Gift to Performing Arts Centre underscores it’s importance to rural New Brunswick

The Fredericton Playhouse is beloved by many – and it has served us well over the past six decades.

But here’s a statistic that may surprise you: even with an impressive 1 in 5 Fredericton households attending an event at the Playhouse each year, a full 50% of annual ticketholders live outside of the City of Fredericton. 

Patrons come from all along the Wolastoq/St. John River Valley and from rural communities across the central and western parts of the province, from Geary to Minto to Doaktown to Florenceville to Harvey and everywhere in between.

But it's not even just our region of the province that has benefitted from the success of the Playhouse and our community-building mandate. We work with colleagues across Atlantic Canada to create a collaborative network of performing arts facilities that, together, attract high-quality acts that would not normally add small-city East Coast Canada to their tour lineup.

That’s why it’s especially exciting that the new Performing Arts Centre is designed to be a right-sized, key piece of that network in order to attract even more quality acts to the province as well as provide appropriate space for local artists. Right-sized, modern infrastructure within the Atlantic theatre ecosystem strengthens our position as an intelligent region of Canada, attracting and retaining talent, contributing to the economy and enriching our culture and sense of connectedness.

Greg and Anna MacFarlane, long-time residents of Nackawic, have been involved with the Playhouse for years, and are supporters and advocates for the Performing Arts Centre. In fact, they were among the very first donors to the Encore! campaign for this once-in-a-generation project.

Tim Yerxa with Anna and Greg MacFarlane

Greg and Anna have generously given $50,000 to the Encore! campaign, and in recognition of this outstanding early gift, the green room in the Performing Arts Centre will be called the salon des artistes Greg and Anna MacFarlane Green Room!

Greg and Anna are huge music fans and have given their time and talent to arts and music organizations in the area for years. Greg chaired the board of Fredericton Playhouse Inc. and both are valued volunteers with the Harvest Festival. They strongly believe in supporting artists, so naming the Green Room was a great fit for them. “We ran green rooms for Harvest for over a decade. A happy musician means there will be a great show and happy customers in the audience. So when the opportunity came to support the new Performing Arts Centre, the Green Room made a lot of sense. It’s a special way for us to support the music community and our region.”

Greg, a pharmacist, entrepreneur, developer and community leader, says, “As a long-time resident of Nackawic and owner of regional businesses, I joined and chaired the Playhouse board and championed the new Performing Arts Centre because I know first-hand the important place the Playhouse has had in the social and economic fabric of our communities up and down the river valley. As a child, my parents brought me to Playhouse performances and my daughter blossomed on the stage of the Playhouse as a young performer. Just as the Playhouse has been, the new Performing Arts Centre will be our performing arts facility.”

Greg says that in a region competing with other attractive places in the country and around the world for international talent, it’s essential to have infrastructure for world-class entertainment. “Businesses throughout the River Valley are trying to attract skilled professionals – and to do that we need arts and entertainment. It’s an important piece of a great lifestyle. It’s not a big deal to travel to Fredericton for a show – especially at a world-class venue.”

The Performing Arts Centre will help build stronger communities not just in Fredericton or in western New Brunswick – but throughout our magnificent maritime corner of the globe. It’s one more thing to be proud of in our region.

You can make your own gift to the Encore! campaign for the Performing Arts Centre here.