Black Hole theatre finally emerges from dark ages

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This article was published 04/09/2015 (3154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Drama teacher Chris Johnson accepted a job at the University of Manitoba in 1979 largely due to promises a new theatre would be built the following year.

“I’ve been trying to make that happen ever since,” says the longtime professor of the school’s department of English, film and theatre.

For his entire 36-year career, Johnson railed, cajoled and angled for the construction of a professional stage on which his students could showcase their talents.

He even tried to shame the administration by spearheading the idea of naming the student theatre company the Black Hole — after the infamous dungeon in Calcutta — in reference to its dingy digs in the basement of University College.

Johnson will retire in December, bringing the curtain down on his teaching career before he helps raise the curtain at the official opening of the university’s new Conklin Theatre in March. He will direct the first show, Doubtful House, a new work by his former student, Ian Ross.

“It feels like I finally did the job, so it’s time to go,” he said during an interview. “In a way, it’s a good punctuation.”

The new 130- to 150-seat reconfigurable theatre space is located in the former auditorium in Taché Hall.

Working around the constraints of heritage building is largely responsible for the theatre’s hefty $7-million price tag. In comparison, the Manitoba Theatre for Young People home at The Forks cost $5.6 million to build in 1998-99.

“It would have been a lot cheaper if we started from scratch,” says Johnson. “But it’s state-of-the-art technically and a huge deal for us.”

Black Hole’s old space — the 120-seat Thrust stage — will become the troupe’s rehearsal space. It will host one more opening night — a double bill of The Bald Soprano and After Magritte that will kick off Black Hole’s 2015-16 season.

The Conklin’s test run is Middletown by American Will Eno in January.

The closing is welcome, but it marks the end of an era, a bittersweet one for Johnson.

“I have mixed feelings,” he says. “Part of it is good riddance but also I’ve grown fond of the old place. I know every damn inch of the place intimately.

“But now that we are shutting it down, I can admit that the Black Hole was not comfortable. The ventilation was inadequate.”

He has lost count of the number of serious proposals he and technical director Dennis Smith put to the administration to replace the old theatre over the years. The plans included building a theatre next to University College, several initiatives to convert the old Great Hall into a theatre and even buying the Gas Station Theatre in Osborne Village.

Much of the administrative resistance over the decades was based on doubts that a new venue was necessary.

“My argument was a university this big needs a theatre — it was embarrassing,” Johnson says. “I know we didn’t get companies and performers on campus because we didn’t have a good place to put them.”

A key to the winning plan was a $1-million bequest from the family of John James Conklin, who enrolled at U of M in 1885 and became one of its most famous alums. A year later he joined the Manitoba Free Press as a drama critic and began a 51-year career with the newspaper.

Conklin also became a successful impresario, responsible for bringing to the city such famous figures such as Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Buffalo Bill Cody and John L. Sullivan, the first world heavyweight boxing champion.

While the bequest grew in size to $1.5 million, so did the Conklin family’s impatience with the university to put the money to use.

“It got to the point where they had to spend it,” says Johnson, which was fine with him.

Before the season opener on Nov. 7, the Black Hole is performing a special alumni farewell fundraising production of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata: The Musical from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3 during U of M’s homecoming. Former students representing three decades of Black Hole history will serve as cast and crew of the antiwar comedy.

The script has been adapted by Sarah Constible, Mike Bell, Gary Jarvis, Megan Andres and Bob Smith. Juno Award winner Gerry Atwell has penned new music. Johnson is co-directing with Leith Clark, Brenda McLean and Bruce Michalski; the cast includes a student from his first class in 1979 and another from the 2014-15 school year.

Union rules bar graduates who are professional actors from participating, so the lineup of actors will come from the ranks of Winnipeg lawyers, teachers, administrators and business leaders. Tickets are $50 (a tax receipt will be available for a portion of the purchase price) and can be reserved at 204-474-9581.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca