Nov 2: Eisenhauer, Jonathan Inc, Lance Odegard, Sheree Plett at PT

Only one place to be this Sunday night. EISENHAUER cd release concert at Pacific Theatre.

Jeremy Eisenhauer has played the last couple years of Christmas Presence, he's got a band that performs as Eisenhauer, this is their cd launch. He's married to Sheree Plett, another CHRISTMAS PRESENCE essential. She'll be playing some tunes that night too, as well as appearances by Jonathan Anderson and Lance Odegard, also PT regulars.  It'll be a blast.

(You should also know that Sheree and Jeremy will be providing live music for JESUS MY BOY, which runs at Pacific Theatre November 28 - December 27. With a winsome performance by the amazing David Adams as an amusing, bemused Joseph, reminiscing about the life of his son - which he only half understands.)  

Eisenhauer
at Pacific Theatre

Sunday November 2
CD release for ’Time of Year’
1440 W 12th Ave, Vancouver, British Columbia
Cost: $10 or $20 w/ Time of Year

w/ Jonathan Inc., Lance Odegard and Sheree Plett. Tickets available at the door only.
Doors 6:30, show starts at 7.10pm

Saturday mornings starting Nov 1: Kathleen Nisbet at Aurora Bistro

Kathleen Nisbet has played fiddle at a bunch of PT events like Christmas Presence, Testimony, that sort of thing. Fabulous player. She's part of Viper Central, who now have an ongoing gig at Aurora Bistro...

Hey Friends,

Just wanted to let you know that Viper Central will be playing on Saturday mornings at Aurora Bistro starting this saturday november 1st 11:30am-1:30pm.

Aurora Bistro is a fabulous little fine dining experience focusing on local fresh ingredients and now local fresh music! So Come and Join us!

Aurora Bistro
2420 Main St. (Main & 8th)

See you soon!

Kathleen

Nov 20 - Dec 6: Arnica Skulstad-Brown in LOVE LETTERS

Arnica Skulstad-Brown is an exceptionally gifted actress from the theatre program at Trinity Western who went on to do her MFA at the highly regarded Temple University actor training program. She's back in the lower mainland now, and we'll have a chance to see her work at an upcoming production of A.R. Gurney's LOVE LETTERS. Not to be missed.

Fight Like A Girl Productions presents

LOVE LETTERS
a romantic comedy by A.R. Gurney

November 20 - December 6, 2008
with a Gala Opening Nov 22
Thur-Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm

Inlet Theatre
100 Newport Drive, Port Moody

This winter marks the 20th anniversary of the smash hit, which was first performed in 1988 in New York by John Rubinstein and Kathleen Turner and has since continued to star an exhausting list of celebrated actors. Adding to that long list of talent are our two actors Mitchell Janzen, playing Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, and Arnica Skulstad-Brown, playing Melissa Gardner.

“Love Letters” takes the relationship of Andy and Melissa, and lets the audience witness time passing in a recognizable, hilarious, and heart-wrenching way. The poignantly funny friendship and ill-fated romance takes them from second grade through adolescence, maturity, and into middle age, solely through their correspondence.

As the production traces the lifelong letters of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andy, and the lively, unstable artist Melissa, the story of their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written - and what is left unsaid. The words are both hysterical and moving; the audience comes to know both of them intimately – from their boarding school and summer camp upbringing, through to political aspirations, love affairs, military service and artistic ambitions.

A smash hit both off and on Broadway, Love Letters captures Andy and Melissa with a precision of detail and depth of feeling only Gurney can command. In such critically acclaimed plays as The Dining Room and The Cocktail Hour, A.R. Gurney has wittily captured the manners of upper-middle class WASP America, but never as gracefully or with such dazzling economy as in Love Letters.

It'll make you search out your illicit love letters, mourn your lost youth and wish for a pen pal. It might even stir you to write a letter to your love, which, at 52 cents is still a cheap thrill.

MOURNING DOVE is "PROFOUND, HEART-WRENCHING"

Check out what Jerry Wasserman says in THE PROVINCE about MOURNING DOVE at Pacific Theatre:

...In the play, we never see the daughter, here named Tina Ramsay, though we hear her whimpers and groans (voiced effectively from offstage by Laura Van Dyke). Angela Konrad's Pacific Theatre represents Tina by a circle of light on the floor of her father Doug's workshop. The absence of a physical body...puts the focus squarely on [the other characters] and the choices they make.

Doug (Kerry van der Griend), wife Sandra (Anita Wittenberg) and family friend Keith (Ron Reed) put on a play about Noah's ark for Tina. The Noah play is theatrically lame but cleveral poses the play's central issue: For every two animals that Noah chose, he left behind 100 to drown. Who get to choose who lives and dies, on what grounds? And what's God's role in all this?

