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Lee Su-Feh

Marg Specht

Bill Millerd

Manami Hara

Max Wyman

what we do

sacrifice and time

I don't really consider that I've made a significant sacrifice to run the Arts Club Theatre Company - perhaps there are other choices I could've made - like become a lawyer (the family track), or go into the Foreign Service (a compelling attraction in the mid-sixties when I graduated from UBC), but instead I went to the National Theatre School in Montreal. That led me back to Vancouver, a job as a stage manager where I discovered the Seymour Street Arts Club Theatre, which led to building the Granville Island Stage, the Revue Theatre, the Production Centre and the Stanley Theatre - and along the way closed the Seymour Street theatre.

Granville Island Stage Renovations

I suppose I have sacrificed time since all of that took a great deal of it. Perhaps I've sacrificed outside activities, since I had to be very focused. As the Artistic Director of the Company, I have given up the freedom of freelance directing. I can't choose where I work - the job is its own prison. Some friendships have been sacrificed - it is difficult to have close friends with those who also work in the local theatre scene and depend on me to make decisions that choose someone else over them. Of course I have met a lot of people in this job and many I consider friends despite difficulties, so the trade-off is well worth it.

What is sacrifice if the choice has been a deliberate one and made with full recognition of what would be required? Those close to me could rattle off several things they think I have sacrificed, like not being able to leave the job at the workplace. And those I work with would certainly point to decisions that I have made that would constitute sacrifice of one sort or another, such as, taking on the extra burden of building theatres and not concentrating on artistic endeavours.

Looking back, I suppose that I didn't fully recognize the time factor involved; not just in the planning and construction phases, but also in the need to involve myself in raising money for these projects. It is one thing to dream, quite another to realize that dream. I have had to sacrifice some private part of myself to help realize these dreams.

But if "sacrifice" is "the giving up of something for the sake of something else, the thing so given up, the loss so entailed" then what I have sacrificed is small compared to the joy of the job. I enjoy the constant invigoration of working with outstandingly talented theatre artists and the rewards of seeing these talents reflected in the work of the Company. As I write this we are in rehearsals for the premiere of The Matka King; a perfect example of the rewards of my job. The range of artists it involves nourishes the whole Company; such as, the fresh, dynamic talents of playwright Anosh Irani, as well as the seasoned talent of set designer Robert Gardiner.

I hope I am a better individual for the experience, and that my small sacrifices have given others huge opportunities to enrich our community.

Stanley Theatre renovation - Proscenium Architecture rendering