Theatre Under the Stars opened July 7 with Sister Act, starring Kat Reynolds, which alternates nights with Disney’s The Little Mermaid, starring Madison Simms, until Aug. 22 at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl. (photo by Emily Cooper)
This summer, Theatre Under the Stars features Sister Act, based on the 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, and Disney’s The Little Mermaid, based on the classic animated film, alternating nights at Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl until Aug. 22. On first glance, the two shows couldn’t be more different, but they both have themes of redemption, empowerment and belonging – and both are energetic, upbeat productions with great music.
Sister Act follows disco singer Deloris Van Cartier, who goes into hiding in a convent after witnessing a murder. There, she uses her singing ability and chutzpah to help the church’s struggling choir and, in doing so, the choir helps her find her place in life. In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel, a young mermaid, gives her voice to a sea witch for a chance to live on land. When the witch betrays her, Ariel finds out what real love and friendship are, and where she fits in the world.
Responsible for every element the TUTS audience sees and hears from stage is production manager Richard Berg.
“At the top level, I create, implement and oversee the overall production budget and production schedule,” he told the Independent. “I also supervise all of the various production departments, from costumes and scenery, to lighting and sound. As I say that, it sounds – even to me – like an enormous job; however, I have the great fortune to work alongside a team of amazingly talented creative and technical staff who truly make my job better and easier than I could ever hope for.”
Berg is co-founder of URP Event Production, which began as a theatre company he formed with his mother, Ev Berg, in 1995.
“While we started the company in order to produce our own musical theatre productions, it quickly expanded to provide production services to all sorts of arts and entertainment projects, from theatre, to music festivals, to special events,” he explained.
Berg has been in the pages of the JI before, for TUTS, as well as for a City Opera Vancouver show. He has worked with Burnaby Lyric Opera and many others. He divides his time between North Vancouver and San Francisco.
“San Francisco is a recent addition to my life that began in 2022, when my wife was offered a seasonal position on the stage management team at San Francisco Opera,” he said. “All of my own work remains in Canada, but I spend as much of my non-working time as I can down there with her as visitor in another great West Coast city.”
For Berg, whose father is Jewish, Judaism is important but has always existed on the periphery.
“I was raised in a very secular household that still somehow always had a mezuzah at the front door,” he shared. “Monthly dinners at my paternal grandmother’s were never religious but they were nonetheless filled with food and traditions passed down through a family that was proudly Jewish. Those foods and traditions are what stay with me today, whether in the form of yahrzeit candles lit for my grandparents or in my being the keeper of my grandma’s chopped liver recipe – that my sister will eat faster than I make it.
“In the last decade,” he added, “I have taken on the sound design and production management for the Vancouver Talmud Torah School’s annual musical. This project has been both artistically fulfilling and a lovely reminder of the culture that had somewhat receded from my life since my grandmother’s death.”
As for what keeps TUTS a fulfilling experience, Berg pointed to “the constant variety” it offers.
“Each season we mount two new shows led by two new directors and teams of designers. Each year there are new visions and new ideas of how to use the space here at Malkin Bowl,” he explained. “The production department is responsible for helping those visions become reality, and to do that we draw upon our collective skillsets and experience, while gaining some new skills and experience along the way.”
While this year’s shows may share themes, they “share very few production elements,” he said.
“The look and feel of 1970s Philadelphia shares very little with the look and feel of a sub-aquatic Disney fairy tale. Part of the challenge that the production department took on was to help the design teams completely immerse the audience in one of those worlds while hiding the entire infrastructure of a completely different world just a few feet away – and to reverse that magic the following night. You can attend two nights in a row and get two completely different experiences, which is always the magic of TUTS.”
The TUTS season officially opened July 7 with Sister Act, after a couple of previews of each show. For tickets, go to tuts.ca.