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Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company announces it is shutting down

March 9th, 2012 · 85 Comments

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  • Michael Geller

    I agree with those who question why the City put $$$ into the Playhouse without a proper well conceived business plan in place…

    There is no doubt that the Playhouse productions lost their appeal for a lot of people which is one reason why season subscribers dropped from approx 10,000 to 4,000. As economist Roz Kunin told a luncheon discussion group I belong to, this doesn’t happen over night…why was it allowed to happen without much more noise?

    I haven’t been to a production for a few years and suspect that most Fabula readers haven’t been for a while either, or maybe never at all….

    As I noted on CKNW, regardless of the production values, the marketing program has certainly not been as strong as for other theatrical organizations. (Bard…Arts Club, etc.) I never received direct mail telling me about new Playhouse productions and urging me to attend. And I get invitations to dozens of events each week….

    There is no doubt that the business arrangement with the City was a poor one and it has caused problems for decades…The fact that the revenues from the bar go to the City, not the production company is one small problem; the fact that the sets had to be taken down and reassembled by union crews on a regular basis to accommodate a musical production is another…And of course the rental payment and lack of adequate grant arrangements didn’t help….

    Some people believe part of the problem was the character of the neighbourhood…few nearby bars and restaurants to patronize before and after theatre…reduced and less accessible and overly expensive parking, a pretty dead zone….

    But regardless of whether the Playhouse should continue or not, one thing that seems to have shocked everyone is the suddeness of the announcement and the fact that all the people who have supported the Playhouse in the past….Board Chairs, Directors, regular theatre goers….had absolutely no idea the situation was so dire…and many who have contacted me since this morning’s Bill Good Show have said they would have liked to have had the opportunity to discuss the situation and try and help.

    So I predict that we may see some people come forward, as they did after the announcement that the Bloedel Conservatory was closing. Whether they can (or should) resurrect the Playhouse, or begin the process to create another company more relevant for the city and the times remains to be seen.

    But I do hope that something is done since the sudden death of the Playhouse does not seem quite right…and I agree that it does not reflect well on the City.

    I’m also curious to hear whether people think this might also be just the beginning…how’s the symphony doing? how’s the Opera doing? I think I know part of the answers and it doesn’t bode well for Vancouver….

  • Bill

    @ Michael Geller #51

    Thank you for the best discussion on the Playhouse situation I have read. Too many have just focused on their own political slant (lack of funding for the arts,etc) without covering all the causes of the Playhouse failure.

    I agree the City should not have put any money into the Playhouse without a solid business plan (who there would recognize one though) but we should keep in mind the real cost to the City was $500,000 cash injection as the forgiveness of debt was not going to be received anyway.

    I agree the marketing has been atrocious but from their charity return filings it appears they have been spending over $1.0 million per year on promotion. It is quite a bit less than the Arts Club but they have to promote 3 venues.

    It is too bad the Board was not more forthcoming about the financial situation as there were a lot of people out their like you who probably would have made some contribution if the Playhouse could be shown to be viable.

  • Bill Lee

    @
    ” people believe part of the problem was the character of the neighbourhood…few nearby bars and restaurants to patronize before and after theatre…reduced and less accessible and overly expensive parking, a pretty dead zone….”

    And we want to move the VaG there, (either Larwill Park, or other side to the Post Office)!!?

    Vancouver is to be a “green city”, green around the gills maybe, with desperate condo tower dwellers checking every payphone coin return and looking for ’empties’ to make the payments.

    The city could be run better by the Musqueam band who claims all the land anyway.

  • Joe Just Joe

    The art gallery moving there would help create some synergy, anything is better then the surface lot that’s there now. The Post office is also a dead zone at night and once it’s gone the area will be improved further. I don’t think we’ll see much movement on the VAG front for a while now though so it’s a mute point.

  • Bill Lee

    @Joe Just Joe // Mar 13, 2012 at 8:03 pm
    Ssshhh! Be wewy quiet. It is a moot (debatable) point.
    adjective 1. open to discussion or debate; debatable; doubtful: a moot point.
    2. of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.
    3. Chiefly Law . not actual; theoretical; hypothetical.
    Origin: before 900; Middle English mot ( e ) meeting, assembly, Old English gemōt; cognate with Old Norse mōt, Dutch gemoet meeting. See “meet”

    I don’t know. I think that bank fronts are more dead zones day and night and they shouldn’t have more than 3 metres of street frontage but share with something more lively, like the local eel shoppe.
    Post Office was built and centred for a different time as with banks as financial temples, see the dreadful Harold D. Kalman’s tome on bank architectural history.
    The Post Office only seems dead because it across the street from the parties at the Bank of Montreal branch across Homer Street. 😀

    And this has become a town when there is no one on our streets in the evening other than those looking for urinals or where they put their cars.
    Tourists from other countries are astounded that one can stand on an ex-urban street and see no one, for hours.

  • Bill McCreery

    Michael, you do have the ability to clearly articulate many issues, including this one. In #6 above I was also referring to the lack of a business plan as well as the neglect by the City of the problems the Playhouse. You have done so ever so more tactfully, thank you.

    Yes, Bill Lee:

    “And we want to move the VAG there”.

    I too have questioned why we want to add further insult to injury and add to the dead zone we call our version of many other cities failed “cultural precincts”.

    This relates to another concern with respect to this crucial part of Downtown. Office buildings, just like street retail, need continuity and connectivity to like uses. The office and retail expansion east along Georgia has been historically hampered by the Post Office, Queen E, Library and CBC. The library has some of the required continuity attributes, and the CBC has recently done a positive re and re in that regard. On the other side of the street the Post office and Queen E remain big obstacles. Throwing the VAG next door will not help.

