| Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival | |
|---|---|
| Address | Vanier Park, under the red and white tents (May–Sept) |
| City | Vancouver, BC |
| Country | Canada |
| Opened | 1990 |
| www.bardonthebeach.org | |
Bard on the Beach is Western Canada's largest professional Shakespeare festival, which is held every year in open-ended tents on the waterfront in Vanier Park in Kitsilano, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival’s 22nd season runs June 2 to September 24, 2011.
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Bard on the Beach began as an Equity Co-op in the summer of 1990, funded primarily by a Canada Council Explorations grant awarded to Artistic Director Christopher Gaze. With this funding, and with generous help from many supporters in the community, Christopher and a passionate company of actors whom he had directed in Under Milk Wood at the 1989 Vancouver Fringe Festival,staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream as an Equity Co-op production in a rented tent in Vanier Park. More than 6,000 people came and the city was suddenly in love with Shakespeare. This success flagged the need for a more formal not-for-profit theatre company structure, and in the fall of 1990 Bard on the Beach Theatre Society was born.
Bard is located in Vanier Park just at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge in Vancouver. It consists of two stages: The Mainstage and The Douglas Campbell Studio Stage. There is also a group of tents known as the Bard Village which contains the box office, a gift shop, and a concession.
In 2011, Bard on the Beach designed a custom-built Mainstage tent which offers expanded seating of 742 seats, a redesigned stage and more comfortable seating for patrons. It is open-ended with a backdrop of False Creek, the Coast Mountains and city skyline. The set itself changes year to year to accommodate the performance.
The Douglas Campbell Studio Stage was added in 1999 and is named after the Canadian stage actor, Douglas Campbell. The studio stage now presents two of Shakespeare's plays each year. The tent itself seats 240 people. The stage configuration and set for the studio stage, like the mainstage, changes every year.
Bard on the Beach provides opportunities for students, teachers, and lifelong learners to enhance their experience of Shakespeare's plays through:
The Young Shakespeareans workshops are workshops for youth aged 8 to 18, put on at the festival throughout the summer. They include junior groups and senior groups which last for two weeks at a time, as well as a one week intensive for more experienced actors. The current director of the program is Mike Stack.
In addition to the four plays, there are a number of events throughout the summer: