The Fourth Wall - Spring 2025
Intro from Elizabeth
Daffodils blooming outside the Ticket Centre.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Baxter
Spring is upon us! I bought a piece of wall décor from Dollarama a few years ago on a whim that read “After the winter comes the spring” and hung it on the wall behind me in the home office from which I worked at the time. I think staring at it in the background of my video meetings over the span of several months had a permanent effect on me – I’ve sort of internalized it as a personal motto for a lot of things. For me, spring is a season that marks growth, new beginnings, and serves as a reminder that we are capable of weathering the storms that come our way.
At the Port Theatre, spring means a whole lot of stuff: dance recitals and competitions, reviewing the season so far, and planning for the summer ahead. This year, it has also meant bringing thousands of students to the theatre for our TYA shows and showcasing a local artist from Duncan in our Discovery Series show. In my work, it means creating plans, drafting budgets, reaching out to businesses that are local to BC to find Sponsors that help fund our Spotlight Series for next year, and (best of all) it means writing this newsletter to connect with you!
With everything going on, it can also be easy for me to get lost in the day-to-day, burying my head in my to-do lists. So, I made a different list to remind myself of why I’m doing all this work. The long and the short of it is that I believe in what I do. I believe in the Performing Arts and its necessity in life. I believe in its ability to build community, bring joy, bring distractions, teach, and, sometimes, help people work through their own problems on a deeper level. I have experienced many revelations about things I’ve been working through in my personal life due to performances I’ve attended. Art is powerful. Shared experiences are powerful – they remind us of a fundamental togetherness, especially in times of division.
My job is special because I get to help facilitate the direct funding of these incredible, transformative experiences. I get to talk to people who love art every day, and I get to be the one to tell you all how your donations are directly impacting everyone along the way. I am so lucky in that donors to The Port Theatre Society already know how powerful the arts can be. You already get it. And so, if my job is getting to share with you all the things that you’ve made possible so far this year, then I think that’s a pretty sweet gig. Bring on the spring!
Annual Appeal Results
Nov 27 2024 – Feb 28 2025: $35.7K raised
Nov 27 2023 – Feb 29 2024: $28.3K raised
November and December sure feel like a long time ago, don’t they? We had an amazing response to our end-of-year appeal – we saw a 26% increase in the amount of funds raised from the same time period last year!
Thank you so much for your support in our programming. These donations help us to ensure interesting programming comes to the Port Theatre, through both paying artist fees in our Spotlight and Discovery shows, and by supplementing the costs of renting our spaces, making it more affordable for local promotors and community groups to use our venue.
It is so amazing to feel the support of our community. It is an affirmation that we are not only presenting work that resonates with our patrons, but also that we are making an actual difference in people’s lives through the experience of live theatre.
Featured Donor!
I asked Peter & Jane of Nanaimo why they continue to support the Port Theatre year after year. Here’s what they said:
“We support the Theatre because we believe it continues to make an important contribution to our community, and because we continue to enjoy all of the events we attend.”
If you feel passionate about why you give to The Port Theatre Society and would like to be featured in a future iteration of The Fourth Wall, please reach out to donations@porttheatre.com. We want to hear from you!
A Spotlight on the Spotlight Social
Guests are taken on a special behind-the-scenes tour, braving the catwalks above the balcony to check out the “follow spot” booth.
Photo credit: Mya Wilson
After attending a conference in Ottawa about Re-imagining Customer Relationships, our Marketing and Community Outreach Coordinator, Andrea Noble, was inspired to seek out “initiators” amongst our patrons. Between 15% and 20% of ticket buyers self-identify as “the kind of person who organizes outings to cultural events for my friends.” There are interesting questions about how to identify them, how to support them, and what would motivate them as people who enjoy putting groups together. The purpose of the Ottawa conference was to encourage nonprofit organisations to take risks and test out new ideas in order to develop deeper connections with audiences. Best of all, the sponsors of the project (CAPACOA, PACT, Orchestras Canada) hope to generate funding to cover shared expenses associated with experimental projects, including facilitation, research, evaluation, and rapid field learning. With funding support, the initial costs of researching and evaluating the ‘experiments’ are able to be returned to the nonprofit sector in spades.
With the idea of getting enthusiastic, like-minded people together in her pocket, Andrea and the Port Theatre team started planning an afternoon of fun with specific goals in mind: invite folks into our spaces and share what we’re passionate about; connect with our audiences who were curious about us as an organization; promote our Spotlight Series; and showcase our building behind-the-scenes. We wanted to create an event for Spotlight and Port Theatre fans (initiators) that wasn’t attached to a specific show. When we host shows, patrons don’t get the chance to speak with staff directly and ask questions about our day-to-day work. The shows usually take the spotlight (and rightfully so), so the idea of an event without one was definitely something we were worried about.
In alignment with our experimental mindset, we tested out lots of new ideas. The first was to sell Spotlight Social tickets at $20.00 – something that could be comparable to any other night out around town, without being too cost-prohibitive. The event ticket included drink tickets; a smorgasbord of treats to choose from, supplied by the Courtyard by Marriott Nanaimo; a tech showcase presentation from our Technical Director, Wilson Pascoe, with assistance from Brad McAuley and Sue York; a Spotlight presentation from our Artistic Executive Director, David Warburton, and Andrea Noble; plus five themed tours exploring different areas of our theatre, led by various staff members.
