Evil Dead: Guest Review by Sean Allan
EVIL DEAD - THE MUSICAL (The Vancouver Production)
Book & Lyrics by George Reinblatt
Music by Frank Cipolla, Christopher Bond, Melissa Morris, George Reinblatt
Music Supervision by Frank Cipolla
Additional Lyrics by Christopher Bond
Additional Music by Rob Daleman
Director: Mark Carter
Choreographer: Ken Overbey
Musical Director: Sylvia Zaradic
Norman Rothstein Theatre
A Down Stage Right (DSR) Production
October 29th to November 7th
Vancouver, BC: THIS CHEESE IS FUN!
The set is crappy (and very cleverly designed), the costumes are deliberately tacky, there have not been worse wigs since Dynel was invented, the props fall apart, the acting is over the top, and my cheeks ached from grinning through the whole show. This is cheesy as an art form. The evening is a riot of bad puns, brilliantly bad acting, great singing and fun choreography.
Director Mark Carter keeps this paper-thin musical airborne for the by keeping his attractive cast racing at breakneck speed so you are hardly aware of the dead spots in the script.
Based on the cult classic Sam Rami movie, which is a send up of horror films, the musical is a spoof of a spoof...tricky territory for a director with less skill than Carter. But he pulls it off with the help of a smart set designer, John Bessette and the wacky choreography of Ken Overbey ... and that cast.
Scott Walters plays the manic Ash with bulging biceps, bulging veins and bulging eyeballs. He has the nice guy, potential psycho thing nailed. He is ably abetted by Meghan Gardiner as both dumb blonde Annie and not so bright Shelly, who is so good in both parts that she should be given away as Christmas presents.
Nelly Boy
Nelly Boy by Dave Deveau
Directed by Cameron Mackenzie
Zee Zee Theatre and Screaming Weenie Productions
PAL Theatre
Oct 22- Nov 1, 2009
Vancouver, BC: For 75 minutes you could have heard a pin drop in the small space of the PAL theatre. As the actors exited and the lights went to black, the words "brave, terrifying, sad" competed in my head with "so that's the real Allan Zinyk". I think this is the first time I have seen him playing a normal person in a straight as opposed to a comedic role, and it brought to mind a handsome Allan Rickman - as Steven Spurrier (Bottle Shock) not the infamous Snape, of course.
But I digress. Zinyk plays the Man/ Father of Nelly/Nelson (Amitai Marmorstein) a fragile young teenager who is struggling to come to terms with gender identity. As Man (not a social worker, a cop, a teacher, a lawyer- therapist maybe?), who is simply there to get Nelly to tell his story, Zinyk conveys flashes of compassion, mixed with irritation and impatience, with sudden switches of character to become Dad.
South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009: Hawaii to French Polynesia
A dream vacation, ballroom dancing , sometimes rock-and-rolling, my way across the Pacific Ocean with my favorite group of dancers and dance hosts on the Pacific Princess.
South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009 Part I. The Hawaiian Islands
South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009: Part III: French Polynesia
Two Days in Traveler's Paradise: French Polynesia
Our South Pacific Cruise is rapidly coming to an end and this is the part that most of us had been waiting for; visiting the beautiful islands of French Polynesia that sit like exquisite jewels in the warm blue and green waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The islands we will visit on this cruise are Bora Bora and Moorea, and then the Pacific Princess will dock at Papeete in Tahiti. With a 7:30 am flight next morning I won't see Tahiti so I really wanted to get a flavour of the other two islands.
Bora Bora and Moorea are part of the Society Islands , an archipelago originally named for the British Royal Society by Captain Cook. There are two groups, the Windward Islands, in which Tahiti and Moorea are included, and the Leeward Islands in which Bora Bora lies. They have been a French colony since 1880.
Because of the time constraints, what these cruise visits do is just give you enough of a taste of each destination so that you can decide to where you would like to return for further experiences. Having grown up in Cape Town where I used to love to swim in the warm waters of the southern Indian Ocean, I was eager to dip my toes into the waters of the South Pacific. So Bora Bora and Moorea - here I come.
