They say that in performing comedy, timing is everything when it comes to getting a laugh.
Camilla Tibbs knows that well, although being on cue didn’t seem to matter much to her.
She got the laugh. Trouble was, she wasn’t appearing in a comedy.
“It was in high school and the production was Fiddler on the Roof. And it must have been my delivery during rehearsal that had my cast mates laughing,” says Tibbs, who was recently named General Manager at Gateway Theatre.
Her line?
“He has no feeling,” Tibbs somewhat reluctantly divulged during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “That was my first and last speaking role.”
While Tibbs, now 42, retreated from the footlights it helped spawn a career in the arts management side of things that has taken her from Vancouver to the U.K. and back home again, working with a myriad of performing groups, ranging from the University of Warwick and London Symphony Orchestra to the Arts Club Theatre and most recently the Vancouver Writers Fest where she is currently executive director — her first day at Gateway Theatre is June 22.
“I remember, as a teenager, watching either the Oscars or Tony’s and thinking I wonder how you put all of that together in a show. I wonder who organizes that?” says Tibbs, who is originally from England where she and her family lived a somewhat Nomadic life — her father was a member of the Royal Artillery — before putting down roots in West Vancouver when she was 10. “Although I was a member of the school (Sentinel secondary) choir and got involved with the chorus in a couple of productions, I became more interested in the job of the student helping the show’s producer than a performing role.”
That prompted Tibbs to explore the backstage, behind the scenes world, starting with the University of Warwick where she earned degrees in American and English literature.
“At the time, the university had the biggest arts complex outside of London,” Tibbs says. “All of the student productions were done in professional venues.”
Initially, she worked in publicizing shows, then started producing.
“It was a great experience because you’re working in a professional context with responsibility to professional crews and an arts centre frequented by the general public.”
When Tibbs landed back in the Lower Mainland she expanded on her arts management career, working with several organizations including the Arts Club Theatre Company, the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
With her start date at Gateway Theatre pinned on the calendar, Tibbs says she is anxious to start in her new surroundings. And job one out of the gate for her is gaining knowledge.
“I don’t subscribe to the theory of striding in and making your mark on an organization the second you get in the door,” she says. “It’s very important to get to know how things work before you look at ways that it could be changed or improved.”
Some of the challenges she sees on the horizon include growing Gateway’s Pacific Theatre Festival which this September enters its second year of a showcasing world-class contemporary theatre from Hong Kong and Canada.
“I’m also keen to bring more Chinese-Canadian audiences to the venue, but also maintain the (Gateway’s) signature series and continue the develop the current audience.
“Jovanni (Sy, Gateway’s artistic director) is taking a great opportunity to show the unique position the theatre is in with such a large Chinese-Canadian community and how you can cross from one audience to another and serve the full population."
