In 2009, Bard on the Beach welcomed its millionth playgoer. This year, with a budget of nearly $4 million, artistic director Christopher Gaze aims to maintain the Vancouver-exclusive event’s national reputation as a top-quality Shakespeare festival.

“It started with an idea—a fairly well-informed idea,” recalls Gaze, who collaborated on the first Bard on the Beach with a small troupe of UBC-trained actors. “Then it just sort of built momentum, and now we’re rising toward nearly 100,000 patrons coming to us each season. Some people even plan their vacations to Vancouver around our productions,” he notes.

This year’s plays are a rich and varied selection. Theatre fans can catch performances of Much Ado About Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry V and Falstaff—an adaptation of Henry IV, Parts I and II—under the tents at Vanier Park.

Vancouver, Gaze adds, is the perfect setting for the outdoor production. “Shakespeare did it outside—that’s the reason for the tents,” he explains, adding that, for those who dislike the idea of attending an indoor cultural event during the summer, Bard offers the perfect compromise.

“To walk out of the sunshine and into the dark of a traditional movie theatre or playhouse may not appeal to everyone,” he says. “With Bard on the Beach, you truly go with us into the night.”