Arts Club making a move

 A new stage in the Olympic Village is a testament Vancouver’s theatre scene.

Quality and innovative theatre are not exclusive to Broadway and New York.  Vancouver’s Arts Club theatre company was founded as the Arts Club of Vancouver in 1958, and is now the biggest theatre company in Western Canada. On March 16, the Arts Club announced that they will be closing the Revue Stage and opening the West First Stage in November, a new theatre on West 1st Ave. in Vancouver’s Olympic Village.

The club has deep roots in innovation, as the original Seymour Street Stage had to be converted from a gospel hall before the company’s inaugural season in 1964. Both the Seymour Street and Granville Island Stage were open to the public by 1979. A few years later, the company underwent another change and opened its Revue Stage in 1983. After 27 years at the Seymour Street Stage, the Arts Club closed it for demolition in 1991 and was back to operating two stages again until it opened the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

Bill Millerd, managing artistic director of the Arts Club, has been involved with the company since 1969 and is responsible for most of the company’s recent growth. “The great thing about this new space: First of all, it’s going to seat 250, but it actually is going to be a flexible seating space,” explains Millerd. “By that I mean, you’ll be able to see plays in different ways, different viewpoints.”

Crews will be able to change the seating arrangements from one set-up to another within four hours. This type of set-up may be common in New York, but Millerd notes, “There are not too many spaces in Vancouver that can do this.” Adding this new space and having different seating options may also allow the Arts Club team to expand the already diverse repertoire of productions they can produce.

“We can now inspire and entertain a broader cross-section of our community, and I very much look forward to the reaction from patrons old and new to this wonderful mix of lauded plays, celebrated musicals, and world-premieres from some of Vancouver’s greatest artists,” executive director Peter Cathie White clarified in a recent press release. “I’m particularly proud that we are continuing our great tradition of heralding new Canadian voices and stories on our stages.”

Along with the announcement of the new stage, the full schedule for the 2015-2016 season was released.

“We’re premiering a work by playwright Morris Panych and singer-composer John Mann that is out on the Granville Island Stage in October,” says Millerd. “We have a really exciting and controversial play called Disgraced, opening the Stanley theatre’s season in September. Certainly the productions at West First (are exciting), being the inaugural season. In particular, there is a premiere of a piece by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille called Onegin.”

Having the opportunity to premiere new shows in both the Canadian and global theatre scene may be a testament to Vancouver’s growing arts culture, as well as the continued success of the Arts Club. Millerd feels that it can also be attributed to the consistent support from Vancouver audiences.

“I’ve always thought the audiences here are really very smart, very aware of what is going on,” he says. “A lot of them travel to see shows elsewhere. I think you can never underestimate our audiences, so to give them the variety of plays that we do is exciting.”