Lives Were Around Me

Creator David McIntosh tells us why we need to experience

Lives Were Around Me

Conceived, created & hosted by: David McIntosh

Presented by: Battery Opera (link)

LIVES WERE AROUND ME- is back by popular demand after 40 sold-out shows in January and February of 2009, which also garnered rave reviews. The show also was nominated for the Critics Choice Innovation Award at the Jessies.

LIVES WERE AROUND ME- is an intimate, guided tour for an audience of three, a site-specific, roving theatre work that explores the notions of history and evidence in the context of the historic centre of Vancouver. -LIVES WERE AROUND ME- is David’s toast to this city, a libation of place and experience, utilizing the Coroner’s City Examination Room, performances by Adrienne Wong, Paul Ternes, Aleister Murphy, and the city itself.

Your drink is provided.

This production utilizes text from James Kelman’s novel Translated Accounts.

David McIntosh’s Artist Statement
Given the British Columbia Government’s decision to withdraw funding to the arts, I have decided: now is the time to experiment!

For the re-mounting of our show . -LIVES WERE AROUND ME- we will be reflecting the actual costs of the production in the box office price. Because it is a remount and brilliantly, does not require a theatre, we are able to offer tickets at a bargain price of only $267.67 (Two hundred and sixty-seven dollars and sixty-seven cents). The only way to reserve one of the three available spaces per show, is to buy such a ticket.

My intention is to provoke a discussion not merely about the monetary value of art, but more importantly, about the function of public funding for the arts. It is my belief that public funding subsidizes public access to the arts. As an artist, I will continue to make art, but without public funding, the public will not easily be able to access my art. It and I will go “underground”, or “overseas”. This may or may not concern you, but I think it’s time to talk about it because that’s what democracies do. Right?

If we sell every ticket, I’ll be thrilled. If you wish to see the show but can’t afford to pay the actual costs, I’d be happy for you attend by donation on a first come first serve basis. Just look for Akasuzi at the Alibi. She’ll take care of you. That’s one of many things art will do.

In conjunction with this much anticipated remount is the September launch of the LIVES WERE AROUND ME all-new interactive website called “Evidence”!  A photographer was brought on board to create 5 “exhibits” based on the audience feed back from the past shows…. you be able to pull examine and interact with the photographs and respond in your own way to the site.

A site-specific, roving theatre work that explores the notions of history and evidence in the context of the historic centre of Vancouver

The event begins at The Alibi Room (157 Alexander Street)

Departing hourly at 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm & 10pm

Dates: Tuesday, November 17 & 24, December 1, 8, 15, 2009

Tickets: $267.67 (+ s/c)

*Or show up at the Alibi Room and by a first-come-first-serve ticket by donation

Tickets available at www.ticketstonight.ca or 604.684.2787

* Due to the limited space available for each show, we encourage you to purchase your tickets in advance *

Looking For Bill

Director Nick Hunnings and Performer Peter Nicholas-Smyth tell us why we should check out

Written by: David Hunnings
Directed by: Nick Hunnings
Starring: Peter Nicholas-Smyth

Presented by: 225 Productions

Loyalty is for life…but what happens when it’s too late to repay the debts of friendship?

225 Productions is proud to present its theatrical debut with an original piece, Looking For Bill by Vancouverite David Hunnings. A family collaboration, director Nick Hunnings brings dad’s stories to life.

While working out, a man rediscovers his past through the help of an old friend.

This one-man show, starring local film and theatre actor Peter Nicholas-Smyth, provides a uniquely Canadian perspective of small town America in the 60’s.

On a college campus, against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, a young athlete finds love, laughter and loss.

Now is as good a time as any to work out the past…

Actor: Peter Nicholas-Smyth has performed on SG-1, X-FILES, MACYVER, BORDERTOWN and AIRWOLF. Professional stage credits include repeat engagements at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Persephone Theatre, Saskatoon, and in his original one-man play PETE the PISTOL-LIVE and LOADED.

Director: Nick Hunnings has performed in numerous stage productions including the Art’s Club’s, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK, the Lyric Stage Project’s THE 21ST FLOOR, and Pacific Theatre’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. His most recent appearances on T.V and film include SMALLVILLE, PSYCH and TERMINATION POINT. This is his directorial debut.

