From serious pursuits to funny business, St. John's eclectic LSPU Hall plays an enduring role.
The "Grand Ole Opry" of Canadian comedy produces artists with a more northerly twang-the unmistakable inflections of Newfoundlanders. Instead of Nashville's country music lore, the touchstone of Canada's entertainment scene is embedded in laughter, the legacy of comedians like Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Andy Jones, Tommy Sexton and Greg Malone. The Codco troupe's genius was fermented within the humble but hallowed walls of the Longshoremen's Protective Union (LSPU) Hall, found on Victoria Street near Duckworth, in downtown St. John's.
The Opry analogy comes from Amy House, artistic animatrice of the Resource Centre for the Arts - the RCA - proprietors of the LSPU for the past 30 years. As it is for country music's mecca, so it is here for Canadian comedians: "If you haven't played here, you certainly wish you could," says House.
It's the stage on which contemporary Newfoundland comedy has been developed, making the stereotypical Newfie joke a thing of the past. Still, 30 years following Codco's momentous arrival on the Canadian entertainment scene, the LSPU continues to churn out talent the caliber of iconic Rick Mercer. In Newfoundland and Labrador the RCA is increasingly recognized as much for its work in theatre, dance, writing and the visual arts as for the place where many of Codco's hilarious sketches took shape. And with offspring the likes of Mercer (and his cohorts from This Hour Has 22 Minutes) becoming so much a part of the national fabric, the diminutive LSPU may have had more impact on Canadian comedy and Canadian society than some of what has come out of Ottawa's Parliament Buildings.
The LSPU Hall might be one of Canada's most defiant buildings. During the past two centuries, it has endured three great fires and a string of renovations and makeovers. It has housed residents of many varieties: the Congregationalist Church faithful of 1789; the Sons of Temperance, beginning in 1853; the 63-year run of the union that shares the hall's name; and, since 1975, the artists who constitute the RCA.
The hall is a temple; an electric, eclectic, vibrant place with a hum of creativity that reverberates across Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond. Picture the Codco crowd, goofing off while they acted out material that would set the new cultural and political standard for Canadian comedy. Maybe tomorrow's comedic shift is being conjured up now at the LSPU… If there's anything we've come to learn about "the Rock," it's that the rest of us Canadians are endeared to anything and everything cultural it cares to send our way.
"[The hall] is the incubator where people get their chops," says House - also a writer, actor, comedian and "jack of all trades," who started out in the business at her hometown Stephenville Theatre Festival. It's the hub of the arts in the community, the place people gravitate toward, she adds.
House joins a succession of luminaries that include Mary Walsh (the RCA's first artistic chief), Charlie Tomlinson, Bryan Hennessey, Lois Brown and Michael Chiasson. The RCA has a programming committee made up of board members but also people from the community - artists as well as business people. For the mainstage productions the artists largely set out what's to be seen and heard, and for some productions they produce, promote and showcase their own work. For example last year a visual arts exhibit solicited submissions for a show called "Cultural Barometer - A Statement on the State of the Arts in Newfoundland." By drawing in contributing artists, the show emerged from within the arts community rather than being imposed upon it.
Those who are dedicated to Newfoundland and Labrador culture are in for life. Alumni like Walsh and Mercer remain close to the hall because they recall what it's like for artists to pay their dues. "A lot of them say the hall gave them their chance," says House. Walsh returned this year to once again direct her production of "High Steel," the story of the men from Conception Bay and other communities who helped build New York's skyscrapers, a show she co-wrote years ago. The play was sold out during its run, emblematic of the quality of work at today's LSPU Hall - and of a willing audience.
And the centre's breadth is sweeping-with divisions that include the Neighbourhood Dance Works, Hall Ops (which handles rentals for non-RCA programming) and the RCA Theatre Company - carrying with it a growing list of spatial demands. To accommodate, the RCA is launching a capital campaign in September to raise $2 million. (It already has commitments of $500,000 from both the city and the province, and is hoping for an equal amount from Heritage Canada.) The goal is to restore existing elements of the LSPU Hall and to expand it. Co-chaired by Walsh and businessman Craig Dobbin, the campaign is a far cry from the early days of bake sales.
If elected officials and corporate prospects find a way to say "no" to the hall's capital campaign, it might be time for stronger tactics. Just send in Marg Delahunty.