50 Remarkable Alumni: UFV’s Ken Hildebrandt engages Abbotsford audiences with thought-provoking theatre

For theatre graduate Ken Hildebrandt, one art evokes another.

“Staging a production is not just having actors moving around the stage,” he says. “The stage is essentially a canvas, and you are ‘painting’ with actors, set, lighting, costumes, et cetera, and applying the sense of line, mass, form, shape.”

This is a lesson learned from Ian Fenwick – UFV’s Theatre program head while Ken was a student – a lesson he still carries with him today.

Ken founded Gallery 7 Theatre while attending UFV and graduated with a BA in 1998. This year, Ken’s company now celebrates its 33rd season. They’ve staged productions like Doubt: A Parable, The Secret Garden, and The Sound of Music.

“UFV was definitely instrumental in where I am today – our theatre company in a large way was modeled off of the theatre program that existed at the time that I went through as a student,” Ken recalls. “I learned so much from the instructors we had. It prepared me professionally to have the skill sets that I needed to be a jack of all trades and start a new theatre company here in the Fraser Valley.”

“I think that my university life did make me a more well-rounded individual and helped me to be more empathetic to understandings that weren’t my own.”

While expanding his skill set with his degree, he was also expanding his worldview.

“I think that my university life did make me a more well-rounded individual and helped me to be more empathetic to understandings that weren’t my own. It allowed me to approach some of the world’s problems with more empathy.”

Aside from theatre, Ken enjoys announcing air shows both locally and internationally. He’ll soon be travelling to Japan to announce a show at a Marine Corps base.

“It’ll be an interesting challenge, but I’m really looking forward to it,” he says. “It’s such a great opportunity to see a part of the world that I didn’t think that I’d have the opportunity to see, so I’m going there about a week and a half earlier than the show so I can see and hear the sights and sounds of Japan.”

Through the collaboration of its dedicated staff, artists, and technicians, Gallery 7 Theatre continues to make art that brings people closer together.

Ken says, “It’s through story that we learn about ourselves, that we learn about others, that we come together as a community. And I think if anything, that is what excites me the most.”

More than 50,000 people have graduated from UFV since 1974. Over the next year, we’ll be introducing you to 50 remarkable alumni.