March 10, 2008

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Dougla

s College theatre and stagecraft

departments celebrate 100th production

By Allan Lysell, College Theatre Director (with files from Dorothy Jones)

Sis 1983, when the Royal Avenue
campus first opened, the Douglas College
Theatre Department has produced 55
plays in the Performing Arts Theatre
and 44 in the Studio Theatre. As well,
the Theatre Department has produced
14 shows in other venues from 1970 to
1983. So in total we’re really celebrating
114 productions! But, more than any
particular number, we’re celebrating
the people of the theatre and stagecraft
departmentsincluding the original faculty,
staff, administrators, and everyone else
who helped carry us through the early
years. And even more importantly, we’re
celebrating the hundreds of students who
have come to learn about the world of
theatre and perhaps ended up learning
even more about themselves and the
wider world that theatre reveals. Their
enthusiasm and dedication is the energy
that Douglas College theatre thrives on.

The story of the Douglas
College Theatre and Stagecraft
departments is the story of the College
itself. Repeatedly faced with budget
cutbacks and no permanent home, both
the college and the theatre department
lived peripatetic lives from 1970 right
up until the opening of the Royal Avenue
campus in 1983. The theatre department
was housed at a succession of locations
for the first 12 years: North Surrey United
Church, Surrey Centennial Art Centre,
James Cowan Theatre, Queens Avenue
United Church, Olivet Baptist Church,
New Westminster Secondary School and
the McBride and Riverview campuses.
That takes us only to 1978! From then
classes were held at a local bingo hall,
the Burnaby Arts Centre, the Agnes
Street Centre and finally the Winslow
Campus in Coquitlam. Theatre students

and faculty learned that wherever you
hung your hat was home.

The very existence of theatre
at the college was severely tested in
1982 when budget restrictions forced
the closure of the department. But the
theatre students and faculty would not
go quietly. Theatre students protested
so vigorously and with such a high
public profile in the 1982 “Great Trek”
from McBride Avenue to the opening
of the new facility on Royal Avenue,
that the department was re-introduced,
this time as a full two-year university
transfer program. It was obvious that a
department that inspired such devotion
and passion could not be denied.

In the fall of 1983 Drew Young
(who is still an active member of the
Stagecraft faculty) was hired to teach
stagecraft courses within the Theatre
Department as well as manage the
Performing Arts Theatre and outfit the
theatre shop (the College owned nary
a hammer at this point). This was an
exciting period for the department as
the beautiful new performance venue
became home to a series of popular and
powerful productions: The Drunkard,
Working, The Would-Be Gentleman, The
Hostage, Kiss Me Kate and many more.

Some of the teachers and
instructors who pioneered these years
of growth include Dorothy Jones and
Gwynneth Harvey, Christine Menzies
and Jamie Zagoudakis, Trudi Forrest and
Kim Stebner, Drew Young and Christine
Dewar. Their dedication fueled an
exciting celebration of theatre at the new
Douglas College home. Some of them
are still inspiring students at Douglas
College to this day, while others have
rightfully taken some time to rest and
recharge their batteries.

In 1987 a new Stagecraft
Program was introduced. That program
celebrates its 20" birthday this season
as we celebrate our 100" production at
Douglas College. From the late eighties
and into the nineties, the success of the
Stagecraft program began to greatly
influence the technical quality of
productions with sets, props, costumes,
sound, and lighting rivaling professional
productions. Asecond performance space,
the Black Box Studio Theatre, provided
more performance opportunities and
gave audiences a new intimate theatre
experience to complement the larger
Performing Arts Theatre.

Although the primary goals of
the Theatre and Stagecraft department
were to train actors and technicians, a
happy benefit was the opportunity for our
audiences to see excellent productions
of important Canadian and international
playsOsometimes even before anyone
else in Canada saw them! In 1976,
Douglas College commissioned well-
known Canadian playwright Sharon
Pollock. Her play was originally titled
My Name is Lisbeth and premiered at
Douglas. Sharon later revised the play
and re-titled it Blood Relations—it
went on to become a highly successful
and respected Canadian play. Sharon
Pollock will be returning to Douglas
College this March to help us celebrate
our 100" production!

The history of the Theatre and
Stagecraft Departments is too wide and
deep for a single article but it is important
to note that students and faculty from
both departments continue to be active
in the Douglas College community and
in the wider community. Students have
played “patients” and “clients” for
Psych Nursing and Criminology, toured

elementary and secondary schools,
created fund-raising “murder mysteries”
for the Douglas College Foundation,
portrayed “criminals and victims” in
New Westminster Police Department
hostage exercises, provided readings
of new plays for Creative Writing
students, portrayed victims for New
West’s Earthquake Preparedness event,
and participated in many more public
and College events. This community
spirit has been the hallmark of theatre
and stagecraft students, faculty and staff
since our very beginnings some thirty-
eight years ago.

Readers who were paying
attention at the beginning of this article
noticed that the number of productions
at Douglas College’s New West campus
totals 99 not 100. That’s because we are
also celebrating the future as we look
back at the past. Our 100" production
takes place in the newly named Laura
C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre. The
naming dedication ceremony takes place
on March 14", so the upcoming Dracula
will be both our 100" production as well
as the first production in the “Muir”
theatre. A generous family donation will
provide annual scholarship awards to
students from Theatre, Stagecraft, and
Music as well as memorialize the life of
Laura Muir, an amazing woman in her
own right.

So, as one act closes and
another begins, we look both behind and
ahead. We celebrate our traditions and at
the same time we begin afresh, ready to
deal with the ever-present challenges of
fiscal restraint and budget restrictions,
and enthused about show number 101
and 102... and number 200!

Please join us in our celebration.
See you at the theatre!

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