Havana Theatre
1212 Commercial Drive
October 14th – 17th, 2009
Show Time: 8pm
Tickets $12/$10, available at:
ehunnings@gmail.com
604 929 3024

Any Night

Creators/Performers Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn tell us about

Created by/Starring: Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn

Directed by: Ron Jenkins

Presented by: Dual Minds, Touchstone Theatre and The Cultch

A young woman suffering from sleepwalking and night terrors is drawn into a tender romance with the young man living above her. But how does he know her so well? A romantic thriller about privacy, paranoia, and the immeasurable power of the subconscious from the writer/performers of the internationally acclaimed Tuesdays & Sundays and director of the hugely successful Canadian production of The Black Rider.

Any Night premiered at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre, toured to Toronto’s Summerworks 2008, and was recently published by Playwrights Canada Press. It will tour to New York in 2010, and is in development as a feature film.

Ron Jenkins, director of The Black Rider (Jessie Award Outstanding Production 2008), directs the local actor/writers Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn in their follow-up play to Tuesdays & Sundays (three Jessie nominations including Outstanding Production 2008). Designed by David Fraser (lights), Peter Pokorny (set), Gordon Heal (sound), and Erin Macklem (costumes), with additional voiceovers by Brian Linds. Actor/writers Arnold and Hahn recently received the protégé portion of the Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s most prestigious theatre award.

OCT 6 – 17, 2009 @ 8 PM

Matinee: October 10 & 17 @ 2 PM

No performances October 11 & 12

Pay-What-You-Can: October 7

2-for-1 Tickets: October 8, 13 & 14

Post-show Artist Talkback: October 8

Tickets: $22 – $40. Now available through The Cultch’s Box Office: 604-251-1363 or THECULTCH.COM. Save up to 40% on tickets when purchased with a Cultch subscription; visit www.thecultch.com for details.

Gift of Screws

Writer/Director Bill Marchant tells us why we don’t want to miss

Written and Directed by: Bill Marchant

Starring: Stephen Park, Matt Fentiman, Nadine Wright, Dan Letto, Blaine Nosworthy, Karston Borst, Lars Callsen, Shane Michael Leydon and Jordie Jacura

Produced by: Cheryl Smith and Simon Ogden

Presented by: Bill Marchant Presents (link)

Bill Marchant has written and directed numerous short films and plays, including Clown Elections, A Cure for Happiness, the epic family drama Ashes and will present his latest – Gift of Screws at the Jericho Arts Centre opening October 6 thru to October 17, 2009. It’s two one–act plays bundled into one that explores where art and fascism meet.

Marchant is a gifted writer who brings awareness to those issues that go unspoken but need to be explored with humour and provocative flair. If you saw Ashes, family reunions will never be the same. One reviewer was moved to claim, “While it is never stated, we cannot help but think the power of the piece comes from a very personal and real space for Marchant and we are all better for having been able to share this with him.” Gift of Screws is an expertly crafted piece that ignites the inner voice and unleashes the deeply hidden where no one wants to explore. Bringing words off a page to life and giving them their due. Marchant states:

The immediate and electric experience of the live stage allows us to get to the very marrow of human experience. No place to run or hide. It is us at our most human. Free and fun and terrifying and true.

Marchant’s last production, Ashes, played to packed and enthusiastic houses while his previous play, Clown Elections was a hit with the crowds and winning unanimous praise from critics. Gift of Screws will have an immense impact on its audiences, full of surprises, humour and a jolting perspective on the human condition.

Tuesday to Saturday, October 6 to 17 at 8:00 pm.

Ticket prices $15 for seniors and students and $20 for adults. Two for One Tuesdays.

Coarse Language – Nudity – Strong Adult Themes.

Tickets are available through Jericho Box Office at 604-224-8007 or for more info please visit www.jerichoartscentre.com.

Additional show info at giftofscrews.org

House of KOSA

Playwright Miranda Huba and performers Kirsten Slenning and Lindsay Drummond tell us why we need to see

House of KOSA

Written by: Miranda Huba

Directed by: Olivia Delachanal

Starring: Barbara Bourget, Michael Springate, Kirsten Slenning, Lindsay Drummond, Victor Mariano, Yasser Ismail and Nita Bowerman

Costumes by: Christina Darling

Presented by: Tigermilk Collective (link)

House of KOSA is set in a visually fantastic world of celebrated craftsmanship. Loaded with cultural significance, it undermines our relationship to fashion and the media.

A chorus of models, moonlighting as seamstresses in a basement sweatshop, unweave the twisted workings of the family that inhabit the House above them. The Mother (played by celebrated dancer/choreographer, Barbara Bourget) is upstairs in the attic creating the intricate designs, while devising the future of her family. The Father (Michael Springate) is at the breakfast table encouraging his Daughter (Kirsten Slenning) to recount her latest tale of front page debauchery.

The House runs like a well oiled machine until one Christmas morning the Daughter asks for the head of her Father…

A dynamic blending of Versailles with today’s lip-glossed fashionistas, House of KOSA is a celebration of the poetic, the profane, the poignant and, of course, fabulous taste.

October 1-10, 2009

PAL Theatre – 581 Cardero @ Georgia, Vancouver

Tickets: $20/ $17
Purchase online at vancouvertix
or by phone at 604-629-VTIX

Love You Forever…And More Munsch!

Performers Ella Simon, Josue Laboucane and Melissa Oei tell us why we should see

From the books by ROBERT MUNSCH
Adapted by STEPHEN COLELLA and SUE MINER
By permission of Annick Press, Firefly Books, and Scholastic Canada Ltd.

Presented by: Carousel Theatre (link)

A personal favourite of both young and old – the stories
of Robert Munsch! Featuring classics like Mortimer, The Paper Bag Princess,  Murmel, Murmel, Murmel, Love You Forever and more – all from the books by one of Canada’s best-loved children’s authors.

Mortimer clang-clang-rattle-bing-bangs his way to bedtime as he takes you on a journey with a princess in a paper bag, a very hungry dragon, a chatty baby, a speedy wheelchair, and a timeless lullaby.

I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.

- Mom, Love You Forever…and More Munsch

OCTOBER 3 – 18, 2009
The Waterfront Theatre
1412 Cartwright Street, on Granville Island

For Ages 2 +
No babes in arms.

School Matinees:
OCTOBER 2 – 16, 2009

Public Tickets: Call Box Office at 604.685.6217

School Groups: to book tickets call Jessie at 604.669.3410

Click here for more ticket info

Frozen

Hussies Deb Pickman and Daune Campbell tell us why we should see

Frozen

Written by: Bryony Lavery

Directed by: Renée Iaci

Starring: Daune Campbell,  Anthony F. Ingram, Deb Pickman and Andrew Lynch

Stage Managed by: Lois Dawson

Presented by: Shameless Hussy Productions (link)

One evening ten-year-old Rhona goes missing.

Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope. Agnetha, an American academic, comes to England to research a thesis: “Serial Killing—A Forgivable Act?” Then there’s Ralph, a loner who’s looking for some distraction. Drawn together by horrific circumstances, these three embark on a harrowing, strangely beautiful and cathartic journey. Angry, humane and compassionate, Frozen is an extraordinary play that entwines the lives of a murderer, the mother of one of his victims and his psychologist, to explore our capacity for forgiveness, remorse and change after an act that would seem to rule them out entirely.

DOROTHY SOMERSET STUDIO THEATRE

Sept. 22 to Oct. 3, 2009 Curtain 7:30 pm nightly

Location: 6361 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z2

Parking: West Parkade on University Bld just off NW Marine Dr.

Map: maps.google.com/maps

Special Performances: 2 for 1 & UBC Students $5 at Previews on Sept. 22 & 23, Opening Night: Thurs. Sept. 24 | Mondays $5 for UBC Alumni |

Tickets: Reg. $25/Student $15/Senior $20 Curtain: Mon. – Sat. @ 7:30 pm

Book Now – Seating Limited!

TICKETS CALL: 604.822.2678 E: theatre@interchange.ubc.ca

Fringe Bump: Tape

Daniel Arnold, Marisa Smith and Matthew Kowalchuk respond to the question “why should we see your Fringe show?”

