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NEWS RELEASE – Bard’s 2008 Results / 2009 Playbill |
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BARD ON THE BEACH ANNOUNCES The 2008 programming paired a light-hearted comedy with a serious tragedy in each of the performance tents. On the Mainstage, director David Mackay gave the fun-filled comedy Twelfth Night extra sparkle by dropping it into the 1920s while James Fagan Tait’s King Lear heightened the vulnerability of the aging monarch by placing a contemporary Lear in a wheelchair and by integrating music composed by Joelysa Pankanea. In the intimate Studio Stage, Meg Roe’s colourful Elizabethan production of The Tempest was so popular it sold out for the run by mid August, while the bloody but powerfully staged Titus Andronicus directed by Kim Collier attracted near-capacity houses. Close to 10,000 students attended the Festival’s Student Matinee Series or came to evening performances when the school matinees quickly filled up. Both the Bard-B-Q & Fireworks evenings and Celebrating Red & White wine tasting again sold out well in advance. The popular Opera & Arias concerts featuring UBC’s Opera Ensemble and members of Vancouver Opera Orchestra this year presented four in-concert performances of Don Giovanni, delighting more than 2,000 patrons. “This has been another exceptional season,” enthused Christopher Gaze. “Despite the unseasonably cold June and rainy July and August, our audience continued enthusiastically to fill the tents night after night. We are also pleased to have earned our patron’s trust so that we can successfully program the lesser know plays such as Titus and offer fresh approaches to the familiar Shakespeare classics. Thank you Vancouver for your ongoing support." In keeping with Bard tradition, Christopher Gaze announced the line up for next summer on closing night. Celebrating its 20th Anniversary from May 28 to September 26, 2009, Bard on the Beach will both delight and challenge. In the 520- seat Mainstage tent, Othello will get its very first Festival viewing, directed by Vancouver’s celebrated director Dean Paul Gibson. Playing in rep on the Mainstage will be The Comedy of Errors which will be given an Elizabethan staging by Bard’s long-time comedic talent, David Mackay. In the intimate 240-seat Studio Stage, Bard will present All’s Well That Ends Well with Vancouver director Rachel Ditor making her Festival debut and, most excitingly, Bard will launch a three year plan to showcase the History Plays. “The Kings” series will begin next summer with Richard II, directed by Bard Artistic Associate Christopher Weddell. In 2010 Bard will offer a blending of the Henry IVs as the Falstaff story paired with Henry V; in 2011, a compilation of the Henry VI plays will be staged as The Wars of the Roses and will play in rep with Richard III. Christopher Gaze explains. “We have wanted to present the History Cycle for years. The plays are mesmerizing and compelling as they dramatize tumultuous times – the story of kings, rebellions, struggles, catastrophe and triumph. We shall melt his eight into five and present them over three seasons in our Douglas Campbell studio theatre.” Updates on Bard on Beach’s upcoming Festival will be posted regularly at www.bardonthebeach.org. Tickets will go on sale March 16, 2009 through the website or by calling 604-739-0559. |
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-30- 2008 advance photography is now available on the Bard website. Please contact Cynnamon for password access. |
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