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John Chaput said it’s the people that have kept him coming back through the doors of the Regina Little Theatre for the past four decades.
“It is so rewarding to be in a play with other people because you end up producing something that’s much greater than the individual sum of its parts.” said Chaput, the theatre’s president.
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“Everybody makes everybody else better when you’re doing a good production. That’s always been the case in my experience here.”
The Regina Little Theatre is marking its centennial in May of 2026, and celebrations are already kicking off with a provincial play-writing contest.
All playwrights are welcome to submit a one-act comedy between 15 and 30 minutes in length with no more than five characters.
The winner will get their play performed at the theatre’s centennial gala event and win a cash prize of $500. The contest will close on November 1.
Performers practise in the Regina Little Theatre’s rehearsal space. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)
Chaput said the theatre has lifted the curtain on about 860 productions over the years, with more than 2,300 performances. He’s personally been on stage and behind the scenes at the theatre since 1985.
“It’s been a very happy, fun, challenging, satisfying ride,” Chaput said.
The theatre stages five main performances over the course of a season, with each of those productions running for four days.
In the spring and fall, the theatre also puts on one-act cabarets, which include three or four short plays staged over the course of two nights.
Hope Van Vliet, the theatre’s mainstage producer, said the stage has been a place where she can grow, along with so many others.
“This is the most comfortable and welcoming space I’ve ever been in,” she said. “Everyone is so kind, so gentle, and just wants you to learn and improve, and be there to support you while you try new things, even if you think they’re a little scary.”
John Chaput and Hope Van Vliet in the costume department in the Regina Little Theatre. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)
Van Vliet said the theatre has never missed a season since 1926. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she acted in a virtual productions which were broadcast for people to watch from home.
“It really does feel like a family affair, and I think its such a great example of what it means to be someone from Regina, someone from the prairies and have such a great sense of community,” she said.
Almost a century of show business
The Regina Little Theatre made its permanent home in the basement of the Regina Performing Arts Centre in 1989, after rehearsing and performing in many different places around the Queen City for its first several decades of existence.
Chaput said one constant of the theatre is that everyone involved showed up because they wanted to.
“Everybody who has ever done anything for Regina Little Theatre has been an unpaid volunteer,” she said.
“Whether it’s in front of the audience or behind the scenes, they are doing it strictly for the love of theatre.”
All the behind-the-scenes action to bring the shows to life happens in the basement, which contains a large rehearsal space, costume department, carpentry studio and prop storage areas.
The theatre was established in 1926, with the melodramatic farce Officer 666 as its first full-length production. It was first performed at Saskatchewan House, which is now known as Government House.
A photo of the original cast of Officer 666 in 1927. (Regina Little Theatre/Submitted)
Chaput said the theatre operated without a permanent home for the first few decades in numerous places around the city like Darke Hall, Government House, the YMCA, and various high schools.
The theatre has given some performers their first big breaks, Chaput noted.
“We’ve got people who have gone on to great things beyond Regina Little Theatre,” he said. “We are very proud to be associated with them.”
Chaput said he still remembers when Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany graced the stage in Miracle on 34th Street in 1997.
“She was fantastic in it,” he said.
“She’s gone on to a heck of a career.”
Other performers like Shirley Douglas and John Vernon have also performed with Regina Little Theatre, and about 20 other people who have acted with the theatre had credited roles in the well-known Saskatchewan sitcom Corner Gas.
