Season of change coming for Historic Gayety Theatre
More live theatre offerings, culture club coming to Collingwood theatre this year
A little theatre in Collingwood is working to flip the script on live theatre options in South Georgian Bay.
Owner of The Historic Gayety Theatre Sid Dickinson and operator Joseph Patrick are raising the curtain on some new offerings at the more than 100-year-old Collingwood landmark this year, building on the success their live offerings have brought to town over the past couple of years.
“We’re trying to build on this momentum and share it with Collingwood,” said Patrick in an interview.
The 300-seat Historic Gayety Theatre opened its doors in 1911, originally named The Empire Theatre, as a single-screen movie theatre. Its name was changed to the Gayety in 1927.
Dickinson purchased the theatre in 2003. At that time, it had been closed for six months.
Post pandemic, in 2021, Dickinson started a new partnership with Patrick, where Dickinson would retain ownership of the theatre and Patrick leases the space to run his theatre business.
“I rely on him very heavily because he’s got a lot of knowledge and a lot of ability and a lot of creativity,” said Dickinson in an interview. “My strength is business experience.”
Since then, Patrick has been successful at running bigger live theatre productions between Collingwood and Toronto. While the theatre’s bread and butter has tended to be musical tribute acts, Joseph brought with him a desire to create high-quality live theatre shows and add them into that mix.
“I had met Sid years before that and I’ve been coming back and forth to Collingwood for a long time. I operated venues in Toronto,” recalled Patrick. “I said, if the opportunity ever comes up for Collingwood, let me know. And it did.”
“We thought there was an opportunity here,” he said.
Patrick first dipped his toe into the live theatre space in Collingwood by bringing Tony-award-winning show Avenue Q to the theatre. In 2025, he leaned into it further, bringing productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Little Shop of Horrors, Million Dollar Quartet and The Rocky Horror Show to the Gayety stage. In total, Patrick has brought nine live theatre shows to town since taking over the Gayety’s operations.
Many of the productions have started in Collingwood, and then moved on to a Toronto run, or vice versa.
The production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat earned a 2025 BroadwayWorld Toronto Award for its lead actor Bryden Rutherford as Joseph.
Because of Patrick’s extensive background in live theatre in Toronto, when he produces shows in Collingwood, the audition notices are still posted for actors across Ontario, attracting talent from all over.
“There’s not a lot of work for live theatre. It’s great to be able to provide the work but the reality is, we’re also getting really awesome talent,” he said.
In 2026, Patrick brought The Wizard of Oz to the Gayety stage in January. This coming weekend for Valentines Day, the musical comedy First Date will hit the stage from Feb. 13 to 15.
In addition to new live theatre offerings, the Gayety will be launching the Collingwood Culture Club this year. For a monthly fee, participants will be alerted to new kinds of special events at the theatre, including a wine club, and classic movie nights. Further details on how to sign up for the new club will be released in the coming weeks.
“All of this builds off of the success of the live theatre,” said Patrick. “People just keep asking us for more to do and we have this great space right here on the main street. We’re trying to add some awesome stuff that they’re going to like.”
By Jessica Owen, CollingwoodToday.ca
