Western Canada’s largest theatre company entertains over a quarter million people yearly at three venues: Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, the Granville Island Stage and the Revue Stage. Smart about their audience mix and its varied theatre preferences, production choices are plenty, from musicals and comedies to the classics. A typical Arts Club season? Five productions at the historic Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, another five at the Granville Island Stage, and four in the Revue Stage, next door. The latter will be closing down and a new venue replacing it on West 1st Avenue and Columbia Street in 2015.
The Arts Club has come a long way since it was founded in 1958 as a private club for artists, musicians and actors. By 1964, the company opened its first 250-seat stage, a converted gospel hall at Seymour and Davie, which at the time “was in a rough part of town, bad for drugs and always with ladies of the evening across the street,” says Bill Millerd, artistic managing director. Twenty-seven years later, the building was closed for demolition, but not before leaving its mark on Vancouver’s theatre scene, launching the careers of Canadian talents like Michael J. Fox and Bruce Greenwood, and numerous playwrights.
