Spalumcheen: A long experiment that carries on, The Caravan Farm Theatre has operated in one form or another since 1970
Broadway this ain’t: At Caravan Farm Theatre, there are dogs wandering everywhere (even on-stage every now and then during a show) and lots of children: a purple Exersaucer takes up a corner of the production office. The sound of horses whinnying can drown out a moment of rehearsal or conversation. And one must watch where one steps. “You have to walk through horse [dung] to get to work in the morning,” says Stephen Drover, one of the Vancouver director/writers involved in Everyone. “Like, literally.”
Located on an 80-acre farm in Spalumcheen, B.C. about a 10-minute drive from Armstrong, Caravan is owned and operated by the non-profit Bill Miner Society for Cultural Advancement. Its mandate is to produce meaningful, populist theatre. Past shows have included Macbeth, Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, as well as original productions.
Starting off as a one-wagon puppet show in 1970, they’ve been on the farm since 1978, originally as the Caravan Stage Company. Initially a travelling theatre experience, the horse-drawn caravans would slowly make their way from town to town, and shows would be presented across B.C., Alberta, even Ontario and parts of the U.S.
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