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CTG: The new player in a Newhall arts district

Editorial From The Signal

Saturday, November 11, 2000

I
t has been a long time coming, but it is finally here. Tonight at 6:30, the Canyon Theatre Guild will take the wraps off of several years’ worth of effort with a gala grand opening of the theater troupe’s “permanent home” in Old Town Newhall.
    Thanks to $400,000 in grant funding from the city of Santa Clarita to match donations collected from the community, and with the aid of a low-interest loan from Valencia Bank & Trust, a dilapidated old building that was all but demolished in the 1994 earthquake is born anew, ready to breathe new life into the Santa Clarita Valley’s historic business district.
    Now a centerpiece of the city’s Newhall redevelopment effort, the theater debuts tonight as the venue for the CTG’s annual $125 fund-raiser, complete with musical numbers from shows performed throughout the theater’s 30-year history.
    Indeed, the Canyon Theatre has come home to Newhall. Hatched in 1970 at Hart High School and moving soon after to the “rafters” of the old courthouse building on San Fernando Road, the guild has been housed since 1986 in Agua Dulce, in another old building that it long since outgrew.
    As of tonight, theater-goers no longer have to make the long haul up Sierra Highway, eight miles beyond the city’s northeastern border.
    Live theater is here, right in the heart of town.
    The CTG’s return to Newhall goes a long way toward establishing a formal arts district.
    It joins the Santa Clarita Repertory Theatre, which has undergone some staffing changes and should start holding regular performances soon in its theater space right down the block from the CTG.
    Add to that the newly refurbished Hart High School Auditorium and the Newhall Elementary School Auditorium, which is in the throes of being transformed into a performance venue for children, and we have the start of something that will not only serve the creative needs of local residents but will also attract visitors from far and wide.
    Newhall has come a long way in the few short years since redevelopment began.
    With the new Metrolink station, improvements to Railroad Avenue, some redesigned storefronts in Western and Spanish motifs, and now a 288-seat theater that will play to packed houses all year round, it can be safely said that Newhall is really starting to shine.
    Congratulations, Canyon Theatre Guild, for your continued success and the contributions you make to this community.
    For tickets to tonight’s gala fund-raiser at the CTG, call 799-2700.

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