Celebrating 20 Years of Resident Company, Downstage
Arts Commons Board Member, Heather Campbell, sits down with Downstage team member Katherine Rawlinson to discuss favourite memories from Downstage’s 20 year history of creating theatre that sparks conversation around social issues. Downstage’s 20th Anniversary Celebration is taking place on Saturday March 9. After Party tickets are $20 and still available!
Katherine: As a former Board Member for Downstage, what are you most proud of from the last 20 years of Downstage programming?
Heather: I was appointed to the Board of Directors of Downstage Theatre in December 2013, almost 10 years into Downstage’s legendary life in the Calgary theatre scene. There is an accessible washroom near the Big Secret Theatre & Motel Theatre at Arts Commons because of Downstage. The Pay-it-Forward program breathed life in that era. Downstage produced The Bottle Picker Monologues, a production using actors with lived experience who may at the time have been unhoused, some who may have been navigating substantial issues with addictions…The Bottle Picker Monologues changed the conversation and the culture at Arts Commons with respect to who is treated as an actor or a patron or the public at this performing arts space.
Katherine: What was the first Downstage show you saw?
Heather: Good Fences.
Katherine: How would you describe Downstage?
Heather: Downstage is producing theatre about all of the things we label as “hard conversations” in today’s society. They do edgy, often controversial theatre that challenges, provokes, and unapologetically intertwines a social justice mindset. A Downstage production stays in your mind for a while, it changes the way you think about things and life – on purpose. You talk about it for months (or in my case years) after.
Katherine: This is a leading question but... what do you love most about Downstage?
Heather: Bravery. Innovation. Inclusion. Leadership.
Katherine: Will we see you at our 20th Anniversary After Party on Saturday March 9 after the performance of Beautiful Man?
Heather: All being well, absolutely!
Downstage’s 20th Anniversary Celebration is taking place on Saturday March 9. After Party tickets are $20. Entertainment features DJ PCA, free beer tasting by Eighty-Eight Brewing, complimentary nibbles by ONYX Restaurant, wines from Authentic Wine & Spirits, specialty cocktails and complimentary dessert from CRAVE Cupcakes! Tickets are $20 and available here. Get your tickets before it sells out!
To buy tickets to Beautiful Man by Erin Shields (February 29 - March 10) in Motel Theatre, visit downstage.ca.
