Peter McKinnon, VHS 1968   Vic High Is Home

By Linda Baker, VHS 1969

The Vic High auditorium was the only place I really felt at home.

How fitting it is, then, that Peter McKinnon would go on to spend his life in the theatre world in one way or another, and come home to help shape the new Vic High Auditorium we see today.

Peter was a busy guy at Vic High. Future Teachers Club, Stage Crew, Reach For the Top team, Calamity Players, Drama teacher Bert Farr’s plays. He was Captain Fisby in the school’s production of Teahouse of the August Moon, which ran at both Vic High and McPherson Playhouse. Encouraging school spirit was a natural for Peter, too.

“My parents weren’t keen on me continuing in theater,” says Peter. “ ‘You need a vocation!’, they said, so I went to UVic and got a BA in English.” But the theatre was in his blood, so he enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Directing, History and Design, with a particular interest in Lighting Design. He would come home to Victoria during the summers, working at a well-paid job in the Naval Reserve. “I finished my degree and came back to Victoria,” says Peter, “and soon realized I’d exhausted all lighting design possibilities in BC in about half an hour!” So he moved to Toronto.

He had no specific plans or goal, only wondering if it would be possible to make a living for a season in live theatre.  But he did it. In spades. He ended up over the years designing lighting for some 450 productions, mainly in dance and opera across Canada and around the world. Every summer he taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and created the Stagecraft Program there. In 1985 he started at York University in Toronto teaching lighting design and stagecraft, then took over the Theatre Management program. With two friends he launched a production company that performed on Broadway in New York, then launched another one on his own and premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Writing and editing books was also a natural fit for Professor McKinnon: New Theatre Words, a dictionary of theatre terminology is translated into over 28 languages, Designer Shorts, A Brief Look at Contemporary Canadian Scenographers and Their Work, and the 2007 publication One Show, One Audience, One Single Space by Jean-Guy Lecat that he edited. In 2007 he helped organize a huge Canadian exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial. “At the time,” says Peter, “there was no international catalogue of stage design.” So Peter ended up co-editing two volumes of World Scenography, 1975 – 1990 and 1990 – 2005, working with over 165 contributors around the world to create what became a key resource in every serious theatre school in the world. His last book, Sailors and Stagehands, was the culmination of eight years of research into when, where, and under what circumstances backstage terminology became so nautical. These books now all reside in the Vic High Library Alumni collection and can be borrowed by alumni. Over the years, he also stepped up to support various organizations related to his work, sitting on or leading executive boards.

When planning of the massive Vic High upgrade was underway, he lent his expertise to help School District 61 and Vic High Principal Aaron Parker assess the auditorium and where the opportunities lie to make improvements. During the last stages of the upgrade he was often called upon by SD 61 Capital Projects Manager Mora Cunningham for information or advice.

The day we met, in March 2024, he’d just toured the auditorium work in progress, and he was very impressed by what he saw.  “I’ve been in a lot of theatres and public buildings around the world,” he said, “and I have to say, the woodworking craftsmanship I saw on my tour of Vic High today is the finest I’ve seen in Canada outside the parliamentary precinct in Ottawa.” He still lives in Toronto but comes home frequently, to attend Black and Gold Dinners hosted by the Alumni, to see friends and family. His brother, Ian McKinnon, VHS 1966, is a Director of the Vic High Alumni.

“Vic High really shaped me,” he said. “Most lunchtimes you’d find me in the auditorium, about a third of the way down the center aisle, sitting quietly and eating my lunch. Sometimes Cedric Zala or Gunnar Cordsen would be in there playing the grand piano beside the stage. It was magical. Yes, I really enjoyed my time at Vic High.”

PS And yes, Peter assured me, there is a smile behind that famous moustache and beard. LOL