City Stage New West: Un-stumped and Restless Visionaries?
By Rod Drown
Could New Westminster become Stratford West? Could the oldest city on the country's Pacific Coast some day rival Ontario's Niagara on the Lake in cultural cachet as the Mecca for things stage in Canada? Could a new city theatre organization perhaps even resurrect the late 60's renegade spirit of Theatre Passe Muraille, co-founded in Toronto by the very experienced Canadian actor Judith Berlin who is one of City Stage New West' Board members?
The enthusiasts behind New Westminster's City Stage New West, which recently presented an original light-hearted musical Stump City Stories at the Douglas College Theatre, may have such aims among their ambitions.
Stump City Stories, which I saw a few weeks ago, was vaguely reminiscent of Thornton Wilder's classic Our Town and was attended by a few hundred people over two nights.
Stump City sings New Westminster history
Written by award-winning composer George Ryan, whose works include over a decade of original scores for Vancouver's Bard on the Beach venues as well as works for CBC Radio, Stump City Stories celebrates intertwining lives and unexpected events from New Westminster's rich and culturally diverse history. The work was commissioned as part of the city's 150th Anniversary and was supported by a City of New Westminster Arts and Culture Grant.
The cast of Stump City Stories featured the talents of veteran Broadway musical actor Sean Allan, along with Damon Calderwood (last seen in the title role of "Billy Bishop Goes to War"), Jeremy Lowe (recently in the Arts Club's Les Miserables), and New Westminster resident and newcomer Dora Brooks, most recently "Phyllis" in DragonDiva Opera Theatre's "Iolanthe". George Ryan directed and accompanied the superb cast.
One of Ryan's other recent New Westminster stage accomplishments was providing musical accomplishment in last March's Murder in the Cathedral. Ryan is Holy Trinity's music director and an award-winning musical theatre director in his own right.
"George Ryan is absolutely brilliant. City Stage New West simply would not have been able to come up with such a worthy 150th Celebration project for New Westminster in such short order had it not been for this amazingly talented, dedicated, and extremely humble man," praised City Stage New West Artistic Director Renee Bucciarelli.
The gossiping ladies of New Westminster's elite Queens Park district circa 1930 are, left to right: Jeremy Lowe, George Ryan (at piano), Sean Allan, Damon Calderwood, and Dora Brooks.
Regarding future productions, Bucciarelli says, "I must say we are finding our way – when I first came on board with the group, I wanted simply to organize professional readings of poetic, classic, or heightened-language plays. I was soon asked by the Board to serve as artistic director of a society with a rather wide-open mission to fulfill, and we are refining it. The Stump City Stories project was perhaps a bit of an anomaly’ – [I] never thought we'd be commissioning a musical, but with the 150th Celebration it seemed like the right thing to do at the time if we got our grant."
Artistic Director Bucciarelli thinking "rarely-done classics" and Tempest Project
Bucciarelli, who has lived in New Westminster for only a few years and is well known in the New York theatre community, also told Grab News that she would like to return soon to some classics, or at least more literary theatrical works. Although she was coy about revealing the details, Bucciarelli gave some hints:
"There are some other rarely-done classics and some wonderful-but-obscure works that haven't been done in this area for years, if ever, that we are investigating dusting off and giving a contemporary twirl – but, sorry, we're not ready to make any public announcements."
Among the possibilities are the presentation of paired readings of works illuminating each other, such as My Name is Rachel Corrie with Anouilh's and/or Sophocles' Antigones.
Something also very interesting-sounding, even provocative – right out of New York in fact! – is a collaboration with another Vancouver theatre about the possibility of doing a event dubbed The Tempest Project, which essentially would be an exploration of power relationships in Shakespeare's plays, where a handful of directors would work on different scenes with a variety of contemporary (i.e., multi-cultural, age-and-gender diverse) casting choices. As Bucciarelli explains:
"A project like this was done in New York a while ago that included audience reactions and, I think, yielded a lot of fruit regarding the ongoing conversation about how well our art (theatre) is 'holding up the mirror to nature', or in this case, society. The idea of pursuing The Tempest Project here was borne of intense conversations with the diverse cast members from the Murder in the Cathedral staged reading I directed last year regarding casting barriers they personally face as actors in the Lower Mainland. Generally speaking, though, City Stage New West is not interested in "seminar theatre".
The City Stage New West Board, said its Artistic Director, very much acts as a team in terms of how it chooses its material:
"A lot of discussion goes in to the choice of possibilities. Though I personally lean to the classics, I'm trying to keep to the original vision of the founding society, which, fortunately, had the good sense to simply seek to bring professional theatre to New West. We've since further honed our mission statement to reflect our desire to serve the community with thoughtful choices that illuminate the human condition."
Left to right: Jeremy Lowe, Damon Calderwood, Dora Brooks and Sean Allan
sing their hearts out in Stump City
Board member Judith Berlin helped found Theatre Passe Muraille
Another leading light of City Stage New West is Judith Berlin. However, Berlin, who has one of the classiest names in stage, is stepping off the Board in January. A retired teacher, she has dedicated her life to acting. Her "official" theatre history began in 1962 when, one month after her 17th birthday, she was admitted to U.C. Berkeley with Honours Entrance
Later coming to Canada, she was a co-founder of the then-controversial Theatre Passe Muraille, along with Artistic Director Jim Garrard.
According to a 2005 report in the Toronto Star, there was much publicity for the 1969 Passe Muraille play FUTZ! Police handed out summonses each night. Producers were sued for immorality. This was a play about a man in love with his pig. The police issued summonses to the actors, producers and director by the second performance. Not even the hat-check boy was safe from the charge of staging an immoral performance.
However, following what in some peoples' minds was no doubt a swinish beginning, over the years Theatre Passe Muraille played an important part in Canada's theatrical development, especially through collective works like The Farm Show and was home to important writers like Rick Salutin and Linda Griffiths. In 1999 it offered the premiere of Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy, which went on to enormous success throughout the world.
Berlin, who became very experienced as an actor doing CBC Radio and Television drama, said her "most high profile media work" occurred when she did the "Don't Look Now, But" Ban deodorant ad. She said her favourite stage role thus far has been in the V.E.E.C presentation of Charles Ludlam's Bluebeard, where she performed as Lamia the Leopard woman.
Berlin told Grab News that she loves New Westminster for its size, friendliness and humility. She is a character actor by looks, a lover of all the arts, and a passionately committed cat owner
Bucciarelli praises Jang and other "blessed" contributors
According to Bucciarelli, Pansy Jang, City Stage New West's Board President, is the unsung heroine behind the scenes.
"[She] is the one member of City Stage New West that has stayed with the society since its inception. She's been the glue that's kept the project going, and is truly City Stage New West's unsung, behind-the-scenes heroine. Her commitment to the idea that professional theatre is necessary to a community's spiritual health and growth is both deep and abiding." She was also lavish in her praise of other Board members:
"We are also blessed to have the multi-talented theatre professional Damon Calderwood on our board as well as Bev Jakeman, a long-time New Westminster teacher who brings energy, innovation, and fabulous organizational skills to our endeavours."
