by AMY BARRATT

They’ve come a long way from the big white tent.

Six summers ago, when I first started covering theatre for the Mirror, one of the first shows I went to was a murder-mystery called The Woman in Black, at Hudson’s Village Theatre West (in actual fact the tent was pitched across a municipal border in St-Lazare). The facilities were rudimentary and the season short, but even then, artistic director Heather Markgraf-Lowe had her sights set on bigger and better things. Today, Village Theatre West, located in Hudson’s old train station, is a comfortable, cozy theatre facility that operates year-round.

The theatre’s bread and butter is still its summer season which, like théâtre d’été everywhere, tends not to be heavy or avant-garde. They’ve recently opened Here on the Flight Path, a comedy by Canadian Norm Foster, a darling of the summer-theatre circuit. Markgraf-Lowe herself did a turn last month as the lead in Shirley Valentine. Next up is another Foster comedy, Maggie’s Getting Married, to be directed by the Centaur’s Gordon McCall.

Markgraf-Lowe admits that there are some limits on what she can program at the theatre because of her core audience. This tends to be couples in their 50s and up who are looking to be entertained and also expect a certain calibre of performance. Most come from the Hudson area and the West Island, as well as from Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. It’s not the same audience that goes to downtown theatre, though there is some overlap. "People who have subscriptions at the Centaur or the Saidye come to our shows and think we’re just as good," Markgraf-Lowe says proudly. To date, VTW doesn’t even have a student rate, but their regular ticket price, $20, is very reasonable.

The material may be a little fluffy, but there’s no doubt VTW is now attracting some of the finest talent in the Montreal area. Flight Path, for instance, stars Danielle Desormeaux and Chip Chuipka. "People are calling me to audition now," says Markgraf-Lowe. "We work them hard - it’s eight shows a week - but people like working here."

The energetic AD goes to as many shows as she can in and around Montreal and is constantly networking. In the past year, Gravy Bath Productions has done work at VTW, and David Fennario brought his Perimeters there for a couple of performances. Actor Daniel Giverin first performed the one-man show, ANight in November, before a VTW audience. Next season, he will reprise the piece by Irish playwright Marie Jones at the Saidye. VTW’s summer season actually extends into the fall, and it’s then that Markgraf-Lowe sneaks in the more meaty theatrical offerings. Last September, VTW premiered Trevor Ferguson’s Beach House, Burnt Sienna, in a co-production with infinitheatre. This September she has programmed Spring Planting, by another Montreal playwright (originally from Saskatchewan), Kit Brennan. Indeed, British ex-pat Markgraf- Lowe is a huge supporter of Canadian and Quebec drama. "I’m determined to always be going somewhere," she says.

Over the past eleven years, Village Theatre West has done just that.

VTW’S HERE ON THE FLIGHT PATH, TO JULY 29; MAGGIE’S GETTING MARRIED, AUG. 5–24; SPRING PLANTING, SEPT. 8–28, ALL AT VILLAGE THEATRE WEST (OLD TRAIN STATION, HUDSON), (450) 458-5361 OR WWW.VILLAGETHEATRE.CA

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