Wednesday October 7 Samba at Sea and Bora Bora
We were originally scheduled to arrive at the island of Bora Bora at 8 am and depart at 5 pm for Moorea, but adverse currents and choppy seas over the preceeding five days had forced a reduced cruising speed and that meant we would not arrive in Bora Bora until around noon. 
This caused some concern among those who had booked early morning excursions, and lots of scrambling on the part of the staff to reschedule everything. I had not booked an excursion so it did not bother me. I was more concerned with the fact that I had rashly signed up to do a Samba routine in the talent show at 10:30 am and we had not really rehearsed anything.
I woke as usual around 6 am and by 6:30 was sipping coffee and eating a banana nut muffin and yogurt in "my office" on the aft deck outside the Pacific Buffet. We had arranged for Jorge to come and help Richard and I choreograph a short samba routine - really simple stuff but energetic enough to look like we were doing something good. I had my I-Pod with some great samba music and we put together three mini-routines that we thought would be fun.
We went through several variations and by the end of our brief practice i already felt I had had my workout for the day. I went back to the cabin to recharge my I-POd and get changed. Ruby and Jorge decided to put together a tango routine. Cool - so as it turned out of the 6 "acts" 2 were from the Dancers at Sea group.
There is something strangely liberating about being among a mass of strangers who don't know your name, and whom you will never likely encounter again. I think I can almost understand why some people can make absolute idiots of themselves on those reality TV shows without it seeming to bother them. So although I was a bit anxious at first, when it came to actually getting out on the floor with all these strangers watching, I sort of forgot about them and just focused on not falling over when the ship rocked, and having fun.
I even made a joke about not having any Brazilian blood so that this would be a "Canadian samba." Since what I actually meant was that there wouldn't be any of the "frenziedly shake your chest" action that seem to be the most favoured celebrity moves in the Dancing with the Stars samba routines, I should probably have qualifed it further by saying this would be an "age-appropriate Canadian samba" but I don't think fast with a microphone held in front of me.
Anyway we got through the routine and Wendy videoed it on my small digital camera. Having viewed it, i don't think I will post it. Too many things to work on before I will be comfortable having anyone see a video of me dancing!. Having said that, the husband of one of the other performers said he had videoed our dances and said he would mail us a copy. Hopefully he wouldn't post them anywhere without asking first. Oooohhh...
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South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009: Part II: Dancing at Sea
Friday October 2 - the first of 5 days at sea, and the Formal Night dinner
We departed from Hilo shortly after 4:30 pm on Thursday afternoon and set course in a southerly direction across the Pacific Ocean towards Christmas Island. The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of all the oceans and covers two-thirds of the earth's surface. Compared to the distance between our various ports in Hawaii, an average of 100 nautical miles apart, the distance to Christmas Island from Hilo is 1088 nautical miles so it was no wonder that when we awoke early as usual and went up on deck, there was only the ocean to see all around us.
Wendy had scheduled 2 dance workshops each of the 5 days we were to be at sea. Originally planned for 9 am, the Cruise staff moved them earlier to 8:30 so that the next activities in the Pacific Lounge could start on time at 10:30.
Since both Wendy and I are early risers, we were up on deck having coffee and a light breakfast by 7 am. It was quite lovely out on the aft deck behind the Pacific Buffet. Fresh air, a V sign of bubbles trailing behind us and the vast Pacific Ocean all around.
The Pacific Ocean was named by Ferdinand Magellan, the 16th century Portuguese explorer whose fatal voyage (he was killed during fighting in the Philippines) nevertheless provided the proof that one could circumnavigate the globe without sailing off the edge and that therefore that the world was round and not a disc.
Pacifc means peaceful although that is difficult to believe when you are trying to do a Bolero and the ship rolls you down when you are supposed to go up!
When you think of the conditions under which Magellan sailed, and even as recently as when my great-grandparents immigrated by ship to South Africa and Scotland, it is absolutely amazing to think of what we take for granted these days. Forgetting about air travel - which to my great grand-parents would have seemed as bizarre as a time-travel machine seems to us today, we can be out "in the middle of nowhere" and yet expect hot showers, clean laundry, gourmet food - and what to me is quite mind blowing - wireless internet access as good as at home - though at many times the price.
The fact that I can talk to my children on Skype from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and it seems as if they are in the room next door - impressive - thanks to satellites, wireless routers, and the exponential increases in processing and data storage capacity that have occurred over the past couple of decades
So when I caught myself grumbling that wireless internet access was costing me 40 cents a minutes, 35 c if I had been smart and bought 500 minutes up front instead of 250, I reminded myself instead to say a silent thank you to the thousands of scientists and engineers who made internet access from a ship "in the middle of nowhere" possible with minimal effort on my part. Anyway, on deck in a fresh breeze, I used up some of my precious internet time to check emails.What a great office.
By 8:30 we were up in the Pacific Ballroom, Wendy had her I-Pod connected to the sound system and we were ready to go. Of the two couples in our group, both women loved to dance and their partners were there because they loved their women! So the range of dance abilities went from rank beginner to quite experienced. In order not to lose the beginners - and we all wanted to encourage Bob and Charlie to get as excited about dance as they claimed to be about golf! -the workshops were very basic. We essentially just did the box step in both the foxtrot and the rumba. I didn't mind though as it was additional exercise, although I thought a bit wistfully back to the West Coast Ballroom Dance Cruise rumba and chacha workshops where we learned some quite complex doublespin moves to practice on the dance floor.
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South Pacific Dance Cruise 2009: Part I The Hawaiian Islands
South Pacific Ballroom Dance Cruise 2009: Part I
The opportunity to join Wendy and the Dancers at Sea on a South Pacific Cruise from Honolulu to Tahiti came up unexpectedly while I was on the Labor Weekend Getaway Dance Cruise. A test of my developing capacity for spontaneity - something I have really been working hard to achieve - I needed to decide on the spot whether to take up an unexpected vacancy that had arisen - the only problem was that the cruise was scheduled to start a mere two weeks after I returned to Vancouver from New York (New York, New York 2009).
I checked my calendar to see if there was anything that could not be rescheduled, decided not to check my budget and my bank balance, and just go for it. So after just enough time back in the city to see a couple of plays, do my laundry and tidy my apartment, I was packed and ready for another great vacation dancing at sea.
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Two days in traveler's paradise
South Pacific Ballrooom Dancing Cruise, Parts I to III are coming soon, but in the interim I could not resist posting these two pictures of a day spent in Bora Bora and a day spent in Moorea. On both days, we rented a car and drove around the islands.
Bora Bora is tiny - you can drive around the entire island in about an hour. Moorea is much larger but we still saw quite a bit. In both cases we spent some relaxed time lounging on chairs near the water and admiring the views.
Doesn't the Bora Bora picture remind you of Myst, that fantastically beautiful computer game?
Enjoy!
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Any Night: Guest Review by Sean Allan
ANY NIGHT
Created by Daniel Arnold, Medina Hahn and Ron Jenkins
Vancouver East Cultural Centre (The Cultch)
A DualMinds Production
October 6th to 17th
Vancouver, BC:
"We live our lives forward, but only understand them backward", says Anna (Medina Hahn) who then takes us on what becomes a waking nightmare, increasingly haunted by seemingly benign, Patrick (Daniel Arnold). These two intensely talented actors, who are always surprising, are also the playwrights of this roller coaster ride of a play that explores the observer and the observed, the victim and the perpetrator, the dream and reality.
The energy and electricity crackles between these two actors, and Director, Ron Jenkins has skillfully harnessed these qualities to keep this two-hander moving at breakneck speed, with lightening character and mood changes, and an always disconcerting undertone.
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: Guest Review by Sean Allan
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Stephen Drover
Pacific Theatre
A :Pound of Flesh and Pacific Theatre Co-Production
October 7th to 17th
Vancouver, BC: JUDAS ON APPEAL
You take a brilliantly written script that turns the Judas Iscariot story inside out, set it in a court room, lace it with profanity, people it with some of the best actors in town, and you have a riveting evening of theatre.
Director Stephen Drover has assembled a cast that has the chops to wrestle this material into submission and serve it hot. It is done in the form of a staged reading with the actors reading from their scripts that seem to vanish in most of the scenes. Outstanding in this large cast (many of whom play multiple roles) are Michael Kopsa as the Lucifer you love to hate, delicious and snake evil, Kevin McNulty as Judge Littlefield who runs his court like a lunatic asylum, Dawn Petten as the hilariously practical Mother Teresa, Ron Reed as Butch, who relates his tale of betrayal with simplicity and grace. Denis Simpson as a fierce Pontius Pilate is the epitome of contempt.
Labor Day Weekend Getaway Dance Cruise: New York to Saint John, New Brunswick and back
What better way is there for a newbie ballroom dance addict to spend the Labor Day Weekend than dancing the nights away in the largest ballroom afloat with Dancers at Sea? As the smiling faces in the picture taken on the Black and White Formal night photograph attest to, there were many great minds that thought alike on this question.
A mere three months ago the only idea I had of dancing on cruise ships was the little bit I had read about dance hosts that were hired on some of the transatlantic crossing ocean liners. I imagined a few men in jackets or tuxedos being mobbed by hordes of women that wanted to dance with them. Certainly I had no idea that there was an organization that organized groups of dancers to travel together, with professional teachers and hosts at a guaranteed ratio of 1 host for every 3 single guests.
Intrigued by the concept I ventured out for my first dance cruise - a 7 night West Coast Ballroom Dancing Cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver, my home town. I had such fun that when I heard about a four night cruise from New York to Saint John and back, I couldn't resist signing up. For starters it was an excuse to visit my son in New York (New York, New York: Part I), get him to join me on the cruise, and then spend time seeing some theatre before returning to Vancouver - (New York, New York, Part II and Part III.)
Before I decided to take the cruise I did my homework, reading up on the ship from within the Cunard website. The Cunard line call the Queen Mary 2, the "grandest liner ever built." The ship can carry 2592 guests in "elegant accommodation". We booked a cabin with a small balcony. I thought that was pretty elegant since on my first cruise I only had a porthole.
Some other information from the Cunard site told me that in January 2004 the Queen Mary 2 took her maiden voyage from Southamptom, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Her crew complement is listed as 1253, almost a 1:2 ratio of staff to guests. At 1132 feet in length the QM2 is only 117 feet shorter than the height of the Empire State Building.
But what is most important to me are the dance floors. I found mention of the G32 disco- "contemporary music with a DJ and live band," and then reading further, the Queen's Ballroom is declared by Cunard to be the "largest ballroom ever to sail the seas." And from the picture it certainly seemed that way.
The night before we were due to take the cruise I managed to get a ticket to see Burn The Floor. This incredibly energetic ballroom and Latin dance spectacular got me so fired up I could not wait to get on board and dance for hours each night.
On Friday, September 4th, 2009, we left downtown Manhattan around 2 pm by cab to go to the cruise-ship terminal at Brooklyn. The boarding procedure went like clockwork. These people are obviously used to getting 2500 people off and another 2500 on to the ship within a few hours but it is actually still quite amazing when one thinks of the logistics involved.
In spite of a line-up it took us less than half an hour to get through the immigration and boarding procedures, and find our way to our cabin. The cabin was small and compact but well laid out and it was great to be able to go out onto the small balcony and let fresh air into the cabin.
We knew that our cases would take a while to reach us so we set off to explore the ship and our surroundings. We found the spa where both of us hoped to have at least one massage. We also checked out the Golden Lion Pub where we were to meet for the 5:30 "get to know your fellow dancers."
