Bob Baker is the new Artistic Director at The Citadel. Regular theatre-goers might recognize his name from his work with the Phoenix Theatre in the 80's. A native Edmontonian, Baker has had a life-long love of the stage, and brings his vast array of experience to the Citadel, which he leads into the company's 35th anniversary season, as well as the new millennium. I recenty spoke to Bob Baker about his vision of the future for the Citadel, the theatre scene in Edmonton, and his own background.
Paula: 1999/2000 marks the 35th anniversary season for The Citadel. What special
things do you have planned?
Bob: Being the new Artistic Director, I’ve put together a season that is different than the previous seasons. The differences are that we’re including more contemporary work to
mix with our classical and musicals that we do, and trying to diversity the program and
reach out to a younger audience.
Paula: I noticed your current program includes a lot of contemporary plays. What is the
process by which you choose what plays to include?
Bob: You have the opportunity, when you run a theatre this size, to choose from every
play that has ever been written, including ones that are being written. We do a musical or
two, so then we looked at which ones were appropriate. We do one around Christmas, so
we look for one with a broad base and family appeal. We do classical works, we always
do a Shakespeare so it comes down to choosing which one to do or re-do. There is
obviously a lot of plays to choose from for a classical work, so we look for one which
hasn’t been done in the recent past. And then the contemporary works, sometimes there
are plays but the rights aren’t available yet because they are still very current somewhere
else, so you get into a real rights negotiation to try and catch something that is current and
stay topical, something that will connect Edmonton to the current world theatre scene.
