Immaturity, greed, lust and jealousy flourished in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. The gods indulged themselves in whatever tickled their senses, regardless of the consequences in the natural world. dirty white flips the powers that be from Ovid’s The Raven and The Crow, twisting it into a tale of surprising reversal. The dirt, chaos and love in the natural world marries with the pure white order of the higher heavens. Inhabitants: a God who plays, a Raven that obeys, Cora who sings, a Daw that spies and a Boy….. that changes everything. Lies abound. Result: a journey that slaps the foundations of belief and asks…what are we doing here?
At The Cultch (located on the Northwest corner of Victoria Drive and Venables Street in East Vancouver.)
Artistic Director Carole Higgins and Performer Todd Talbot tell us why we should see
Book and Lyrics by WILLIE REALE
Music by ROBERT REALE
Based on the Frog and Toad children’s stories
written and illustrated by ARNOLD LOBEL
Featuring Todd Talbot as ‘Frog’ and Allan Zinyk as ‘Toad’. With Darren Burkett, Janet Gigliotti and Kaylee Harwood
Directed by Carole Higgins
This amazing Broadway musical is coming to Vancouver! Following hot on the heels of two sold-out runs of Seussical, Arnold Lobel’s well-loved characters hop, sing and dance their way from the page to the stage! Conceived by Mr. Lobel’s daughter, Adrianne Lobel, A Year With Frog and Toad follows the cheerful and popular Frog, and the rather grumpy Toad through four fun-filled seasons.
Waking from hibernation in the spring, these two great friends proceed to plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding, and learn life lessons along the way, including a most important one about friendship and rejoicing in the attributes that make each of us different and special.
Director Colleen Winton tells us why we should see
Queen Lear
Presentation House Theatre, in association with Western Gold, are pleased to present the West Coast premiere of Eugene Stickland’s Queen Lear. The older generation has much to teach the younger generation about theatre… and life. Or is it the other way around? Queen Lear runs March 25-April 11 at Presentation House Theatre.
An accomplished aging actress, suffering a dearth of decent roles for older women, is cast in the title role in an all-female production of King Lear and, terrified that her memory will fail her, employs a young girl to help her memorize her lines. Text messaging meets iambic pentameter in this amusing and touching story about courage and the strength of spirit. Both women struggle with fear, loss and challenge, illustrating how time and experience both separate and unite them. This new play, featuring celebrated actor Shirley Broderick, newcomer Jennifer McPhee, and acclaimed cellist Peggy Lee, is not to be missed.
Queen Lear previews Thursday, March 25, and opens Friday, March 26 at 8 pm.
It then runs nightly (Sunday evenings and Mondays dark) through until April 11. There will be weekend matinees on Saturdays at 4, and Sundays at 2.
All performances are at Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield, North Vancouver (3 blocks from the Seabus).
Tickets are $24 for Adults, $22 for Students/Seniors. All tickets are $2 more at the door, and $2 more on Friday and Saturday evenings. All seats for the preview are $12.
Director Gillian Barber tells us why we should go check out
Footloose
Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, Based on the Original Screenplay by Dean Pitchford, Music by Tom Snow, Lyrics by Dean Pitchford, Additional Music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman.
Life in small-town Bomont is peaceful until city boy, Ren, arrives. Breaking every taboo, Ren brings dance back to the heart of a town held back by the memory of a tragedy. To the rockin’ rhythm of its Oscar- and Tony-nominated top-40 score (Holding Out for a Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear It for the Boy and, of course, the title track Footloose), and augmented with dynamic new songs for the stage musical, Footloose celebrates the wisdom of listening to young people and guiding them with a warm heart and an open mind.
March 25-27, and March 31-April 3 at 8 pm.
March 25 is the preview, and March 26 is opening.
There will also be matinees at noon on March 30 and 31, and at 2 pm on March 28 and April 3.
Tickets are $20/$14/$8.
Performing Arts Theatre at Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver, in the Birch Building.
For more information, or to buy tickets, phone 604.990.7810 or email boxoffice@capilanou.ca.
James Foy and Michael Scholar Jr. tell us about the upcoming
HIVE is the stuff of theatrical legend in Vancouver. Sold-out shows at Chapel Arts in 2006 built the buzz. Sold-out shows at Magnetic North Theatre Festival in 2008 amplified that buzz. Now HIVE returns for a third edition as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
Grab a drink at the central bar then dive into the HIVE, where 12 theatrical inventions play continuously. The wildly distinct shows are short — up to 15 minutes; and for small audiences — from one person to a few dozen. After your exploration, get ready to party with bands from across Canada.
