For more than 40 years, the seats in the Bowness High School theatre have seen countless stage productions, musical shows, and community events.

But it would be hard for visitors to ignore that in places those same seats have become a little threadbare—worn down from use and love, but worn down nonetheless.

A group of parent volunteers are seeking to restore the theatre to its former glory, and have launched a Save a Seat campaign to replace all of the seats in the theatre along with adding technical upgrades for lighting and sound that will make the theatre a community hub for the next four decades.

Jesse Peters, a professional musician and a parent of one of the students at Bowness High School, said that it was hard to underestimate the way a school theatre can foster a love of the arts.

“My whole career has been in the arts, and that love was fostered in an environment like this. Kids having this kind of access to this kind of facility in their school matters,” Peters said.

“This is where kids learn how to execute a vision, learn how to perform under pressure, all those sorts of skills that are so good for later in life happen in this kind of environment. The level of comfort that kids have when they’re able to access this, and be in this kind of space in their own school, is just so important.”

The campaign goal, which is being hosted through Calgary’s trust for public education Education Matters, is $150,000 by June 2025.

“With the theatre this age… there’s little demons that creep in through time, and it’s just an opportunity to address those things,” said Peters.

For $595 each, local businesses, alumni, and Calgary residents can purchase a seat which will then be adorned with a plaque honouring their contribution he said.

“This is a unique facility, and I think definitely for businesses and corporations here in Calgary, if you want a tangible way to leave a legacy in Calgary, and even leave a legacy for the future and the next generation, this is a really cool way to do it,” Peters said.

Legacy and impact

Bowness High School’s drama teacher Gillian Exley and some of her students put on a scene from their November production of Game of Tiaras on Dec. 5, as part of the Save a Seat campaign.

Speaking to LWC, Exley said that the students at the school were fortunate to have a full theatre to perform in, given the trend towards smaller theatre spaces or black boxes for programming.

“This is very unique to us, and we always talk about them being good stewards of the space and how we can have a legacy,” she said.

“We have a lot of students whose parents and grandparents went here, and even though they might not feel the effects of having all of this work done while they’re here, they will definitely have stories to tell for years to come. They still come back and see our shows, and they’ll know the impact that they’ve had.”

She said that one of the questions that was asked of students was where their favourite place in the world was, and more than 90 per cent said the theatre.

“I actually welled up because I was like, what? Even the kids who didn’t want to take this class, they wanted to take, mechanics or something else, they ended up here and they said this is where they feel safe and they feel at home and this is where they feel their family,” Exley said.

“I think that should resonate with everyone, regardless of whether you’re in our community or not just for them to have a safe space to take positive risks.”

One of those positive risks was from a Bowness High School alumni, who braved getting a pompadour to impress one of the girls in his drama class.

“I was on a really bad path the first few years I started in high school. I was skipping class a lot, and all I cared about was punk rock and just hanging with friends. There just seemed to be a lot of girls—one girl who I liked a lot in the theatre program,” said Nathan Iles, who worked as the Artistic Director of Scorpio Theatre, and is now the editor of local Calgary arts magazine The Scene.

“Just getting involved with that really changed the course of my academic career, and then, in turn, my professional career, give me direction, give me somewhere to actually focus my energy, somewhere where I could make friends and feel welcome.”

That one theatre girl, Joanna, became Iles’ wife.

“The theatre program is very integral to us, our story, just my life. This was my sanctuary for so many years, and this was a healing place for me—high school, high emotions, it’s hard to get through sometimes I think that having a space like the theatre was a great place to know that I could come here and be OK, and my friends would be here, and we could just cry or laugh or joke around,” she said.

“I think that theatre brings in a lot of outcasts, a lot of people who feel like they don’t belong, a lot of people who want to explore different parts of themselves. I think losing that would be so terrible for so many students, because then there’s nowhere to go, there’s nowhere to channel those emotions. There’s nowhere to figure yourself out.”

‘This is a really special space’: Iles

They called returning to the theatre as part of the Save a Seat campaign wild, getting to be in the space again.

“At least when we were here, like musicians performing here, they do assemblies in here, they’ll do talent shows, that kind of thing. This is a really special space,” said Nathan Iles.

“I was just talking to Gillian about how we worked in the professional theatre company community for about a decade after graduating, and there’s a lot of professional companies that would really kill to have a space like this. Even now, even with the seats the way they are, and losing that would have a rippling impact.”

One of those impacts would be to slow the dreams of a current generation of students who themselves want to become part of Calgary’s art scene.

Triasha Gandhi, who played Cinderella in Game of Tiaras, said that she wanted to go on to act professionally after graduating high school.

“Theater, acting, and drama is a part of my life. I know for me, I would probably be lost without it. Not being able to have the theatre, to be able to have these opportunities, would really hurt,” she said.

“I know it would affect a lot more students, not even just theatre students, the whole like school in general because there’s so many people that use the space, even if they’re not acting.”

Donations for the Save a Seat campaign can be made at www.educationmatters.ca/project-matters/bowness-high-school-theatre.