Arts and Entertainment

Theatre Orangeville and the community celebrate David Nairn’s contributions as artistic director

June 19, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Over 150 people attended a party on Monday (June 16) that had been kept a close secret as a surprise for David Nairn, artistic director of Theatre Orangeville. Nairn passes the job to Jennifer Stewart on July 1. Stewart has spent the last six months learning the intricacies of how this theatre has worked under Nairn for the past 26 years and it will be her responsibility to decide how it will carry on.

The mood in the Monora Pavilion was euphoric with the glad greetings of theatre people who have known Nairn – and each other – for years, some for decades. What they all have in common is their association with Theatre Orangeville, where they wrote plays or acted in them; the creative teams who put the plays on the stage; and the staff who have worked for years at the theatre.

Everyone had a story or many memories of Nairn’s brilliance as a director, his vision of what a theatre should be, namely the heartbeat of the broader community in which it stands. The initiatives Nairn inspired have placed Theatre Orangeville as a unique organization in Canada.

The highlight of the party was the speakers who had been invited to tell their own versions of Nairn’s time at the theatre.

Before this very fine parade began and in order to draw the attention of the crowd and still the heady flow of conversation, Elisabeth DuBois stood near the podium and sang the opening lines to “For Good” from Wicked. It only took a few seconds for hers to be the only voice and a few seconds for the singer across the room to sing the lyrics in response – then, in seconds more, members and alumni from Young Company joined and the lovely song became rich and David Nairn was rich in the affection he received in all those song-filled moments.

Jim Betts, the founding artistic director in 1994, brought the tribute poem he penned and read it to the assembled crowd. The story begins with Betts himself, inspired but not quite able to make the money work for the theatre as a summer theatre. After five years of trying, he approached David Nairn, whom he had known and worked with for several years.

In 1999, Nairn took on the task of artistic director and began by changing Theatre Orangeville to a regional theatre with a full five-play season from October to May, including a significant production for the Christmas season.

Two years ago, Nairn replaced traditional Christmas stories with a holiday Pantomime. He even co-writes them with Debbie Collins. The two productions so far have each filled the house for most performances during a full month’s schedule.

Betts’ poem touches on all this with lines like “…the town did need/a director most artistic./But then he appeared/Blond hair and a beard/And the women went ballistic…”

There were three “generations” of artistic directors attending the event: Jim Betts, David Nairn and Jennifer Stewart all in one place.

Avery Saltzman, co-artistic director of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre in Toronto, told us that he had met Nairn in 1976 at university, and they’ve enjoyed “50 years of friendship.” He noted the projects on which they had collaborated over all that time. Among them, Saltzman had performed a number of times on the Theatre Orangeville main stage, most memorably, perhaps, in Norm Foster’s “Kiss the Sun, Kiss the Moon.”

Truly Nairn’s cup flowed to very full in the number of folk who stood at the podium mic to tease, praise and add snatches of history.

A note from Norm Foster talked about the play he wrote specifically for himself and Nairn to perform and tour, “Jonas And Barrie In The Home,” which they did, numbering an impressive 206 performances.

It is a list of speakers too long to number the details they brought. But among them was Nancy Frater, the long-time owner of BookLore, with whom Nairn established the New Play Development Program. Basically sponsored by the Authors on Stage feature, the program has given Theatre Orangeville the thrill of seeing some of the country’s most august authors. 

All of them show up here as invited by Frater, whose charm and powers of persuasion apparently none of them can resist.

Orangeville Mayor Lisa Post, along with Council, awarded Nairn by naming the Orangeville Opera House stage the David Nairn Stage at the ‘Twas the Night Gala,’ last November. She had little more to add to her remarks at the time but wanted to say that she would miss his morning call at the town hall offices, “Good morning, your worshipfulness!”

Sylvia Jones, MPP for Dufferin–Caledon, spoke briefly about her appreciation and admiration for his passion for making arts so vital in Orangeville.

It reached the point where many had spoken and each had hugged and been hugged by Nairn when the man himself took the floor, disdaining the mic. This celebration was a surprise for Nairn, so he had no notes but he has always spoken from the heart. This heart needs no notes.

He talked primarily about how only with the full support of the company, none of Theatre Orangeville’s landmarks would have been possible.

“I’m not the one who has done all this,” he declared, arms spread wide, ”you are – but for your hard work and unflinching support – none of this could have happened,.”

He told the Citizen about being contacted by Theatre Orangeville to come for an interview for the position of artistic director. He and Leisa Way were living and acting in Detroit. They were all but applying for their green cards but he came to Orangeville; then, came a second call to come for another conversation; but the third time, they asked him and they asked him to “bring Leisa.”

“Because they knew,” he told her directly while including all of us, “how important you are to me, I couldn’t have done this job without you – 26 years, the two of us living it through.”

And he told her – he told us, “Leisa, I love you!”

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