For a taste of HIVE and HIVE2 and info about HIVE3 visit www.buzzbuzzbuzz.ca
Under the banner of Progress Lab, 12 of B.C.’s most adventurous companies cross-pollinate and collaborate to create new directions in theatre. Together these companies have reshaped the landscape for contemporary live theatre in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. Their projects have appeared on major stages across Canada and the U.S., Europe, and Asia. They have exploded old notions of what a live theatre experience can be, and continue to create jaw-dropping evidence that Vancouver is a world leader in performance. HIVE celebrates this unique Vancouver scene in a fun,
friendly, provocative atmosphere.
For HIVE 3, Pi Theatre joins the group along with three mentee companies: November Theatre, GasHeart Theatre and Tigermilk Collective.
HIVE 3 presented with Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and Boca del Lupo, Electric Company, Felix Culpa, Leaky Heaven Circus, neworldtheatre, The Only Animal, Pi Theatre, Radix, Rumble Productions, Theatre Replacement, Theatre Conspiracy and Theatre SKAM,
British Columbia Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Government of Manitoba, the Government of Nova Scotia and the Government of Saskatchewan, and the City of Vancouver.
Eight late nights. Twelve hot theatre installations. Ten hot bands. One big party.
March 11 – 14 and 17 – 20, 7 p.m. ‘til closing.
The Centre for Digital Media, 577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver
TICKETS: $25 Adults, $20 Students/Seniors CALL: 604 629 VTIX (8849)
A young woman has disappeared at the edge of the city. Four women are drawn into the race to find her. Mentor and protégé, lovers and sisters, we move through the shattering events of their recent lives that have left them as lost as she is. Redolent with ambiguity, playing on the multiple meanings of victim, victory, and theatricality, The Vic creates an ensemble of sharply drawn women ranging in age from their teens to their fifties, each of them eager to claim the entitlement they feel their status as victim has “naturally” conferred upon them
Drawing on the cult of Rock Thériault (aka “Moses”) near Burnt River in the early 1980s, it is an unsparing, often shocking, sometimes incredibly humorous dramatization of how the status of victim has become the most powerful and effective manipulative tool for social advancement in an age where all public discourse begins and ends with the populist media motto, “if it bleeds it leads”
February 16th to February 21st at 8pm, with an added 2pm matinee February 20th.
2 for 1 Opening February 16th
Jericho Arts Centre, 1675 Discovery St. Vancouver.
Lenore (Linda Quibell) has been performing her magical, musical floor show for ten years at the Tahitian Room in the Holiday/Everyday Airport Hotel, three floors below parking. She works with a succession of dangerous paroled convicts whom she all calls “Donald”. Everything rides on tonight’s performance: Donald Number Seven (Billy Marchenski) wants to shake up the act by inserting his own material, and Lenore has secret plans for taking them to a new level. But something inexplicable is going on. Why are planes being diverted from the airport? What has happened to Donald’s lover Hernando? Who’s in the elevator?
Donald and Lenore is a fiercely dark and comic play about survival, performance, American hegemony, tikis, incarceration, love and the power to resist annihilation with a little bit of glamour.
Donald and Lenore is also more than just a world premiere theatrical performance. For the entire run of the show, the Wosk Auditorium will be transformed into the Wosk Tahiti Lounge Cabaret. Cabaret seating and Tiki décor will contribute to the tacky glory of Lenore’s subterranean lair and immerse audiences into the whole experience. Be one of the first to see this play and share in a unique evening.
Where: Wosk Tahiti Lounge Cabaret at the JCCGV
When: Preview Saturday, March 6 @ 8pm
Opening Sunday, March 7 @ 8pm
Mon-Thu, March 8-11 @ 8pm
Saturday, March 13 @ 8pm
Sunday, March 14 @ 4pm & 8pm
Mon-Thu, March 15-18 @ 8pm
Saturday, March 20 @ 8pm
Post Show Talk-Back March 9
Tickets can be purchased by phone at the Chutzpah! Festival Box Office (604-257-5145), online at www.ticketstonight.ca and the Chutzpah! Festival website www.chutzpahfestival.com or in person at the JCCGV (950 W. 41st Ave)
Direct from New York, Pacific Theatre and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival are proud to present THE PASSION PROJECT, an extraordinary performance piece by video artist Reid Farrington. This electrifying work compresses the entirety of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s classic silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc into a 30-minute concentration of movement, projection, installation, and sound collage. The audience surrounds a 10×10 foot square of light containing a solitary woman as she executes a rigorous movement score, interacting with flickering images of the extraordinary Maria Falconetti as the warrior saint of Orleans. Mesmerizing, meticulous, transformative.
