It's, um, it's passion. It's passion. It's nobody comes here and acts or does anything
else here because they're getting paid to be here as some kind of employment.
Jennifer Anderson's father was one of the guys that started it. I believe he was a canal
baby, uh, or a zonian as they call them. And so they started it as a theater, uh, first
English speaking theater just for the military. And it sort of got its own legs and, and evolved
from there. A lot of our Bournemes are from that generation that has been here for a really
long time. And so their love and their commitment to this theater is unbelievable.
The theater guild started in about 1950, uh, as part of the old canal zone. They've been
producing, producing plays here and in this building for 62 years. And as you work around
the walls, you can see posters going back almost to that time. There's been a lot of
stuff here. The history of the guild is one of the things that keeps it going. And as
you can see, when you look around, whether you're in the green room or whether you're
out front with all of the, the programs for, from all of these years prior, there are a
lot of ghosts here and there is so much history that when you walk in, it, it consumes you
and you want to be part of it. The building itself is, I think, why we love the history
so much and why we want to, we want to maintain. It's sort of what everybody loves about it.
You feel like you're going home.
It has a lot of personality. Let's put it that way. We're, you know, we certainly, you
know, we, it's got charm and personality. It's also harder to get to with all the construction
going on. It's an old wooden building which has its own challenges in terms of upkeep
and maintenance.
The building itself is, I believe it was used for medical purposes back in the day. It,
it makes you feel like you're walking into your grandma's house. When you're standing
on the porch, one of the things that we do is we have the parties on the porch before
and after the show so that people can sort of feel like they're in their own backyard.
Everything we do to upkeep this building is, is all through donations. So it's people's
love of the theater and wanting to give back and that's how we can keep everything moving
but also keep everything very cutting edge.
We, we're open to any kind of production. We're not, we're not specializing in drama,
musicals, comedy. What we do want to do though is to give opportunities to people who want
to get involved in producing the show, directing the show, helping develop Leukeanthical talent
and family by allowing new people to direct, new actors who are constantly trying to develop
and replace people in, to getting involved with the theater.
This theater is so welcoming and so they want new talent. They want people that have been
doing it for years but they want just this amazing artistic theater community. So everyone's
welcome. Everyone can come in and take, take, take direction in the theater however they
feel comfortable.
I thought I was coming down here to get away from acting and I found the theater and fell
in love with it and it just automatically felt like home. I felt like I was back in
Chicago theaters.
So we are, you know, we're, we're not as well known as the theater in Cedric Lowe for example
obviously. We're community fit. You know, we're all volunteers. We don't pay any of
our actors and directors. We do it because we love the theater and that, that has advantages
and disadvantages. You know, we love the theater. We like acting, producing, directing,
or, you know, standing in front and selling tickets, whatever it might be. We don't have
the kind of budgets. We don't have the kind of steps that a larger scale professional
theater would have.
We would of course love to pay our actors and they deserve to be paid because they work
their butts off. But the fact that they come in here for free every single day and work
their butts off, whether it be singing, dancing, acting, the time that they put in here to
clean, to rebuild, to paint, it shows you that people really have the love and respect for
the theater arts here. And now we have to show people that because we do it for free
is even more of a reason you should come and support the theater film.
And people come to us, I think, because they see that and because, because we are an English
speaking, English language theater, we do have a specialized audience.
We're trying to push the talent level in Panama. We want to change the standards of
fear in Panama. We want to show them that we have the talent in Panama, whether English
speaking or Spanish speaking, we have the talent in Panama that is just as good as New
York and Broadway. It has to be pushed. It has to be worked to the bone. But the talent
is here. Now we're trying to build the skill level so that people that can come in, nurture
their skills and be the best theater arts community we can be in Panama and we're hoping
to start it with the Guild. For me, the Theater Guild means you're walking into a family because
you walk in, you feel you're at home. You walk in, you feel like you're part of a community.
It's walking into open arms.
Thank you.
