Hal Theriault
Hal was born, raised and completed university in Nova Scotia, after which he moved to London, England to study theatre and English Literature. Returning to Canada, he taught English In Lunenburg, Digby and Weymouth then moved to Vancouver BC. There he started a theatre company, Face to Face Productions, writing and performing plays dealing with racism and conflict resolution. Returning again to Nova Scotia he set up a touring theatre company also specializing in anti-racism productions, Basin Productions, which performed for schools, universities, prisons, dinner theatre and festivals throughout the Maritime provinces for eleven years. Hal has written and produced over 200 plays, focusing for the last decade on Nova Scotian stories, with four based specifically on The Electric City saga.
Hal served for five years as Chair of The Digby Area Arts Council, and another five years as Chair of the Digby Area Tourism Association (DATA); Hal and Stacey are currently on the DATA Board. Hal also worked for 12 years for Bear River First Nation, generating funding for and supervising the construction of their heritage and cultural centre. He then managed it and served five years as an adult educator for the Reserve.
Hal has worked for about 20 years for the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council, involved with the redevelopment of the National Heritage Interpreter’s course. Hal lives in Digby but travels almost daily to the Society’s office in Weymouth.
Stacey Doucette
Stacey moved to Weymouth from Ontario in 2006, joining his parents who are from the area. He joined several local community volunteer organizations and organized many events. He is a past member of the Board of Trade, the Lions’ Club, the Weymouth Waterfront Development Committee, and was President for several years of the July First Committee, Weymouth’s long-standing major annual celebration. He organized and ran the annual Christmas Parade of Lights. His contribution was recognized recently when he was named Digby Municipality Volunteer of the Year and honoured with other provincial volunteers at a reception in Halifax hosted by the Lieutenant Governor.
In 2020, Stacey became a certified Heritage Interpreter, a course sponsored by the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council in Ottawa. Stacey completed the intensive eight-week course earning one of the highest marks in Canada.
Stacey is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the story of The Electric City and making our Society’s interpretive center the catalyst for major new economic development in Southwest Nova Scotia.
He lives near Weymouth with his wife Krissie who is another keen community volunteer. They also maintain a mini-home which Stacey built from scratch, which sits on Long Tusket Lake, not far from New France.
Hal and Stacey are often invited by community groups to give talks, presentations, and host discussions about New France and the Society’s plans for an interpretive centre. If you and your group would be interested in hosting one of these meetings, please get in touch.