Rosebud Theatre

When you travel - you observe and experience some truly memorable people, places, opportunities and events. There are some that stand out, as once in a lifetime occasions that you never forget. Rosebud theatre was one of those experiences.

Saturday night we drove to Rosebud for the dinner theatre. We drove past Horseshoe Canyon, which Indian's once believed to be haunted. The canyon which gets it's name from it's horseshoe shape, is approximately 3 kilometres long and has some spectacular scenery. It seemed as if we were driving for miles. Rosebud is actually only 30 mins South of Drumheller. Craig thought I had read the map wrong (as if), when it seemed like we were heading into the middle of nowhere. Rosebud has a population of only 100 people and is situated in a river valley in the Canadian Badlands.

It is now the largest professional rural theatre in Canada and most of Rosebud's residents are either involved with the theatre or the school of the arts. There are also gift and craft shops, a cafe, a gallery and a museum (housed in the old Chinese laundry), all of which are open on theatre days.
Main street of Rosebud, the Mercantile is on the left.

The history behind the theatre school and Rosebud Theatre is interesting - it started in 1973 as the Rosebud Camp of the Arts, a summer outreach program for Calgary youth. The summer programs soon expanded into weekend vacations throughout the school year. 1977, the Rosebud Fine Arts High School was formed. The school combined academics, arts and work experience . In 1983 to raise funds, drama students from the Fine Arts High School staged a comedy show along with a country style buffet with a little music on the side. 1986, Rosebud School of the Arts launched its post-secondary apprenticeship programme. In 2001, the new eight-month Certificate Programme started with 10 students. Rosebud theatre is made up of a company of resident artists employed by the theatre, guest artists for specific productions and students from the Rosebud School of the Arts. Rosebud Theatre now entertains more than 30,000 people per year.


The buffet meal is held in the newly renovated Mercantile (was the general store) Dinning Room.

Inside the Mercantile, the upstairs has been preserved as a general store, there are several rooms out back used for dinning, and downstairs is a gift and crafts shop.

Just as well we had limited time to look around as we could have spent lots of $$$ there.
We were called for dinner and appropriately escorted by our host into the library.







The buffet was delicious and we were serenaded by musicians as we ate our meal. The musicians asked where in Alberta people had travelled from, we became instant celebrities when we said 'NZ'.
Everyone was so friendly, they shared NZ travel stories and asked questions.

After dinner everyone wandered around the shops and museum and then made their way to the opera House for the play, 'On Golden Pond'. It is years since I saw the movie. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Opera House
Even though Craig is not a ''theatre person"
he so enjoyed the whole experience
he is already planning another trip to Rosebud.