I am Montreal-born, and there was never any question in my family but that I (and later my younger sister, Sophia) would attend McGill. Whenever we would drive by Roddick Gates, our parents would say, "You see that? That's McGill. That will be your university someday."
I attended McGill at an extraordinary, dynamic time, socially and politically: 1965-69. I arrived having spent most of my life involved in amateur theatre as a performer, and I had high hopes that I could continue that involvement at McGill.
At that time, there was no drama or theatre program on campus; all the theatrical activity was extracurricular, but there was a great deal of it: the English Department productions, the Savoy Society, the Red and White Revue (I performed in two of those – When Hippies Were in Flower and Odysseus, Won't You Please Come Home), and the group where I found my theatrical home, the McGill Players. I acted in several shows for the Players, but I found myself wondering more and more what it would be like to direct.
The Players in those years had instituted an innovative series called "Sandwich Theatre." The idea was that a director could put in a proposal for a lunchtime show – specifying the play and the actors' names – and, if accepted, the Players would produce it.
I seem to remember that we were given a budget of $30 for props and costumes, and the technical support of a lighting and sound person. Each show would receive a slot and run for five performances, Monday to Friday, at lunchtime. Admission was free, and the audience members were welcome to come and eat their lunch while watching the show in the black box theatre on the third floor of the Union. Full houses were common; some students would come back and see the same show several times if they liked it.
I chose a two-hander, Murray Schisgal's The Typists, approached two of the very best actors in the group to join me, and discovered that I had an aptitude for directing. This discovery changed my life.
When I graduated from McGill, I went to Toronto to do my MA at the University of Toronto's Graduate Centre for Study of Drama and, after I returned to Montreal, I got a teaching job at Loyola College (now a part of Concordia University). I continued to direct shows at Loyola for four years, and then decided to try for a professional career as a director. In order to do that I had to move to Toronto.
The rest of my story (so far) is about directing and teaching in various parts of Canada, finally getting my doctorate in 1990, and ending up on the University of Toronto faculty for 28 years, directing shows, teaching directing (among other things) and, by the way, becoming a Canadian theatre historian.
In August of 2015, I was in Montreal for a conference, and I decided to have a wander around McGill one afternoon. What a rush of sense memories! The Leacock Building, and L-132, where I took English 100 in 1965-66. (The ten or more books for the course were handed over to us freshpersons at the bookstore in a cardboard box: the cost was $25). The Arts Building, so much smaller than I remembered it to be. And Moyse Hall, where I did those two Red and White Revues.
The Arts Building custodian was kind enough to open the doors to Moyse Hall and let me in. It has changed since the late 60s, of course, but I was able to tell him about what it was like when I performed there so many years ago.
The most powerful sense memory, though, came as I climbed the stairs in the Union on my way up to the Players Theatre, where I learned that I was a director. That's the gift McGill gave me, and I am most grateful.