Stratford Perth Museum seeks feedback for new spin on stage production
The Stratford Perth Museum is seeking the public’s help to put a new spin on a stage play it produced nearly four years ago.
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Published Feb 25, 2025
The Stratford Perth Museum is seeking the public’s help to put a new spin on a stage play it produced nearly four years ago.
First performed in 2021 in conjunction with the local Here for Now Theatre, the Kroehler Girls tells the story of the women who worked at Stratford’s Kroehler Manufacturing Company and their softball team, which won both the Professional Women’s Softball Union Intermediate A and the Junior A championships in 1953.
This time, the play is returning as a musical, featuring original music from acclaimed local singer-songwriter Dana Manning.
“What we’re doing with Kroehler Girls is we’re exploring community conversations around topics that people really seem to have a need to acknowledge, to celebrate, to look at and talk about,” museum general manager Kelly McIntosh said.
To that end, the museum is hosting two March events, subbed the Kray-ler Trailers, which will feature performances by McIntosh, Manning and collaborators Andy Pogson, Stacy Smith and Kelly McIntosh. There will also be opportunity for anyone who has a connection to the team to participate in discussions during these March 1 and March 22 sessions.
“(This is a) gathering where people get to bring things in their basements, like their grandmothers’ ball gloves or their grandmothers’ uniforms or photographs of the team, and share them and maybe even loan them to the museum for exhibits. They get to tell their story, which is so powerful. It creates a kind of a reunion of people who are like-minded and have a shared historical thing,” McIntosh said.
After the musicians perform some of the new music and scenes from the musical Kroehler Girls, they will invite feedback to make sure this version of the play remains historically accurate. The audience will also be invited to suggest possible additions to the show.
Although the original production was a success, having played to sold-out audiences that year, Manning was inspired to write music for the story after seeing a performance, McIntosh said.
“She played us a couple of song ideas, and we thought, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.’ She’s an incredible songwriter,” McIntosh added.
While museum exhibits, even if well-researched, are a two-dimensional way of recounting history, telling stories by way of a stage production “brings it into a three-dimensional experience for people,” McIntosh said. Museums, she added, are having to find ways to adapt since the COVID-19 pandemic, with visits down and locations closing across Canada.
“We’re very lucky at the Stratford Perth Museum because we have the Justin Bieber exhibit, and that attracts people from around the world, but it’s a big place. . . . We want to have enough staff to be able to carry off all the programming and education and events that we want to do,” McIntosh said.
“It’s really important that we have these enticing pieces that really speak to people, that get them to the museum. We keep it affordable, we try to get sponsors to help us pay for the artists and make it a wonderful experience for people, and that is how we are going to survive.”
The Kray-ler Trailers run on Saturday, March 1, and Saturday, March 22, at the museum at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for the public and $15 for museum members. Tickets can be purchased at stratfordperthmuseum.yapsody.com.
watwood@postmedia.com