My Mother's Story: - May 10th, 2009, Your Mother's Day treat
On Mother's Day two years ago, my daughter and I shared something special; the privilege of hearing twenty brave and talented actors share with us the facts of their mothers' lives - My Mother's Story: A Mother's Perspective . Together we laughed, we cried, and we thought of my mother, Amanda's grandmother, and the part she played in our lives. As we drove home we discussed the empowering effect that relating the arcs of their mothers' lives seemed to have on these women, and that we both felt enriched by the experience of seeing this work.
This Mothers' Day, Sunday May 10th, My Mother's Story 2009 will run at The Granville Isand Stage at 4 pm. In 90 minutes, you will hear about the "extraordinary lives of 20 ordinary women". This year will be the fourth staging of this event by Jenn Griffin and Marilyn Norry. While some of the women that will perform have been part of previous events, others will be new. Even if you have seen previous shows, each script is different as playwright Jenn Griffin interweaves 20 life stories into a story that reaches out from countries as diverse as India, South Africa, Vietnam and England, and evokes memories of love, abandonment, hope and despair. It is impossible to hear the words without something resonating within your own heart. You can buy tickets through VancouverTix.com . They are $23 dollars, reserved seating - and going fast.
Jenn and Marilyn share a moment of amusement over the script As often happens, the end-result you will see on stage, represents the synergy of two talented women bringing together their individual concepts to make something that is more powerful than the sum of the individual ideas. Both Jenn and Marilyn set out to write the story of their mother but the impetus was different for each of them. Although I remembered a bit about the origins of this event from a brief chat after the first show I saw, and I learned more from My Mothers Story web site, I wanted to dig a bit deeper and so I invited Marilyn and Jenn over for a casual chat.
Review From The House: Age of Arousal
Laara Sadiq and Susan Hogan. Photo by David CooperAge of Arousal by Linda Griffiths
Directed by Katrina Dunn
Arts Club Granville Island Stage
Arts Club Theatre Company
April 16 - May 9, 2009
Vancouver, BC: I came to see Age of Arousal with no preconceived notions other than that it was about feminism, relationships and set in Victorian times. Oh, and that it was the partner play in the Arts Club Classics in Context series with The Constant Wife, which was one of my favorite plays of this season. I left the theatre feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the richness of themes and the complexity of the interwoven stories of the six characters. In line with my firm resolution always to jot down, or rather input, my impressions immediately on returning home from the theatre, I dutifully sat down before my keyboard (not a Remington! ) and gazed blankly at the screen, my thoughts jumbled and knotted like the sheets in my dryer. How does one summarize the story of this intricate ensemble work? I decided to go to sleep and hope that my subconscious would come up with some penetrating insights.
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Gillian's Kitchen: Recipe for Bran Muffins with golden raisins and apricots
By special request: Here is my more-or-less recipe for my chock-full-o-health bran muffins.
The more-or-less refers partly to the golden raisins and dried apricots which I add in different quantities depending on my mood or what I happen to have in my pantry.
It also refers to the fact that I tend to experiment with ingredients, oven temperatures and cooking times - so this is the formula I am using currently (no pun intended!).
I usually mix these by hand since I am too lazy to have to take out my mixer and wash it afterwards. And muffins are not supposed to be overmixed anyway - or so I am told.
Heat oven to 425
I use the silicon baking trays and lightly coat them with oil
This recipe makes 24 muffins
2 cups of golden raisins
Dried apricots- chopped into raisin size chunks- I use about 0.25 to 0.5 cups
3 cups skim milk
Place raisins and apricots in bowl and pour the milk over and allow to soak.
In another bowl blend 3 eggs, 1.25 cups brown sugar and 1.5 cups of oil (I usually mix olive oil and grapeseed oil) and 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
mix together
1 cup oat bran
1 cup wheat bran
2 and 2/3 cup organic whole wheat flour
0.25 cup of flax seed
6 tablespoons wheat germ
3 tablespoons baking powder
Add the milk, raisins and apricots to the eggs, sugar and oil and mix well
Then add the dry ingredients and mix till fully incorporated but not overmixed.
Gillian's Kitchen: Food, emotions and sunshine on False Creek
I was meditating about the link between eating and emotional state when the early morning view from my office window derailed my profoundly philosophical and serious approach to this topic by elevating my mood to a state where I could no longer sit typing about angst and sorrows. I mean, just look at the deep blue of the water in the picture.
I went outside and looked over the railing down at the water. The glorious sunshine reflecting off the waters of False Creek was mesmerizing - how do you capture the light energy in a photograph?
The sun was calling to me "come out, come out, wherever you are and enjoy my warmth and light, and get your all-natural skin-manufactured daily dose of Vitamin D, the latest wonder vitamin."
Well, I exaggerate just a little bit. The "come out, come out, wherever you are" was just me missing my little grand-daughter and her games of hide and seek . And as for the all-natural vitamin D bit - well that was my all-natural cynical response to the plethora of health claims for "natural" foods that I see daily in newspapers, maganzines and malls.
Supping in Vancouver: db Bistro Moderne
db Bistro Moderne
2551 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
Ph: 604-739-7115 or Reserve Online
Review From The House: tick...tick... BOOM!
Brandyn Eddy as Jon: Photos by Devin Karringtentick...tick...BOOM! by Jonathan LarsonDirected by Ryan Mooney
Musical Direction by Melissa Braun & Sarah Jaysmith
Fighting Chance Productions
Jericho Arts Centre
April 6 - 22, 2009
Monday through Wednesday, at 8 pm
Vancouver, BC: It is 1990 and Jon (Brandyn Eddy) is a promising young composer living in Manhattan. Jon is about to turn thirty and he is agonizing about his career in music and theatre, and fretting that he is over the hill. This premise for the show would ordinarily be a trifle irritating to me. I left 30 behind some years ago (alright, many years ago) yet I still feel that I am on the way up to the summit of a career hill. Albeit a different hill from the one I was climbing at 30. No existential angst is allowed in my mind. To safeguard myself against the upcoming angst, I booked for dinner at DB Bistro Moderne on Broadway: Our Broadway of course!
Review From The House: Life Savers
Life Savers by Serge Boucher
Translated by Shelley Tepperman
Directed by Diane Brown
Ruby Slippers
Performance Works, Granville Island
April 4-19th, 2009
Vancouver, BC: When I first started writing for Immediatetheatre.com. more than three years ago - yes, time does fly when you're having fun ! - one of the first plays I reviewed was the Ruby Slippers production of The Leisure Society by Francois Archambault. At the time I commented that I could listen to the timbre of Colleen Wheeler's voice for ages. And fortunately I still can, because in her role of France, the "bad" daughter of solid, conventionable couple, Robert (Kevin McNulty) and Raymonde (Patti Allan) her powerful presence dominates this play, Life Savers.
The First Night of "20 Chefs, 20 Nights, 20 Homes" 2009
Food for the mind and food for the tummy - what more satisfying blend could there be than cooking and the arts? Think leisurely dinner before seeing a play or an opera, and anticipating the visual and auditory feast that is coming up on stage. Or think post-show coffee and dessert as you dissect the performance you have just seen.
The Arts Club Celebrity Cooking Class fund raiser is back for its seventh year, and there are more opportunities than ever before for Vancouver "foodies" to get cooking tips from our own local Celebrity Chefs. I had the opportunity to participate in the first of the 2009 "20 Chefs, 20 NIghts, 20 Homes" events; this one was held at the home of Fred and Dawn Cadham. It was entertaining and I learned a lot. If you love food, this is a really fun way to pick up tips, enjoy an excellent meal (and wine) and support the theatre all at once.
The chef / instructor for the evening was Tony Minichiello of the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver . I got there a few minutes early hoping to be able to chat with Tony. After being warmly welcomed by Scott, I made my way upstairs to be greeted by Dawn and by Lisa Seed, the apparently indefatiguable Arts Club Board Chair of Special Events who chairs this series of dinners. "It's a tough job" she joked, "having to attend 20 dinners." And she has a day job! How does she do it?
Armed with a glass of unoaked chardonnay I went looking for Tony to check out what he had in store for us. Even in our brief conversation his passion and enthusiasm for teaching the art of cooking was apparent. He said that he chose to feature Italian style cooking - simple, unpretentious, letting the ingredients speak for themselves.
The first course was tortolloni (the big ones) with a leek and shrimp filling, served with a simple lemon cream sauce. Next we would have a salad of shaved fennel with apple slices. Then we would get the tips for cooking the perfect steak Caprese style and learn how to make butternut squash gnocchi. Finally dessert would be tiramisu, which is "so passé as a dessert that it is fashionable again".
Hot, hot, hot - Not!
For many years, through undergraduate and post-graduate medical training, the most important thing that got me through endless late nights of study was having copious cups of coffee near to hand. I believe the human race essentially is divided into two groups, those who can drink a cup of coffee at dinner and fall asleep with no difficulty, and those who cut off their caffeine intake at noon if they want to sleep that night. I belong to the latter group.Psychological or not, merely having a cup of coffee steaming away beside me was enough to keep me alert and awake to study, so over the years I got used to my coffee cooling to warm and even lukewarm before I drank it. Today I still let my morning coffee cool beside me as I work. I was always fascinated by people who could drink coffee, tea or even soup, at temperatures that scalded my tongue just at the sight of them. Others would mumble and grumble if a soup course was not served piping hot. I would be secretly rather grateful. But whereas before, hot soup seemed to be a hallmark of restaurant excellence, I have noticed a tendency in restaurants I have visited recently to serve soup warm rather than hot,hot,hot. Although I applaud it, I wondered if it is intentional or just lack of attention.
