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Claire Sakaki and Christopher Gaze | Photo: David Cooper

Welcome to our Season Program. For the first time in thirty-one summers, we can’t physically give you a Program as you enter through the gates of our Festival, and we are so disappointed that we can’t meet you in the space we love, to share in the excitement and joy of the unique Bard experience. But while we are not in the Park, we still cherish our Bard family – all of you who are have shared in what we’ve created together and who are helping us to build a bridge to the future. In this 2020 Program, we’re recognizing and saluting you for your contributions and commitment to the Festival. The experience of the pandemic and its damaging impact on our organization has become a remarkable testament to loyalty and resilience. Our company of artists, crew and staff were stopped in their tracks when we made the painful decision to suspend work on the season’s four plays, yet so many of those same people are bringing their creative ideas and energy to our new online projects. Our 2020 ticket buyers have inspired us with their faith in our future; over eighty percent of them have deferred their Season and Flex Packs to our 2021 season or converted them into a donation to Bard. Our donors – our Member family – are embracing the new virtual experiences we’re offering in lieu of traditional Member

Board of Directors events. Many of our 2020 sponsors and partners have stayed on in President spite of the Season cancellation, giving strong support in new ways.

John McCulloch Our precious volunteers are still connected and engaged with us,

Vice President ready to contribute their time and their passion again in 2021. We

Darlene Howard are immensely grateful for all these contributions. In particular, we Treasurer thank our charitable benefactor, the Vancouver International Wine

Kostya Polyakov Festival, for its unwavering support of Bard.

Secretary There is other value in this unprecedented period, as it has given

Shona McGlashan us the time and space to actively listen to the community we serve

Past President and the artists we work with. This will help us embed even more

Jim Bovard deeply the values and practices of equity, diversity and inclusion in

Directors every aspect of our organization.

Rebecca Catley Douglas Clarke Mark Fancourt-Smith Theatre is our lifeblood and we are focused on the time when we can once again stage Shakespeare’s plays and the works his

John Geddes genius has inspired. But for now - read on, be entertained and

Glenn Ives inspired by this commemoration of 2020, and know that we will

Beth Macdonald bring your Festival back to you next year!

Derral Moriyama Marlie Oden Arv Sooch Douglas Welch Christopher Gaze, Artistic Director Claire Sakaki, Executive Director 5