Vancouver Olympics Hires Ceremonies Team

Catherine Ugwu (l), David Atkins and Marti Kulich at the announcement in Vancouver. (B.Mackin/ATR)

(ATR) The newly-namedproducer for the Vancouver Olympics ceremonies promises a Canadian flavor for the big shows, even though he is Australilan.

David Atkins, known for his work on the ceremonies for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and 2006 Asian Games in Doha, was named Thursday as executive producer for the opening, closing and medal ceremonies for the Vancouver Games.

The choice of Atkins follows a global search for a ceremonies director. He prevailed over a field of experienced contenders, including Marco Balich, producer of the Turin ceremonies and Don Mischer, ceremonies chief for Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

Other Australians working on the Vancouver team include creative director Ignatius Jones and executive director Catherine Ugwu. She is the only woman on the 10-member creative team which is rounded-out by seven Canadians.

“It’s not my responsibility to represent Canada, my responsibility here is to guide the creative team that will represent Canada. That team is a Canadian team,” Atkins said at Thursday’s announcement at VANOC headquarters.

Atkins says he will be moving to Vancouver soon to prepare for the Games.

VANOC executive vice-president Terry Wright said he set out to form the “best team possible and I think we’ve done that.”

The ceremonies are budgeted at $C 40 million, a figure generally in line with past Olympics.

VANOC vice-president of ceremonies Marti Kulich said lessons have been learned from Turin, where Vancouver 2010’s handover portion of the closing ceremony was panned for its rampant Canadian stereotypes and poor presentation.

Kulich called Turin “a test event”.

The Vancouver Olympics open Feb. 12 and close on Feb. 28 at the fabric-domed B.C. Place Stadium. It will be the first time in Olympic history that both ceremonies will be indoors.

With reporting from Vancouver by Bob Mackin.