Tape

Written by: Stephen Belber

Directed by: Amiel Gladstone

Starring: Daniel Arnold, Matthew Kowalchuk and Marisa Smith

Presented by: Alley Theatre (link)

Sponsored by: The Waldorf Hotel

Venue: BYOV: The Waldorf Hotel, 1489 East Hastings (2 blocks West of Commercial), Room 117

Vince (Daniel Arnold), a dope dealer and volunteer fireman, and Jon (Matthew Kowalchuk), his best friend from high school, have come to town to see Jon’s movie screen at the local film festival. The two friends meet in Vince’s motel room and things heat up when they start talking about Amy Randall (Marisa Smith), Vince’s high school sweetheart, who now works in town as a prosecution attorney and is planning to meet Vince that night. Accusations fly and a confession is caught on tape as the three old friends battle over the details of an event that has haunted them all for the past ten years.

Part of the Fringe’s Bring Your Own Venue Series, TAPE will be staged in Room 117 of the Waldorf Hotel. With seating for 18 persons max this performance will be truly intimate and unique. No black-outs, no transitions. This is live theatre, as real as it gets.

September 10-13 and 15-20

Performances at 7pm and 9pm
Sunday performances at 2pm and 4pm

Click here for the official Fringe site

Fringe Bump: Fish Face

Playwright/Performer Ginette Mohr tells us why we should check out

Fish Face

Written and Performed by: Ginette Mohr

Directed by: Kate Fenton

Presented by: The Quickening Theatre (link)

Venue: Playwrights Theatre
1398 Cartwright Street, Granville Island

Tyranny, Destiny and a giant squid

The Quickening Theatre is proud to bring Fish Face, a new solo piece by playwright/performer Ginette Mohr, to the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Fish Face follows a young woman into an underwater universe as she battles a giant sea monster and confronts her destiny. The dramatic comedy contains six distinct characters, physicalities and dialects, and incorporates dance and an original music score.

Fish Face is an exciting opportunity for playwright/performer Ginette Mohr and director/co-creator Kate Fenton to play in the realm of fantasy and explore theatrical possibilities of healing and transformation. Mohr has performed professionally all over North America with companies such as The Second City, Neptune Theatre and Theatre New Brunswick. She returns to Vancouver a decade after graduating from Simon Fraser University’s Acting Conservatory Program.

Fish Face premiered at the 2009 Ottawa Fringe Festival and completed a successful sold-out run this summer at the Toronto Fringe Festival. NOW Magazine gave Fish Face Critic’s Pick, and named it for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Performance and Outstanding Design.

Sept 10 @ 10:30pm │Sept 12 @ 6:55pm │Sept 14 @ 7:40pm
Sept 16 @ 8:20pm│Sept 18 @ 10:30pm│Sept 20 @ 8:50pm

Click here for the official Fringe site

As You Like It

The cast of First Impressions tells us why we should see

As You Like It

Written by: William Shakespeare

Directed by: Neil Freeman

Click here for the full cast

Presented by: First Impressions Theatre (link)

A play about love and with no bad language? Honesty, loyalty and steadfastness rewarded? Personal redemption for the misguided few and literally everyone ending “happily ever after” with four marriages no less?

No, it’s not Walt Disney, but William Shakespeare at his enchanting best. As You Like It, Shakespeare’s greatest romantic comedy, deals with the fortunes of two separately banished young people already in love after their first brief meeting who for their own safety flee to the magical Forest of Arden, accompanied by their closest friends.

If you have ever been in love – with your partner, with an idea, with life itself – this play, set in modern dress, is for you.

As Sylvius tells all who will listen, love
“ . . . is to be all made of fantasy,
All made of passion, and all made of wishes,
All adoration, duty, and observance,
All humbleness, all patience, and impatience
All purity, all trial, all endurance”

Or as Celia rather more concisely puts it
“O wonderful, wonderful, and most wonderful, and yet again wonderful . . . .”

And when you add a wrestling match, and songs too . . . .

September 10-26, 8 pm

Deep Cove Shaw Theatre, 4360 Gallant Ave, North Vancouver

Click here to purchase tickets