finian’s Rainbow with Lois Fraser playing the part of a child – she was 12). After that we did My Fair Lady.
Ralph had a serious car accident and a change of career so the organization then ran out of steam. It went into abeyance until 1981, when the John Elliott Theatre was built in Georgetown. We were off and running again!
With Ralph still at the helm, we did Anything Goes, followed the next year by Oklahoma! One show a year seemed enough in those days. We were incorporated under the name of Georgetown Globe Productions, which is still our official name, although, we have recently unofficially added Musical to our name (Georgetown Globe Musical Productions - GGMP). Ralph stepped down after a few years and we have had a variety of Musical Directors since.
2008 was the birth of our Youth Company and with that; we are now presenting 4 shows a year.
Rehearsal space and set building/storage has always been a problem. We have been all over town, but our present space at Norval has been the best. We look forward to moving into the Old Armoury on the Georgetown Fair Grounds next year.
Download complete list of Globe plays >>
Globe’s precursor was the Georgetown Rotary Minstrel Show, headed by Ralph Ursel, who acted as its producer, musical director and general dogsbody.
The members of the Rotary put on black face makeup and were backed up by a female chorus (not blackface) Members of that chorus are still with us today – Vera Macdonald, Edna Ferguson and Edna Turnbull.
Maureen Walker’s first involvement was typing out the jokes for the guys to put inside of their straw hats (she worked for one of the Rotary members). When Maureen found out that she could write new words to old songs, she became part of the writing team. This was in the late 1950s. Even then, blackface became politically incorrect, and the show switched to a musical review, still written by Ralph, Maureen and a few others.
For some unknown reason, it was decided to switch to English Pantomimes, and at the same time, Globe was born.
Rehearsals took place in various locations – old warehouses, gas stations etc. Scenery was made and painted in an old barn in Glen Williams and paintbrushes were washed by breaking ice in the Credit River and squatting on the bank with the brush in the water.
The pantos were preformed in the Secondary School on Kennedy Road in Brampton, because it had a decent stage. In the English tradition, we opened on Boxing Day. We did this for 3 years – Dick Whittington, Aladdin and Babes in the Wood. The scripts were imported from England and extremely corny.
Sandy Greig was Dick Whittington and the non-Brits had trouble with the concept of girls playing the parts of men, and the Dame being a man. On the 4th year we did Finian’s Rainbow with Lois Fraser playing the part of a child – she was 12). After that we did My Fair Lady.
Ralph had a serious car accident and a change of career so the organization then ran out of steam. It went into abeyance until 1981, when the John Elliott Theatre was built in Georgetown. We were off and running again!
With Ralph still at the helm, we did Anything Goes, followed the next year by Oklahoma! One show a year seemed enough in those days. We were incorporated under the name of Georgetown Globe Productions, which is still our official name, although, we have recently unofficially added Musical to our name (Georgetown Globe Musical Productions - GGMP). Ralph stepped down after a few years and we have had a variety of Musical Directors since.
2008 was the birth of our Youth Company and with that; we are now presenting 4 shows a year.
Rehearsal space and set building/storage has always been a problem. We have been all over town, but our present space at Norval has been the best. We look forward to moving into the Old Armoury on the Georgetown Fair Grounds next year.
Download complete list of Globe plays >>
Summer Camp
- Between 1968 and 1981 – Globe was in hiatus
- When Globe shutdown in 1968 – there was around $20.00 in the bank
- The Rebirth of Globe was when the JET (John Elliott Theatre) was built in 1981
- The photo over the glass case in the Norval hall (just outside of the costume room) is Ralph Ursel
- Terry Champ was the Musical Director who started to take over from Ralph Ursel.
- The one show a year was a full musical and would be performed in January/February. Rehearsals started in September
- These shows would SELL OUT. Marilyn Champ worked for Royal LePage and arranged to have the tickets sold by the secretaries at her office. The day tickets went on sale, people would start lining up at 9:00am the in front of Royal LePage office to buy their tickets
- Globe started 2 full musicals a year in 1991 with A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum and My Fair Lady
- Members that are still involved from 1981 are Chris Walker, Maureen Walker, Lois Fraser, Edna Ferguson, Vera Macdonald, and Edna Turnbull.
- Maureen Walker has been the dogsbody (definition: Royal Navy junior officer, or more generally someone who does drudge work. A rough American equivalent would be a "gofer", "scutpuppy", or "grunt")
- Attention all costume mistresses - Maureen Walker loves to do hats and has a passion for costuming in general
- It is an armoury, not armouries or amories
- “Ay Robin” from Babes in the Wood
- The fluorescent strawberry bush and Chris’ adventure behind it.
- George Mitchell’s earring as Aladdin
- A Fairy’s Bra
