Founder's son and the provost will attend with special plaque to be unveiled

ON Saturday the curtain will go up on an Inverness theatre group’s 75th anniversary open day – and the public is invited to be part of the celebration.

On the open day – which begins at 1pm – there will be displays about the theatre group and, for visitors, the opportunity to meet and chat to members of The Florians.

The Provost of Inverness Helen Carmichael has also been invited to the Florians Little Theatre at Bught Park and will unveil a commemorative plaque in the foyer to mark the occasion.

After research in the run up to the anniversary, The Florians’ honorary vice president Trevor Nicol managed to track down Paul Vaesen, the son of the theatre group’s founder Guy Vaesen.

Trevor said: “We had discovered that Guy was the founder of The Florians at the time of our 50th anniversary in 1994.

“I had found an Inverness Courier newspaper article from 1944 which mentioned a new theatre club had formed and that they were performing a play written by Guy Vaesen called The Road That Beckons.

“At the end of last year I was going through The Florians’ photo album which has newspaper clippings in it as well and I came across an article about that 1994 anniversary and suddenly thought ‘We’ve got the internet now!’.

“So I looked for Guy’s name online and came across his obituary in the Independent and realised he must have been well-known.”

The obituary mentions The Florians and Trevor found that Guy’s time in the drama group had proved to be a turning point in deciding his later career in theatre.

Now his son Paul will be there as guest of honour on Saturday along with other invited guests.

On the open day, as well as the displays and the opportunity to chat to members, there will be a video interview of longstanding members reminiscing about the group which will premiere that day.

The open day is one of a series of events The Florians are planning to mark their 75th year.

The public is invited to The Florians' open day at their Florians Little Theatre, Bught Park, Inverness, on Saturday, July 13 from 1pm. For more information, visit www.florians.org.uk