Act I: early VCP producer looks back in laughter

Arturo Ui, 1977

Stephens recalled "some wild and pleasant experiences" when he helped put on The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, J.B., The Visit, Abelard and Heloise and The Madwoman of Chaillot from 1977 to 1981 in the original site - Vanier Dining Hall. "We had to use wit and ingenuity - often referred to as sneakiness - to get things done," he said, adding "and we were up to it!"

As an illustration of the "sneakiness", he talked about VCP's standing arrangement to have an engineer turn off the excessively-loud fan in the dining hall during performances. One particularly cold night the engineer refused, explaining that fans sometimes will not start up again when temperatures are low. So assistant producer Brad Varey (also a student at the time) boldly rang up the engineer and sternly ordered the fan to be turned off - all the while masquerading as Michael Creal, then master of Vanier. The ruse worked.

"Lord knows what would have happened if the fan had refused to start up again.... Maybe Michael wouldn't be here!" quipped Stephens in his write-up.

Then there was the time the crew pulled the dining-hall lights back, raised a free-standing stage with lighting instruments suspended from the flag posts, and closed off the minstrels' gallery around the upper level of the dining room with a makeshift wall to make a sound barrier.

An administrator from the East Office Building bristled at all those unauthorized changes and "sent a worried message saying we were not allowed to do nearly everything we had done," Stephens said. "I purposefully waited until Monday morning before calling him - after the production was finished and everything restored to the norm - and said, 'What stage? What lights? What wall?'"

Farce-like proportions

The crews' hi-jinks reached farce-like proportions during the rehearsal for The Visit. A carpenter built the necessary coffin for a prop and assembled it in the dining hall. However, there was nowhere to store it for the night. Again, heroic Varey came to the rescue. He was scheduled to work at The Absinthe Pub that night and offered to guard the macabre prop there. But how could the crew get the coffin to the pub?

They decided to take it the shortest way - through the Master's dining room behind the stage and out onto the stage at Winters Dining Hall. This is where the whole scene turned into a farce....

"Unfortunately, there was some kind of performance on when we emerged through the door, humping this grim container," said Stephens. "But there was no going back! Not daunted, we carried it across the stage and down through the audience and out the back. There was even some applause! We learned afterward that the performance was some kind of variety show and that the audience thought we were part of it. Anyway, thank God it wasn't graduation!"

Stephens ended his reminiscences by congratulating "my loved (and periodically hated) director Fred. When we think of all the experiences and joy you have given us, that's when we know 'God is good'!" (to quote a line from a song composed by Fred Thury for the production J.B.)."

Act II: Enter, Nancy Accinelli

Nancy Accinelli

Nancy Accinelli entered the Vanier College Production scene as executive producer in 1980. In those days she was an administrative assistant at the college, but when she moved to another job at York, part of her heart remained with the VCP.

"At our 30th anniversary party we had upward of 70 people, including Kate Cottington who was in a production in 1971, and Cam Gourley who first acted in 1978 and has participated in more than 10 shows since then," she said. "People have extremely strong links to the VCP."

As she talked about the decades of productions, memories began to cascade. Though the VCP now has a dedicated theatre for performances in Vanier College, she remembered the days when a stage platform and set had to be erected in the dining hall each January while people ate and studied. Rather than annoying diners, "this construction built up anticipation and generated a tremendous sense of community," she said.

the stage was up, cast and crew took it in shifts to sleep in the hall to guard the sets. Accinelli recalled that the first company producer, Ceri Stephens, used to organize colleagues and students to come in on weekends to help build the stage and a temporary wall for the balcony above the dining room. Such commitment is still evident today, she added.

Madwoman of Chaillot, 1981

Why does the VCP foster such deep loyalties among its cast and crews? Accinelli says it is a "rich resource" for students to form strong connections with each other and often feel as though they are part of a family. "There is a lot of pain that goes into a production - and a lot of joy, too. So when they graduate, Fred and I will have seen them through a lot," she said.

And why has the VCP lasted for 30 years? "One answer is that it is greater than the sum of its parts," she said. "Of course, it is continued and nourished by the inspiration and experience of director Fred Thury, but it is also sustained by the accumulation of students, faculty and staff who have made individual and group contributions - lighting, set-building, donations, costumes, as well as acting.

"Like an extended family, they interact and make a personal commitment, and that connection begins to develop a life of its own. They stay connected, thus contributing to its development. Perhaps they are addicted to making the magic happen on stage."

Memories of standing tall - on stilts

Mounting the play Medea is one of the many times that stands out in Accinelli's mind. And "mounting" is a word well chosen in this case - the performers were all on stilts! "I was concerned about the safety of our cast, so I tried out the stilts myself," she laughed. "I was a bit wobbly, but the cast were not; they moved easily and gracefully around the stage." (Added note: no one fell during any of the productions.)

God is Alive and Well, rehearsal, 1991

Then there was the musical puppet drama set in a post-nuclear holocaust society, called ...and on the Eighth Day. Written by Fred Thury with music by composer Glenn Morley, it had an enormous cast, consisting of eight puppets that were three- to four-feet high, 24 puppet manipulators, a chorus of eight people and an orchestra. Oh yes - and one live actor!

Thury's involvement stretches far, Accinelli pointed out. He has written several productions, including a very popular play called Festival, which has been performed in three versions so far, all of which brought the house down.

