Christopher Gaze, it turns out, is not only a supremely gifted actor and theatre director. He鈥檚 also immensely talented at making people fall in love with who he is as a person.
Jayne Seagrave was 40 interviews into research for a book about Bard on the Beach when she realized no one had said anything bad about the Shakespearian theatre festival鈥檚 founder and artistic director. Surely Gaze couldn鈥檛 be that perfect, she thought to herself.
Seagrave decided the book needed some balance to all the glowing testimonials.
鈥淚 tried to find someone to say something derogatory about Christopher,鈥� says the author of All the World鈥檚 a Stage: The story of Vancouver鈥檚 Bard on the Beach. 鈥淎t the end of the day, I couldn鈥檛.鈥�
It鈥檚 not that she didn鈥檛 try. Seagrave asked the actors Gaze has worked with, behind-the-scenes staffers, board members and even his wife Jennifer to dish the dirt.
Seagrave says the worst that Jennifer Gaze could come up with is that if she, Jennifer, were ever to write a book it would be called Waiting for Gazey. (Jennifer鈥檚 one of the few people who can call him anything other than Christopher or Mr. Gaze.)
鈥淐hristopher always thinks he has more time than he does, so he鈥檚 rushing out at the last minute to get to something he鈥檚 supposed to get to. So if there is a flaw, it鈥檚 managing his time,鈥� she told Seagrave.
Note the 鈥渋f there is a flaw鈥︹��
After initially being stumped by Seagrave鈥檚 question, a board member rushed to tell her, 鈥淚鈥檝e thought of something wrong about Christopher!鈥�
Ah, finally, the big reveal.
鈥淗e cheats at golf,鈥� the board member gushed, pleased with finally having come up with an answer. 聽
鈥淏ut everyone cheats at golf,鈥� Seagrave replied.
Over and over again, people involved with Bard on the Beach kept telling Seagrave how much they admired and respected Gaze. The one defining feature was his willingness to let the talents of others shine as brightly as his.
鈥淗e is not frightened at all at giving major decisions and responsibilities to people he believes he can trust,鈥� a board member tells Seagrave. 鈥淭his empowers them. So you think, 鈥楪ee, if you have this confidence in me that you think I could do this, then I鈥檓 going to do a good job and I鈥檓 going to give that extra little bit,鈥� and that鈥檚 what he gets out of people over and over again.鈥�
This talent extends to everyone who works with Bard. Gaze is not the stereotypical impresario whose mercurial ego needs constant nourishment. For a man who 鈥渋s the Bard and the Bard is him,鈥� he knows that while he鈥檚 instrumental in the success of Canada鈥檚 ninth largest private theatre company, it takes a cast of hundreds to pull off such a gigantic feat summer after summer. He learns everyone鈥檚 names and lets them know, with genuine intent, that each of them plays an important role.
This capacity of Gaze to manage and lead is what sets him apart from many other actors who say, 鈥淚鈥檇 like to form a theatre company,鈥� Seagrave says.
Gaze had studied theatre companies that had failed and knew that Bard needed a management structure and board from the get go. Without his business acumen, she鈥檚 convinced the festival would not have grown from its first season in 1990 with 6,000 attendees to its current $6-million budget and annual audience of 100,000.
Gaze moved to Canada at the prompting of Douglas Campbell. Campbell, one of the original Stratford Festival actors, had hired Gaze for his theatre company in England. He sent him on his way with 鈥渟ix letters of introduction on blue airmail paper to six influential individuals he knew in Canada who would help his prodigy build a career.鈥�
The letters were helpful but official paperwork turned out to be more of a requisite. To work, Gaze needed landed immigrant status. To get status, he had to leave the country. A friend offered him an unpaid job as a ranch hand in Montana, providing Gaze with one of the most improbable starts to his new life in North America. The strategy, however, worked and Gaze arrived in 麻豆传媒映画in October 1975 with $60 in his pocket and a job offer from 麻豆传媒映画Playhouse.
Seagrave has a very pleasant and engaging writing style that takes the reader through the next 42-plus years with an entertaining ease that offers insight without all the academic language that belies her SFU PhD in criminology. It actually helps that, apart from being a huge Bard fan since she arrived from England in 1991, she knows relatively little about Shakespearian theatre. She has sat under the Vanier Park tent, sometimes bewildered by the play鈥檚 plot lines, and let her mind take in lushness of her surroundings instead 鈥� the costumes, the sets, the trees billowing in the background. All the questions she鈥檚 asked herself in her 26 years of watching the festival grow and adapt guide her way through the book鈥檚 192 pages (many of which are adorned with photos).
Did you know, for instance, that a pregnant Colleen Wheeler once put icepacks into her heavy Elizabethan costume to help keep her cool?
As much as no one has anything bad to say about Gaze, they are not as reticent when describing their feelings about Vancouver鈥檚 rain, and its ability to negatively affect the cast and crew as well as the festival鈥檚 bottom line.
Raccoon poop is a nuisance and the festival does its own laundry, paying to get the grey water removed every three days. Only 3.4 per cent of 2015鈥檚 budget came from public-sector grants, a huge increase from the previous year鈥檚 1.3 per cent. (Seagrave thinks it鈥檚 a shame the festival doesn鈥檛 get more government funding.) Two of the 250 festival volunteers met at the Bard and are now married. And when management heard of the young volunteer who has finally found a backstage community where he feels at home, they offered him a seasonal contract.
As Seagrave writes in her epilogue, Bard on the Beach is an adopted family for both everyone involved in pulling it off and everyone who enjoys the fruits of their labours. When each season, each play begins, 鈥渢he Bard family greets us with open arms, as if we have never been away. We are home.鈥�
Previews for the 2017 season of Bard on the Beach begin June 1. Opening night for Much Ado About Nothing and The Winter鈥檚 Tale is June 22. Go to bardonthebeach.org for details. Jane Seagrave will be at the Book Warehouse, 4118 Main St., May 30, for a public event at 7 p.m.. Doors open at 6:30.
To enter to win a copy of All the World鈥檚 a Stage: The story of Vancouver鈥檚 Bard on the Beach and two tickets to The Winter鈥檚 Tale, go to our contest page
