A Mission theatre group lost its stage. It's still looking for a new one.

'If we lose the ability to tell our own small stories, we lose a bit of who we are," Opening Nite Theatre president Camille Atebe says, as her theatre troupe fights for a.

Author

Tyler Olsen
November 25, 2024

Opening Nite Theatre has been forced to seek out a new home after a change to Mission’s bylaws. 📷 Tyler Olsen

This story first appeared in the November 25, 2024, edition of the Fraser Valley Current newsletter. Subscribe for free to get Fraser Valley news in your email every weekday morning.

ACT I

The lights come up, illuminating the interior of a small theatre. A city official wearing a hard hat and reflective vest holds a clipboard and looks toward the ceiling. He grimaces in an exaggerated fashion and shakes his head. A woman, the theatre operator, holds her head in distress. Beside her, a wide-eyed young actor looks on with worry in his eyes.

INSPECTOR: Yeeeeeep. You see those sprinklers up there?

THEATRE MANAGER: What sprinklers?

INSPECTOR: Exactly! You need sprinklers.

THEATRE MANAGER: We’ve been renting this space and staging plays here for a decade!

INSPECTOR: Well, this is 2024. You need sprinklers in a theatre. This place is a death trap.

THEATRE MANAGER: A death trap!?!?

INSPECTOR: Well, that’s the official terminology. The building itself is more or less fine, but it’s in violation of at least three provincial building codes so it’s got official Death Trap status that means you can’t stage plays here.

The inspector slaps a prominent red notice over what had been an official-looking sign showing the building’s occupancy limit, prompting an extended moan from the theatre manager.

SCENE

You know what happens next in a fictional play. A community rallies; the building inspector gets some kind of comeuppance; a new relationship is formed; a last-minute problem threatens to doom the whole endeavour; and in the end, a local institution is saved, proving to grumps and idealists alike that a theatre is a vital part of a community.

But real life comes with no guarantee of a satisfying third act, and months after being told its home base of nearly two decades could no longer host plays, Mission’s Opening Nite Theatre continues to search for a happy ending.

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