The Municipality of Leamington will be hosts of an exciting festival this spring.
This May, the Bank Theatre in the municipality is set to host a five day drama festival.
The Western Ontario Drama League has selected Leamington as the host city where three theatrical productions will be shown. Leamington's Best Western Plus Hotel and Conference Centre will host the opening ceremony, workshops and award gala brunch.
The three productions include "Forever Love" presented by Elmira Theatre Company, "My Old Lady" performed by Woodstock Theatre, and locally "Halfway There" will be presented by The Bank Theatre.
Festival Chair Corey Robertson says this is huge news for theatre fans.
"This is a competitive theatre festival that brings the best of the best from across southwestern Ontario. There has not been a festival for six years, and we're ready to come back, all of the groups from across southwestern Ontario are ready to come back, and so Bank Theatre in Leamington is just thrilled to be the host."
He says to be selected the theatre groups applied to be adjudicated.
"That person goes and travels all across southwestern Ontario and they see each one of the plays, and they provide a private adjudication where they give their notes, and their thoughts, and then when they're done seeing all the plays they select the plays to come to the festival."
Robertson says each group will only have 12 hours to set up.
"They've got to set up their play, they've got to learn the lights, learn the sound, run a quick rehearsal, and then they are on stage in front of the audience at 8 p.m. that evening. So, for you to be able to come and see all three, and to be able to compare what did Woodstock to, compared to Elmira, compared to Leamington, is a really wonderful experience."
The festival will run from May 14 to May 18 at the Bank Theatre located at 10 Erie Street South.
The Bank Theatre was selected in 2018 and was set to host in 2020, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic the festival was cancelled.
Tickets are $35 per show, but are also available as a package of three. Tickets can be found on the Bank Theatre website.