In the Beginning — Regency Theatre | Grand Bahama's Finest Performing Arts Centre

In 1961, the Freeport Players’ Guild was officially formed with the following board members: Sir Jack Hayward, President; John Slack, Vice President; Patricia Bloom, Secretary; Betty McConville, Treasurer; and William MacNeill, David Brooks, Peter Aston, Raymond McNeill, Martin Sinsley as Directors.

The Pioneers of the Freeport Player’s Guild and Regency Theatre

You glance at your theatre tickets up by your mirror as you do your last bit of fixing up. You’re excited to be going to the Sea Craft Building to see a theatre production on Grand Bahama.

As your car pulls into the makeshift parking lot on the gravel off Fishing Hole Road, you see ladies carefully lift their gowns to avoid the mud as they enter the tin-roofed building. After presenting your ticket and saying hello to friends, you sit on a folding metal chair. The show begins, but so does the rain! The actors raise their voices to be heard above the pound of raindrops on the metal roof. It is a quick shower, thankfully. But wait, an airplane is approaching. The actors must stop mid-sentence, wait for the airplane to rumble past overhead as the metal roof resonates, then resume where they left off.

EARLY DAYS: Sir Jack Hayward, Rose Carson, Andrea Gottlieb, and Peter Aston

These were the humble beginnings of theatre on Grand Bahama.

A dedicated group of individuals (mostly British) who had a love for theatre began and kept theatre alive on Grand Bahama, and fortunately for us, it is still thriving today.

It wasn’t until 1971 that the Regency Theatre was built, opening with the Guild’s production of The Importance of Being Ernest. In 1973, the Freeport Players’ Guild was proud to welcome Prince Charles as a visitor to the Regency Theatre.

In 1991 and 1992 renovations were necessary to keep the building in good repair. There have been many changes and improvements over the years, the largest renovation project taking place in 1991 -1992.

In 1996 the theatre celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a special Stroll Down Memory Lane production, when the auditorium was renamed in honor of Peter Aston, Sir Jack’s acting side kick.

Then the weather changes

In 2005 Hurricanes Frances and Jean hit Grand Bahama and we suffered flooding, and had to do major repairs to the auditorium, although nowhere near the devastation that we have today. We again enjoyed fair weather and stood up to any storms that came our way.

In 2009 we had a full renovation of the Foyer. It was gutted and completely redecorated. Sir Jack Hayward our generous benefactor was in attendance, he was so proud of his baby.

Stage and Dressing Room

In 2011 we celebrated 50 years of the Freeport Players’ Guild and 40 years of the Regency Theatre with a gala evening of excerpts from shows performed at the Regency. It was truly magical evening.

YARD GROUP

Founded by the Freeport Players’ Guild in 2013, the Young Adults Regency Drama (YARD) Group comprises members between the ages of 18 and 35 who are trained in all aspects of theatre with the goal of continuing the tradition of live theatre on Grand Bahama. Recruiting these young adults is its on reward. They are very talented and enthusiastic about carrying the torch into the future.

Went without incident until Hurricane Matthew in 2016. There were minor repair and we have had to put all our productions on hold as we honoured our rental agreements . However we had a thriving Summer Camp programme to mold young thespians which was quite satisfactory for the time being. Over the years, we did manage to produce two plays by a local playwright and Guild member, A major musical and again our summer camp programme in 2018.

We are also a favourite for schools to acquire community service hours for their students. At right is Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Academy.

We have had the pleasure of hosting Robert Kennedy, Jr of Martha Vineyard’s Kennedy fame. He is an advocate for clean water and he came as guest of Bahamas Water Keepers franchise.

The Theatre’s air conditioning system was limping along for quite a few years and with the aid of donations and a telethon, we raised enough funds to install new ac’s this Summer to the sum of 97,000.00. Installation was completed on August 28th, 2019.

… And along came Hurricane Dorian, therefore we had brand new AC system and no theatre. Hence our dilemma. We are greatly in need of funds as we lost EVERYTHING that we had accumulated over the decades, amount is conservatively about $400,000 to $500,000.00.

The stage was literally raised from its foundation. In the end the entire auditorium held six feet of water. It pummeled our bandstand, chairs are all molding and every piece of electronics in the sound booth and tech room was lost. In addition, the office, the accessory room, workshop, wardrobe and prop rooms were also casualties of Dorian.

Damage by Hurricane Dorian

All chairs must be removed and replaced. Electrical panels were covered b y five feet of water. The office was hit badly, as was our tech room (all electronics and equipment was submerged in salt water), accessory and props room, workshop and the green room.

The green room is rented out to an amazing dance school, and we would love to have them back in order to bring some normalcy to her students.

Below are some before clean up and after photos. We still have a long way to go, but at least we got started.

The Clean up crew

Regency Theatre is the performing hub of the Northern Bahamas and stands out as the only purpose-built performing arts theatre in the entire country, outside of a hotel. Well equipped with a massive stage, extensive lighting and sound facilities and large preparations areas. Regency Theatre is an outstanding resource for the performing arts, concerts, visual presentations, conferences and other special events.

The Regency Theatre is definitely a building that holds wonderful memories and a rich theatrical arts history for Grand Bahama. It’s had good-to-great years, and years when it was difficult to keep the theatre going, but with the help of many dedicated persons over the years, we still hope to enjoy live entertainment for many years to come.