    This is important for other reasons. There are sites east of here that will better serve our CBD in the long term as office uses. These include those around BC Place and maybe the viaducts lands. This might even provide some business continuity to the much vaunted False Creek Flats technology brain trust, which, so far, is isolated.

    These kinds of physical geographic connectivities are essential for the proper functioning of a strong, long term healthy 21st Century CBD. And, if we really want a vibrant Downtown that can expand, and not just up, it would be far richer and more successful if cultural, restaurant, retail, office, government and entertainment uses were carefully distributed throughout, based on the particular needs and connectivity requirements of each of the uses.

    This kind of consideration has not historically happened Downtown. But, right now we’re at a cross road. Just like we’re now forced to expand into neighbourhoods, we also are at a crucial stage about what to do with our CBD. We have the opportunity to do both sensitively and intelligently, or not.

  • Creek’er

    What do you expect, the nouveau riche that define this city don’t go to the theatre…

  • Bill Lee

    Globe and Mail declares the end of culture in Vancouver as stages close, art houses close, and artists move out, often to Toronto.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/curtain-falling-on-vancouvers-cultural-scene/article2369741/

    The Winter Olympics as Minerva’s Owl anyone?

  • gmgw

    @ Bill McCreery:
    I’m curious why you refer to the Queen E, of which I admittedly remain inordinately fond (for its inside, not its outside– it holds a lot of good memories for me), as a “big obstacle”. An obstacle to what, exactly? A massive expansion of Costco, perhaps?
    gmgw

  • Everyman

    @gmgw 59
    I was puzzled by Bill’s comment as well. The Christmas Market showed that the QE plaza can be animated by the right events. True, the Restaurant is a dead space, thanks to the city’s unions requiring that it be staffed by their overpaid serving staff (why has that stranglehold never been broken?)

    If anything the CBD was organically spreading south, not east, until the NPA blocked that route by condo-izing the whole area.

  • MB

    @ Bill Lee #58, from your link to the G&M:

    >> According to figures released last year, per-capita spending on culture by the three levels of government in B.C. combined was the lowest in the country. <<

    That is the central issue that underlies this story. The closure of the Playhouse is only a singular event partly, but not entirely (in my opinion), related to a vacuum in its financial management.

  • brilliant

    @Michael Geller 51-I suspect the VO and VSO may be facing the same problems. Go to a performance and the percentage of Chinese faces is low compared to the population at large. And given that both drew audiences primarily from the West Side and West Van, two areas where the bubble plague is especially strong, there is bound to be an impact.

  • Anne M

    Book Warehouse is closing too. They were a big supporter of theatre in the city. It does feel like a sea change in the city right now for the arts community.

  • Bill Lee

    Book Warehouse was for sale.
    http://www.buybusiness.com/Businesses/27576/Independent-Discount-Book-Business-F
    or-Sale

    If no one picks it up then it closes. They only have 4 outlets now.

    Nicholas Hoare is closing Ottawa and Montreal stores soon, and tout-Toronto moans and sobs.

    There are without-marquee enterprises we might not know. 3 public music schools in the Fraser Valley, several “semi-pro” orchestras.

    And does one enjoy the Saturday broadcasts of Opera and Dance at the ScotiaBank movie theatres?

    Atomization of cultural products, the thousand screen drive for eyeballs and the willingness to cuddle up at home lead to a lessening in public performances of old cultures.

    Hegel said that the Minerva (Athena), goddess of culture and her pet owl fly at the dusk or setting of empire or cultures. This was picked up by the Canadian socio-economic historian Harold Innis in an essay of culture called “Minerva’s Owl” to the Royal Society of Canada. Available online at gutenberg.ca and other places. His insights influenced cultural seer Marshall McLuhan.

  • Anne M

    Bill Lee @64 Book Warehouse announced today they are closing all stores – all 4 of them I guess.

  • Bill Lee

    Yes, here is the Book Warehouse press release. http://cnw.ca/uy9mQ
    Book Warehouse, Vancouver’s iconic discount bookseller is closing after thirty-two years.

    VANCOUVER, March 15, 2012 /CNW/ – “Our leases are expiring and so are we,” explained founder Sharman King in announcing the closure. “We’ve had a fantastic three decades of bookselling in Greater Vancouver. [ more ]

    Excerpts from the buybusiness.com website
    Independent Discount Book Business For Sale
    Photos Website Map
    Asking Price$1,900,000
    Revenue $4,829,123 Established 1980
    Cash Flow $165,977 Employees 5 full, 15 part
    FF&E Undisclosed Franchise No
    Inventory $1,000,000 Relocatable No
    Real Estate Undisclosed Home-based No

    The IDBB classifies its inventory of books into three major sections; current best sellers, reprints, and “hurt” books. “Hurt” books and reprints are bought in large quantities from publishers, bankruptcies, and many other sources. These books are sold for about half their original price and the current best sellers are sold at a minimum 20% off of their sticker price. The company has also branched out into selling related products such as calendars, greeting cards, and a large selection of classical music.

    Facilities: In 2011 the company was operating five stores; they have since consolidated their operations down to four stores. The remaining four stores are the most profitable, and historically have proven an average 14 percent increase in sales annually. This consolidation has allowed the company to significantly cut overall costs, and allows for significant room to build on an already profitable operation. The four locations in the Vancouver Area. Each store is leased, and the leases reflect the current market rate.
    Competition: The company currently has four major competitors in the business of retail book sales. Two of the competitors target very niche markets in children’s books and cook books. One of the biggest competitors is de-emphasizing the book portion of their business and moving into the home and lifestyle business. The company’s main competitive advantage comes from their prices and selection. Current and bestselling titles are chosen based on the interests and needs of a particular neighborhood’s clientele and discounted the traditional 20%.