...Van der Griend's strong, stoic Doug no doubt does it for love - the quetsion is whether he has the right to do it at all. He offers the play's most powerful argument when he has Keith tie him up in the wrenching, painful position that Tina lives in all the time.

Reed does an excellent job with Keith, easily the play's most theatrical character but also its most stagey. Wittenberg has the toughest job with Sandra...

Simple, shattering moments...make this play worth seeing.

Oct 30: "Northern Lights" book launch, Regent College

BOOK LAUNCH

Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada

Thursday, October 30
7:30 PM, Regent College Chapel, 5800 University Blvd., Vancouver

With readings from Paul Stevens, Maxine Hancock, Diane Tucker, Hannah Main-van der Kamp and Douglas Todd

For more information see www.northernlightsbook.ca

Hope to see some of you there!!

Diane Tucker

Nov 6-8: PT Apprentice Showcase (after MOURNING DOVE)

Oct 29 - Nov 9: TRUE BELIEVERS, Solo Collective

Coming up, a show from Solo Collective that may serve up some Soul Food sustenance. Rachel Ditor directs Ian Weir's HOPE AND CARITAS; Rachel helmed the recent Arts Club production of DOUBT, and Ian is a playwright who's always had an interest in matters of faith, a speaker at TWU's Integration Forum. And Todd Thomson - memorable from PT's production of ESPRESSO - is featured in the Dennis Foon piece. It was SC's first production, TWO BY TWO, that introduced me to Shawn MacDonald's interest in spiritual things, and began the conversation that led eventually to PRODIGAL SON - now published! - gracing the Pacific Theatre stage. Trivia tidbit: Solo Collective co-Founder and Artistic Director Aaron Bushkowsky was Morris Ertman's Bible college room-mate (in days long since passed), and Pacific Theatre was the first BC company to produce a Bushkowsky play - SILLY SEASON, in 1990. 

TRUE BELIEVERS
Three new monologues based on Faith.
Oct 29 - Nov 9

My Acid Trip by Dennis Foon,
The Voice by Lorena Gale
Hope and Caritas by Ian Weir

Directed by Camyar Chai, John Cooper, and Rachel Ditor
Featuring performances by Mercedes Baines, Jennifer Clement, and Todd Thomson.

Well-known Vancouver film, theatre, and television veterans -- Gemini Award-winner Dennis Foon, Governor General Award-nominee Lorena Gale, and Gemini Award-winner Ian Weir -- return to the stage. Don't miss this incredible evening of dynamic one-person plays by three of Canada's most respected playwrights.

When faith is the question, the answer is everything.

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island;
1412 Cartwright Street, next to the Kids’ Market
For more information, visit www.solocollective.ca

Nov 2: Eisenhauer, Jonathan Inc, Lance Odegard, Sheree Plett at PT

Eisenhauer

11-02-2008 18:30
at Pacific Theatre
CD release for ’Time of Year’
1440 W 12th Ave, Vancouver, British Columbia
Cost: $10 or $20 w/ Time of Year

w/ Jonathan Inc., Lance Odegard and Sheree Plett. Tickets available at the door only. Show starts at 7.10pm.

Oct 26: Pacific Rim Quartet, in residence at Pacific Theatre

Brian Mix writes...

Hello friends,

A new season of Music at Pacific is about to begin -- featuring the Pacific Rim String Quartet in the intimate space of Pacific Theatre at W. 12th and Hemlock.

The first concert is coming up on Sunday, October 26, at 3:00PM. The PRSQ will be performing Mozart's String Quartet in G Major K. 378, Puccini's rarely heard elegy for string quartet, Crisantemi, and Smetana's bold and tragic String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life".

Tickets are $24/$16/$11, and are available at 604-731-5518 or www.pacifictheatre.org. Only 124 seats are available, so book your tickets early.

Further info at www.pacificrimstringquartet.com.

Hope to see you there!

CBC spotlights MOURNING DOVE

The Early Edition's Margaret Gallagher recommended MOURNING DOVE as her live theatre pick this weekend on CBC Radio.

Pacific Theatre is opening their 25th season with a very thought-provoking piece. MOURNING DOVE was inspired by the story of Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who ended the life of his severely disabled daughter. He called it an act of love and mercy, the courts found it differently. MOURNING DOVE asks some hard questions. It's met with a lot of acclaim across the country. And Pacific Theatre is an interesting company. They do productions that address social, spiritual and ethical values, they've picked up a lot of awards, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with this show. And that runs until November 15th.

MOURNING DOVE a "Straight Choice"

The Georgia Straight has chosen PT's MOURNING DOVE as its Straight Choice for theatre this week.

