Guelph’s favourite acting son, Terry Doyle, will continue to impact the local theatre community through a scholarship program established in his memory in conjunction with the Guelph Community Foundation.

The Terry Doyle Scholarship Fund is an annual $1,000 cash award that recognizes and encourages a local student pursuing post-secondary studies in the performing arts.

“Terry was an inspiration to everyone he met,” Bill Taylor, a friend of the Doyle family and fellow Guelph Rotarian, said in a press release. “He touched so many lives, and it is wonderful to see his memory live on in such a befitting manner.”

Eligible applicants must be:

residents of Guelph or Wellington County;

entering their first, second, or third year of a recognized Canadian institution in the area of the performing arts;

intending to pursue a career as a professional artist;

demonstrating past participation in community theatre and evidence of a co-operative community spirit.

Applications will be processed by a six-member scholarship selection committee comprised of Doyle’s wife Joyce Doyle, Rotarians Bill Taylor and Doug Gamsby, Keith Slater and Gary Chapman of Guelph Little Theatre and Alex Mustakas, Artistic Director of Drayton Entertainment.

Doyle was a 50-year veteran of the theatre who landed the plum role of Maurice, Belle’s father, in a stage production of Beauty and Beast at England’s Dominion Theatre in 1998.

He was also a community champion — sitting on the board of the River Run Centre, an active member of the Norfolk Street United Church, and a proud, long-standing Guelph Rotarian.

Doyle died suddenly on stage in June 2005 while performing in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend. He suffered a severe heart attack on the opening night of the show.

He was a fixture at Drayton Entertainment for 15 years, charming countless audiences in many critically acclaimed productions, including Hurray for Hollywood, Show Stoppers, The Sunshine Boys, Over the River and Through the Woods, and the theatre’s inaugural 1991 production of Vaudeville!.

“Over the years, Terry was a mentor to so many young people starting out in the industry,” Mustakas said. “I know he would be so proud to have a scholarship program in his honour that encourages young people to pursue their dreams.”

The application deadline for the first annual Terry Doyle Scholarship Fund is Nov. 1. Application forms will be available after Sept. 15 at The Guelph Community Foundation office, located at 147 Wyndham St. N., Suite 405, Guelph, and online at www.guelphcf.ca.

The award will be presented Dec. 15 at the annual Rotary Christmas luncheon. Donations to the fund are accepted year-round and can be made through the Guelph Community Foundation’s Terry Doyle Fund.

“I know (Doyle) would be so proud to have a scholarship program in his honour that encourages young people to pursue their dreams.”

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Monday, September 11, 2006 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Education News, Scholarship. Tags: Scholarship, Student, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.