Vancouver The Expo Legacy

Abstract

For the duration of Expo 86 most Vancouver theatres looked as if they had been hit by a neutron bomb: the buildings were standing, but the audience had disintegrated. In mid-August, with almost two months remaining in the World’s Fair, the Vancouver Social Planning department began surveying the damage in order to make a report to city council. Some cultural institutions – notably the Vancouver Art Gallery and the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology – were having a banner year as tourists flocked to their special exhibits. But performing arts companies, which were suddenly competing with “the world’s best” as well as with the glitz of the fair itself, were bruised and battered. In their responses to the survey, theatre companies and rental halls related a litany of financial woes. The Vancouver Playhouse, bolstered by Expo optimism, offered a summer season featuring remounts of their big hits of 1985-86, A Chorus Line and Noises Off. According to the survey, the Playhouse lost $175,000. Arts Club managing director Bill Millerd reported that his three theatres were “down approximately $250,000 in revenue compared to 1985” for May, June, and July.