Chapter 6 my career goes global annfarris.comF [ 1965 ] ew York is my base now. After my stint as Stage Manager for the Fall 1965 Canadian Opera Season, I declined the opportunity to tour again with Canadian Opera. N I was missing my Yale friends. It’s been a busy winter, just back from Washington, DC working as a design assistant on a Menotti Opera and President Johnson’s Inaugural Gala. The phone has just rung. Gordon Hilker is on the line. He left the Vancouver International Festival a year ago moving to Montreal, Quebec, to spearhead the programming of a World Festival with the 1967 World Exposition. Gordon Hilker, Ann, can you arrange to come to Montreal Artistic Director, Montreal Expo 67 World Festival for an interview? I have a position that [Photographer unknown] I think is right for you with the 1967 World circa 1967 z Exposition. We will present a cultural 116 Two Engines One Voice festival, a World Festival. Your employment would begin in September. Sitting in Gordon’s Expo 67 office was quite a shift from backstage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. It’s on the 25th floor of a sprawling office building, Place Ville Marie. Brand new and many-storied – yes forty-six stories – steel-framed office building, mostly glass-covered, designed, by I.M. Pei and others. I am wondering, do I want to work in aannfarris.com business tower? I don’t know. Gordon is ebullient as he outlines details about the Exposition Expo 67 is a Category 1 Exposition. Is this impressive? Yes, and here’s why. In Paris, the Bureau of International Expositions assesses applications and makes awards to a country/city. What distinguishes Category 1 from the other World Expositions is the fact that each country participating will be responsible for the design of their own pavilion. Most are choosing architects in their country to represent them. The site will have a unique look. We expect sixty nations to sign up. Come, let me show you. We move to the large picture window and focus our attention forward to the St. Lawrence River. See those masses of dirt mounded in the river? Yes. Two islands are being created upon which most of the pavilions will be built. Gordon, this has to be ready in three years! Yes, wait until you meet Colonel Churchill. He’s an incredible engineer who had a major role in World War II. Now, he is translating his war skills into this peaceful project by overseeing construction. Believe me, with him at the helm, we will open on time. It’s hard to believe looking from here. Come, I want you to meet two of my colleagues. As we walk to John Pratt’s office, Gordon explains John has been both a politician and a performer. I discover he is a tall, handsome gentleman with a very open face. Ann Farris 117 Now he is the Director of Entertainment and very gracious to me. I understand you are good at organizing. We need that here. I hope you give serious consideration to joining us. Gordon and I move down the hall to Gilles Lefebvre’s office. Gilles founded the highly successful Jeunesses Musicales in Quebec. I discover he’s a quiet, sensitive man with a twinkle in his eye. He and Gordon are evolving the World Festival programming. annfarris.comThere will be several divisions within the World Festival: Theatre Presentations, Amphitheatre, La Ronde, an amusement park and Special Manifestations, including national days. Just outside the Expo site, the Corporation is building a 26,000 seat amphitheatre for spectacles and a two-thousand-seat theatre, Expo Theatre, for popular attractions, musicals, variety shows and drama. On La Ronde, the amusement park, a night club called The Garden of Stars will be built, programmed and operated by the Theatre Division. I sit quietly and listen. Gordon is very excited as he continues Broadway musicals and popular entertainment from other countries will be featured at Expo Theatre. Place Des Arts, in downtown Montreal, will be the center for other cultural presentations. Only one facility exists, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier, an attractive theatre used primarily for opera and symphony. Two other theatres will shortly begin construction: the Maisonneuve, seating thirteen hundred and Port-Royal seating eight hundred. Again, all three of these theatres will be overseen by the Theatre Division. The World Festival programming will include opera, theatre, symphony, dance and popular entertainment. We are just beginning negotiations with the Bolshoi Opera, La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, The Royal Opera from Sweden and The English Opera Group. Gordon, this is amazing. What about the Metropolitan