ELK POINT – The Elk Point and District Choral Society was still in its earliest stages in March 1994, when society member Don Conrad took to the stage in its very first dinner theatre production, ‘The Truth About Cinderella’. That surprising truth included the fact that Cinderella not only had a cruel stepmother and two tiresome stepsisters – she had a father, Sir James, and Conrad was it.
That play was a roaring success, and through almost three decades of dinner theatres since then, the venue moving from the Elk Point Elementary School auditorium to the Allied Arts and Leisure Centre, Conrad has played a wide variety of roles in all the extremely popular dinner theatres that followed, some years with both spring and pre-Christmas performances.
Conrad’s roles were many and varied, ranging from Jean Valjean in ‘Les Miserables’ to Jed Clampett in ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and Felix Unger in ‘The Odd Couple’, and when he wasn’t on stage as a performer, and sometimes even when he was, he also served as the play’s director. This year, he’s the director of ‘Farce of Habit,’ which opened for three performances this past weekend and has two more to go this Friday and Saturday evenings.
These starring roles, as well as his continued role in the vocal group that later evolved into the Elk Point Community Choir, have continued through the years, with Conrad one of the few originals in the drama group, along with Udo Mueller and Mabel Gottenbos, who have continued to entertain delighted audiences through the years.
A Volunteer Week salute to Conrad and his talented lineup of thespians and vocalists, who share their talents to support the operation of their beloved Allied Arts facility, and take their payment in the audience’s applause.
