tuesdays with morrie | artistic director's notes - ron reed

This time around we have TWO sets of artistic director's notes!  Here's the first set, from PT's Ron Reed.  Still to come: Gallery 7 AD Ken Hildebrandt's notes.

Welcome to our twenty-eighth season! It’s been an exhilarating ride, particularly the past two seasons, and as we launch this one it feels like our theatre is in a very good place. The pieces we produce on our own - Playland, Doubt, Refuge Of Lies, A Christmas Carol, My Name Is Asher Lev - are all right at the core of what we’re about, featuring artists who call Pacific Theatre their artistic home, with ever-expanding design and production values. And we find ourselves with a rich array of collaborators and co-producers among other Vancouver theatres, thrilled to be so engaged with the rest of this remarkable artistic community, bringing you productions - shows like Re:Union, Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train, Godspell, Jake’s Gift, The Passion Project, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Danny & The Deep Blue Sea.

Gallery 7 has long been a ‘sister company’ to Pacific Theatre, a community theatre in the Fraser Valley with a mandate that’s a lot like ours. When I saw their production of Tuesdays With Morrie this spring I was very moved - far more than I had expected to be, the piece packs a real punch - and it occurred to me that our audience would have a similar response. Ken Hildebrandt is a longtime friend and peer, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with Glen Pinchin on both You Can’t Take It With You and You Still Can’t. Both actors were absolutely at the top of their game, and it seemed an ideal opportunity to showcase not only these two artists and their company, but also a piece of theatre so close to the heart of both our theatres.

We hope you’ll enjoy tonight’s visit with two remarkable men - one who’s lived a long life fully, soulfully, the other who is challenged to do the same. And we hope you’ll come back and join us for encounters with other such lives - a Quaker whose extraordinary act of witness may have altered the course of a war; a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching covetous old sinner who is challenged to transform; two lost souls in a Bronx bar; a charismatic young priest and the woman who suspects he may be preying on her students; four disciples at a memorable dinner party; a priest and a cleaning woman considering changes in vocation.

Last season was a triumph. But we think the one to come may be the best yet!