Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 26/99) - Ten years ago, four Yellowknifers decided to produce a musical. Kate Tompkins, Sue Cross, John Brophy and Mark Mathiesen formed Ptarmigan Ptheatrics and staged their first whopper of a production, The Wizard of Oz.

Ptarmigan Ptheatrics has been producing the spring musical that Yellowknifers have come to love every year since.

"We had all been members of the choral society," remembers the only remaining founding member, Kate Tompkins.

"The choral society was at that point doing musical theatre, as well as concerts. We had had such a good time at whatever the last musical was that we decided that we wanted an organization of our own that would focus just on musical theatre."

By all accounts, putting Wizard of Oz on the stage was not a simple, easy feat.

"None of us had ever done -- we'd acted and we'd sung -- but none of us had ever done the production end," says Tompkins. "So we were bumbling and fumbling around."

Brenda Brinker directed that first show. Asked how it was received, Tompkins says, "People loved it. It was great. There were lots of kids in the show too, because all our munchkins were kids. And the audience, and I remember particularly that Saturday afternoon matinee, it was just packed with kids. And they were just screaming and screeching."

As Tompkins -- who played the witch -- recalls, there was tons of audience participation.

"Whenever I came out the kids would just scream. And they'd yell comments at Dorothy, 'Dorothy watch out the wicked witch is over there!'"

This year's offering by Ptarmigan Ptheatrics is Fiddler on the Roof, to be directed by Christopher Foreman. Foreman has directed every show, save the first.

"He came into town just as we were finishing off with that show," Tompkins explains. So he got involved with our next one."

Christopher Foreman has directed every show since then, though, as Tompkins notes, it is a show-to-show commitment.

With this, their 10th year well under way -- Fiddler is in rehearsal and opens on April 29 -- Tompkins and Co. are launching a fund-raising drive.

In years past, funding their $30,000 (current budget) musical extravaganzas has not been a problem. But Yellowknifers are feeling the pinch these days, and so might Ptarmigan in future. That's why Tompkins hopes those who donate might make a different type of commitment.

"We'll try to get a little bit of a fund," Tompkins says.

"It's difficult to fund-raise year to year, show to show. It would be really nice if we could get a long-term commitment from somebody. Instead of giving us $3,000 this year, commit to giving us $1,000 over three years."

With such classic shows as My Fair Lady, Carousel, Nunsense, Guys & Dolls, and considering the huge popularity of these shows with Yellowknifers, let's hope that sort of stability becomes a wish come true.