A.E. Peacock Collegiate’s Centennial Auditorium has been a fixture in the drama and music scene for 92 years, and with its recent renovations, it should serve the community for another century.
Prairie South School Division held an official auditorium re-opening on June 6 — former drama teacher Lyle Johnson was MC — with roughly 70 people packing into the 1931-built theatre to hear speeches, watch several musical and dance performances and view a ribbon cutting.
Afterward, attendees had cake and toured the upgraded venue.
The special performances included a musical theatre piece by Emma Cherney and Kolby Adams performing “Anything You Can Do” from the show Annie, Get Your Gun; a jazz dance from the Doris Sitter School of Dance; a musical theatre piece by Brooke Zarubin singing “This Time” from the show Glee; two songs by the Prairie South Jazz band; and a performance from Dance Images by BJ.
This was the first major auditorium upgrade since 1966, with these renovations occurring in two phases between 2019 and 2020.
The renos included updating the stage rigging, modernizing the stage lighting, installing new fireproof curtains, enhancing the sound system, upgrading the house lighting and replacing all the seating and flooring.
Historic photos of the auditorium and past student drama groups were shown on a screen during the evening, which attracted the attention of sisters-in-law Marj Staples and Muriel Tolley.
When one photo of drama students from around 1971 appeared, Tolley pointed to a girl in the front row — possibly Staples. With a laugh, Staples said that might have been her, but she couldn’t recall since she was in several plays in high school.
The most notable change for the women was the seat upgrades, which added significantly more leg room — there are now 600 beige seats instead of 800 blue and orange ones. Tolley explained that before, if people wanted to leave their seats, others had to stand up or shift their legs to the side. However, those acrobatics are no longer required.
“I think they did a great job (and the theatre is beautiful),” said Staples, adding her family made a significant donation to the project to honour their late mother, Marion.
Prairie South renamed seven rooms to honour the project’s largest sponsors, with two areas named after Kerry DePape and Jacquie Ackerman, who were heavily involved in Peacock’s drama scene years ago.
Ackerman’s family — father Richard, brother Patrick and sister-in-law Donna — gathered in the green room to honour the woman who died in 2018.
“She spent many a day here doing theatre and choir … . And then during the summer holiday, she run something that Lyle worked on called ‘The Moose Jaw Thing,’ and it was all summer theatre,” explained Richard.
“She did that for five (or) 10 years at least because she was in university and she came back and run that.”
Jacquie loved acting and eventually taught theatre and choir at Saskatoon’s Holy Cross High School for 14 years before she worked as a vice-principal for 14 years, her father continued. There were 15 drama students when she began teaching and 115 when she became a vice-principal.
Due to that commitment, Richard and his late wife Agnes — who died in 2022 — wanted to ensure a room was named after their daughter.
Dustin Swanson, superintendent of operations and renewal project chairman, explained that DePape was a well-known resident connected to the school whose family supported fine arts.
“Kerry unfortunately passed away suddenly a few years ago and many people donated in honour of Kerry. And so we feel very blessed to have the opportunity to put something in dedication in Kerry’s name here at the Centennial Auditorium,” Swanson said.
Swanson — who knew DePape and his family well — thought DePape would be impressed with the renovations since they honour past students and staff and ensure future arts opportunities for the community.
