Blog
40 year is something to celebrate!
In the midst of our 40th season, our Artistic and Managing Director reflects on the past and makes plan for the future.
 Craig Holzschuh © Fabrice Grover |
In 1974, fifteen women came together to perform Les belles sœurs by Michel Tremblay. Before starting rehearsals, they needed to find someone to direct the production. By pure coincidence, they met the director Catherine Colvey who accepts to stage the play. She thus becomes la seizième (the sixteenth).On September 5, Théâtre la Seizième celebrated its 40th anniversary in the company of a 150 artists, founders, friends, partners and audience members. On the menu: readings, memories, reunions and surprises as part of a celebration that was worthy of our 40 years as a company. It was a magical moment for us, where we could see the impact that Théâtre la Seizième has had on the people here. It felt like a great big hug that did us a world of good!
Théâtre la Seizième is still the only professional Francophone theatre company in British-Columbia. Being the only purveyor of an artistic discipline over such a vast territory has its share of challenges, but also its rewards. After forty years of offering services to Francophone and Francophile communities in British-Columbia, we can be proud of what we’ve accomplished : quality productions that showcase local artists and craftspeople, annual provincial tours, with certain productions travelling throughout Canada, the development of a support program for artists that is extremely productive and numerous partnerships with Francophone and Anglophone artistic groups which have led to the presentation of international level productions |
 Les belles-soeurs by Michel Tremblay, 1974 |
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 À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou by Michel Tremblay, 2014 © Emily Cooper |
While blowing out the candles on its birthday cake, Théâtre la Seizième made (very quietly of course) two wishes for its future. We have the pleasure to welcome more and more audience members every year to our theatre. It’s a great gift, which has also paradoxically become one of our biggest challenges. We have to constantly turn back enthusiastic audience members who would like to see theatre in French. This saddens us, especially since the closest theatre that is able to offer such an experience in French in more than a 1000 Km away! A bigger theatre, that preserves the current proximity between the artists and the audience, would make us extremely happy. It would allow us to take in the hundreds of audience members that we turn away every season and who put their names on our waiting lists, without much hope, play after play.
We would also like to find the necessary resources to increase the number of productions offered by the company every season. We are never at a loss for potential projects and we have an audience base that would like to attend more shows. An increase in the number of production requires more resources, not only to produce the plays themselves, but also to create an organizational infrastructure able to adequately support programming and an audience base that is in constant expansion.
At forty, la Seizième has laid down a positive track record, while at the same moving ahead to achieve its future projects. We have serious dreams, crazy dreams (one doesn’t exclude the other) and we want to pursue our path full steam ahead, instead of tapping the brakes. Supported by artists, craftspeople and our audiences over the past forty years, we will continue to forge towards the future following our dreams that, we hope, will continue to meet the growing needs of our community.
Craig Holzschuh
Artistic and Managing Director