    Meanwhile in the Ottawa Citizen today,
    “Nicholas Hoare, owner of the Canadian independent bookstore chain that bears his name, has lashed out at the National Capital Commission after it tried to levy a 72-per-cent rent increase.
    “They can have their stupid building,” wrote Hoare in an email to the National Post. “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”
    The closure of the Sussex Drive location, which opened in 1994, comes after Hoare learned that the NCC wanted to hike the rent.
    The Commission says it seeks proper market rates on all its properties, which it manages on behalf of Canadian citizens and taxpayers.
    But Hoare isn’t buying it.
    “Any landlord that has the temerity, in this day and age, to levy a 72-per-cent increase in rent on a bookshop (let alone anyone else) is not only unenlightened, ill-informed and blinkered to reality, but can only be employed by an equally unenlightened, ill-informed and blinkered government,” he wrote.

  • Guest

    Bill McCreery’ comments make sense.

    The obstacle he’s talking about is the dead zone created by the open space – plazas and setbacks from 401 West Georgia, Post Office, Library Square, former CBC (now better street presence), QE Plaza and Larwill Park(ing).

    The east end of Georgia is a dead zone during the day and adding more culural institutions won;t create street life. The only significant office blocks in the area are 401 West Georgia, Library Square and the AMEC building across from Stadium Station. Concord Pacific’s swap of commercial density from the Spectrum site to the Cambie Bridgehead and the construction of condos without streetfront retail haven’t helped. It’s a catch-22 because retail won’t survive well without the office lunchtime crowds.

    While the office towers on Burrard may look “dead” during the day, there are thousands of people patronizing the underground food courts and services under those buildings.

    A typical office tower may have 50-75 people working on each floor. A typical condo tower may have 10-20 people living on each floor (and many are away at work during the day). Which provides a larger customer base for streetfront (or subterranean) restaurant & retail?

    A theatre may do better in a lively shopping district rather than in a cultural district (like they used to be).

  • Bill McCreery

    Thanks Guest for adding to the discussion of the “dead zone”. Your comments about the inter-relationship between street retail, office and condos describes what’s needed to create healthy urbanity very clearly.

    And, gmgw and Everyman the example of the one off Christmas Market demonstrates the inadequacy of the QE plaza. It could be a terrific, vibrant urban space with a few modifications and perhaps someone managing it on an on-going basis. The Post Office on the west and the really dead Larwell Park to the east also cuts it off rather than reinforcing the plaza activities. It would be terrific if a public open space system was created with a new plaza in front of the redeveloped Post Office with an overhead land bridge to the QE plaza. The same thing should be done connecting to Larwell Park, which should be primarily office uses, some residential with plazas and adjacent retail and restaurants.

    The QE restaurant really is a dud isn’t it. Why not turn the plaza and the restaurant over to the Park Board and they can put it out to private operators as they have done well for the past 40 years. Maybe also extend the south facade of the QE lobby a bit and have a cafe-bar that serves theatre patrons as well as those using the plaza during the day as well as evenings.

    The proposed Telus office building will be a big help in allowing the CBD to expand east, but how the Post Office, QE and Larwell Park are handled is crucial to create the continuities and linkages needed to extend it to the BC Place and Viaduct lands.

  • gmgw

    I knew Book Warehouse was in trouble– they’d just shut down their North Van store, and they were in a lease renewal dispute with their landlord at their Broadway location– but I had no idea things were this bad. While I’ve never been a huge fan of BW, I’ve found many good odd items in their stores over the years. Even so, I always thought that their selection of remainders was rather dull and unimaginative for the most part– they clearly dealt with the wrong suppliers, and their business model required that they choose volume over quality. The selection of remainders at ever-wonderful Munro’s Books in Victoria is a fraction of the size of BW’s remainder stock, but it’s ten times the quality. I can never get out of Munro’s without dropping a hundred bucks or so (they have a great selection of discounted CDs as well). Can’t remember if I’ve ever done that at BW.

    When I was travelling to Toronto frequently, back in the 90s, I was astonished at the quality of remainders in the stores of Hogtown, compared to Vancouver– tons of first-class art, design & photography books and the like. A colleague in the publishing biz hipped me to the reason, which is simply that most of the reminder houses are located in Toronto, giving local booksellers first pick. That didn’t stop the likes of Toronto’s Edward’s or David Mirvish from going under, but it certainly makes a difference to book dealers outside southern Ontario.

    Given the burgeoning e-book market, mainstream publishers are cutting back on their print runs, which in turn decreases the number of remainders available. And with a shrinking number of remainders, Book Warehouse was looking at a bleak future. It’s likely that Sharman King saw the writing on the wall and decided to scuttle the ship before it was blown out of the water. Well, at least we art (et. al.)-book collectors still have Oscar’s, but even they have been showing signs of strain lately.

    RIP, Book Warehouse– yet another victim of the twin titans of Amazon and digitization. And another great rent torn in the rapidly fraying cultural fabric of Braindeadville. If the cultural DNA of this city continues to decay at its present pace, I may have to become a sports fan, for lack of anything intelligent to do with my spare time. God help me… I’d better start to practice dragging my knuckles.
    gmgw

  • MB

    @ Bill #68: “It would be terrific if a public open space system was created with a new plaza in front of the redeveloped Post Office with an overhead land bridge to the QE plaza. The same thing should be done connecting to Larwell Park, which should be primarily office uses, some residential with plazas and adjacent retail and restaurants.”

    Excellent comments, Bill. Linking three open spaces would truly open up the Georgia St canyon.

