Despite spending years travelling the globe as a dancer and performing artist, living in some of the world’s most popular cultural hotspots, Dougie Walker believes he’s hit the jackpot having recently relocated to Haliburton County.
He and wife, Jocelyn Regina – a local – moved to the Highlands over the summer to be closer to family and nature. The couple have a young son, Lachlan, with another on the way, and thought Haliburton County was the perfect place to start a family.
Turns out, it’s the perfect place to further your career too, or at least that’s the case for Walker, who recently replaced Scot Denton as Highlands Summer Festival’s artistic producer.
“Thrilled to be here, to take on this new challenge,” said Walker, no stranger to local theatre fans having starred in the 2017 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and 2022’s Every Brilliant Thing. He also directed this past summer’s The Twenty-fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Originally from Scotland, Walker’s lifelong love affair with theatre began as a teenager. He first took to the stage during a community theatre production, later training as a professional dancer and singer, spending his early 20s working on cruise ships. He also spent a year working at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan.
After returning to Glasgow to complete his Master’s in musical theatre, obtained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Walker met Jocelyn, changing the entire trajectory of his life. Upon graduation, the couple worked professionally across Europe before deciding to settle down in Toronto in 2016.
When Denton announced in August he would be stepping away from HSF after 17 years at the helm, Walker was offered the job.
“I really want to get immersed in the community and my way to do that is through theatre,” Walker said.
His first job will be developing a lineup for summer 2025, which happens to be HSF’s 25th anniversary. Walker confirmed there will be five shows – three locally-produced plays, a musical, and a visiting show. The full lineup will be revealed before year’s end, Walker confirmed.
Beyond preparing for the upcoming season – selecting the shows, acquiring the production rights, holding castings and recruiting directors, Walker said he plans to engage HSF staff and volunteers and the Highlands community about where to take the festival.
With Dysart et al donating 14 acres on Wonderland Road to the Haliburton Highlands Arts Centre Foundation this summer, potentially paving the way for a new facility to be built in the community, Walker said the future looks bright.
“Do we want to remain a community centric theatre, or do we want something more? There’s so much to offer in Haliburton. There’s more and more things every year, it seems, in the arts,” Walker said. “The sky’s the limit in terms of what we can strive to do… we need input from everyone to figure out what it is we want.
“Scot has spent so many years nurturing this festival and making it what it is – I just want to honour that and do whatever I can to build on the success,” Walker added.
