United Players of Vancouver stages Dorothy Dittrich musical When We Were Singing to June 23
Production presented in association with Touchstone Theatre marks director Roy Surette’s last show before retirement
From left: Michael Briganti, Rachel Kent, Nevada Banks, and Viviana Renteria in When We Were Singing. Photo by Nancy Caldwell
United Players of Vancouver presents When We Were Singing in association with Touchstone Theatre at the Jericho Arts Centre to June 23, with showtimes at 2 pm and 8 pm
LOVE AND FEAR, hopes and dreams, work and failure—award-winning playwright Dorothy Dittrich’s When We Were Singing covers it all.
A musical deep-dive into the friendship of four urbanites feeling lost in their trajectories, the United Players of Vancouver production presented in association with Touchstone Theatre considers career crises, personal angst, and romantic relationships in a true-to-life fashion.
Roy Surette, Touchstone Theatre’s artistic director, is directing the musical. It marks the theatre maven’s final act before his planned retirement at the end of the 2023-24 season, announced by Stir last summer.
But this isn’t Surette’s first time directing Dittrich’s When We Were Singing—he previously mounted the work at Touchstone a year after he first stepped into the role of artistic director in 1984. His reprise of the musical nearly four decades later marks a full-circle moment as his career comes to a close.
During his time at the helm of Touchstone Theatre in the ’80s and ’90s, Surette directed works among the likes of Joan MacLeod’s dramatic orphan-migration play Homechild and improv sketch piece The Number 14. In 1997, he left the company to begin a 10-year tenure as artistic director of Victoria’s Belfry Theatre, and then in 2007 took the helm at Centaur Theatre in Montreal. Katrina Dunn, cofounder of Ruby Slippers Theatre and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, took over as artistic director of Touchstone in the meantime.
When Dunn stepped down in 2017 to pursue freelance work and graduate studies, Surette resumed the role once again.
Last month, Touchstone Theatre announced that Lois Anderson would be taking over as artistic director following Surette’s retirement. The Vancouver-based theatre deviser, director, and actor has adapted and led impactful works at Bard on the Beach in recent years, including Jessie Award-winning productions Pericles and Lysistrata.
In When We Were Singing, Surette will lead a cast of four and pianist Gordon Roberts alongside musical director Christopher King. The production runs till June 23 in the historial Jericho Arts Centre building near the beach. 
Related Articles
