Best Before
by Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug & Stefan Kaegil)
The Cultch, PuSh Festival and Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad
The Cultch
Jan 29 to Feb 6, 2010
Vancouver, BC: As a computer-nerd/technophile of long-standing I was intrigued by the concept of taking the multi-player video game concept into the theatre and eagerly anticipated the experience of my personal avatar interacting with some 200 other avatars to conjure up a new society in BestLand.
Best Before, an innovative audience interactive production was developed for the PuSh Festival by Helgard Haug & Stefan Kaegil of Rimini Protokoll, an experimental theatre company based in Germany, working with local playwright/dramaturg, Tim Carlson. Rimini Protokoll create novel forms of "reality" theatre, casting non-professional actors for their "theatre of experts" projects and often employing technology as a form of equal partner in the work. For example for Best before, as well as the usual team of set, video, sound and light designers, the "backstage" or "offline" development team included a computer game designer, character animator, and programmer
Nevermore - The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Writer, Composer, Director Jonathan Christenson
Production Designer Bretta Gerecke
Choreographer Laura Krewski
Sound Designer Wade Staples
A Catalyst Theatre production presented with the:-
Arts Club Theatre Company, Cultch, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad
Arts Club Granville Island Stage
Jan 21 to Feb 6, 2010
Vancouver, BC: Wow, they just keep coming. One stunning show after another. I just love the cornucopia of art that is spilling out all over my beloved city of Vancouver during the Cultural Olympiad. Nevermore is another superb production not to be missed. The visual aspects are spectacular, the music haunting and the effect is strangely disturbing and other-worldly.
SFU Woodwards and The Dance Centre
Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU
Jan 20 to 23rd, 2010
I was especially looking forward to going to see this show because I anticipated that for several reasons it would be a bit of an adventure . Firstly this would be the first production I would see in the new Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre in the Simon Fraser University complex, newly built on the old Woodwards site. As it turned out it is still so new that I was directed by a security man to an entrance to the theatre complex through a gap in the construction fencing that still surrounds much of the area.
The second reason was that instead of driving my car I planned to take the Canada Line up to Waterfront and walk along West Hastings to the theatre, checking out a Salsa Studio on the way. I can just hear the groans of "what's the big deal, taking transit" but I was going by myself to this show, and for me, walking alone late at night in what is not as yet a very desirable part of the city, constitutes an adventure.
The Edward Curtis Project by Marie Clements
Directed by Marie Clements and Brenda Leadlay
Presentation House Theatre
Jan 21 to 31, 2010
Photograph Credits: Tim Matheson
Vancouver, BC: "Obsession and appropriation."
In a unique and rare conjunction, within a four day period, I saw two newly created theatrical works, dealing with similar themes but approached very differently - Beyond Eden and The Edward Curtis Project. After seeing The Edward Curtis Project, I stayed to hear the talk back session in which members of the cast succinctly summed up the common themes of these plays as "obsession and appropriation".
Beyond Eden by Bruce Ruddell
Music by Bruce Ruddell and Bill Henderson
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Music Direction by Bill Henderson
Choreographer Jacques Lemay
Fight Director JeanPierre Fournier
Co-produced by Vancouver Playhouse and Theatre Calgary
Jan 16 to Feb 6 th, 2010
Photographs by David Cooper
Vancouver, BC: Just imagine. You dream an "impossible dream" for 25 years and finally one exhilarating night, your dream explodes into reality in a visually and musically stunning production. Beyond Eden had its world premiere last week on the Vancouver Playhouse stage as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and it is a "tour de force". Bruce Ruddell and his creative collaborators, cast and crew can truly be proud of how his dream has been actualized.
East Fusion Food
1021 International Village
88 Pender Street, vancouver.
Ph: 604-568-6988
After a pleasant Sunday afternoon spent wandering around the neighbourhood of the new Simon Fraser University campus and the housing developments on the old Woodwards site, we decided to take in a movie at the Tinseltown cinema complex.
With an hour or so to while away before the film would begin, we dropped in at the tiny East cafe, tucked into a corner of the International Village complex. They were offering an excellent deal, appetizer, soup and a main course for under ten dollars
I put in my order not expecting much at that price but surprise ! surprise. What great value.
My hot and sour soup was satisfyingly hot in temperature, spicy but not overly hot in flavour, and quite delicious. For our appetisers one of my friends and I ordered one portion of spring rolls and one portion of shrimp wonton and then shared them. Again they were crisp, piping hot and delicious.
Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad
Translated by Linda Gaboriau
Directed by Clayton Jevne and Graham McDonald
Theatre Inconnu and IITSAZOO Productions
Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island
Jan 13 to 31 st, 2010
Vancouver, BC: Acclaimed Canadian playwright, Wajdi Mouawad was born in Lebanon and moved first to France and then to Montreal, arriving in Canada at the age of fifteen. From 1975 to 1990 Lebanon was ripped apart by a devastating civil war in which hundreds of thousands of Lebanese died, and massive atrocities were committed by the Syrian-backed PLO Muslim militias and Lebanese Christian militias alike. Beirut, a once beautiful city known as the Paris of the East, was in ruins. For a brief time in his childhood, Mouawad lived in a country at war, and both of his plays that I have seen, Scorched and Tideline, reflect his overwhelming concern with the lives of those who lived through the events of that time.
Best Before
Nevermore - The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe
The Edward Curtis Project by Marie Clements
Beyond Eden by Bruce Ruddell
Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad
The Boathouse Restaurant
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