A Christmas Story - A First Time, Again
Friday, December 08, 2006
![](http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com/blog/uploaded_images/Bill Millerd-708643.jpg)
![](http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com/blog/uploaded_images/Katrina-Dunn-770174.jpg)
Listening to a relatively obscureBeethoven bagatelle on the radio some years ago while driving made me stop the car and I had to park it. I had never heard it before. It was exquisite. I found the need to call someone who understood. I called my VSO pianist friend Linda Lee Thomas. Her husband, Vancouver Chamber Orchestra director, John Washburn (below left, Linda Lee right) answered the phone. So I told him of my sonic "on my way to Damascus" adventure. He commented:
"Ah, Alex, I envy you for being able to listen to something for the first time."
![](http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com/blog/uploaded_images/John-and-Linda-Lee-761815.jpg)
What he said really did not hit home until my attendance this Wednesday with my granddaughter Rebecca (9) of the Arts Club Theatre Company's presentation of A Christmas Story.
My connection with the Arts Club began around 28 years ago when Vancouver Magazine editor Malcolm Parry told me, "We are working on a story on the movers and the shakers of culture in Vancouver. Go and photograph the venues and the players." Linda Lee Thomas and John Washburn were a couple of them. Another player was a new man in town who had a vision of starting a new theatre on Granville Island that would replace the aging converted gospel hall at Seymour and Davie. That's how I met Bill Millerd (the current Artistic Managing Director) and photographed him (above, left) in front of the soon-to-be-converted building that was to become the Granville Island Stage of the company.
In July 2002 I photographed director Katrina Dunn (top, right) at the Bard on the Beach. Perhaps the little smile of the picture was a hint then, that she could not only direct a Shakespeare play but also direct to please children.
Rebecca (below) went to her first opera, Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, when she was 5, but somehow I never managed to take her to a play until this Wednesday. It was the right play. Her smiles, her giggles, her laughs made me experience going to the theatre for the first time.
![](http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com/blog/uploaded_images/Agave 3-755606.jpg)
Perhaps I could teach John Washburn a few things about listening or seeing something for the first time, through the eyes of a child.
A Christmas Story