Actor, Educator, Playwright, Poet, Songwriter…components of the sum of the Artist. Bill is the head of the acting department of the Vancouver Film School, and the premiere run of his new play Ashes just ended at the Firehall. It received the first honest standing ovation I have given a play in a long time. His is a strong, confident and absolutely Canadian voice.
Here’s a little bit of it now…
1. In one word, describe your present condition.
Playful.
2. In as many words as you see fit, describe the present condition of the Vancouver theatre scene.
I would love to believe that it is reflective of who we are as people: timid and trembling but full of a fierce beauty and outrageous courage that is ever ready to leap from the safety of its perch. I love the grin on this town. I like its teeth even better.
3. Please share with us the secret to writing a great play.
Get out of the way.
4. How would you like the future of Vancouver independent theatre to look, and what do we need to do to get there?
We are already there. We always have been. Believe that the truth can pay the bills.
5. What does the ‘current economic climate’ mean for indie theatre here?
Times are always tough for someone. The time is always right to make art. The time is now.
6. What, if any, responsibility does theatre hold to its community?
Its only responsibility is to be a part of that community.
7. How do you know when you’re watching good acting?
When I am not watching acting at all.
8. What do you know about yourself as an artist that you didn’t five years ago?
Love is the only way.
9. How are we going to attract the next generation of artists and audiences into the theatre?
Blood, sex, laughter and love. Same old, same old.
10. What are your top 3 theatre reads?
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. Richard III by Him.
11. What’s next?
Last Days of Los Fabulosas starring Nancy Sivak and Suzanne Hepburn.
Simon Ogden 
Loved this interview! But did he really mean Godot by Albee…
oops. i do love both albee and beckett. i think that would bea sizzling hybrid.
and for spanish fans, yes it is las fabulosas not “los” as i wrote
I think you probably meant Albee’s college final project: ‘Waiting for Da Goat’. Loved that piece. Much better than ‘Endgame at Tiffany’s’.
But alright, if it’ll make you disbelievers happy, I’ll change it…
Don’t go all formal on my account! I hear Beckett’s estate is pretty easy going anyway…
I’m so going to get arrested now and thrown into some room where I have to keep waiting. Which reminds me, I have an audition tomorrow.
…
What were talking about again?
Monkeys on horseback, I think. Some kind of art, anyway.