Theatre Under the Stars presents Mary Poppins and The Drowsy Chaperone, on alternating evenings until Aug. 26 at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. More info: tuts.ca.
Close to 50 years’ worth of Theatre Under The Stars memorabilia overruns Cecilia and Roger Smith’s tiny two-bedroom apartment in Upper Lonsdale.
But the “grandparents of TUTS,” as they call themselves, keep adding albums to the overstuffed shelves.
With each summer comes a new TUTS show, or two, at Malkin Bowl, which the couple documents for the archives.
“You wouldn’t believe what we’ve got up here – the entire history of TUTS,” exclaims Roger, during a recent interview.
“We just love it so much and the history of Malkin Bowl is astonishing all by itself. And we’ve been involved in so many productions – it’s like family.”
Cecilia collects programs and other show souvenirs, while Roger captures stills from the musicals performed at Stanley’s Park’s famous amphitheatre – and they have been at it since 1969.
“I just love it because I’m making a scrapbook for Roger and I, you know, pictures of my characters and Roger behind the scenes, pictures of the sets, pictures of the friends we’ve made,” says Cecilia in early July, ahead of opening night for TUTS’ presentation of Mary Poppins.
Cecilia will forage for old TUTS’ programs at garage sales and other places.
“I’ve begged, borrowed and stolen them,” she says with a laugh.
Cecilia’s prized piece is a chair from TUTS’ early years – when the theatre seats were made by prisoners.
It looks like a director’s chair with crossed legs, but it’s made from plastic and has a green backing.
She figures that TUTS relic is the last of its kind. TUTS later used bleachers for audience seating. These days it’s back to plastic chairs.
Cecilia, a veteran actress, performed in Carousel in 1969, in what was TUTS’ comeback show after bankruptcy. The following summer at Malkin Bowl saw Cecilia dance across the stage and play her favourite character to date: Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Cecilia would reprise that role a decade later at TUTS.
It was fitting for Cecilia, a dialect dynamo, to star in My Fair Lady, a musical which centres around Doolittle trying to break her Cockney accent. Cecilia specializes in accents and dialects.
“If I need to do a New York accent I can,” she says, tawwking like a New Yorkah, before segueing into a charming French accent. It’s impressive, considering Cecilia’s baseline London accent.
Cecilia and Roger were on the same wavelength when they met in England at 18, as young X-ray technician students. Cecilia’s father, however, forbid her to continue working around radiation.
So after the couple immigrated to Canada for work, Roger continued taking pictures of peoples’ insides and Cecilia started her own theatre school, which she ran out of the couple’s Edgemont Village home for decades.
“Oh, that brings back memories,” said Cecilia, who will always have a soft spot for Edgemont.
To this day, Cecilia still fields calls from actors desperate for dialect training to do their role justice.
Cecilia once coached a young man over the phone who was playing a German chef in Hello, Dolly!
When she’s not giving accent advice, Cecilia is focused on archiving and acting.
This summer Cecilia embodies the Bird Lady and takes the audience’s breath away when she sings heartstrings-tugging tune “Feed the Birds.” The octogenarian adores the role.
“It’s doing my cockney accent, which I love,” says Cecilia. “It’s a challenge – to think that I’m 84 and still doing something.”
Acting keeps Cecilia sharp. “Oh, definitely,” she says. TUTS also plays a role in turning back the clock for Cecilia.
“We both say it’s the fact that we meet so many diverse people,” she explained. “We’ve worked with judges, doctors, lawyers, surgeons – and you also meet so many young people.”
During this interview, Cecilia’s voice is a little husky on account of her inflamed bronchial tubes – a hallmark of a chronic condition she has contended with since 2005.
During the day Cecilia wears a special mask that disperses medication into her lungs and sets free her singing voice.
The show must go on.
“The director has great faith in me,” says Cecilia.
Roger, meanwhile, knows Malkin Bowl like the back of his hand. He’s been wrangling actors and dodging raccoons since the 1960s in Stanley Park.
Roger looks forward to renewing acquaintances every TUTS season. The process starts in January with the auditions, which Roger will document for the archives. Then rehearsals start in early May. And then anticipation builds before that first curtain call in July.
“As we all say to each other: ‘Where would you rather be on a sunny evening in Vancouver?” says Roger of the charming outdoor theatre.
Cecilia agrees, there’s something special about TUTS.
“It’s that lovely smell and that feeling of the air blowing across your face – you can’t get that magic anywhere else,” she says.
Over the years Cecilia remembers looking out at the audience and seeing blobs of light – people smoking cigarettes. And having little raccoons come onto the stage. And rabbits in the audience. And ponchos and hot chocolate in the rain.
When there was still a zoo in Stanley Park, gibbons howling at feeding time was the ambient noise in the background during TUTS performances.
It goes without question Roger’s all-time favourite TUTS production is My Fair Lady, when he saw his sweetheart Cecilia on stage.
“Twice, three, four times she’s done it, actually,” he says.
And the couple has the photos and programs to prove it.
