The first Arts Club Theatre Company season to be programmed by its incoming artistic director will open in September with a new production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, to be directed by Ashlie Corcoran.
Corcoran announced her first season on Monday. Of the 18 shows at the Arts Club's three venues plus shows they're touring, 11 are written by Canadians , 11 by women and four by artists of colour or Indigenous artists. There are two Canadian premieres, including the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winner Sweat, by Lynn Nottage – a timely play dealing with race, personal and political politics, and the demise of the American Dream.
The other Canadian premiere is The Great Leap by Lauren Yee. "It is just premiering in the States literally right now and I was saying to the board [last] Monday this is the great campaign of my beginning to be the artistic director of the Arts Club," Corcoran told The Globe and Mail. "I literally e-mailed the agent every day asking to get the rights for it and just got the rights right before I went to the board [last] Monday, so I'm very excited about that play."
The Orchard (After Chekhov), by Sarena Parmar, adapted from the Chekhov play and set in the Okanagan and based on Parmar's own B.C. childhood, will open in March, 2019, after having its world premiere at the Shaw Festival this June.
A remount of retiring managing artistic director Bill Millerd's production of Beauty and the Beast will once again be the big holiday show at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (Millerd becomes Artistic Director Emeritus at the end of the month). Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, described as a "festive Pride and Prejudice follow-up," will run at the Granville Island Stage over the holiday season. The Vancouver premiere of Matilda the Musical will open at the Stanley next May.
Corcoran is still in the process of hiring directors, but in addition to the season opener – adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel by Mark Haddon – she will direct The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder at the Stanley, a play she has always wanted to direct.
Other shows next season at the Granville Island Stage include: Kat Sandler's Mustard, Morris Panych's The Shoplifters, Mark Crawford's Bed and Breakfast and Mom's the Word: Nest ½ Empty by the Mom's the Word Collective.
The cast of Bill Millerd’s production of Beauty and the Beast.
Emily Cooper
Mark Crawford and Paul Dunn in Bed and Breakfast.
Andree Lanthier
The cast of Mom’s the Word 3: Nest ½ Empty.
Emily Cooper
Shows programmed for the BMO Theatre Centre include Rebecca Northan's Blind Date, True Crime by Torquil Campbell and Chris Abraham, and Redpatch by Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver, about a Métis soldier who volunteers to fight for Canada in the First World War.
There are no world premieres in Corcoran's first season, but she says that's not an indication of her programming vision.
"There will definitely be world premieres of British Columbia and Vancouver playwrights moving forward. It's just about the transitional time of me getting here and getting to know B.C. writers and Vancouver writers. Also we're really looking into our new play development program to deepen it and strengthen it," says Corcoran, who was born and raised in White Rock, B.C.
"I'm thinking really long term; I'm not just thinking one season at a time so I have a bit of a road map and I'm hoping the season is a step towards those goals. It doesn't mean that these things aren't already happening or that Bill hasn't done these things too," she says. "Some of my ambitions are definitely things that were his ambitions as well; I'm not inventing wheels."
Before joining the Arts Club, Corcoran was artistic director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ont., and also founded Theatre Smash in Toronto in 2005.
Her long-term goals for The Arts Club include promoting local talent, ensuring the company reflects the diversity of the community and developing meaningful partnerships with other institutions in Vancouver and across the country. There are several co-productions with companies in Western Canada in the 2018-19 season.
Corcoran is also bringing in an open-door policy that will see several Thursdays blocked off this spring for her to meet with actors in 15-minute slots; she will also have open slots to meet with directors and designers.
"I wanted to make sure that everyone understands that the doors are open and I want to get to know the community."