About Us
A member of the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, the Alliance For Arts & Culture and an Affiliate Member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, Pacific Theatre was founded in Vancouver in 1984 by a group of actors who wanted to establish a non-propagandist professional theatre where they would be free to explore work having particular meaning to them as Christians. Since that time the company has worked with many Vancouver theatre artists, regardless of their faith orientation, mounting productions of established works as well as premiering many new plays such as Espresso, A Bright Particular Star, Prodigal Son, Navy Wife, Tent Meeting, Cariboo Magi, Mercy Wild and Book of the Dragon, many of which have gone on to subsequent runs at other professional theatres around the continent. A community-minded professional theatrePacific Theatre is a mid-size, professional theatre company that has been in operation since 1984, and in its current home since 1994. Pacific Theatre aspires to delight, provoke and stimulate dialogue by producing theatre that rigourously explores the spiritual aspects of human experience. We foster new work and established plays, develop emerging artists, create an artistic home for established practitioners, and engage the community at large. At the beginning of the 2008-2009 Season, the company has mounted seventy professional mainstage productions including fourteen commissioned original world premieres. In addition to its mainstage resident theatre the company toured for five years The Dragon’s Project, theatre primarily for young audiences. Over 650 school and community performances reached an audience of 160,000 students and adults in British Columbia with plays encouraging students to avoid substance abuse and challenging the addicted to seek recovery. Pacific Theatre’s 2003 school matinee production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was seen by over 10,000 students, including more than 1,000 from Vancouver’s Sunrise Area schools whose tickets and personal copies of the novel were paid for through an innovative partnership with the Vancouver Public Schools Foundation and CIBC Wood Gundy Caring for Kids Fund. Pacific Theatre is unique in its approachWhile operating a fully professional mainstage the theatre is also community based and offers non-professional community members opportunities to work along side theatre professionals in its community shows (Stones Throw Productions). A total of twenty-three community shows including eight original works have been produced to date.
Finally, our mission statement:Pacific Theatre exists to serve Christ in our community by creating excellent theatre with artistic, spiritual, relational and financial integrity.
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AccoladesSince opening the new space in 1994, Pacific Theatre has received seventy-five nominations for Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, which have resulted in many awards. Nomination categories include:
In June, 2007, Pacific Theatre received 8 Jessie Award nominations and 3 Jessie Awards - including Oustanding Production of the Year for GRACE! In 2006, Pacific Theatre received the most Jessie nominations and awards of any one theatre company for 2005-2006. To read more, click here... In June, 2004, Pacific Theatre was voted “ONE OF VANCOUVER’S FAVOURITE LIVE THEATRES” in the
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On October 14, 1994 Pacific Theatre equipped a brand new 126-seat theatre built in the newly renovated Chalmers Heritage Building (now owned by Holy Trinity Anglican Church) located at the corner of 12th Avenue and Hemlock Street in the heart of Vancouver. The theatre received funding from various agencies, foundations, corporations and individuals toward the $1.9 million total project goal. 