Series: The Vancouver Playhouse - What Went Wrong?

How the Sun helped post the Vancouver Playhouse’s closing notice

By Frank Moher

[Ed: As part of a series of opinions we will be publishing, we asked Mr. Moher if we could repost his brilliant discussion of one of the things that went wrong at Vancouver Playhouse. Frank Moher is a playwright, columnist and writer about all things and editor of Back of The Book, the admirable online magazine where this article first appeared]

The sudden news that the Vancouver Playhouse is closing after 49 seasons comes as a shock, of course. We assume these venerable civic institutions will somehow always manage to lumber along, despite economic downturns and hostile governments and digital depredations. This, after all, was the Company that gave Canadian theatre its seminal play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, that launched numerous Canadian theatre luminaries (including playwright Sharon Pollock), that was the redoubt of the city’s grey hairs and monied class. Those theatres don’t just die, do they?

Opinion: Frank Moher on the Governor General's Award

What the GGs are, aren't and could (should) be
The problem is that the GG is a book award.
By Frank Moher (Reprinted from Back Of The Book with permission)

The Governor General’s Award finalists were announced on Tuesday and, as usual, I looked at the drama list and sighed. Not because I wasn’t on it -- I didn't have anything eligible -- but because I was reminded once again that we don’t have a proper playwriting award in this country.

Now, let me hasten to say that I congratulate those who've been nominated and am happy for them. I've been a finalist for the English-language Drama Award myself, and it's a fine thing. It's a welcome reward after all those hours at the computer and in rehearsal, it's a great PR boost, and it may even change your life a little bit.

The problem is that the GG is a book award. The only plays eligible for it are ones that have found their way into print in the previous 13 months. That means it's chosen from a relatively small pool of contenders, especially as compared with the books in other categories. This year, publishers submitted 230 books in the English-language fiction category, 215 in non-fiction, and 170 in poetry. In drama? 39. The numbers are similar in the French-language categories: 173 in fiction, 104 in poetry, 69 in non-fiction, 22 in drama.