Elks Lodge, theater mark anniversaries

FREMONT – One of the city’s oldest social organizations is teaming up with Fremont Community Theatre for dinner and a show this weekend.

Fremont’s Elks Lodge #169 is celebrating its 125th anniversary Saturday, a milestone coinciding with the Fremont Community Theatre’s 60th anniversary.

The two groups have come together to celebrate their anniversaries at the Elks’ downtown Fremont building, with FCT providing the entertainment for the evening with an after-dinner performance of the comedy production “Check Please.”

Brad Lawrence, the lodge’s secretary, said the Elks established the lodge in Fremont in 1890 and still play a very active part in the community by putting out American flags at Flag Park, hosting youth essay contests and sponsoring sports leagues and events.

“Not too many organizations can say they’ve been around 125 years,” Lawrence said Wednesday, adding, “we plan to be around another hundred years.”

The FCT show will be held at the Fremont Elks Lodge’s second floor, which seats around 250 people. The lodge is located at 436 Croghan St.

Mary Foos will direct the FCT show.

Foos said the FCT celebrated its annual theater awards dinner for years at the Elks downtown lodge.

She said several Elks members were season ticket holders and FCT supporters. Foos said it was just a coincidence that her organization and the Elks were celebrating prominent anniversaries at the same time.

Foos said “Check Please” revolves around a man and a woman that have been fixed up for a date, and the different stereotypical “bad dates” they had experienced prior to the evening.

The director said the theater had been busy in the past season, with five regular productions and shows featuring the FCT’s Teen Theater and a Shakespeare production.

“We did a lot this past year,” Foos said.

Foos stressed the FCT was a literary and theater society that wanted to contribute as much as it could to Fremont and the surrounding areas.

“We’re all about trying to bring many scenes of literature and theater to the community,” Foos said.

dacarson@gannett.com

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Twitter:@DanielCarson7.