history – Firehall Arts Centre

‘Good Timber taps into a fascinating part of our cultural heritage’

Posted: Aug 16 2012

It’s official, the critics are loving Good Timber!

With only five performances left in Vancouver, this show is a must see!

Ross Desprez, Colleen Eccleston, Kelt Eccleston — Photo by David Lowes

“Imagine a really great Vancouver Folk Festival set with remarkable projection footage and you’ll have some idea of the Good Timber experience.” -Jerry Wasserman via The Province

“The last time I saw such a group of talented performers was in New York at the Tony-award winning musical, Once.” –FunFun Vancouver

“Good Timber taps into a fascinating part of our cultural heritage and presents its stories in a lively, infectiously reverent way.”
-Vancouver Weekly

“…the love many loggers had and have for the forests comes through loud and clear in Good Timber. In these ecologically dangerous and divisive times, that’s good to remember.”
–Colin Thomas via The Georgia Straight

Good Timber is an engaging show that shares an important part of BC’s colourful history. If you’d like to learn more about the history of forestry in BC check out the links below.

http://www.learnforestry.com/index.html

http://www.cofi.org/educationcareers/teaching-resource/secondaryresources/

http://forestinfo.org/

Special thanks to Susan of the Coast Forest Products Association for her support!

Good Timber at the Firehall

Posted: Aug 07 2012

Good Timber 2 small — Photo by David Lowes

It isn’t often that we get the chance to honor our history and tap our toes at the same time! Good Timber does just that as The Other Guys Theatre brings the stories of loggers and logging in British Columbia to life at a time before helicopters, pine beetles and clear-cuts became a part of the forest industry.

And what better place to see this rollicking musical revue than in the 105-year-old Firehall building? Just outside our doors on Cordova Street in the early days of the province, logs went skidding by on their way to ships that would carry them to Scotland and far afield. The Firehall building itself sits on stone blocks from Scottish quarries that were used as ballast in the ships sailing into the harbor to pick up timber for their return journey.

We hope you’ll join us tonight for a 2 for 1 preview of the play, or sometime during the run from August 7 to 19!

Click here to purchase your tickets to Good Timber today!

Firehall Fact #11 – Savage Parade

Posted: Mar 12 2012

In 1992, the Firehall saw a very unique performance that plays in the theatre and in the studio upstairs.

As most of you are aware (if you’ve read the first Firehall Fact, which I know you have), the Firehall Arts Centre used to be a fully-functioning fire station. Which means there were a number of fire poles placed in convenient places all over the building for firemen to get down to the trucks and gear. Four of these poles were located in four corners of what is now our upstairs studio, which was then the room in which the firemen slept.

When the fire station was turned into an arts centre, these poles were removed, which left four holes in the floor. Don’t worry, these were covered up.

Until 1992 when choreographer Cornelius Fischer-Credo’s Savage Parade was presented.

The show was comprised of two parts that happened simultaneously in the theatre and upstairs in the studio, and the performers moved between the spaces by using ladders propped through these old fire pole holes. They would also throw props including glitter, lights and shoes through the holes as well.

During intermission, the audience that viewed the show upstairs would move down into the theatre, and vice versa.

In the theatre, the production was moody and dark, taking the public on a journey to a ghostly underworld, while in the land upstairs, audiences were treated to funny, happy (and hilariously off-key) renditions of 70s pop songs and bright, silly performances.

Savage Parade was performed in June and December of that year.

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Savage Parade news clipping from the Vancouver Sun, December 18 1992. From the Firehall’s archives.