Arts Club Theatre Company
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| Address | 162 West 1st Avenue Vancouver Canada |
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| Type | non-profit theatre company |
| Capacity |
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage: 650 Granville Island Stage: 440 Goldcorp Stage: 250 |
| Opened | 1958 |
| Website | |
| artsclub |
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The Arts Club Theatre Company is a professional theatre company in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1958. It is the largest urban not-for-profit theatre company in the country and the largest in Western Canada, with productions taking place at the 650-seat Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, the 440-seat Granville Island Stage, the 250-seat Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre, and on tour around the province. The company celebrated its 50th season in 2014 and produced its 600th production in 2017.
Major themes from this company are new Canadian works, comedies, musicals, drama, and revues, with an emphasis on developing local and Canadian talent. In addition to theatre presentations, the company offers educational programs and special events.
Since 1972, the company's artistic director has been Bill Millerd, who oversaw its expansion for over 45 years. On February 20, 2017, Millerd announced his retirement at the end of the 2017/2018 season.
The Arts Club was founded in 1958 originally as a private club for artists, musicians, and actors. In January 1964, Yvonne Firkins, a founding member of the B.C. Drama Association and B.C.'s "First Lady of the Theatre," renamed the club the Arts Club Theatre Company and established a new theatre in a converted gospel hall on Seymour Street in Downtown Vancouver. The first production was Moss Hart's Light Up the Sky. When Bill Millerd took over the company in 1972, it was producing four productions per year, with an annual budget of $150,000, and an audience of 29,000 patrons per year.
Competing with the much larger, Canada Council-created Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, the Arts Club became known for programming gritty new plays like David Freeman's Creeps, David Fennario's On the Job, and premieres of Michel Tremblay's plays in translation, as well as Shakespeare plays in the larger Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. Additionally, the long running Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris cemented the Arts Club's identity in its early years.
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