TUTS gets year-round home

JEANIE KEOGH

Theatre Under the Stars is putting up a fourth wall. The company is winterizing the Malkin Bowl outdoor stage in Stanley Park, where it holds annual musical productions, so that it can, among other things, practise there year round.

“We’re hoping that we’re going to be at the beginning of a new era,” said Wendy Bross Stuart, music director for this year’s production of Singin’ in the Rain and many other previous TUTS productions.

With the financial help of the federal government and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, who put up a combined $600,000 toward the project, the $700,000 renovation is scheduled to be finished April 2011. TUTS will make up the $100,000 difference by adding $1 to the ticket price and by reaching out to corporate sponsors.

The upgrades include installing a large retractable door, measuring 30 metres by 12 metres, and adding insulation to shield the actors, musicians and crew from the elements – and the raccoons – said Stuart.

“At the moment, a tarp is doing it, which isn’t so great, and the building itself was built in 1911 and has not had a lot of upkeep since,” she said.

The company is also hoping to raise an additional $200,000 in the next three years to put in a loading dock and other stage fixtures to make themselves more at home in the space.

Stuart said federal funding has been difficult for the company in the past because they are considered partially professional, which excludes them from receiving grant money in both professional and amateur categories.

Ninety percent of TUTS funding comes from ticket sales, with some 40,000 people attending the shows each year. Most of this goes toward covering the six-figure licensing fees, Stuart said. As a result, at the beginning of each season, budgeting is a challenge and they often just break-even financially. The problem of funding hit home hard for TUTS in 2006.

“I’d already hired my orchestra – that took me about 100 hours – and we had already set up the audition dates and, the day before the auditions were set to start, I got a call saying, ‘It’s cancelled.’ We were supposed to do Oklahoma,” Stuart said. She hopes that there will be more of a financial buffer now that TUTS has been issued a 10-year lease. As well, TUTS has secured the option to rent out the venue to other groups.

Previously, Malkin Bowl was only made available on a year-to-year basis and not set up for indoor rehearsals but, with the renovations, year-round use will be possible. TUTS will save on rehearsal costs and be able to take in income from other theatre companies, charitable or arts organizations that use the facility to practise, Stuart said.

“There isn’t a lot of rehearsal space for new up-and-coming companies that are needing rehearsal space and it’s a very specific kind of need,” she said. According to Stuart, it has been an ongoing struggle to find a place that meets the company’s needs. In the 13 years she has been involved in productions, they have practised in several locations, most recently, the Holy Rosary Cathedral. Not all the venues are ideal because TUTS, like other theatre groups, has a very specific set of requirements. And, this year, Holy Rosary wasn’t available for the first two weeks of scheduled rehearsals, which sent them looking for another space. Even so, when Stuart first learned of the plans for the Malkin Bowl, she was hesitant.

“As soon as I heard that I immediately phoned the office and said, ‘Are you guys crazy? It’s going to be cold, there’s not going to enough light ... are you going to import a keyboard? Is there going to be heating?’”

But, once inside, sealed off from bursts of West Coast weather by the temporary protection of a closed curtain and a tarp, Stuart said she warmed up to the idea. “It was really very nice using that big space as a rehearsal space,” she said.

So, after they bring down the house this summer with audience favorites Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Singin’ in the Rain, TUTS will be well on their way to having a more permanent roof over their heads. Visit tuts.ca for tickets and information.

Jeanie Keogh is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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