The History of Theatre Panache

Theatre Panache was created in 2004 by Heather Markgraf Lowe. Heather was the founder and Artistic Director of Village Theatre West in Hudson and she ran the professional, English speaking non-profit theatre for 11 years, before resigning in 2003. At Village Theatre West she went from producing one play in a tent next to Mon Village Restaurant in St Lazare to renovating the old, historic, railway station in Hudson and converting it into an intimate 149-seat theatre. Village Theatre West now runs year round, offering a full summer season of plays, a Christmas pantomime and more thought provoking plays in the fall and the spring. It plays a very important part in the cultural life of the village of Hudson and surrounding areas, and draws its audience from Montreal and Ottawa.

When Heather Markgraf founded Theatre Panache, she had the rights to the 1940's wartime musical called “Till We Meet Again” by David Langlois. She had been working on the play with the playwright since 2001, and the musical had both a workshop and an Equity production at Village Theatre. In the fall of 2005, “Till We Meet Again” toured the Toronto area and ended up at the War Museum in Ottawa over Remembrance Day. It was a huge success and it was produced again in Montreal in 2006 at the DB Clarke Theatre. Another production in Ottawa in 2008 is in the planning stages.

The second musical Heather plans to tour is a new Canadian musical called “Brigit's Reel” written by Marc Desormeaux and Trish Barclay. It features three multi-talented performers, and is a spirited tale of love and hardship in the first half of the twentieth century. The musical contains a wide range of music, from French Canadian folk songs to the country and western music of Western Canada. Included in the musical are many original tunes by Desormeaux and Barclay. Heather produced the show at the Centaur Theatre in September 2006 and again at The Piggery Theatre in North Hatley in the summer of 2007. She hopes to tour further in 2008.