Arts Equity vs. the Mainstream

The Main Street Theatre closes its doors

By Adam Stewart

People visiting the south end of Main Street in downtown Vancouver anytime soon are likely to stumble across a ghostly presence. The Main Street Theatre's signage of boldly offset gold lettering against red background is still intact, but in fact it is little more than the skeletal remains of the once vibrant theatrical venue.

Next to "For Lease" signs on the dark windows, empty squares of tape remain like chalk outlines surrounding a body where theatrical posters and positive reviews were once prominently displayed.

This past February saw the closing of the Main Street Theatre, and the dislocation of the theatre's resident company, Arts Equity. The final (and aptly named) production at the space, Eugene Ionesco's "Exit the King", ran through February 16.

On March 7 an informal wake was held at the Tiger's Garden bar to celebrate Arts Equity's 467 performances at the theatre. Notable members of the company, fans, supporters and friends gathered to mark the occasion.

"It was a really interesting way to spend the last four years," said Llewellyn Rhoe, founder of the company.

The theatre, he said, was born out of necessity. While recovering from an accident some years back, Rhoe turned to producing as a form of therapy. "I really didn't have a choice. It [was] either attempt this project or be depressed."

Arts Equity has filled an important role in Vancouver's theatre scene: it was the first theatre in Clark County to operate out of its own venue, and it produced plays that were often edgier than those produced by its Vancouver contemporaries. Yet its unique status couldn't keep the operation afloat.

Vancouver Voice theatre critic Steven Walling - who cut his teeth on Arts Equity's production of "Road Rage" for the now defunct newspaper the Vanguard and has also contributed reviews to Willamette Week - covered the company in considerable depth since its inception.

"The theatre scene in Vancouver is certainly grim without Arts Equity around," said Walling. "There are already several strong family-focused or children's companies in the area, and I think without Arts Equity there is a hole in the type of fare being provided."

"I think [the state of theatre in Vancouver] is very healthy," said Val Ogden, chair of the Southwest Washington Center for the Arts (SWCA).

The SWCA has been spearheading efforts to develop a planned performing arts center with condominiums attached - the proposed site for which has been granted a moratorium by the city while the group attempts to raise funds.

According to Rhoe, Ogden never attended an Arts Equity production at the theatre.

"It's a joke," explained Jack Booch, contributor to The Vancouver Voice. "By the time that performing arts center is built, the local theatre groups who want to use it will not be able to afford to pay the rent."

Booch, former director of the Portland Civic Theatre and Executive Producer for The Theater Guild, Inc. in Manhattan, doesn't believe that Vancouver has a strong enough interest in the theatre to support the center without assistance.

"The formula is this - one in ten people will see one play a year on average," he said. "Now you take the total population of Vancouver and do the division and you'll see that we don't have enough people, enough bodies...forget cultural awareness."

"I would like very much to be a resident company at the new center," said Jaynie Roberts, the Artistic Director at Magenta Theater, "but am not prepared to drive myself into the ground in order to make that a reality if the money is too much."

Some area residents question the efficacy of pouring money into a new center when local companies are in need of subsidized assistance already.

"I guess if a theatre company could sell that many seats to afford to rent the space, it's fabulous," said Bethany Corson of the Christian Youth Theater (CYT). "I don't see that we have a lot of theatre companies doing that in Vancouver."

For the time being, these and other Vancouver theatres have survived as touring acts. CYT has enjoyed measured success since its beginnings in Fall 2002. Its production of "High School Musical" attracted over 5,000 viewers over two weekends. CYT performs in various school auditoriums, and is branching out of Vancouver to perform in Gresham and possibly Beaverton.

"Our ticket sales have been phenomenal since our beginning," said Carson. "We're really happy with our success in Vancouver, so we're moving beyond Vancouver now."

Roberts said Magenta's biggest audience comprised 1,139 members who came to see last year's production of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".

"I am happy with our level of success," she said. "Yes, we are growing, but wisely."

Rhoe said he doesn't believe Arts Equity's disappointing ticket sales are an indicator of the general health of the theatre scene in Vancouver.

"I don't think we should be the barometer for whether or not [the performing arts center] should be built," he said. "I hope it gets built. The latest estimates are that it will take four years. A lot can happen in four years. I know from experience, a four-year cycle is a good cycle. It's going to go by in a blink."

Rhoe suggested his theatre's closure was due to several factors, including its location in the "bar district." Others have suggested that the venue's repertory, which sometimes presented edgier material, may have contributed to its demise.

But such criticism doesn't faze Rhoe.

"I didn't want to do [...] what other people were doing because I thought it was already adequately represented," said Rhoe, "and I didn't think it would be very neighborly, frankly, to do a lot of that material."

Rhoe's aim was to challenge his audience.

"[Audiences] left the theatre saying, 'I can't believe I saw that in Vancouver,'" said Rhoe. "And that was really one of our goals, to create that kind of experience for the theatre."

Rhoe said Arts Equity tried to present quality writing, selecting plays written by winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes.

While CYT was producing family-friendly entertainment like "Robin Hood" and "Annie", Arts Equity was staging shows for mature audiences, such as Eugene O'Neil's "The Long Voyage Home" and Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile". Arts Equity also produced original plays, such as Rhoe's own "Road Rage".

Most infamous was Rhoe's production of Paula Vogel's racy drama, "Hot 'n' Throbbing", which featured simulated sex and frontal male nudity, and treats subjects such as pornography and domestic violence from a feminist perspective.

"I would say [the people of Vancouver] are much more responsive to mainstream, run-of-the mill musical theater," said Steve Coker, an area playwright and producer. "That's your bread and butter in the theatre community. That's how everybody makes money."

Financial considerations aside, surprisingly little regard for artistic credibility seemed to be on the minds of those polled, with some exceptions.

Walling pointed out that the confrontational nature of Arts Equity's productions has been largely over-stated.

"I doubt the majority of the work produced at The Main Street Theatre was out of step with Vancouver patrons," said Walling. "Albee, O'Neill and Steve Martin are hardly offbeat."

Coker suggested the theatre's demise might also have had to do with a lack of consistent press coverage, which, he said, contributed to the end of another strong theatrical period in Vancouver in the late 1980s.

"It's not that the community at large was unsupportive," he said. "It's the people who could have made an impact on it who turned their backs on it."

Meanwhile, the loss of Rhoe's venue is keenly felt.

"It's really too bad," Booch said. "The Main Street Theatre was a real asset for this community. It will be missed."

"Our space on Main was both our biggest asset and our biggest liability," said Rhoe. "We didn't have to move out, didn't have to be a road show company, which is what we are about to become for a short period of time, we hope. Being without [a venue] is no different than being homeless in any other way. It's hard to think about creating art when you're thinking about subsistence."