Join us for the final Reading Theatre session of the 2025/2026 season on June 17, as we gather to read Lilies: or The Revival of a Romantic Drama by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau. The reading begins at 1:30pm, so please arrive by 1:15pm if you’d like the opportunity to read aloud. Casting is open and not gender-specific, and everyone is welcome to take part.
Reading Theatre is all about building community. For this session, we have seventeen copies of the script: ten from the Vancouver Public Library’s Play Set collection and seven generously donated by one of our regular Reading Theatre participants. Thank you for helping make this possible!
ABOUT LILIES; OR, THE REVIVAL OF A ROMANTIC DRAMA
In 1912, two young boys in a Catholic college fall in love while working on a play about St. Sebastian. Their passion ends in tragedy with one boy sent to prison, the other dead. Years later, as the aged inmate is about to be released, he is visited by the local monsignor, who as a boy was party to the tragic events. The inmate re-stages the entire story as a play, forcing the monsignor to admit his role in the tragedy.
ABOUT MICHEL MARC BOUCHARD
Québec playwright Michel Marc Bouchard has written 25 plays, and he is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including: le Prix Journal de Montréal, Prix du Cercle de critiques de l’Outaouais, the Governor General’s Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, and the Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play. The Vancouver productions of Lilies (1994) and The Orphan Muses (1995) also garnered nine Jesse Richardson Theatre Awards. Bouchard is also the author of Written on Water, Down Dangerous Passes Road, The Coronation Voyage, which was performed in 2003 as the first Canadian-authored play at the Shaw Festival in 25 years, and The Tale of Teeka.
DID YOU KNOW?
Reading Theatre host Allan Morgan appeared in a 1994 production of Lilies by the Arts Club Theatre Company, Pink Ink Theatre, and Touchstone Theatre. Directed by Sandhano Schultze and Roy Surette, with set and lighting design by Robert Gardiner and costumes by Barbara Clayden, the production earned Allan a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
Reading Theatre is created for those with a passion for live theatre. A live play reading of iconic plays over the ages. All are welcome and encouraged — from the seasoned professional to the inquisitive amateur and everyone in between.
Show up and read, or listen to others read these incredible shows. A short discussion may take place…or not. This is an event led by the cast and audience.
Readers will be chosen just before the play reading begins and will be cast by those who show up and express an interest in being involved. Some roles may be double cast.
This event is being led by Allan Morgan, Senior Artist in Residence and Vancouver theatre scene stalwart. We’d love to see you there!
ABOUT ALLAN MORGAN
Allan has been a stage actor for more than thirty years. Some highlights include appearing in London, GB, Adelaide Australia, Wellington NZ and San Francisco, all with The Overcoat. He appeared for several seasons at Bard on the Beach, notably in The Tempest as Prospero, as well as King John, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing.
He has toured across Canada with the Electric Company in Studies in Motion. He has appeared at The Belfry, notably in The Drawer Boy, Dirty Blonde, and I am My Own Wife for which he received the Victoria Critic’s Award for best performance. Other favourites include Red, Thinking of Yu, and Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre for ATP in Calgary.
Allan has two solo plays: I Walked the Line; and Pride: for the young gay, the ungay and the jaded queen in all of us.