The Corporation of Hamilton has pulled the curtain on a troupe of termites who were eating up the City Hall Theatre stage, because local actors really were in danger of breaking a leg.

Dannilee Trott, Corporation of Hamilton event project manager, said the theatre was closed in June so that the entire stage area, including the orchestra pit, could be ripped out.

M&M Construction have been handling the stage renovations. "We were experiencing severe termite damage," said Ms Trott. "We were advised to completely redo it."

All of the City Hall building was checked, and it was found that the termites only had a taste for the stage. The thespian termites have now taken their exits from the 50-year-old stage.

"There will be only minor changes to the design of the stage," said Mayor of Hamilton, Charles Gosling. "This design has served well the various groups that have come in over the years.

"Some improvements were made to the stage covering. We have put down an artificial material specially made for stages."

The Mayor actually majored in theatre while at Dalhousie University in Canada and later, at the Drama Centre in London, England.

"After I left college I put that behind me though," Mr. Gosling said. "I had other responsibilities."

Mr. Gosling is the managing director of Gosling's.

But Ms Trott has been involved in several productions on the City Hall stage, starting when she was ten years old. "We always knew that it was an old stage," she said. "The carpet behind the stage was pretty old.

"Overall though the theatre is built very well. The acoustics are great. I've always loved this theatre."

She was looking forward to taking her two children Jaedah, 11 and Jahdae, 8 to their first pantomime at Christmas.

The theatre will reopen again in October when the first production on the new stage will be the Gilbert & Sullivan Society's 'Oliver!'. The show runs from October 7 to October 17.

It will be celebration of the society's 35th anniversary. Recently, a number of other improvements have been made to the theatre including the installation of a new sound system, and a long loop for the hearing impaired.

The long loop allows people with hearing aids to turn to a particular frequency on their hearing aid to better hear the performance.

"With the new stage, we hope to reduce the number of dark periods between productions," said Mr. Gosling. The Corporation plans to celebrate the opening of the new stage with its own production of 'Mark Twain' in November.