Next Arts Club head eager to make mark
Ashlie Corcoran ‘excited’ to develop local talent and engage with community
White Rock native Ashlie Corcoran feels “blessed” to be named the next artistic director of Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company.
“I really feel so blessed to be coming back to do what I love where my grandmother, my aunt and uncles, my brother all live,” Corcoran told Postmedia News on Wednesday.
Corcoran replaces longtime artistic director Bill Millerd, who will end his 46-year stint with the Arts Club after the 2017-18 season.
“It’s such an honour to get to work with this amazing legacy that Bill has created and built up at the Arts Club, and I’m so passionate about continuing to work on strengthening the great work that has been done before me.”
During the course of Millerd’s term, he mentored such renowned talents as Michael J. Fox, Michael Buble, Nicola Cavendish, and Eric McCormack, as well as building the Arts Club into one of the biggest urban theatres in Canada.
Millerd was also key in the development of Canadian theatre by promoting talents like playwrights Morris Panych (Lawrence & Holloman, The Ends of the Earth), Joan MacLeod (The Hope Slide, Amigo’s Blue Guitar), and Anosh Irani (The Matka King, Bombay Black). Millerd, 73, officially announced his retirement in February.
Corcoran is artistic director at Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ont. She will assume the artistic leadership of the Arts Club in October, when she will begin programming the 2018-19 season. Thousand Islands Playhouse co-produced In a Blue Moon with the Arts Club last year, and Corcoran has regularly had her work mounted in Western Canada.
“Besides running Thousand Islands Playhouse, I also still run Theatre Smash as well as doing a lot of freelance directing: keeping busy doing what I love is my life,” said Corcoran.
“The annual operating budget for Thousand Islands Playhouse is around $2.1 million, and the Arts Club’s last year was around $16 million, so that is quite a big jump. But I love theatre and being engaged in this art form that means so much to me.”
Corcoran is very committed to local writers and talent and sees the Arts Club as key in helping them develop their skills. Overall, she says the outlook for Canadian theatre is excellent right now and very favourable for the Arts Club in particular. One of the things she aims to do is bring in some of the community engagement models she has seen working in the U.S. and U.K.
“I am excited to immerse myself in Vancouver’s cultural community. ... My vision is for the Arts Club to be internationally renowned, driving the development of local theatrical talent and voices, while deeply engaging with its community, audience and stakeholders. I can’t wait to get started.”
Corcoran has an honours degree in drama from Queen’s University and a master of arts in directing from Goldsmiths, University of London. Before joining the Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2012, she founded Theatre Smash in Toronto in 2005, launched a successful freelance directing career in both theatre and opera, and completed the Urjo Kareda residency for emerging theatre artists at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre in 2011.
Earlier this month, she opened the Shaw Festival’s 2017 season directing the hit musical Me and My Girl.
“There is just so much exciting work happening on every level in Canada right now, from our playwrights producing work that resonates around the world,” said Corcoran. “And while we have some of the best actors, a past criticism was ‘where are the directors?,’ and that no longer applies. We have brilliant, visionary artists at the helm making incredible work.”
Corcoran is one of them, and now she can call the Arts Club Theatre home.