This is the Station Art Centre in Rosthern, Saskatchewan. It houses a restaurant, art gallery, gift shop and theatre. Staffed by community members its quite a ‘feather in the cap’ of town with a population of only 1,300 people.
On our recent visit to Saskatoon our son and his wife took us there for dinner and to see the musical Jasper Station by Norm Foster. Our son is a high school teacher at Rosthern Junior College and tells us he enjoys going over to the Station Art Centre for lunch. His first year teaching at the college he sang in the community choir the Station Art Centre sponsors. The theatre at the Station Art Centre has a year round schedule of concerts and dramas and this summer one of the musicals in the line-up was Jasper Station.
The Station Art Centre is housed in an abandoned Canadian National Railway train station and they’ve left an old caboose on the track at the back of the station for photo taking. It gives the station an authentic feel.
Jasper Station was just the perfect musical to present in a train station theatre because the story takes place in a railway station. Five people meet there one night and get to know each other as they wait for a train that is late. Each person is at a crossroads in life and the decision to take the train marks a new beginning for them. The main character, the station master is a man who regretted not making an important decision in his own life- not ‘seizing the day’ and is hoping the people waiting in the station will not make the same mistakes he did. Before the play we enjoyed a great dinner in the Station Art Centre diningroom- braised barbequed beef with mustard glaze, the Station’s special whole grain bread and a leafy salad and fruit crisp all made with locally grown organic fruits and vegetables. Our waiter was one of our son’s former students.