    I would suggest a large crashing fountain designed to be seen from several blocks away would help draw visual interest — even make it a destination unto itself — and would help mark the pedestrian site with a dramatic physical presence.

    You could lop off the front third of the PO and still have a huge facility left for VAG, and the resulting Georgia St plaza could become an outdoor art gallery … sort of symbolically de-eliticizing the notion of ‘art institution’ and making it accessible to all. The PO >>> VAG is also two blocks closer to the heart of downtown than Larwill.

    Georgia Street is supposed to be Vancouver’s ceremonial street. What better way to signify this than with three blocks of pedestrian open space hopefully well-designed and programmed for continuous activity. Things like outdoor performances / concerts (shelted in winter — i.e. covered amphitheatre) will go a long ways to counter the perception that this cultural precinct will remain “dead” in perpetuity.

  • MB

    @ gmgw #69, I am in complete empathy with your view.

    However, with comments like

    “If the cultural DNA of this city continues to decay at its present pace, I may have to become a sports fan, for lack of anything intelligent to do with my spare time.”

    how are to keep the increasingly powerful McBusiness lobby going to expand baseball cap sellers and sports bar split ownerships as widely as possible?

  • Bill Lee

    More cultural death: King’s Head Pub on Yew street in Kits is closing down.

    And the Globe and Mail’s culture Chicken Little, Marsha Lederham says: “Book Warehouse closure another blow to arts scene ” in today’s paper.

    …”Still, the closing is another blow to Vancouver’s cultural landscape at a difficult time. ”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/book-warehouse-closure-another-blow-to-arts-scene/article2370952/

  • Anne M

    This letter from Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance is in the Georgia Straight today:

    http://www.straight.com/article-638036/vancouver/gvpta-loss-playhouse-does-not-mean-vancouvers-theatre-scene-dead

    Speaking to the Future of Theatre in Vancouver: A Letter from the GVPTA

    March 15th, 2012
    \

    In the wake of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company’s announcement on March 9, we at the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA) share the feelings of immense loss as we imagine a future for Vancouver theatre without this historic and venerable player, one of BC’s founding artistic institutions.

    The online debate continues passionately over the specific issues and the wider conversation about theatre’s value in our community, and we will continue to monitor this discussion to identify and respond to key needs.

    Some expressions are not new, but no less troubling. There is no arguing that some notable theatre makers have left our community in recent years for professional reasons. It is true that in a close community such as ours, for many the opportunities can seem scarce or intermittent; that finding a way to be an artist and raise a family with a reasonable quality of life may at times seem like an unattainable, insurmountable desire.

    Those of us who remain—and there are thousands of us, with at least 100 professional theatre companies in Metro Vancouver—are producing and presenting exciting and important theatre that resonates at home and often travels the world. Vancouver should remain proud of its status in the global theatre industry, cited in major international media for matching world-class standards of artistic excellence and innovation. Without the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company’s commitment to presenting contemporary classics, our community is clearly feeling a great and painful chasm, and it immediately changes the ways we make our work. But with so much outstanding theatre being created, produced, and presented in Metro Vancouver, we reject any notions that Vancouver’s cultural relevance – or that theatre forms – are on the decline. As a community of artists and as an industry of producers, we are still here, and we are still committed to a long future for theatre in Vancouver.

    These are not easy times, and some politicians have quickly forgotten the promise of the Olympics to help elevate the status of the artist. Individuals working in theatre struggle to make ends meet, as do many of our companies. We recognize declining public subsidies have presented terrible challenges, but as with any business we must adapt to the conditions around us, even as we seek to improve them. We must occasionally look within and implicate ourselves when left unsatisfied.

    We are very good at relating to one another and to our patrons who already understand what we do and why theatre is a cultural cornerstone. There is also an enormous population of people in this region who have never encountered a play, or never contemplated attending live theatre. We believe that ongoing self-examination is key to Metro Vancouver theatre’s future growth and prosperity, as our membership pursues its market expansion strategies. We need to continue asking deep, hard questions to determine the tangible and intangible value of our industry in our community, and those questions need to go beyond asking what the damage to our community would be without theatre.

    As a membership organization serving Metro Vancouver’s professional theatre makers, we aim to support our member, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, as it navigates a difficult process that is being magnified by emotionally-charged media coverage, conversation, and community activism. We are poised for action when their path forward is articulated. At that time, the GVPTA will do what defines our existence as a service organization: we will listen to our membership, identify key needs, and offer whatever support, connectivity, and guidance that we can to help the theatre community survive and thrive.

    -The Board and Staff of the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance

  • gmgw

    @ Bill Lee, #72:
    You gotta love Sharman King. Who else whould celebrate improving sales figures by shutting down and putting thirty people out of work? I suspect Mr. King is not telling us the whole truth. Either that, or he has to rank as one of the most callous employers in the city.
    gmgw

  • Bill McCreery

    Love your idea MB of the “large crashing fountain” at the QE plaza. Agree also re: what to do about the front of the Post Office building. There are a number of options, including keeping the facade and stepping the floors down from the top to create a weather protected outdoor space beneath.

    The City should buy the Post Office property or do a joint venture deal with the Feds. Then they’d have control of 3 contiguous city blocks downtown! And, if the CBD does continue its merry way east, that location will become the centre of the Downtown. This location also ties nicely to Gastown, Chinatown and Yaletown as well as the Golden Triangle, DT south and Granville. Maybe Vancouver has a heart after all.

  • Bill Lee

    Surrey Now newspaper on how the local theatre folk opine about Vancouver Playhouse Company closing….
    http://www.thenownewspaper.com/entertainment/Playhouse+closure+hits+home+with+those+
    local+theatre+scene/6305395/story.html

  • Bill Lee

    @MB // Mar 16, 2012 at 11:58 am
    and @Bill McCreery // Mar 16, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    “Large Crashing Fountain”
    It’s been tried on that QE plaza. Given up.

