Green Thumb Plays the World

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Green Thumb Plays the World

Heather Currie

“Green Thumb stands at the forefront. No one even approaches their social or political mandate for change. What the company offers—and this may sound odd—is they have a very adult approach to young people’s theatre. They don’t see themselves as children’s theatre so much as a theatre for formative minds.” Morris Panych; quoted in the Vancouver Courier

In 1975 the Green Thumb Players Society was founded by a group of graduates from the University of British Columbia’s drama department with the mandate to produce plays for the local community with a focus on entertaining children. In its first season, it featured humourous, adventurous tales such as Hokum the Giant Spider. With Dennis Foon as Artistic Director, the first few seasons saw an expansion of the repertoire to include legends such as Heracles and The Windigo, and folk stories such as Tales from Tolstoy and Shadowdance. The company successfully established itself in the local school market and quickly changed its legal mandate to include performances “throughout British Columbia and around the world.”

In 1979 Green Thumb made a major artistic breakthrough by producing Hilary’s Birthday, a play about a 10-year-old girl, her divorced mother and the mother’s boyfriend, who would soon be moving in with them. This was the first time that a topic such as divorce had been presented in a school setting. Some educators were outraged; others were thrilled. By today’s standards, Hilary’s Birthday is a somewhat tame play, but in 1979 it set the course for Green Thumb as a cutting-edge theatre company.

The following season saw the creation of Green Thumb’s “signature piece” New Canadian Kid by Dennis Foon, based on a concept by Jane Howard Baker. The play follows the experience of a new immigrant to Canada and his efforts to fit into a new culture with a new language. The play utilized the clever theatrical device of having the Canadian characters speaking a type of gibberish (using familiar word roots) to highlight the frustration of not being able to understand or to be understood. New Canadian Kid has been hailed as a quintessential play for young audiences and is considered the most produced Canadian play of all time!

Throughout the 1980s, Green Thumb continued its strong commitment to text-based “issue plays.” Dennis Foon wrote many of the scripts himself, but also commissioned work from several playwrights including John Lazarus, Colin Thomas and David Holman. The company expanded its original market to include secondary school audiences. A string of successes emerged from this period, including Foon’s Skin (about racism in high schools), Liars (children of alcoholic parents), and Mirror Game (the cycle of parental abuse), Colin Thomas’ One Thousand Cranes (effect of war on children), and John Lazarus’ Schoolyard Games (schoolyard conflicts), Not So Dumb (learning disabilities), and Night Light (children’s fears).

In 1987, Foon left the company and was replaced by Patrick McDonald who had been the artistic director of Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. Since joining the company he has commissioned scripts from other established writers such as Morris Panych, Joan MacLeod and George F. Walker, while continuing to develop the talents of emerging writers like Michele Riml, Michael P. Northey and Jamie Norris. Patrick continues the emphasis on addressing issues, while infusing the exploration of new styles and production techniques. Highlights of his tenure have been Co$t of Living (Aids awareness) by Morris Panych, which toured for five seasons across Canada and internationally, and Joan MacLeod’s The Shape of a Girl (girls and violence) which swept the Calgary professional theatre awards in 2001 and then toured North America for four years. The play has been translated into seven languages and is in constant demand worldwide.

McDonald himself speaks of two current plays that break new ground—The Invisible Girl by Michele Riml which is the first touring play to use the technique of flash animation, and Michael P. Northey’s hip-hop/spoken word play Cranked.

“Both productions break new ground. The Invisible Girl, a play for elementary aged students about making difficult choices, makes extensive use of flash animation. The mix of live actress and “cartoon” characters allows us to create a larger world for our audience. Michael’s play, a look at the crystal meth epidemic, is very different and yet it too is extremely modern in its use of hip-hop and spoken word. In all my time here I have never seen a high school audience so attentive. The combination of subject, style and the use of today’s language are proving to be extremely popular.”

In reflecting upon his near twenty years at the helm, McDonald believes the company’s greatest legacy is the body of scripts that have been developed. “To have been a part of developing a canon of plays that have been translated into over twenty-five languages and are continually produced around the world is very satisfying and makes all of us here at Green Thumb proud. Even more satisfying is sitting in a gym or theatre and watching as a play meets its first audience knowing that it has a very good chance of eventually traveling the globe.”