Bard Company

Photo: Kristin Szilvassy

We salute and thank all of the artists and artisans who were ready to play their part this Season, both on and off the stage. A brilliant team of actors, designers, directors, coaches, stage management, dancers, and choreographers were all in different stages of their work, preparing for the summer ahead. Unable to fulfill that dream this year, we thank them for their graciousness, understanding, patience, and support as we made the heartbreaking decision to cancel the 2020 Season. 2020 BARD COMPANY Chris Adams Carmen Alatorre Christopher Allen Lois Anderson Ghazal Azarbad Heather Barr Scott Bellis Kate Besworth Alan Brodie Arthi Chandra Steven Charles Daryl Cloran Andrew Cownden Mishelle Cuttler Heidi Damayo Alen Dominguez Malcolm Dow Valerie Easton Ashley Eleby Ben Elliott Tasha Faye Evans Drew Facey Tara Cheyenne

Friedenberg Charlie Gallant Lisa Goebel Alexis Gordon Mara Gottler Alaia Hamer Jonathan Hawley Purvis Liam Hunt Olivia Hutt Arggy Jenati Gerald King Alexis Kolarcik Samantha Krystal Jennifer Lines Billy Marchenski Laura McClean Susan Miyagishima Rebecca Mulvihill Richard Newman Melissa Oei Amir Ofek Jessica Oostergo Kamyar Pazandeh Matthew Piton Christine Reimer Gabrielle Ritchie Sarah Roa Anita Rochon Hana Ruzesky-Bashford Jason Sakaki Harveen Sandhu Anthony Santiago Munish Sharma Joanne P.B. Smith Rebekka Sorensen

Kjelstrup Advah Soudack Erica Sterry Jennifer Stewart Carly Street Jovanni Sy Nancy Tam Marie Taylor Ain Tominaga Patricia Trinh Cecilia Vadala Marcus Vaillant Noemie Valois Andrew Wheeler Sharon Wu Harika Xu Kaitlyn Yott

2020 DIGITAL PROJECT ARTISTS Carmen Alatorre Christopher Allen Ghazal Azarbad Michael Blake Meaghan Chenosky Mishelle Cuttler Olivia C. Davies Beau Dixon Austin Eckert Ben Elliott Marie Farsi Tasha Faye Evans Tara Cheyenne

Friedenberg Jasper Friedenberg

Stewart Jeff Gladstone Tai Amy Grauman Marci. T House Ming Hudson Olivia Hutt Hiro Kanagawa Molly MacKinnon David Marr Kathleen Nisbet Nadeem Phillip Baraka Rahmani Munish Sharma AJ Simmons Marc Stewart Carly Street Sara Vickruk Raina von Waldenburg Andrew Wheeler Colleen Wheeler Sally Zori

Their Someday is the freedom to pursue their passion.

The hard work, perseverance and vision of emerging artists demonstrate the power of having – and the joy of realizing – a Someday ® . Until the curtain rises again we are proud to support Bard Beyond the Beach, along with a diverse range of Canadian talent in communities across the country through the RBC Emerging Artists Project.

So phie Tan g Assistant Lighting Designer (2019)

How many of us think about what it takes to light a stage? To quite literally put a spotlight on its players? Sophie Tang certainly does. Sophie was Bard’s Assistant Lighting Designer for the Howard Family Stage (HFS) in 2019. Her role was to assist HFS Lighting Designers Alan Brodie and Conor Moore with their collaborative lighting creations for All’s Well That Ends Well and Coriolanus, and she learned a lot last summer! The Douglas Campbell Theatre’s semi-open environment requires skill to navigate its ever-changing natural light state. The weather and time of day can help or hinder, and the theatre’s air flow, or lack of, can seriously affect the presence and movement of fog and haze effects. However, Sophie’s main challenge came in creating each production’s ‘paperworks’: the maps for each ‘pre-set’ (lighting look with moving lights). Paperworks are integral in case of any lighting fixture malfunctions or future remounts of the production. The speed with which some pre-sets are built or altered required her to be equally quick in marking down lighting pathways or updates. For every paperwork, Sophie inputted the lights and pre-sets into drafting software, each as different layers. She then reviewed each pre-set with the Lighting Designers and digitally recorded them to preserve map accuracy. As live theatre is by nature unpredictable, Sophie checked each show weekly during the Season to ensure the presets were running smoothly, fix any malfunctions or adjust lighting levels as needed with an increasingly earlier sunset. She sat in the house for many of the performances, so you might have been in the audience with her! She found “it was an interesting experience to see different audience reactions to the show.” Bard’s 30th Season was the first year with official Assistant Designer positions for lighting, sets and and costumes thanks to the generous support of the Y.P. Heung Foundation, making Sophie our first Assistant Lighting Designer on the HFS. We’re so grateful for her work in 2019 and her help in the continuing development of Bard’s Artistic Assistant program. Thanks, Sophie!

