34 — Sunday, March 17, 1991 - North Shore News District celebrates with new centre IT WAS described as the largest celebration in North Vancouver’s history. Hundreds of citizens jammed the corner of Lonsdale and 23rd Street to watch then-Licutenant- Governor George Peakes officially open the community’s national Centennial project — a $1.5 mil- lion theatre and recreation centre. By the end of the week-long festivities, 25,000 people had at- tended a gala opening, toured the new complexes and taken part in the firs: indoor public swimming and skating sessions in North Vancouver. “North Vancouver has fallen in love with its new $1.5 million rec- reation centre,” the now-defunct Citizen newspaper declared in a front page story. Almost 25 years to the day later, North Vancouver’s Centen- nial project is once again pulling out the drums and banners. A series of performances and com- munity events are planned for the week of Mar.24-30 to mark the 25th birthday of Centennial Theatre and recCentre Lonsdale. The Jim Byrnes Band, Norman Foote and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra have all pledged to help celebrate the affair. RecCentre Lonsdale is hosting an adult beach party (at the poolside), Zen danc- ing, a celebrity-media skate with the stars of MacGyver, a visual arts display and public swimming and skating at 1966 prices. Connected by a_ pedestrian overpass that stretches over 23rd Street, the recreation centre and theatre complex was hailed as a model of a successful marriage between sports and culture. ylvan helps students to succeed Through a variety of programs and teaching techniques Sylvan Learning Centres help students to reach their full potential, increase their skills, and build their confidence. All students, even the brightest ones, lack learning skills. The dual purpose of supplementary education is to fill in leaming gaps in ceriain subjects and, most important, to help children acquire study habits that will serve them for a lifetime. Sylvan Achievement Programs: Reading -- Designed to teach young emergent readers word analysis skills, oral reading, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. For the older students, we strengthen vocabulary and comprehension, teach listening skills, reference skills, outlining skills and much, much more. By Evelyn Jacob News Reporter Oxana Dexter, Centennial Theatre’s cultural coordinator and her recCentre Lonsdale counter- part Margo Gram, chuckle over an early !ogo depicting a Greek muse and a discus thrower joined together on classica! pillar bases marked ‘“‘NV” and ‘“‘RC.’’ The graphic was designed to emphasize at once the artistic and athletic aspects of the centre. Through the years Centennial Theatre and RecCentre Lonsdale have fulfilled a common purpose: to provide a service for com- munity-based groups and individ- uals at affordable rates, a man- date it has kept alive to this day. After 25 years Centennial theatre continues to rent time and space to amateur groups and high school performers, but it also books major touring acts like Frank Mills, Michael Hedges and the Kronos Quartet. “Audiences will never shrink for high school performances, for dance schools for showcase events like the recCentre’s Arts in Action program,’”’ Dexter points out. “That’s where the theatre and the rec centre have really worked together. [t's a rare opportunity for beginners to get up on a pro- fessional stage,’’ notes Gram. The single biggest change to recreation programming, says Gram, is a huge increase in the demand for fitness and keep well Child Can Do Better | In School This Fall Sylvan CLEAR Writing.™ This program will dramatically improve your child's ability to write essays, reports and test papers — the very thing he’s graded on. It can teach a student to think clearly, logically and thoroughly and to write with greater effectiveness. Study Skills-This program helps students set up and apply a structured method of studying and covers such areas as listening, outlining and note-taking, study and reading strategies, using reference materials, test-taking strategies and improved memory strategies. Basic Math — Focuses on ‘ computation skills and the understanding of concepts and their application. f ¢ CATCH-UP classes. When the centre first opened in 1966 it offered mixed public swimming for a mere two hours a week, compared with 10 classes a day of aerobic and heep-fit classes today. Although Centennial Theatre began as ‘‘a bare bones space,”’ to guote Dexter — with minimal lighting and a_ skeleton sound system — it fast became home to the World Adventure Tour film series and a handful of communi- ty groups: the North Shore Light Opera, the North Vancouver Community Players, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and the Greater Vancouver Operatic Society. Although the theatre’s pro- gramming format has remained largely unchanged for the past 15 years, Dexter says it is booking more acts and more single night events as opposed to longer runs. Audience participation also has increased, from 69,000 in 1985, to 76,800 in 1990. Despite the positive statistics, Centennial Theatre has, never- theless, suffered from a chronic identity problem. Lower Mainland visitors have either A) Seen a per- formance there but when asked, can’t remember the name of the theatre or B) Have heard of it but couldn’t tell you where in North Vancouver it is located. Others are confused by theatre’s mixea programming is it strictly a community-use theatre or does it offer profes- sional acts? Dexter remembers receiving calls from people wondering what movies were playing there when she first started. the Algebra - Concentrates on developing the basic skills for a solid foundation in a subject that is a student's first experience with theoretical] math. Sylvan Program Benefits: * MOTIVATION * IMPROVED SELF-ESTEEM ¢ IMPROVED REPORT CARD ¢ ENRICHMENT Register Now for Spring Enroiiment Syivan é Learning aman Centre. Helping kids do better.” NORTH SHORE 985-6811 Richmond - 273-3266 Coquitlam - 941-9166 NEWS photo Mike Wakefield NORTH VANCOUVER’S Centennial Theatre and RecCentre Lonsdale employees invite the community to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Both facilities are hosting a variety of events during the week of Mar.24-30. She concedes that changing perceptions is a slow process but believes that awareness of the theatre has, and continues to, im- prove. To boost its profile, five years ago Centennial Theatre began presenting its own concert series, such as the Family Festival and Dance Serics. Dexter admits the theatre “stuck its neck out’’ bringing in an expensive act like Mills; how- ever, the show was a success, she says, which made it worth the risk. That wasn’t the case with last summer's production of Stephen Leacock. The show was forced to close early because the 718-seat theatre proved to be too large a venue for this intimate one-man show. “I'm a little more cautious now about the kinds of acts I bring in,”’ says Dexter. Although shows like these have helped, Dexter says it is impossi- ble for Centennial Theatre to compete with glitzy mega-produc- tions such as Phantom of the Opera or with well-financed festi- vals like Music "91. She says she would like to see the North Shore community adopt the theatre as its own regional performance arts facility. ‘‘The hope is that people would check out what’s happening here first before going over town.”’ Just what direction Centennial Theatre will take after 25 years is uncertain. The North Shore Arts Commission is still awaiting gov- ernment funding before it can go ahead with a major arts facilities study that wil! look at Centennial Theatre as well as other existing venues. WeEVE GOT [A SHADE BETTER Specializing in Blinds and Draperies for over 7 years 4877 Marine Drive, N.Van. 984-44 04 | #4-38018 Progress Way, Squamish 892-5857 932-6617 Whistler