The staff combined efforts to launch the Spotlight Social in less than three weeks and this collective effort was what made the event truly special. The team certainly didn’t need yet another project added to their workload, but they still said, yes! Why? Because that’s how much they value the Port Theatre; it demonstrates pride in their work and their willingness to go above and beyond what’s expected. This positive growth mindset has resulted in national recognition and acknowledgement as leaders in our industry.
We capped admission at 60 tickets so we could keep the event intimate and special for everyone who attended, and the event sold out! Even with no show on the ticket stub, enough people cared about who we are as an organization that they were willing to take a chance on something we’ve never done before. Our ‘initiators’ were overjoyed and sent us a lot of great feedback. We’re so grateful to our passionate Port Theatre patrons who are interested in what goes on behind the scenes and why we present our Spotlight Series.
If you attended our Spotlight Social, thanks for coming! An event like this wouldn’t be successful without you. If you didn’t make it, the good news is that we are very likely to do it again. We are looking forward to building deeper relationships and including more people next year!
Theatre for Young Audiences
Elementary students engaged with the performers of The Alphabet of Awesome Science
Photo credit: David Warburton
On March 11, we saw just over 350 people attend YES YES YES, a theatre show hailing from New Zealand that tackles the difficult conversations surrounding consent and healthy relationships.
During the day, several high schools brought classes of students for a schools-only presentation. A few times throughout the show, the performer, Karin, checked in with the audience via an anonymous survey application that attendees could respond to on their phones. This bit of interaction with the audience kept attendees engaged with the content and allowed for free expression of what they were feeling. To the prompt, “How are you feeling? What are you thinking about?” one student responded, “This is interesting. Perspectives I’ve never thought about before.” I think this kind of expansion of empathy and consideration for other experiences is exactly what we were hoping for in bringing this show to teenagers in Nanaimo.
The same evening, we held a public performance of the show for anyone else interested in coming. I went to the public show and was personally touched by how many parents and grandparents were sharing the experience with their children and grandchildren. I could tell by the responses to Karin’s surveys that the adults in the audience were getting as much out of the show as the younger folk.
Personally, I gleaned some really valuable techniques for how to respond to a friend sharing difficult information. I often find that difficult conversations can come when I’m not expecting them to. Seeing Karin artfully articulate how to navigate information in a compassionate way was valuable to me, even as an adult who is no longer (thankfully) dealing with the social minefield that is high school.
On April 9th & 10th, we saw more than 2,100 elementary school students and teachers from the Nanaimo Ladysmith School District came to see The Alphabet of Awesome Science. A generous donation from the Rotary Club of Lantzville assisted in allowing us to keep ticket prices at just $5 for each student. The kids had an absolute blast learning both language and science from performers “Lexi Con” and “Noel Edge.” These two zany educators came all the way from Australia to perform 26 incredible science experiments and teach 26 “million-dollar” words in just 52 minutes.
The Port Theatre played an integral role in championing The Alphabet of Awesome Science to come to Canada, including first seeing the show in 2023 at the Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently pitching the show to theatres across the country – from New Brunswick to Vancouver Island – for a nationally coordinated tour. Follow-up planning and arrangements happened at the Adelaide Fringe in 2024 with funding support from Creative Australia and Canadian Heritage.
What’s David Doing?
David Warburton (third from the left) in a meeting between five Canadian presenters and five members of an artistic collective that will be featured in next year’s season.
Photo courtesy of David Warburton
Where many other venues across the country have been struggling with ticket sales among a lot of uncertainty in the economy, The Port Theatre Society reached its Spotlight Series ticket sales goals for the entire season back in January! We are having a landmark season, and it is amazing to know that people have faith in our programming; I have personally heard from a number of people that they are impressed with the work David has been doing to bring really strong works from around the world to Nanaimo.
But choosing a show to bring isn’t as simple as flipping through a catalogue and selecting a show. A big part of David’s job is building relationships with artists/companies and coordinating with both international and BC presenters to build Canadian tours for these artists. Especially so with international artists, touring can be very expensive. In order to make it financially possible, presenting organizations often have to work together to schedule and pool resources to support these incoming acts. There has been ongoing work between Australia, New Zealand, and Canada to strengthen the arts networks and support each other’s arts sectors. Without this development work, many of these shows would not make their way to Canada and to our region.
This year, David was once again invited to Adelaide and Auckland as an international delegate. His trip was financially supported by Creative Australia and Creative New Zealand, through an Australian organization called Honey Pot and Performing Arts Network New Zealand. Fringe Festivals, like the Adelaide Fringe, are so important for the performing arts industry. They provide the chance and the funding for artists to perform their work in front of not just the public, but also presenters like David (who may decide to help coordinate an international tour of the show).
These international festivals are important for people like David, too. He gets the chance to see what’s out there in the world artistically and then gets a chance to talk to his colleagues about it in person. Not just international presenters – this is also one of the rare chances to meet with other Canadian presenters in person! With our country being so large, it’s difficult for colleagues in Nanaimo and Fredericton to get together, otherwise.
One example of a show that has come to Nanaimo through these conversations is our upcoming Spotlight show, A Simple Space, which David first saw at Edinburgh Fringe. Multiple years of planning and meeting with other international delegates led to finally having Gravity and Other Myths perform here at home. Something exciting (no spoilers!) is in the final stages of being brought here for next season after three years of relationship development, and David has three new projects (two international and one Canadian) that he’s looking at bringing in for the 2026/2027 season as a direct result of this most recent trip.
Thanks for all your hard work, David!
