Peter Birnie
Sun
Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt (from left); Conservative MP James Moore; International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees Local 891 president Elmar Theissen; actor Howard Storey; PAL board president Jane Heyman; Premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan. Photograph by : Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
A dream came true yesterday when the $20-million, 111-unit, mixed-income housing complex for seniors and disabled people in the professional performing arts was officially opened in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour.
Jane Heyman, president of Performing Arts Lodge, said the eight-storey facility was a response to “the urgent situation of Vancouver’s pioneer performing arts professionals and how it was met with tremendous generosity of spirit and imagination.”
The lodge raised $5.2 million from the sale of life-lease units and contributions from societies and unions while the federal, provincial and civic governments contributed funds and grants.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Heyman. “Our residents now enjoy secure, affordable housing, with the rooftop studio theatre providing a venue for their passion and creativity.”
The complex is already fully occupied.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Curtain rises at Vancouver’s Performing Arts Lodge
Premier Gordon Campbell officially opens home for retired and disabled performing artists
Peter Birnie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
VANCOUVER – Premier Gordon Campbell officially opened Vancouver’s Performing Arts Lodge on Monday by asking for a show of hands about PAL’s unofficial theme song: When I’m 64, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon and first released in 1967.
“The first time you heard it,” said the premier, “how many of you thought, ‘God, that’s a long way off!’ I’m almost 64 now, and so are a lot of people in the performing arts who have helped provide entertainment, understanding and, frankly, a lot of creative talent.
“What PAL really represents to all of us is a place that says as you get older, that means nothing except that you’re adding years. You’re still creative, you’re still thoughtful, you still have something to contribute.”
PAL Vancouver, which first welcomed tenants a year ago, features 111 suites (99 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom units) offered to members of the performing arts community who are retired and/or disabled. Six years of fundraising, led by veteran actor Joy Coghill and PAL board president Jane Heyman, not only saw the building successfully finished but fully 80 per cent of the rents subsidized according to need.
In a packed studio theatre on the eighth floor of the building at Cardero and Hastings, Campbell also read a note from Coghill, who could not attend because her husband was having surgery.
“Nothing but Jack’s operation could have kept me from being with you today,” Coghill said in her note. “We’re all very proud of what we’ve created here, but let us be very clear — we could not have done it without the help of every person present today. Take any one person away and it would not have happened.”
The federal government provided $250,000 under the Canada-BC Affordable Housing Agreement and the province ponied up $385,000.
James Moore, Conservative MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, acknowledged the presence of Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry as he noted that funding for PAL crossed lines of party and partisanship.
“We all recognize the need for creative solutions to important needs for the City of Vancouver,” Moore said, “and we’re all doing our best to ensure that the City of Vancouver remains one of the greatest cities in the world.”
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan pointed out the presence of four city councillors: Kim Capri, Peter Ladner, Raymond Louie and Elizabeth Ball, the last a “ferocious advocate for the arts at city hall,” Sullivan noted.
Sullivan says the city’s largesse in helping build PAL, including $1 million in matching grants and a gift of city-owned “air space parcel” zoning, came to approximately $6 million.
“But this is such a small contribution compared to the joy and the wonderful addition to our quality of life that the people who are in our arts and culture industry have made to us,” Sullivan added.
Heyman told the audience that when the process to build PAL began more than six years ago, everyone thought it would just be a home for retired actors.
“One of the most exciting aspects of living here,” she countered, “is that people range in age from their late 30s to over 90. Musicians, dancers, actors, writers, producers, publicists, carpenters or technicians — name a profession in the performing arts and you’ll likely find them here.”
Veteran actress and singer Ann Warn Pegg described for the crowd what she loved about living at PAL.
“The artistic souls can gather and enrich each other’s lives,” she said. “Most artists are not rich monetarily — the average actor’s salary is about $12,000 a year — but we are rich in the ability to create family, live life to the fullest, listen and respond — that’s what we do as actors — care for each other, share and encourage. Here at PAL, we’re able to do that a hundredfold.
“In the words of Martha Stewart, this is a very good thing.”
Arts Club Theatre artistic managing director Bill Millerd cast an admiring glance at PAL’s studio theatre, but says he certainly wouldn’t move into the building until he’s retired.
“Can you imagine? People hammering on my door, I’d open it and there’d be an audition!” Millerd said with a laugh.
Don’t worry, counters legendary impresario David Y.H. Lui, whose co-production with the Arts Club of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in the 1970s is still noted as a watershed in Vancouver theatre.
“The thing I was most worried about is that all my neighbours would be people I rejected at auditions,” Lui said, “but that has not happened.
“This is not a building for retiring, grey-haired 90-year-olds waiting to push each other’s swing. It’s very dynamic, with a lot of energy, and people are really charged up about doing new things in that theatre.”