Is Port Moody really the
City of the Arts?

 

~ 2% Ashley |
} Whillans

   

 

arts & entertainment

editor hile Port
Moody
claims to be
“the City

of the Arts” and declares this slogan on
its city signs, is the artistic community
really as strong as it claims to be? Nick
Sartore, executive director of Shift
Performing Arts Society, was wondering
the same thing when he started the One-
Act Theatre Festival in Port Moody in
2007.

Sartore, alongside a dedicated board
of directors, started Shift as a theatre-
producing non-government organization
to inspire the citizens of the Tri-Cities
to see more local theatre and to build
a stronger sense of artistic community
in Port Moody and its surrounding
municipalities.

“Other than high school theatre
festivals, which are the main source of
theatre in the Tri-Cities, there’s very
little local theatre outside of youth
theatre and drop-in theatre programs,”
explained Sartore. “With a big market
right here in the Tri-Cities, most people
think they have to go to Vancouver to
see theatre, which just isn’t true. We
want to show people that there is high
quality original theatre worth seeing,
right here in the community.”

Port Moody, apparently excited by
a group who wants to help build Port
Moody into the actual City of the Arts,
has been more than generous to the

theatre group so far according to Sartore.

“Port Moody has been really
supportive of our theatre company and
of our arts initiatives, and have provided
us with a lot of opportunity,” he said.

The group has performed numerous
times at Port Moody’s Inlet Theatre to
much success and recently finished an
entire festival at the venue devoted to the
artistic movement known as surrealism.

What’s next for Shift? Well, wanting
to live up to its mandate as an “innovator
of new work,” the society is hoping to
produce and debut three new plays at
its One-Act Theatre Festival happening
later in June. The series will feature nine
hand-picked shows, including some
original work, over the course of three
days.

Two of these shows will then be
remounted at Carousel Theatre on
Granville Island, bringing the Tri-Cities
to Vancouver to showcase “the City of
the Arts” on the Vancouver scene.

This festival is particularly
important to Shift, as Adam Janusz,
SHIFT’s Artistic Coordinator explains:
“Helping playwrights bring new stories
and characters to life is really exciting.
We're always trying to support local
artists, and to have a majority of this
year’s festival be new, never-before-seen
shows that’s [sic] a great surprise for
us.”

Thanks to people like Sartore,
Janusz and Shift Arts, Port Moody is
closer than ever to living up to its name,
and finally delivering on its promise of
being an influential “City of the Arts.”

COUNTRY CABARET
19040 Lougheed Hwy
Pitt Meadows, BC

 

 

 

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