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, for 10 years, he was the Executive Director of Camp Columbia, a summer camp for children and families and a year round retreat centre. 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, designed, 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 (where he also served as Artistic Director), and Adagé Dance Studio. He has produced Dickens A Christmas Carol four times on the Cowichan Theatre stage, three times in conjunction with the CBC.
Gregg grew up in Calgary, Alberta and was part of the first graduating class of Lord Beaverbrook High School. In his last four years of public school, he had the privilege of ushering at the fledgling Theatre Calgary, seeing every play in their first four seasons at least twice. He studied at the University of Calgary and Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, receiving a B. A. in Philosophy and English, and a B. Ed. in Secondary English.
He has used a personal computer in his work and home since 1983. In the late 1980s and 1990s, taught computer classes in MS-DOS, Windows, and Microsoft Office at Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University).In 1999, he was one of the first writers hired by Entirenet LLP, which provided an exclusive technical writing service for Microsoft. He became a Lead Writer and Writer Trainer, visiting India on three occasion to train writers in Delhi and Chennai, as part of the company’s geopolitical commitment. When he was not fulfilling his duties at Shawnigan Lake School, he was writing Knowledge Base articles and training courses.
He is currently president of the Cowichan Valley Performing Arts Foundation, which provides bursaries to help families provide their children with dance or music education that they would otherwise be unable to afford.