    There is a Large Crashing Fountain a block north at the BC Hydro Fortress (with Canadian Border Unpleasantries sharing part) a block north on Dunsmuir.
    And the building is set back 1/3, and it is on a (temporary) bike route.
    What more could Vision (or its backers?) want?

    Where do people come from ‘to downtown: how far will they walk from Parking [or] | Transit?
    Ah there’s the rub. You can see them walking to the QE for certain events and to the Ice Palace and such, but would they wander to a precinct without an event they bought tickets for?

    The area is rather dead. See bar receipts of the 3 or 4 pubs in the neighourhood when there is not a ‘game-on’ which is predominately at night. So during the daylight, no one will go there?

    How do you change mass (mob?) behaviour with architecture?

  • Bill McCreery

    “How do you change mass (mob?) behaviour with architecture?”

    With a “large crashing fountain”, the other things we’ve been taking about here, and imagination and conviction. Trust me, it works. The positive changes that have happened in the 34 years from 1972 until 2006 in Vancouver are a result of doing just that.

  • Bill Lee

    A million for a war exhibit and not a penny
    to keep the Playhouse Company going.

    ” The Minister of Canadian Heritage will be
    in Vancouver Tuesday morning to announce funding
    for a long list of cultural institutions – but the
    Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company won’t be one of them.
    “They’ve been bailed out already, the City of
    Vancouver gave them $1-million. It didn’t work,”
    James Moore told The Globe and Mail on Monday.
    “They tried fundraising. They didn’t get the kind
    of financial support that they were hoping for.
    It’s just really disappointing and sad.” [more]

    No federal bailout for Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company
    by Marsha Lederman
    VANCOUVER — From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
    Published Monday, Mar. 19, 2012 9:07PM EDT
    Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 20, 2012 2:48PM EDT

    Meanwhile

    Tories hand Vancouver $1 million for War of 1812 exhibit
    Conservative government will spend $28 million to mark bicentennial
    http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Tories+hand+Vancouver+million+1812+exhibit/6327539/story.html
    The Canadian government has announced close to $5 million in funding for 24 projects commemorating this year’s bicentennial of the War of 1812, including almost $1 million to help create a series of interactive exhibits to “bring the heroes and stories of the War of 1812 to life” at Vancouver’s Canada Place, more than 3,000 kilometres west of the conflict’s most famous battlegrounds in southern Ontario.
    …The historical attraction planned for Canada Place – a Vancouver tourism hub managed as a federal Crown corporation – is described in the announcement as combining an outdoor exhibit celebrating the war’s naval battles, an indoor exhibit capturing the conflict’s place in North American and world history and “an interpretive studio equipped with interactive stations” for visits by large groups of students.

    The Canada Place exhibit, to be titled “The War of 1812 Experience,” is intended to “provide our millions of visitors with the chance to experience the War of 1812 in an interactive and immersive way, and will show how our past helped shaped the world we live in today,” Canada Place chairperson Robin Wilson said in the announcement, which lists a $950,000 allocation for the B.C. project. [ more ]

  • Bill Lee

    City agrees to sponsor play at
    Playhouse.
    VCT head says in Georgia Straight
    this week if they get a 65 % house,
    they may break even.
    Fast, Furious and Very Funny Comedy
    Vancouver Civic Theatres presents God of Carnage April 14 – May 5 at the Vancouver Playhouse. For tickets call 604 873 3311 OR 604 665 3470.

    By Yasmina Reza
    Translated by Christopher Hampton
    Directed by Miles Potter
    A co-production with The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

  • Bill Lee

    Marsha (Vancouver is becoming a cultural backwater) Lederman writes
    quote —
    “The Playhouse has 668 seats. On opening night, 343 tickets were spoken for. Of those, 256 were comps [Complimentary (free) tickets].
    “That was an epic fail,” Cassini says. “To come out … and see those empty seats, I’ve got to say, in the first couple of minutes of the show, I think we were all, as actors, a little shocked.”
    —- end quote
    and it’s all the media freeloader’s fault
    “It’s possible that a $20 charge may have stood between a sold-out house and what the Playhouse got. The company has traditionally papered the house on opening night by offering complimentary tickets to members of the theatre community. For this performance, while there were some invited guests (including media), some people who usually receive comps were offered tickets at $20 each.”

    Theatre
    Attendance at Vancouver Playhouse show called ‘embarrassing’
    by Marsha Lederman
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/attendance-at-vancouver-playhouse-show-called-embarrassing/article2414146/
    Vancouver— From Thursday’s Globe and Mail
    Published Wednesday, Apr. 25, 2012 5:00PM EDT
    Last updated Wednesday, Apr. 25, 2012 7:12PM EDT

    It was an opening night that almost didn’t happen. God of Carnage was supposed to end the season for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, but when the company announced its abrupt closing last month, the production was left in the lurch – as was the co-producer, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

    Behind the scenes, a flurry of negotiations began almost immediately to bring God of Carnage to the Playhouse Theatre anyway (the city-owned physical theatre remains open). Vancouver Civic Theatres announced that it would present the show, and there was joy and relief in the arts community.

    Many people had attended a hastily arranged protest outside the theatre the day after the closing was announced. They carried clever signs, traded stories about the company’s 49-year run, shed tears. They said they wanted a chance to show their commitment to the Playhouse. Also, they wondered, wasn’t there any way to save it?

    Actor John Cassini is asking where those people were last Thursday, when God of Carnage opened to an almost half-empty theatre. “It spoke volumes,” says Cassini, who is one of the play’s four stars and the only one who lives in Vancouver. “I don’t know where the fight for the theatre was on that night.”

