Rupertites don’t have to be told twice about the headaches and obstacles required to build anything anymore, and they may pine for the days when new houses and facilities sprouted up like weeds, but Bruce Forward can tell you it wasn’t so easy as recently as 30 years ago.
Forward is one former Rupertite who knows the saga behind the building of the Lester Centre of the Arts isn’t one without controversy.
Even with the prospect of building a state-of-the-art performing arts centre in the community, the public was divided, not just if it should be built in the first place, but where it should be built and what it should look like.
That didn’t daunt Forward, who was on the planning and building committees for the centre in the 1980s. He knew that if Prince Rupert had a premier venue, the city could get countless acts and artists that it wouldn’t otherwise, and be a hub of creativity for its citizenry.
“Not everybody out there [was convinced],” Forward said in January.
“There were some people that just said ‘What the heck do we need a performing arts centre for, we need another arena,’ but I think that for those who enjoy the beautiful facility, it has had a great impact. It meant that our community could properly do a lot of the arts that are happening today.”
Forward and his wife Betty moved to Nanaimo five years ago, but Bruce had lived in Prince Rupert before that since his high school days. Before leaving for Nanaimo, the mayor gave him and Betty a civic merit award for their contributions to the arts scene in Rupert and getting the Lester Centre built in the first place.
Forward had a front row seat to the evolving arts community in Rupert, often driving its growth.
He was a member of the Rotary Choir for 40 years, led and coordinated the city’s concert series with the performing arts centre, civic centre and United Church, was on the committee to get the Lester Centre built in 1987, served on the theatre’s board twice and appeared in numerous productions, including hometown musicals. His dad was the civic centre’s first manager after the war and previously was the YMCA manager.
“It’s just something I was brought up with in Prince Rupert, it was a natural fit for me,” he said.
The need for a real performing arts centre was evident.
Running the concert society, Forward would often stage performances at the civic centre’s auditorium when it was built in the early 1970s. But before long, he realized that a venue at a hockey arena and an auditorium was a tough one to reconcile when both facilities had simultaneous events.
With a Yamaha grand piano moved to the brand new civic centre’s auditorium, and a classical pianist playing, there was some distracting background noise, recalled Forward.
“Up until that time when the original civic centre had burnt down, the concerts were at First United Church. But when [the piano] came to the new civic centre, we thought ‘Well, we’d better use it. That’s what it’s for’, and then found out very soon it doesn’t go too well when somebody’s scoring a goal in the arena and somebody’s trying to play Chopin and Beethoven,” he said.
So the piano was moved back to the church. Before that, its home was Roosevelt Park School or (the now defunct) Booth Memorial High School, playing host to the Alaska Music Trail concert series.
But even the 250-seat church had its limits.
One story comes to mind when staging performances at First United, remembers Forward.
“One time [Canadian pianist] Frank Mills was performing there on a Sunday afternoon and the road manager was all upset because he wanted a flood light there. So he asked ‘What kind of lights do you have?’ and I said ‘Well, we have real sophisticated lighting. Up is on and down is off.’”
In the ‘80s, the city’s leadership held a referendum on converting the old 700-seat Capitol Theatre (now the Capitol Mall) into a performing arts centre.
When that referendum failed, due to the high costs of the conversion, including extensive renovations and the expanding of the stage and dressing rooms (which meant building into the back lane) it opened the door for discussions to start on a new location for an arts centre.
Forward was then appointed to a committee with Dr. Bill Hick and others to find city-owned land to build a brand new performing arts centre. They landed on the current property at the corner of McBride Street and Wantage Road.
After 12 architect firms proposed their design ideas to the city, Forward and the committee chose the one that was the most inviting.
“One of the things that we as a committee tried to impress on the architect was to try and make it a warm space, and it is because of the floor, and carpeting and colour of the walls,” he said. “In Nanaimo, there’s an 800-seat theatre and it’s all concrete. It just doesn’t have that warm feeling that Prince Rupert’s does.”
The proposal to build the centre, with a $3.5 million price tag, was put to the public and it passed with approximately 52 per cent support. Money came from all over, including the province, the community and a program that gave residents the option to buy a seat for $150.
A board of directors was struck and Ann Burnett was named the first theatre manager.
Day-to-day operations continue to be funded through city grants and school district funds, allowing school programs to take place at the centre annually. The centre is run by a society.
The official gala event to open the building was held on May 30, 1987 and esteemed guests included master of ceremonies Peter Gzowsky, a CBC member who played the opening on his program the day after, Canadian operatic contralto and head of the Canada Council Maureen Forrester and Canada’s funniest married couple Bob Robertson and Linda Cullen, among others.
Forward has fond memories of performing in Jesus Christ Superstar and using squash courts as dressing rooms at the old civic centre, and also being in Fiddler on the Roof.
He is returning to the North Coast to take in the 30th Anniversary Celebration on Feb. 4.
“I think that Prince Rupert’s very fortunate to have a venue like that ... Until you get down to maybe Vernon, you’re not going to find any other theatre as nice as ours in northern British Columbia, so we’re very lucky,” he said.