Ep. 222: Live Theatre Lives On
Guest: Max Reimer, Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company
Live theatre is an emotive experience; it has the power to lift you up and pull you down.
Done well, it draws you in and engulfs you. There is a relationship between you as a member of the audience and the cast – a relationship that is built immediately. Sometimes it is electrifying and at others it is cold. Either way, it is palpable.
Because the audience is always changing, the dynamics in the theatre change each and every night. Each audience ensures each night will produce a different performance. Live theatre coaxes you; sometimes it demands that those in attendance rise above the mundane and enter an experience that hopefully becomes something new for the audience and the cast.
Canadian theatre companies are producing exceptional new works by Canadian writers. They continue to innovate; they’re opening theatres in the far North staging Inuit productions; rural theatres staging summer productions that reflect the places they call home; technology is enhancing and expanding the stage. In Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and especially Winnipeg, big bold productions are opening to eager audiences.
We invited Max Reimer, the past artist and managing director of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the experience of live theatre and why it will never die – why it must never die.