    The Playhouse has 668 seats. On opening night, 343 tickets were spoken for. Of those, 256 were comps.

    “That was an epic fail,” Cassini says. “To come out … and see those empty seats, I’ve got to say, in the first couple of minutes of the show, I think we were all, as actors, a little shocked.”

    He had seen opening night as an opportunity to make a statement about the importance of the Playhouse and theatre in general in Vancouver. Imagine the message that a sold-out house could have sent, he says. “It was an embarrassing display.”

    After God of Carnage’s well-attended run in Winnipeg, and given the meaning attached to this show-that-almost-wasn’t, Cassini had anticipated a frenzy at the box office, and certainly a packed opening night. “In all honesty, it was a little heartbreaking.”

    The audience noticed too. Actor Mackenzie Gray, who has recently wrapped filming Man of Steel, has never worked for the Playhouse, but has been active in the protests and was there on opening night. “I hardly saw anybody from our community there and I was just shocked,” he says. “I thought, ‘How could they not be here?’ ”

    Gray went home and posted a message on Facebook. “Okay Vancouver, I dare you: make a [expletive] effort,” it began, noting that the play was excellent, but attendance was “pathetic.”

    It’s possible that a $20 charge may have stood between a sold-out house and what the Playhouse got. The company has traditionally papered the house on opening night by offering complimentary tickets to members of the theatre community. For this performance, while there were some invited guests (including media), some people who usually receive comps were offered tickets at $20 each.

    “I don’t know if it’s a sense of entitlement, but it’s easy to say I’m fighting for the theatre when you never pay for it,” Gray says.

    The leadership of the Playhouse announced its closing on March 9; its debt load of up to $1-million was unsustainable.

    The financial problems were partly a result of its much-criticized operating model: The resident company of the Playhouse had to rent the unionized facility from the city, and was not receiving an annual municipal operating grant. Last year, the city approved a bailout package totalling close to $1-million, but the company was unable to resurface from a perfect storm of challenges, which included the recession.

    Gray says poor attendance at the Playhouse could detract from the community’s appeal to City Hall for help. “You’ve got to show the bean counters at the city, who just look at bums in seats and say, ‘Oh, you couldn’t even come to the opening of the final show of the company’s history that took months and months of negotiating and wrangling?’ ”

    Ticket sales are improving with word of mouth and some good reviews, but the performances are hardly selling out. “The trend lines are looking the way I want them to,” Vancouver Civic Theatres director Rae Ackerman says, “but we have a long way to go.”

    God of Carnage is at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre until May 5.

  • Bill Lee

    Another “Vancouver is becoming a cultural backwater” meme
    Remember when Marsha (Vancouver is becoming a cultural backwater) Lederman wrote
    quote —

    “The Playhouse has 668 seats. On opening night, 343 tickets were spoken for. Of those, 256 were comps [Complimentary (free) tickets].
    “That was an epic fail,” Cassini says. “To come out … and see those empty seats, I’ve got to say, in the first couple of minutes of the show, I think we were all, as actors, a little shocked.”

    —- end quote
    so half full, but only 343-256 = 87 paid people
    and it’s all the media freeloader’s fault

    “It’s possible that a $20 charge may have stood between a sold-out house and what the Playhouse got. The company has traditionally papered the house on opening night by offering complimentary tickets to members of the theatre community. For this performance, while there were some invited guests (including media), some people who usually receive comps were offered tickets at $20 each.”

    Now the Georgia Straight reports

    God of Carnage busts Vancouver Civic Theatres’ operating budget
    By Jessica Werb, May 3, 2012
    http://www.straight.com/article-674376/vancouver/god-carnage-civic-theatres-bust

    Vancouver Civic Theatres’ operating budget has been dealt a blow after ticket sales for Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s God of Carnage, which runs at the Playhouse Theatre until Saturday (May 5), failed to meet its target.

    Vancouver Civic Theatres stepped in to present the play after the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company folded in the face of insurmountable debt.

    When the arrangement was first announced in March, Civic Theatres director Rae Ackerman said an average attendance of 65 percent capacity would be required to break even. But by April 29, he was admitting defeat.

    “It’s doing about $3,000 a day now. We’d need to be more than double that [to break even],” he said. Ackerman would not disclose the amount of loss on the production but admitted that even if the last week of performances sold out, it would not be enough to mitigate the damage.

    “This is a situation that was fraught with obstacles,” he said. “The Playhouse Theatre Company closed its door, everybody knew about it, and people confused it with the theatre itself closing.…Then you get the potential audience who may have been gearing up in a normal way, getting exposure to the ads for the show, suddenly that stops [when the VPTC shut down]. Now there’s a vacuum. Then we start up again and people are looking the other way.”

    Ackerman insisted he was optimistic that the costs of mounting the poorly attended show could be absorbed. “We hope that we get other shows into the theatres that make up the difference, and it’s early in the year yet,” he said. “And so far, on the year to date, we’re ahead of budget—not hugely, but we’re ahead of budget.”

    The city is in the midst of a strategic review of Civic Theatres and Ackerman said a preliminary internal report will be completed in July, at which point the Playhouse Theatre’s future will become more certain.

    “Clearly the future and highest and best use of the theatre is certainly on the table for strategizing in a new strategic plan,” he noted. “We’ll see what the contents are and begin to do some serious planning following from that.”

