As one of the busiest cultural hubs in Gibsons approaches a century of service, a gathering of visionaries last Sunday celebrated the silver anniversary of its latest transformation.
The Heritage Playhouse — across North Road from the town’s oldest existing building, the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church — was opened on April 29, 2000. The structure itself was originally raised in autumn 1929 as the Howe Sound Women’s Institute Hall, a hotspot for community dances, bazaars and banquets.
“It was heavily used during the Depression as the only entertainment venue in the Town of Gibsons,” said Diana Robertson. Robertson is the president of the Gibsons Landing Heritage Society, which was established in the early 1990s to ready the building for a new era. For a period of 50 years starting in the 1940s, the hall was the responsibility of the local school board — used first as a gymnasium, later as a storage facility and mechanical shop. Its interior grew into a maze of ducting. A cavernous grease pit yawned at its centre.
“There came a time when we became aware that the building, in its original state, was in jeopardy of being demolished,” recollected Fred Inglis, one of the heritage group’s founders. “Our action had to save the building. We were just a bunch of amateurs. It was not really something we really had an idea how to do.”
Inglis cornered performer and arts booster Nest Lewis in her kitchen and presented a proposition: that the derelict hall should become a theatre. “I opened my mouth and said: ‘Oh wow,’ or words to that effect,” remembered Lewis, who would become the society’s president. “Little did I know that I would be involved for a long, long time.”
Inglis drafted a design and enlisted the participation of fundraiser Dianne Evans. “We really need to have somewhere for performances,” said Evans. “We were used to going out to the Gibsons Elementary gym or Roberts Creek Hall and carting risers that weighed a million pounds. It was a big deal to put on a play. But we had this place here that would make a little theatre if we could do it.”
Conversion began in the early 1990s, nearly a decade before the location was ultimately designated a provincial heritage site. The interior was stripped. Bowed walls were straightened. Construction manager Laurie Lakovetsky uncovered two mammoth underground diesel tanks. When CBC concluded filming of the longtime Beachcombers TV series, the broadcaster donated lighting equipment.
The first play onsite — Steel Magnolias, directed by Vancouver actor-director Ted Price — was performed even before permanent seating was installed. (The present art deco chairs were salvaged from the Starlight Theatre, originally the Bay Theatre, in East Vancouver.)
Karen Webb, part of original Magnolias cast, said the setup was so tenuous that performances were only allowed to proceed if two firefighters attended each show — with a fire engine idling outside. After a second production closed, the town’s building inspector disallowed further assembly on safety grounds. It took eight years to raise funds for the necessary upgrades.
“But those early productions inspired the community,” added Evans. “They showed it could be done.”
Guitarist Budge Schachte performed for the duration of the three-hour anniversary event on Sunday afternoon. Heritage society board members reflected on the group’s evolving mission. The Town of Gibsons, noted president Robertson, is more frequently calling on the group’s historical expertise to guide community planning. Meanwhile, the organization began a major capital fundraising campaign in late 2024 to raise $130,000 for energy efficiency upgrades and equipment renewal at the playhouse.
In 2023 alone, the storied structure hosted nearly eight thousand patrons who witnessed over two thousand performing artists in disciplines ranging from classical ballet to cheeky comedy. “It’s not fabricated heritage,” said Evans. “It’s the real thing.”
