Gabriola Island has regained a key performance venue thanks to Jasmine Howes, artistic director of the newly re-opened Gabriola Theatre Centre and granddaughter of the late actor Antony Holland.

"This is something I've wanted to do for my grandfather for so long," Howes says, speaking to Life on Gabriola TV. Holland was a major figure in Canadian theatre, who moved to Gabriola after retiring from Langara College in Vancouver, where she had founded its acting program, Studio 58. For years, the Gabriola Theatre Centre was home to a variety of theatrical experiences, from readings to full productions, with Antony often appearing alongside both veteran actors and newbies drawn from Gabriola and elsewhere.

Along with The Roxy, a performance space based on an Alice-in-Wonderland theme that closed in 2020, and the Silva Bay Marina, which regularly hosted Island musicians before burning down in 2019, the Gabriola Theatre Centre was lost to local performers after Holland sold the property in 2014. However, Jasmine Howes and her husband were able to purchase it five years later. They moved permanently to the island last year, and re-opened the fully-renovated Centre on October 6th.

Along with the Brickyard Beach Jam, previously reported on by Life on Gabriola TV, the old/new venue has the potential to boost the island's performance scene, both artistically and economically. "I think it's going to cover a lot of areas where there's been maybe some gaps," says choreographer Daina Ashbee, whose Serpentine was to have opened the space but had to be postponed. "There's many directions that she could take it and it's just exciting to see how her vision evolves."

Special thanks to volunteer videographer Luis Ramentas for this visit to the Centre.

Life on Gabriola TV is generously sponsored by:

* The Gabriola Arts Council

* The Haven, Gabriola Island

* The LJI Initiative by the Government of Canada

Journalist: Luis Ramentas