Accinelli singled out two other unusual productions, unusual in that they were written by the cast collectively with shaping and guidance from Thury: God is Alive and Well and Living at the Mall (1991) and Life and Death and Other Comedies (1996). "Fred encouraged the actors to think of stories that needed to be told. God is Alive and Well was about mall-dwellers coming together in this modern-day community; it was about what had led them there, it was about their lives."

Thury: 'wizard of Oz'

She described Thury as "a bit like the wizard of Oz, making magic happen from behind the scenes. He says you need to know how to do everything in order to really understand how theatre works, and he passes this philosophy onto his students.... He has been a mentor to many talented performers over the years."

The Miser, 1992

Aside from the regular VCP productions, Thury initiated a one-act play writing competition, which ended in 2001 due to lack of funding, said Accinelli, and began The Vanier Improv Company in 1996-1997, which helped launch several sketch comedy troupes now performing in the Toronto area. VCP alumnus Mike Nahrgang is now with Second City; John Catucci and David Mesiano, other VCP alumni, form the award-winning comedy/singing duo, The Doo Wops; Albert Schultz was with "Street Legal" and Soulpepper Theatre Company; and Kate Hennig played in 23 Short Films About Glenn Gould.

Such is Accinelli's admiration for Thury that for the VCP 20th anniversary, she established the Fred Thury Award to honour his outstanding contribution to the annual Vanier Productions and the college. This award is given to a graduating student who has contributed to theatre at Vanier.

And the star of the show is...Fred Thury!

Fred Thury is the director of VCP. He has been with Vanier College Productions from day one. He is the person who glues the cast, stage and lighting crew and administrators together. In fact, he is the father of the VCP.

Thury's love for VCP is abiding and runs deep, and he is full of pride for those who have worked on the many productions. Over the years Thury has taught in Humanities at York, and has been involved in Vanier's tutorial courses in production and acting technique. Through his courses he has also taught clowning and the use and building of masks, plus ancient and modern drama.

We caught up with him just prior to the opening of the VCP's latest production, Into the Woods.

Q:      Whose idea was the VCP?

A:      Tom Cohen, who was then senior tutor of Vanier College, asked me to do a production when I was doing tutorials at Vanier in 1970-1971. After the first performance, Michael Creal (then master of Vanier) felt the dynamic was unique because it brought people together who had no other agenda than to work on the production. It was all done on a shoestring budget - and still is. Now we have Helen Doan (current master of Vanier) and Nancy Accinelli as executive producer finding the money.

Q:      The first productions ran in 1971 and 1972, then not again until 1977. What was happening to VCP during that gap?

A:      I left York to become director in residence at Global Village Theatre in Toronto, so there were no productions at that time. Then Michael Creal asked me to come back. He said I was an adhesive for the college. Now times have changed, and the idea of colleges having a separate identity is in jeopardy.

Q:      The VCP is not part of the theatre program at the Faculty of Fine Arts, who have their own productions. So what is the purpose of this group?

Arsenic & Old Lace, 1989

A:      A lot of our people come out of choral backgrounds wanting the drama experience, and from theatre wanting the musical exposure. The VCP isn't in competition with other departments at York because we aren't even a department. Not all of the people with VCP are Vanier students. We provide an opportunity for all students at York to perform or make a contribution, regardless of Faculty or college. Occasionally alumni take a role, and the mix of current students with experienced performers is also educational. My personal mandate is to provide a platform for someone investing in theatre as a career. And we do. A lot of alumni have done very well - people such as Kate Hennig, Gord Mastens, Albert Schultz and Mike "Nug" Nahrgang, to name a few. (*Nancy Accinelli has also mentioned several.)

Q:      What do the cast and crew learn from their involvement in the VCP, other than the obvious?

A:      They learn responsibility. I am strict about rehearsals. They must show up for them or they are out. And they learn "ownership". I provide the platform, but they may take ownership and that is why these productions have a different look to others on campus. People here do everything. When they "tread the boards" later I want them to appreciate all the roles - property manager, costume designer, stage manager, lighting designer, musical director and so on.

Albert Schultz, who has acted at Stratford and became artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, has said to me that his time with VCP was the most "spoiling experience" he's had. Our schedules were punctual and clean - unlike many professional companies.

Q:      You are the director of most of the performances. Does that mean you coach the actors?

Into the Woods, 2002

Q:      What was your background experience when you started with VCP?

A:      I have a philosophy/history/
languages background, with an interest in music, although some VCP directors have come from the sketch comedy tradition. (Thury usually has a guest director for one of the productions each year.) I also spent time in a Roman Catholic seminary. With certain plays it helps to have a (broad) background like mine, so, for instance, you can bring a liturgical-religious interpretation to medieval productions.

Outside of York, Fred Thury has staged numerous productions such as the 1988 Olympic torch relay from Signal Hill, Newfoundland. to Calgary, Alberta, events at Massey and Carnegie halls, extravaganzas for symphony orchestras, and productions for Soundstream. He is also a librettist and wrote a piece for Ben Heppner, the concept of which Thury adapted as a children's book called The Last Straw, which has been translated into Spanish, French and Icelandic.

"VCP has been the ignition for my passion of acting and you have been the fan to keep the flame burning." (Esther Chung)

"No beauty without hardship. I learned this trait of life balance
from VCP." (Darryl Bautista)

"Thank-you so much for giving me a reason to stay in university - and a great comedy partner." (Laura Earl)

(Earl and Bautista comprise Two to Go, a sktech comedy troupe.)