Meet Kim Collier, the award-winning director, creator, teacher, actor and co-founder of Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre.
Meet Kim Collier
Kim is a director, creator, teacher, actress and the co-founder of Electric Company Theatre, where she was artistic producer for fifteen years. With Electric Company she was the co-creator / director of a large body of work including the film/theatre hybrid, Tear The Curtain; No Exit, Jean Paul Sartre’s play transformed into a live film theatre experience; and Studies in Motion. Kim loves site specific work and has created large scale pieces set in an old Finning factory (The Fall), two swimming pools and hot tub (The One That Got Away), and a tennis court (The Wake), and the store window fronts, a grocery store and streets of Enderby (A Small Miracle). Kim co-created a roving outdoor piece in Canada’s Yukon moving through forests across small creeks, as well as an intimate sight specific work for one person (At Home with Dick).
Kim is the recipient of the prestigious Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize for directing;  four Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards,  and a Sterling Award for Direction. with the Electric Company Theatre she has received three  Jessie Awards for writing, and numerous innovation awards. She is also the recipient of the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award and is a graduate of Studio 58.
20 Questions with Kim Collier
Your first job.
I had two. Cleaning the floors in my dads dental office and playing piano for Michael Meakin’s ballet school in Kamloops.
The job you always wanted as a child.
I was too busy being a child and making up shows for the adults.
Your pet peeve.
Lame coffee.
Your hero.
Too many to name; I draw inspiration from many souls.
Your biggest indulgence.
Going backpacking every year for a marvelous stretch of time.
One thing no one knows about you.
Secretly I am good at spelling.
Three things you would want with you on a deserted island.
A library. A lover. A boat.
The one word your best friend would use to describe you.
Complex.
If you were not pursuing a career in theatre, what would you be doing right now?
Following my curiosity into the unknown.
Hero or villain?
A citizen.
Your life’s motto/mantra.
Live true and well.
Your favourite song.
No favourite, my mood dictates songs.
The last book you read.
Violence by Slavoj Zizek.
If you were a cartoon character what cartoon character would you be and why?
I’d rather be the cartoonist.
What will it say on your grave marker?
Something like my dad’s – his honours the things he loved the most in life.
Who would you most like to have dinner with?
Not sure with whom, but I’d like to go to Vij’s.
Your idea of happiness.
Contentment, regardless of when or why.
The one thing in your life that makes you most proud.
My wonderful friends.
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 20-year old self?
Don’t run with shin splints. Take better care of your body.
To be or not to be?
Both, as both are required at some point in time.