  • Bill Lee

    Peter Birnie, the Vancouver Sun’s claque and “critic” for theatre comes back from a months-long sabbatical and finds:
    Vancouver is a cultural backwater

    Addressing the dead elephant on the stage
    With the Playhouse gone, and other venues feeling the pinch, a new brand of theatre could arise
    By Peter Birnie, Vancouver Sun May 5, 2012 StoryPhotos ( 1 )
    PHOTO John Mann of Spirit of the West plays outside the Playhouse Theatre in March. Despite the loss of a major venue, the talent pool remains strong.Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG Files , Vancouver Sun

    Any honest evaluation of the cur-rent condition of Vancouver’s theatre scene cannot ignore the elephant in the room. The dead elephant, that is.

    The Vancouver Playhouse is indeed as dead as any deceased pachyderm, or door nail, or parrot, and its loss cannot help but have an effect on every other player in town. Money is so tight, in so many ways, that it’s a given Vancouver, with the highest per-capita number of Canadians employed in cultural industries, cannot simply carry on as if nothing has happened.

    Make no mistake, this is still a city with a vibrant theatre scene, but you can’t lose a lung and expect to keep breathing easy. Theatre Conspiracy artistic director Tim Carlson sums it up nicely.

    “It’s a great time for audiences,” Carl-son writes in an email, “but whether it can be sustained by artists is another question. The loss of Playhouse-size paycheques will be a serious setback to a lot of mid-career and senior actors, designers and directors.”

    There’s always been a certain snobbery attached to the Playhouse that made it feel as if a moat had been dug around the place, discouraging lesser mortals from approaching. Production values were never less than stellar, but the kind of theatre that leaves you breathless, as in a 2011 production of Death of a Salesman, was increasingly lacking.

    The Playhouse had an aging sub-scriber base, perhaps reluctant to now test the waters of our vigorous independent theatre scene. But there’s no escaping the fact that people have to move out of their comfort zone if they want to find the best of what’s on offer.

    Carlson cites the recent example of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, presented at the Cultch by a clutch of small companies pooling their resources for a collective take on the controversial 2005 play by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Stephen Drover directed a production by Pound of Flesh Theatre in association with Pacific Theatre and Neworld Theatre, presented with Rumble Productions as part of the 2012 TREMORS Festival.

    “An up-and-coming director leading a terrific cast that sank their fangs into a world-renowned contemporary script that had real energy, venom and vision,” says Carlson. “Maybe such partnerships will be the standard or maybe they’ll evolve into new entities that produce in larger venues. There’s no shortage of talent or producing skill in this town.”

    A 2010 study for the federal government by Hill Strategies Research found that B.C. residents attended live theatre just about as often as anyone else in Canada, and that means about 44 per cent of us put bums in seats. Not surprisingly, given that it’s home to Toronto’s lively theatre scene as well as the Shaw and Stratford festivals, Ontario was tops with 48 per cent attending.

    Yet, even there, cracks appear. Aubrey Dan recently announced that after his national tour of Jersey Boys ends this fall (it’s in Vancouver from Sept. 5 to 23), Dancap won’t produce any more shows until further notice.

    Dancap couldn’t compete with the mighty Mirvish Productions theatre machine, but in Vancouver it was an amateur antagonist that forced Applause! Musicals Society to also recently put itself on hold. Scott Ash-ton Swan found our region now hosting so many amateur musical-theatre groups that Applause! couldn’t get enough people out to audition.

    Yes, that’s the sign of a healthy interest in musical theatre, but it’s not about getting gainful employment for professionals who have devoted their careers to theatre. Even the wealth of talent on offer at Bard on the Beach and the Arts Club Theatre, the only big games left in town, can only count on so many weeks of work in a year.

    Actress Jennifer Clement has it right: “The Playhouse really was a mother ship, and I hope it’s not the death of that kind of quality of work. I hope it’s only in a coma, and can come back to life.”

    Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Addressing+dead+elephant+stage/6572211/story.html

  • Bill Lee

    Toronto notices, but only in relation to one
    of their song-and-dance troupes going into hiatus.

    Is Vancouver a cultural backwater?

    Theatre: Commentary
    Time for theatre to get past the first stage of grief: denial
    J. Kelly Nestruck
    From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
    Published Friday, May. 04, 2012 4:00PM EDT

    22 comments

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/time-for-theatre-to-get-past-the-first-stage-of-grief-denial/article2423123/

    It’s panic time in Canadian theatre.

    With this week’s announcement that Toronto’s Dancap Productions will be shutting down following the recent demise of the Vancouver Playhouse, the health of the country’s theatre ecology – commercial and not-for-profit – is being pronounced in critical condition.

    More related to this storyLINKS
    ————-
    Music stops for Dancap dream
    Attendance at Vancouver Playhouse show called ‘embarrassing’
    Curtain falling on Vancouver’s cultural scene
    ————-

    The importance of these deaths, however, is being greatly exaggerated. Time to take a deep breath and keep calm.

    Carrying on, however, is not a good idea. If we don’t examine these losses with a clear eye, we might end up perpetuating models that no longer enrich the country or theatre producers.

    Take Aubrey Dan. In a way, the president of Dancap Productions is the final dupe of former Livent impresario and convicted fraudster and forger Garth Drabinsky, whose last chance of appeal was shot down by the Supreme Court of Canada in March.

    Time and time again, Dan talked about filling the “vacuum created with the demise of Livent”. He used those exact words in an interview just last month.

    The assumption that there is a vacuum to fill, however, was Dan’s big mistake – albeit one shared by many theatrically minded Torontonians who still wistfully refer, as Dan did, to the “glory days of commercial theatre back in the 1990s”.

    The death of Dancap must finally bring an end to this denial. All future would-be impresarios angling to take Dan’s place should be required to read Justice Mary Lou Benotto 2009 ruling that finally sent Drabinsky and his cohort Myron Gottlieb to prison.

