Arts Council of New Westminster A Vision for Theatre in New Westminster

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City Stage New West

A Story of New Westminster
New Westminster's marquees tell a story of our city's theatres: closed. Without the Uptown Cinema, and the Burr, we are rapidly declining toward suburb status. Will we now all succumb to the large screen in our living rooms and our personal DVD collection? Or will we, the theatre community, pull out all our expertise, skill and creativity to jumpstart the heart of the city with live theatre? The role of the theatre in society is to voice and perform the stories citizens want. In essence, the theatre is the artistic voice of a society. Do we want that voice?

Our city is rapidly expanding in size, we hardly know our neighbours anymore. Interesting people are coming here from all over the world, and we have few opportunities to tell them who we are, or to find out who they are, to swap stories and build new ones together. Live theatre can create those connections between people. Seeing real people, rather than light images on a screen you cannot interact with, has an immediacy and impact that builds community.

There is a tendency these days to a globalization of stories. Even my teen son has remarked that he cannot understand why the Hollywood movies he sees are shown here, as they do not reflect a world he lives in. I agree, however, I also know that the boundaries between the real and imagined worlds are slippery, and that we do eventually begin to accept as truth the stories we are constantly told. That is why our national arts organizations fight for Canadian content: it's to protect our national identity.

So what about our civic identity? How do we, as citizens of New Westminster, ensure that our voices and preferred stories take their rightful public place?

City Stage New West proposes that we need a professional theatre company to be that artistic voice for now and for the future of the people here in this city. We have a good small community theatre, the Vagabond Players, and we have the Massey bringing in outside acts, operating as a roadhouse and a home for the Royal City Musical Theatre. There is a gap that needs to be filled by a professional theatre company, as well. City Stage is planning to be that company.

We are currently working through a review of the 1996 Proscenium Report on the Raymond Burr Theatre Project, paying particular attention to its details on the current New Westminster theatre market. Clearly, New West can and should be a regional theatre centre. There is no professional theatre competition in this region and past Burr audience attendance proves that audiences will come from all over the Tri Cities area, Delta, Richmond and Burnaby. A recent New Westminster city tourism study recognizes that a large percentage of our American tourists are "cultural" tourists: they want theatre performances to attend. In fact, so do the tourists from Australia and Europe. The city recognizes that.

Beyond the artistic and business needs of our community, there is the theatre community itself to build on. Our resident theatre professionals would delight in a professional local theatre to work in. A thriving theatre community would attract new theatre professionals to relocate here. The talented youth graduating from our Fine Arts mini-school and from Douglas College’s Stagecraft and Acting programmes deserve a future in a theatre company that is local and accessible.

City Stage’s White Paper has a plan developed to bring professional theatre to this city. We are in STAGE ONE: Networking, reconnecting, connecting with interested theatre people. We wish to build audience and interest in theatre, to enliven the heart of this city. The rest will follow naturally, according to the plan we have carefully mapped for fundraising, productions and seasons, once people have rekindled their heart’s desire for a theatre presence.

Our networking events on the last Wednesday of every month at the Orange Room are to encourage theatre aficionados, City Stage members and the general public to have a social evening and see what’s new and coming up in theatre. Cold Reads, Improv and Storytelling are regular features for these evenings. This month, on May 30th the NWSS Improv Team, which finished in the top 10 in Canada out of 200 entries nationally, will show us who the future is in Canadian theatre. Come and see who it is.

Our intention is to work with flexibility and collaboration with other New Westminster arts groups and venues. Above all, we would like to work together with them to draw up a comprehensive plan for theatre in New West. We are the ones who can do that best, together.

Rather than wait for a task force to tell us how to create a healthy theatre community, we must realize that we have the expertise, the skills, the resources and our best asset: creativity. We can certainly draw up a plan and present it to the task force. A plan we draw up will have merit, and will be one we will feel with our hearts, and will develop in a way that will bring our voices together.

And, we can present it publicly as a thoughtful, considered approach to building a theatre plan for getting New Westminster on the map as a regional theatre centre in the Lower Mainland.

Patty Holmes, Board City Stage New West