Theatre a community act
Companies in full swing for summer across N.S.
by Elissa Barnard, The Herald
Geneviève Steele plays the Princess of France with Jeremy Webb, left, as Don de Armando and Tom Smith, centre, as Jack in Shakespeare by the Sea’s production of the comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost, opening July 5 at 7 p.m. at Point Pleasant Park. (Eric Wynne / Staff)
THE TIMING is right for "a summer theatre holiday in Nova Scotia," says a man starting a new theatre company during a global financial crisis.
Bruce Klinger is wading into summer theatre in Wolfville, where the Atlantic Theatre Festival collapsed for good in 2007, with the new Valley Summer Theatre.
"I’m confident we’ll have a good solid season this year and the plan is to grow from there," he says. "I’m not concerned about economic conditions. At a certain point you just have to go ahead and do it."
In downtown Sydney the Boardmore Theatre, Cape Breton Stage Company and Coastal Arts Initiative are also starting a new summer theatre and art festival, a semi-professional festival opening with Daniel MacIvor’s Marion Bridge at a 100-seat theatre in the reconfigured St. Andrew’s Hall.
"It’s something we’ve talked a whole lot about and never did anything about it and this summer seemed like the right time to do it," says Todd Hiscock, who runs the UCCB Boardmore Theatre.
The company asked for $10,000 from different sources, got nothing from the province and received a total of $2,800. That’s disappointing, says Hiscock, but not a party killer.
CLICK AND PRINT:Our summer theatre guide (PDF)
"We do things so much without funding this is not something new for us to tackle. We feel it’s going to work and will evolve into something more permanent and something that will be funded."
Small communities in Nova Scotia are a good place to start summer theatre, says Mary Vingoe, co-founder of Ship’s Company Theatre, celebrating its 25th anniversary.
"In hard times being in a small community is a good thing in theatre. You really matter," says Vingoe, who left Ship’s in 1991 and is back on stage in Parrsboro this summer. "In some of these smaller communities the theatre is the life line. It’s whether those stores and businesses can stay open."
She remembers when she and Michael Fuller, now working on resurrecting Parrsboro’s band hall, staged a play with community volunteers on the deck of the old Kipawo ferryboat. "It was very, very basic. There was a big hole in the boat deck. You took your life in your hands getting up the gangplank.
"We had our supporters from the beginning and they are still supporters like Conrad Byers and Kerwin Davison. And there were a lot of people in the beginning who thought we were crazy hippies. Each year the community got more and more on side."
Now Ship’s Company Theatre is in a new facility that opened in 2004 and incorporates the deck of the beloved Kipawo in the outdoor lobby.
"In a place like Parrsboro it’s absolutely crucial and I think in other places like Canning and Antigonish there is a lot of economic activity generated especially if there is a summer season," says Vingoe.
Luckily, summer theatres in Nova Scotia rely on a local audience, says Klinger. "If you’re sitting at Stratford and Shaw you’re very concerned about this summer and you probably had a lousy summer last year and you’re concerned because so much of your revenue is based on people coming up from the U.S. and there is no question the U.S. is in much worse shape than we are.
"Who knows? It may be the economy is such people want to stick close to home and see some of the things we have to offer in the province. There are a lot of exciting things happening."
Ken Schwartz, artistic director of Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, did think twice this summer before he decided to stage Allen Cole’s musical adaptation of Frank Parker Day’s Rockbound, with a cast of 14, outdoors on a boat in a field at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts near Canning.
"There certainly was some discussion. Is this the time to pull back? Is this the time to do a smaller piece?"
He and Cole have been working on Rockbound and on perfecting music in an outdoor space for three years. "To me this is exactly the time you stick your neck out and you say this is our vision and this is the vision that we believe in because this is what’s gotten us where we are. So I think it’s the perfect time to do it.
"When things are a little hard people really want a diversion. They want a special experience that will take them out of their head and touch them."
Ed Thomason, of Festival Antigonish, is rattled by the economy. "It’s already made an impact on some of our sponsorship revenue. Aliant have cut back. They’ve basically cut in half what they usually give. It’s like a little warning sign.
"Our local sponsors, people like MacLeod Group and Central have stood firm," he says. In fact, Bergengren Credit Union increased sponsorship to tour a new musical based on writing by local high school students to Sydney, Truro and Halifax.
"I have had people in the business community say, ‘You’ve got to put your prices up,’" and we’re resisting that. We don’t want to be a luxury item. The one thing we do have is a loyal local audience and we’re committed to making what we do open to the widest possible spectrum."
Sydney’s Play This Summer is also counting on a local audience. "This year the Vogue Theatre was torn down and that generated a lot of discussion about cultural events in the downtown. People felt a loss of things happening," says Hiscock.
"We always saw a need to have live theatre happening on a regular basis in the downtown area of Sydney. We hope and expect to get strong support from the local community."
