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VANCOUVER — Max Reimer's rise to one of the most important positions in Western Canadian theatre did not start with a boyhood dream: not even an adolescent ambition, or a high-school play. Reimer, the newly installed artistic managing director at Vancouver's Playhouse Theatre Company, began his stage career in a most untraditional way: with a lacrosse injury.
There were several injuries, actually - to his knees, for example - that sent him to dance class for some rehabilitative cross-training. He was 18 then - over the hill in terms of beginning a dance career - but he found he had the right combination of balance and flexibility for dance. And he liked it.
So while he was in pre-law at Simon Fraser University, studying sociology and economics, Reimer also took a dance class. Then, rather than accept admission to law school at the University of British Columbia, he pursued a dance career instead.
Twenty-nine years later, Reimer is back in Vancouver, running both the administrative and artistic sides of the Playhouse: a professional, regional theatre company that local artists and audiences look to for the production of serious theatre, with mainstream appeal. He begins his first season with the company with the opening this week of Frost/Nixon, a Peter Morgan play based on a series of interviews between British talk show host David Frost and disgraced former U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1977.
Max Reimer, new artistic managing director of the Vancouver Playhouse. (Laura Leyshon for The Globe and Mail)
"I love business. I love making things happen," Reimer, 54, said during a recent interview in Vancouver. "But I'm also really passionate about theatre. So this is a great combination."
Reimer grew up in a Mennonite household, making a career in dance an unusual choice. The Mennonite Brethren, to which his family belonged, abstain from dancing. But his parents were supportive.
"They knew that I was working - that it was a discipline to me. It was something I was doing for art and as work. I wasn't trying to be immodest or to show off or anything. Ballet class in the morning is anything but showing off - especially when you're late to dance."
Dancing and choreography led Reimer to acting - television acting, in particular, which was lucrative. There were guest roles on MacGyver and 21 Jump Street, but Reimer ultimately decided to put an end to the TV roles and concentrate on what he felt would be a more artistically satisfying stage career.
He worked onstage across the country (including at the Stratford, Shaw and Charlottetown theatre festivals) and also continued to produce events (First Night, the Gay Games).
In 1993, he took on the job of artistic director and general manager at the Huron County Playhouse in Grand Bend, Ont.
Then in 1996, he moved to Hamilton to become managing artistic director at Theatre Aquarius, which at the time was in the red and struggling. Reimer managed to turn things around, raising the subscriber base from 5,000 to 8,500 during his 12-year tenure, increasing the theatre's grants by 300 per cent and putting 99 Canadian plays on the program - 51 of them on the mainstage.
"Absolutely without fear of contradiction, that's more than any other artistic director in Canada at [the] 'A' category level," Reimer says, clearly proud.
When the Playhouse came calling last year, it was a dream opportunity for Reimer, who was born in Chilliwack, B.C., and grew up in Kitimat and North Vancouver. This was the theatre where he, as a boy, had seen his first plays: The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Billy Bishop Goes to War, Grass and Wild Strawberries (featuring the band that would become Chilliwack).
"These were experiences that I can remember to this day. They made a huge impact on my life, and I believe I am a product of the Playhouse."
Reimer takes over, in the artistic director role, from Glynis Leyshon, who went to Reimer's North Vancouver high school and was also a former student of Reimer's father, who taught history and English.
Leyshon and Reimer collaborated to some degree on this year's program, most of it coming from Leyshon (although Reimer replaced one of the original choices, The Wizard of Oz, with the recent Canadian Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone). Leyshon is also back as a guest director this season (for Top Girls), and they remain in touch. "I've kind of got her on speed-dial," he says.
If there are concerns about Reimer, they centre on a worry that quality could be sacrificed for popularity in his drive to increase box office. Reimer is aware of the criticism, but he rejects it.
"If I'm forced to choose between a play I know would be popular and a play I know would be good, that would be a terrible Sophie's Choice ... and I'm hoping never to have to make those choices."
Still, Reimer is faced with the task of choosing programming that will be both artistically satisfying and get more people through the door. The Playhouse has about 5,000 subscribers, down from 8,000 around a decade ago (and far fewer than the company's main competition, The Arts Club Theatre Company, which has 14,000 subscribers).
"Too few," says Reimer when asked about the number of subscribers. "Twelve thousand would be better. Ten thousand would be achievable."
How is he going to get there?
"I'm hoping an awful lot will change," he says.
But he is careful to stay away from specifics. Beyond saying outright that improvements to the lobby and customer service are necessary, hinting that the mandate to produce only post-Second World War plays will be scrapped and mentioning generalities about the need for audiences to connect with each other and for the Playhouse to be accessible to both artists and audiences, Reimer won't say much. He needs buy-in from within and doesn't want to share plans with the media before running them by his staff or board.
"I'm just at the beginning of this and I'm going to need a lot of friends and allies to make this happen."
Reimer may be reluctant to reveal too much at this delicate, early stage, but there's no doubting his enthusiasm. Ask a question about his philosophy, his plans, his inspirations, and the former would-be lawyer is likely to launch into an impassioned dissertation about the importance of theatre and the arts.
"It's a tremendously high calling to do this," he says. "It's not a frill."
Frost/Nixon opens tonight at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre and runs until Oct. 4 (http://www.vancouverplayhouse.com).