Abo ut SOPHIE TANG Sophie Tang is a Jessie Award winner and nominee, as well as an Ovation Award nominee. She holds an MFA degree in theatre design from UBC and a BFA in theatre production and design from SFU. Recent credits: Straight White Men (Lighting), ITSAZOO Productions; Little Volcano (Lighting) - Veda Hille X Theatre Replacement; Kuroko (Set) - Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre; Herringbone (Lighting and Set) - Patrick Street Productions; The Orchard (Lighting) - Arts Club Theatre; Chicken Girl (Lighting) - Rice and Beans Theatre; Old Man and the Sea (Lighting) - Turning Point Ensemble; Yoga Play (Set) - Gateway Theatre; Titus Buffonious (Lighting) - Rumble Theatre; Last Train In (Set) - Rice and Beans Theatre; Urine Town (Set) - Arts Umbrella. Portfolio website: sophieyufeitang.com

Thank You to all the volunteers, contractors, and event staff for their efforts in allowing Bard on the Beach to become a continually sought-after and renowned event for the past 31 seasons. Due to unforeseen circumstances this year, the 2020 season was cancelled, but we wish everyone a successful season next year.

Ryan Yee Assistant Head Site Lx and Acting Head Electrician (2019)

It feels like magic is in the air when the lights twinkle in the Bard Village on a warm summer’s eve! That magical mood in 2019 was thanks to Ryan Yee, Bard’s Assistant Head Site Lx. His role was to assist Bard’s Head Electrician in providing electricity to our theatres, front-of-house offices, concession, and all other site spaces. However, when our Head Electrician fell ill, Ryan stepped up as acting Head and achieved outstanding results. Providing electricity for our natural outdoor location within Se ákw lands brings a unique challenge. Every year, site blueprints are adjusted in order to best utilize the space. These changes required Ryan to reconsider how to supply all spaces and equipment with our limited amount of electricity, while also creating a bright and inviting Festival site. To do so, he drew on the previous year’s paperworks, or maps of the lighting setups, to build a new and efficient lighting plan. Ryan’s role also had him running around to coordinate with various department heads, discover overlapping needs and connect the right people. In the monthslong site build, he needed to ensure everyone was on the same page. Add planning and executing the site lighting plan into the mix, and he was kept super busy! After five years at Bard, Ryan has collaborated on many inventive solutions. One, from a fellow crew member, is using shipping tags to label and identify cables, making inspection and troubleshooting a breeze. Another is utilizing waterproof sticky notes to remind or warn himself and others about specific elements on site, and to label and plan light fixture locations. In both his role as Assistant Head Site Lx and as acting Head Electrician, Ryan is thankful for all the support he was given by department heads, crew chiefs, supervisors and crew members. He especially wanted to thank “Jay, whose support and guidance have been so essential to my growth here at Bard.” We are very grateful for Ryan and his excellent work, and we can’t wait for him to turn the lights on next year. Thanks, Ryan!

Paneet Sin gh Creative Cultural Consultant and Apprentice Director (2019)

In theatre, an actor may play multiple parts. In Bard’s case, All’s Well That Ends Well’ s Apprentice Director (AD) Paneet Singh was also Creative Cultural Consultant for the production. As AD, he shared ideas with and learned from Co-Directors Johnna Wright and Rohit Chokhani; as Creative Cultural Consultant, his expertise made creative decisions more authentic and nuanced. If you saw All’s Well last summer, you’ve seen Paneet’s work in action!

His role came with many challenges. For one, Paneet was the Creative Cultural Consultant: how does one person consult about a subcontinent with over a billion experiences? Consulting was also limited to rehearsals, competing for time alongside acting, choreography, dialect and language coaching. Plus, he wanted to consider the perspectives of each South Asian production member. Finally, he had to think of the best approach to certain topics for South Asian versus non-South Asian audiences. Paneet had to balance all that while also staying within the boundaries of his AD role.

The “creative” aspect of Paneet’s role is just as important as the “cultural”. He works creatively to ensure the cultural decisions align with the characters and story being told. Aside from writing and directing, consulting lets him see other creatives at work. He states: “I have made a life of geeking out about my community, so it’s nice to be able to use that knowledge and apply it to something tangible.” Creative cultural consulting is relatively new for Vancouver theatre, and Paneet sees some issues with how the role is utilized. One is that consultants lack final decision-making authority, which can result in scapegoating them for a production’s cultural controversies that they may have actively advised against or had no knowledge of. The role can highlight the general lack of other racialized members making final creative decisions. And, some productions underestimate the value of a cultural consultant’s expertise, erroneously assuming anyone from a racialized community has the same knowledge and insights.

Despite those issues, Paneet loves consulting, and his wealth of knowledge and expertise clearly strengthened All’s Well. We can’t wait to see his next project. Thanks, Paneet!

Abo ut PANEET SINGH Paneet is a playwright and filmmaker whose work is largely inspired and informed by Sikh and South Asian culture and history. He is most known for his two stage plays: The Undocumented Trial of William C. Hopkinson and the critically-acclaimed A Vancouver Guldasta , which received an honourable mention in Vancouver Presents’ “The Best of Vancouver Theatre in 2018.” Most recently, Paneet directed Guards at the Taj, which won the Public Market Pick of the Fringe Award at the 2019 Vancouver Fringe Festival.