Image: A film still showing a scene from Brigadoon (SPRA 0477.04.03.01, Fonds 477: Eaglesham and District Drama Club fonds)
Movie Monday highlights videos from the Archives’ film collection. Every week, an archival film will be featured on our YouTube channel and here on our blog. The Movie Monday project is made possible with the generous funding support of Swan City Rotary Club of Grande Prairie.
This week’s video features an excerpt from a 1985 musical entitled Brigadoon, produced by Grande Prairie Little Theatre. Brigadoon first appeared on Broadway in 1947, telling the story of two American tourists who visited Scotland and discovered the mystifying village of Brigadoon – a village that only appeared for one day out of every one hundred years.
The Grande Prairie Little Theatre was formed in 1963 when the Grande Prairie Players and the Operatic Society joined forces. However, this was not the beginning of live theatre in Grande Prairie. In the early 1930’s, a variety of musical and theatre groups were active in the community. Many of these groups were disbanded during the Second World War, but even then, churches would put on shows for the community to lift their spirits.
The Grande Prairie Players were formed in 1958, five years before merging with the Operatic Society. Since 2001, the Grande Prairie Little Theatre has been known as the Grande Prairie Live Theatre.