Playing January 27-February 6th Wednesday – Saturday at 7 and 9pm with 2pm matinee on Saturday.
Pacific Theatre, 1420 West 12th Ave (at Hemlock St), Vancouver, BC
Ray is the good son desperately trying to keep up appearances. Liz is the troubled daughter who’d rather be anywhere else. While their mother’s wake falls apart in the next room, the siblings struggle to come to terms with her death and make sense of their own lives. Wounds are opened, lies are unearthed, and truth is ultimately brought to light in this darkly witty story about family, forgiveness, and facing the future.
MILMISH
by Rachel Aberle
Directed by Courtenay Dobbie
The teenage years can be so unkind, particularly if you’re a sixteen year old half- human, half-frog girl trying to figure out where you belong in the world. All her life, Milmish has known that she’s different, and her years attending UnSchool have convinced her that that is not okay. Milmish can hold her own against a demanding mother and a twisted professor, but when a new student comes to UnSchool, she begins to question what she stands for, and who deep down she wants to be.
THREE SEATS IN A ROW
by Katherine Swinwood
Directed by Amiel Gladstone
Alex is infatuated with Sean. Matt is obsessed with Alex. Matt is married to Alex’s mother, Carolyn. Peter is stuck with Alex’s bedridden grandmother, Gwen. Confused? Three Seats in a Row.Duplicity, deceit and the clipping of toenails.
THE PARK, a musical
by Benjamin Elliott, Hannah Johnson & Anton Lipovestsky
Directed by David Hudgins
One of the world’s most powerful developers, Gabriel Fines has set his sights on Vancouver’s Stanley Park to turn it into the city’s newest and most expansive parking lot. Chaos ensues as two courageous Vancouverites, John (a humble Stanley Park employee) and Geena, (a blood thirsty activist) attempt to collect 100,000 signatures before Gabriel does. Will they find a way to halt the destruction of their beloved park? The Park is a story about new beginnings, redemption and love, all to music.
Studio 58, the professional theatre training program at Langara College, presents STEW, 4 new recipes for delicious theatre (previously known as FourPlay) running in repertory from January 27 to February 7.
This popular festival of one-act plays features original work by Studio 58 students under the tutelage of award-winning playwright Aaron Bushkowsky and directed by four of BC’s finest. And for the first time the line-up includes an original musical!
All tickets ONLY $11.00!
WARNING: These plays may contain nudity, coarse language and adult themes.
To make reservations please contact Tickets Tonight on-line at www.ticketstonight.com or by phone 604.684.2787.
In the classic Euripides text, Medea assists Jason to obtain the Golden Fleece, at the peril of her own family. He marries her, and they settle in Corinth, far from her home of Athens. Jason, however, takes another bride, and Medea is banished. She quickly comes up with a plan for revenge, and by the end, the new bride, her father, and Medea’s children are dead—all by her own hand.
“Even thought it was written nearly 2,500 years ago, Medea still ignites the modern mind, playing on the similarities/differences between the male and female psyches and the enactment of justice,” says director Stephen Atkins, who also works with Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre out of Brisbane. “The performance will push boundaries. Sculpture, energetic physical theatre and filmed components by Oscar Almengor and James McKay will be combined with musical influences ranging from Arvo Pärt to Nine Inch Nails.”
A collaboration between several departments of the newly formed Fine and Applied Arts Faculty of Capilano University, Medea is Directed by Atkins, and Assistant-Directed by Tora Hylands (Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre-Brisbane, The Danger Ensemble – Melbourne).
Medea opens Tuesday, February 2 at 8 pm, and runs nightly until February 7.
Matinees on February 6 and 7 at 2 pm.
Performing Arts Theatre of Capilano University, 2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver (in the Birch Building).
Medea is designated as an ‘onstage’ show, which means that tickets are limited to 50 per performance. Tickets are $10-12, and are available by calling 604.990.7810 or emailing boxoffice@capilanou.ca.
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