Flex your creative muscle

By Penny Pitcher

If Tom McCarthy has his way, he’ll have Victoria residents stretching their “creative muscle” – and enjoying it!

Recently appointed General Manager of Langham Court Theatre, Tom is firmly convinced that the Arts is NOT a frill but a pillar of a city. “Healthy, Happy, Prosperous cities have an artistic component,” and therefore, “creative pursuits” are to be encouraged.

Interesting to note is the fact that in survey after survey, city after city, when residents were asked how important a role the Arts played in their lives, close to 90% claimed creative pursuits were important to their quality of life and only 10% felt that this was limited to the traditional arts. In other words, you can stretch your creative muscle singing karaoke or attending opera, strumming a guitar or being entranced by a symphony orchestra, painting a pet rock or wandering the Louvre.

Tom McCarthy laughingly confesses that he had actually known nothing about Langham Court Theatre. A colleague in Calgary, where Tom was Managing Director with the Calgary Arts Development Authority, mentioned that Langham was looking for an Operations Manager. In an after-dinner conversation with his wife, Tom mentioned this and the rest - well, let’s say she urged Tom to apply. 

And now that he is here? Tom says he is “cranked up.” He loves the fact that Langham is “built on the strength of people doing what they love“ and feels Langham should be a “national story.”

In fact, the Victoria Theatre Guild and Dramatic School was founded in 1929 as the Mimes’ and Masquers’ Guild.  What we now know as the actual theatre was originally the carriage house for The Laurels, a private home, now an apartment at the corner of Langham Court and Rockland. One might wish that the walls could talk. The carriage house first became classroom space for a boys’ school, then a gymnasium, then back to classrooms for girls, to be followed by a meeting hall. The Little Theatre and Civic Opera shared the space in the mid-1930s for rehearsals and meetings and added lights, benches, and folding screens. Finally the Little Theatre Association purchased the property and renovations began in earnest: stage, orchestra pit, theatre seats, dressing rooms and a furnace room! 

As happens in the best of families, there were squabbles, and a group, not happy with the way things were being run in the Little Theatre, broke away to form a new company, the Victoria Players’ Guild.  Cooler heads prevailed, and the two were reunited in 1950 to form the Victoria Theatre Guild and Dramatic School.

And indeed, one of Tom McCarthy’s aims is to “make sense out of the name” (Victoria Theatre Guild and Dramatic School) - or, to be more precise, the word school. In an effort to encourage volunteers to try out things that they might never have considered, Tom would like to institute on-going workshops in a wide variety of areas. While spaces would be reserved for Langham members, a number would also be made available to the general public. Efforts are already underway to obtain grants.

Recognized nationally for lifetime achievement by the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology, Tom McCarthy has given his working life, and his heart, to furthering the Arts. From Regina to Montreal to the Banff Centre, from the Calgary Philharmonic to the Shaw Festival to the Calgary Olympic Arts Festival …and now, to our 177 seat Langham Court Theatre where, through the years, more than 3,000 performances of more than 500 shows have been presented. 

I wonder if anyone has told Tom that the theatre is inhabited by a ghost. While some claim she is a stable hand and others, a student from the old St. George’s School for Girls, most who have seen or sensed her agree that it is a female spirit.

Whether or not you see a ghost, you will develop a super strong, super flexible, “creative muscle” by getting involved with Langham Court Theatre in this, its 87th season.

Here are links to Langham’s web page and Facebook page.

www.langhamtheatre.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=4471770405