    Detailing financial funny business that dated all the way back to the birth of that theatrical partnership in 1990, Benotto concluded: “The exponential growth of [Livent] was analogous to an athlete taking a performance enhancing drug. The result may be spectacular but the means involve cheating.”

    Dan assumed that there was appetite in Toronto to financially sustain a new Livent when there wasn’t even enough for the old Livent in stronger economic times.

    And so, over the course of Dancap’s five years of existence, Dan’s losses have estimated to around $40-million.

    The Vancouver Playhouse, meanwhile, closed after 49 years due to a debt of about$1-million. Now there’s a comparison that stings, because the Playhouse has made a much more significant contribution to Canadian culture than simply bringing American tours of Broadway shows to town.

    But the fact that the not-for-profit Playhouse couldn’t find a way to raise a million bucks in a city where the average house costs that much is a bad sign. Indeed, it’s worse than the debt itself.

    On the West Coast, however, we’re seeing the classic first stage of grief, too: Denial.

    Vancouver Civic Theatres decided to go ahead and bring in what was supposed to be the Playhouse’s final production, God of Carnage – then was surprised to find that audiences aren’t flocking to the 655-seat theatre. Now they’re going to take a bath.

    The Playhouse might be the canary in the coal mine for Canada’s regional theatre network, which was set up in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s time to look at what that institutional model offers us and ask whether it’s good value for public money compared with the smaller, more dynamic companies that are in comparatively robust health.

    God of Carnage is a good place to start the examination. That’s a French play translated into English by a British playwright, then adapted for an American audience. It was turned into a movie by Roman Polanski last fall starring Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz. I can rent it on iTunes for about $6.

    Is the experience of seeing God of Carnage live with Canadian actors putting on Brooklyn accents worth the extra $53 (plus gas, plus parking, plus babysitter, plus rushing through dinner to make curtain time)? What does it contribute to Canadian culture beyond the economic spin-offs that arts-funding defenders drone on about ad nauseum?

    The question of whether the regional theatre model is a success for anyone beyond administrators, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and tax collectors is one that’s being asked across North America.

    On Facebook, many artists have been sharing a recent blog post titled “Please, Don’t Start a Theater Company!” In it, San Francisco director Rebecca Novick criticizes the “fossilized model” of regional theatres in the U.S. and drops the following troubling statistic: “In the past fifteen years, the number of non-profit theater companies in the United States has doubled while audiences and funding have shrunk.”

    Canadian theatre faces a similar situation. In another online essay being circulated, Toronto theatre creator Jacob Zimmer asked, in the wake of the Playhouse closure, whether artists are really serious when they refer to theatre as an “ecology”.

    “[T]he problem is that we, as an arts community, seem to want endless growth,” Zimmer wrote. “Current structures to be maintained while new ones are continually born and grow. Which isn’t how I understand ecologies to work.”

    “To be blunt, things have to die in order for other, new, things to grow.”

    Indeed, theatre, as an art form, is about death or, at least, disappearance. Live performance exists in the moment, then it is gone.

    The ephemerality of theatre isn’t a weakness; its constant cycle of death and rebirth is its biggest strength. Our priority should be to keep the art, not the institutions, alive.

  • Bill Lee

    On Culture
    Props to Jim Buckshon for saving Vancouver Playhouse Theatre’s props
    by MARSHA LEDERMAN

    The Globe and Mail
    Published Friday, Feb. 22 2013, 10:47 PM EST
    Last updated Friday, Feb. 22 2013, 11:05 PM EST
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/props-to-jim-buckshon-for-saving-vancouver-playhouse-theatres-props/article9002211/

    …The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company shut down operations last March, a day after publicly announcing it could not continue. There was some hope of reigniting the 49-year-old regional theatre company, but on December 13, it disbanded. The board members resigned the following day. According to a note on the Playhouse website, the company is insolvent and cannot pay for bankruptcy proceedings. (Attempts to reach former board chair Jeff Schulz were not successful.)
    The props collection – amassed over many years, and an important asset to the theatre community – was almost a casualty of the financial mess. But Mr. Buckshon stepped in to save it.
    In May 2011, he was looking for additional space for his company, Renegade Productions, and struck a deal to sublet space from the Playhouse at its East 2nd Avenue facility. Renegade would pay rent to the Playhouse, which would in turn pay the landlord. The two organizations got along beautifully.
    When the Playhouse shut down, Mr. Buckshon was blindsided. He learned from its landlord, the Beedie Development Group, that the Playhouse hadn’t been paying rent (which was already below market, according to Beedie) for “several months” – including Renegade’s share. The Beedie Group asked Mr. Buckshon for proof that Renegade had been paying the Playhouse, he produced that proof, and was offered the lease for the entire building– including the scene shop, props department and wardrobe department.
    The Playhouse had surrendered assets to the landlord for moneys owed, so the landlord was stuck with all the props (the Playhouse removed the wardrobe, according to Beedie). The Beedie Group offered the collection to at least three other theatrical enterprises, but nobody bought them – not because of the price (which Mr. Buckshon says was relatively low) but because of the cost of moving, cataloging and storing the collection.
    ….Mr. Buckshon knows that, too. He’s subsidizing the props and theatre operation – Renegade Arts Society – with his music operation, providing staff to run the props division for free, and subsidizing the rent and utilities. He also rents out rehearsal space to local theatre companies – the old scene shop has even been used as a black box theatre – and Renegade offers studio space to 14 visual artists where the wardrobe shop used to be.
    And he’s building up the music side of the business: In the old Playhouse space, he’s created some 50 rehearsal studios, used by local acts such as Dan Mangan, Hey Ocean, Said the Whale, Yukon Blonde and Hannah Georgas. He’s building a recording studio in the basement.
    [ more ]

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