A Brief Bio of Gregg Perry…
Gregg started teaching drama in 1977 at Bowness High School in Calgary, Alberta, and provided a formative experience in the arts for many students at a school on the edge of leaving the public system to become an alternative school. In 1982, he moved to Thetis Island, off Chemainus, BC, where he was the Executive Director of Camp Columbia for 10 years. He connected a Thetis Island cabin owner and benefactor with the head of the Rosebud School of the Arts (a small private school where he had taught for a year before the move to BC) to start the Chemainus Theatre and was invited to be its first producer/artistic director. He provided guidance through the final construction details and finishing work, and put in place many of the systems that supported the staff in building an arts organization that is now thriving past its 25th year.
In the latter part of the 90s, he worked in sales and tourism publications while starting his own performing arts company (Alderlea Performing Arts) that ran a summer program for 8 to 16 year-olds at Queen Margaret’s School (Putting On A Show!). During the ten years that this program ran, he produced and directed 56 musical shows. In 2001, he became a drama and English teacher at Shawnigan Lake School, Canada’s foremost boarding school. During his time at the school, he directed 12 musicals, and 12 dramas. He helped design and open the Hugh Wilkinson Studio Theatre on the SLS campus. In 2015, after 14 years, he retired.
During the last two decades, he has directed, produced, and acted in plays and musicals with the Chemainus Theatre Festival, the Cowichan Musical Society, the Bard@Brentwood, the Shawnigan Players, the Kaatza Lakeside Players, the Yellowpoint Drama Group, Langham Court Theatre (Victoria), the Mercury Players, and Adagé Dance Studio.