Opera? At the moment, they are not interested in talking. Their attention is focused on opening their new Opera House at Lincoln Center. We will not give up, however. Gilles jumps in and says 118 Two Engines One Voice We are also talking with the major symphony orchestras and chamber music groups. as well as approaching a diverse selection of theatre companies including the National Theatre of Great Britain whose Artistic Director is Sir Laurence Olivier and the Kabuki from Japan. Let’s go for lunch and talk about what you might do with us. A thought goes through my mind. If they book nothing else, I will sign up for the opportunity to work withannfarris.com the opera companies. That sounds like pure heaven. By the end of the day I am offered and accept the position of Head of Production, Theatre Presentations Division. I will be responsible for overseeing the smooth operation of the production aspects of each attraction being hosted by this Division. I begin in six months, after two gigs I have contracts for: Vancouver Summer Festival and the Fall Season at Canadian Opera. Wow, I am only twenty-eight years old. What an opportunity! 7 Montreal It’s a time of transition, moving from Production Stage Manager to a production management position, living in a bilingual city (Montreal), working in a corporate office rather than a theatre. People are impressed when I say I work in Place Ville Marie. I am not so sure. I am not used to being jostled about by others dashing for elevators. Everyone runs, and no one talks. Where’s the stage doorman with his warm greeting? I am assigned a desk in a cubicle with a wall that doesn’t even come to eye level. That’s weird. Gordon has engaged David Haber as Producer of the Theatre Division of the World Festival. A Canadian, who grew up in Quebec City, he must be a decade older than me and is my boss. For the last ten years, New York was his home, working as an artist’s agent and touring manager for William Morris Agency. We have similar beginnings in the theatre: Ann Farris 119 apprenticeships and then stage management. David’s bubbling, creative spirit and wonderful sense of humor are a delight to be around. He wears colorful ties, not the norm in a corporate environment. annfarris.com7 My adjustment to Montreal and a corporate environment is made easier by the arrival of Canadian Opera colleagues, Irving Gutman and Wally Russell. Irving is directing Carmen, being produced by the Montreal David Haber [photo by Edith Von du Long, Symphony. Zubin Mehta is conducting. courtesy of Didier Piot MD, lifetime partner for 42 years] Irving and Wally are sitting at the lighting desk in the middle z of the Salle Wilfrid Pelletier auditorium as Wally is setting cues. Hi, gentleman. You don’t know how glad I am to see you. Being a fly on the wall gives me an opportunity to experience Salle Wilfrid Pelletier’s strengths and shortcomings. During Expo, the visiting opera and ballet companies and symphony orchestras will perform here. Wally took me backstage to meet some of the stagehands. You will be working with Heinz Roessler, he’s head electrician and very talented. Also, Marcel Desrochers is here tonight. He’s the business agent for IATSE. Great, I would love to meet them. We are going to need many stagehands in ’67. As with the O’Keefe Center, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier has side levers on the edges of the orchestra pit for lighting instruments. Tonight, Irving and I are watching Carmen from this secret spot. A childhood friend of Irving’s, 120 Two Engines One Voice Terry McEwen, has joined us. He has a round face and a bit of a round body to go with his face. While Irving is schmoozing with the artists at intermission, Terry and I stay put. I discover he’s quite the raconteur. Irving and I were pals growing up in Montreal. We loved opera and were glued to the radio, listening to the Metropolitan Opera. Where do you live now? In annfarris.comNew York, producing classical recordings for London Records. I hope you will join us after the performance for dinner. 7 My dear friend Sherry decided that Montreal seemed a good place to move. We are settling in and have found our first piece of furniture, a sofa from a used-furniture store. Don’t worry, it’s in good shape. We are having it recovered by students at an upholstery school. Our living room is empty again. However, it’s not empty for long. John Skelton, who works for the Autostade has volunteered to build bookshelves in the living room. Lumber has arrived. While he toils, we cook good meals and offer plenty of wine. 7 My comfortability with the corporate world has improved.