Pacific Theatre Presents Mourning Dove

When it comes to morally challenging work, Pacific Theatre doesn’t mess around. From Friday (October 17) to November 15, the company will present Emil Sher’s Mourning Dove in its home space at West 12th and Hemlock. The script was inspired by Robert Latimer’s killing of his severely disabled daughter, Tracy, but Sher’s central character, Doug, has doubts about his actions. And Keith, a mentally and physically disabled family friend, reminds him of the life he cut short. In 2007, director Angela Konrad won a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for best director in a small-theatre production for Grace, her last outing with this company. The strong cast includes Kerry van der Griend and Ron Reed.

Production Photos - MOURNING DOVE

Jerry Wasserman Picks MOURNING DOVE

Local theatre critic Jerry Wasserman named Pacific Theatre's MOURNING DOVE one of the three "Plays To Catch This Week" in yesterday's Province.

Mourning Dove (Pacific Theatre to Nov. 15)

The excruciating Robert Latimer story, told by playwright Emil Sher. With its Christian mandate, Pacific Theatre often goes for plays that pivot on moral quandaries. This one revolves around a father's mercy-killing of his child. With the excellent Kerry van der Griend and Ron Reed

Tickets: 731-5518 or at our website

Check out playwright Emil Sher's comments here, or some backstage photos here

PACT With The New Government

"How could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?"

(quote from The Hidden Mountain by Gabrielle Roy, featured on the Canadian $20 bill)

Theatre Community Looks Forward To Working With New Government

Toronto, October 15, 2008 - The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) would like to congratulate all of the 308 successful candidates who were elected to Canada’s 40th Parliament yesterday.

During the election campaign, arts, culture and heritage figured prominently in national discussions about quality of life in Canada, the economy, and Canada’s profile in the world. PACT looks forward to working with all MPs and all parties to continue this important discussion and to help develop policies and programs that will benefit all Canadians.

"The arts are essential to our country and our communities. The arts should not be a luxury available only to a privileged few – arts should be accessible to everyone," said the re-elected Conservative Government.

At this critical juncture, PACT will press the Government to move on their commitments made prior to and during the election campaign”, said Lucy White, Executive Director of PACT. “Millions of Canadians enjoy Canadian theatre every year and government investment in the arts and culture sector will ensure that Canadians will have affordable access to the arts in their own communities.

As part of their election platform, the Conservative Party made a number of commitments to invest in the arts sector. They include:

· The extension of maternity benefits to include independent contractors, which will enable some artists to take maternity leave;

· The creation of a Tax Credit of up to $500 similar to the Child Fitness Tax Credit, which will include some arts activities for children under the age of 16. A committee will be convened to determine which arts activities are eligible; and

· A commitment to not re-introduce Bill C-10, which would have allowed the government to revoke tax credits given to films that the government deemed to be contrary to the public interest.

Commitments to Canada’s cultural policy from other parties included increased investment in the Canada Council for the Arts, the introduction of income-averaging for artists, and the reinvestment of over $45 million in arts funding programs that have been cancelled in 2008.

“Prior to the election, the Government pledged to reinvest funds and develop new arts and culture programs that were housed in the Departments of Canadian Heritage and Foreign Affairs. It is critical that funds previously earmarked for the arts are reinvested in arts programs and not lost to other sectors within the far-reaching mandates of the Departments. We want to work with Government to ensure that investments and programs are good value for Canadians”, added Lucy White.


The Professional Association of Canadian Theatres is a member-driven organization that serves as the collective voice of more than 140 professional Canadian theatres. For the betterment of Canadian theatre, PACT provides leadership, national representation and a variety of programs and practical assistance to member companies, enabling members to do their own creative work. PACT is a founding member of the Canadian Arts Coalition, which is the largest group of artists, arts executives and business leaders ever assembled from across the country who are united in the view that greater investment in the arts is essential to Canada’s future.

Oct 23-25: Film, Faith, and Justice - Seattle

This from IMAGE Update

The Other Journal is hosting the third annual Film, Faith, and Justice festival from October 23-25, 2008. The event, which is held at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, features eight powerful films from the 2007-2008 Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival, including Up the Yangtze, Project Kashmir, and Letter to Anna. The films are complimented by engaging lectures and discussion panels that articulate personal and communal faith responses to the issues raised in these films. The speakers at this year's film and lecture series include Christopher Heuertz (Executive Director of Word Made Flesh), Dr. Eugene McCarraher (Dept. of Humanities & Augustinian Traditions, Villanova University), Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock (Award-Winning Author, Co-Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good), Dr. J. Kameron Carter (Theology & Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School), and local community leaders. To buy tickets or learn more about this event visit here.

THE FILMS

A Promise to the Dead
Filmmaker Peter Raymont travels to Chile with Ariel Dorfman in late 2006, when Augusto Pinochet, Allende’s overthrower and Dorfman’s long-time nemesis, is dying. Raymont follows Dorfman through emotional reunions with his friends and fellow resistors, to personal landmarks that are powerful both emotionally and historically.

Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
Shot in the war zones of the Democratic Republic of Congo, this extraordinary film sensitively yet unflinchingly brings to light the plight of women and girls caught in that country’s intractable conflicts.

Letter to Anna
Anna Politkovskaya was a brave and tenacious journalist for one of Russia’s only independent journals, Novaya Gazeta. Anna used her journalist platform to strongly criticize Russian military actions in Chechnya. On October 7, 2006, she was shot dead in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment building. A few years before her untimely death, filmmaker Eric Bergkraut met Politkovskaya while making a documentary in which he filmed some powerful, frank interviews with the late reporter. This film is a celebration of the life of an extraordinary woman and mother, a fearless defender of the people, “the conscience of Russia.”

The Sari Soldiers
Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, this is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties.

To See if I’m Smiling
Israel is the only country in the world where 18-year-old girls are drafted for compulsory military service. This film is a disturbing look at the actions and behavior of women soldiers in the Israeli army who, stationed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, help maintain the 40-year-old occupation of Palestinian territories.

USA vs. Al-Arian
A passionate, outspoken pro-Palestinian activist, university professor Sami Al-Arian was charged in 2003 with funding and supporting a Palestinian terrorist group and held in prison awaiting a trial for two-and-a-half years. USA vs. Al-Arian is an intimate family portrait that documents the strain brought on by Al-Arian’s trial, a battle waged both in court and in the media.

Project Kashmir
Two American friends, one Hindu and one Muslim, enter the war zone of Kashmir to investigate the 60-year rivalry between their homelands India and Pakistan. How does a young generation remain hopeful in this endless war? Beautifully lensed by award-winning cinematographer Ross Kauffman, the film captures the physical splendor of Kashmir, while expertly interweaving deeply moving personal stories of Kashmiris with those of the two American women, who strive to reconcile their ethnic and religious heritage with the violence that haunts their homeland.

Up the Yangtze
A symbol of China’s economic prowess, the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world’s largest, and China’s biggest engineering feat since the Great Wall. It also represents the end to a way of life and livelihood for two million people along the Yangtze. Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang crafts a beautifully photographed and moving metaphor for life in contemporary China, as well as a disquieting glimpse into a future that awaits us all.

Pacific Theatre Launches its 25th Season with the Question, What Would You Do For Love?

Pacific Theatre Launches its 25th Season With the Question,
What Would You Do for Love?

Pacific Theatre launches its 25th Anniversary season with the question, what would you do for love? MOURNING DOVE by Emil Sher (Hana’s Suitcase), a challenging work inspired by the Robert Latimer story, explores the dilemma faced by a farm couple whose teenage daughter, Tina, is wracked by severe and unremitting pain. They are confronted with an indescribably difficult puzzle: will the doctors’ best efforts relieve her suffering or should the father should pursue another, final alternative?

Met with critical acclaim in Ottawa, Kitchener, and Halifax, MOURNING DOVE confounds easy sentimentality with bracing humour, even in the face of great suffering. This Vancouver production is directed by Angela Konrad (Grace) and features Kerry van der Griend (Grace), Anita Wittenberg (Agnes of God), Ron Reed (A Man for All Seasons), and Laura Van Dyke (Remnants – A Fable). This sensational cast is backed by an equally outstanding design team including Lauchlin Johnston (scenery), Matt Frankish (lighting), Naomi Sider (costumes), and Clint Lindsay (sound). Stage Management by Lois Dawson.

Pacific Theatre is pleased to be hosting special talkbacks on October 23, 30, and November 6 with Dr. Paul Chamberlain, who will facilitate an open forum for interested audience members to talk about this play in particular and the issue of mercy killing more broadly. Dr. Chamberlain has authored several books and published numerous articles in the field of ethics, physician-assisted suicide, philosophy of religion, and apologetics. He has participated widely in public debates and has made guest appearances on numerous radio and TV programs.

It will be impossible not to be moved by this complex piece, regardless of one’s view on mercy-killing. MOURNING DOVE runs at Pacific Theatre October 17-November 15, with a preview performance October 16 and actor talkback October 24. For tickets ($17-34) call 604.731.5518 or buy online at www.pacifictheatre.org, or come by the box office in person Tues.-Sat. 12-5 (non-show weeks) and 12-7 (show weeks). Group discounts available!

Details: MOURNING DOVE by Emil Sher
When: Oct. 17-Nov. 15 Wed–Sat at 8pm, Sat at 2pm (Preview Oct. 16-$11 in advance or
PWYC at door)
Where: Pacific Theatre, 1420 West 12th Ave (at Hemlock St), Vancouver, BC
Tickets: $17-34 (GST incl.) – to reserve call 604.731.5518, or buy online at pacifictheatre.org,
or at box office.

MOURNING DOVE: On Set

stage manager's desk

puppets

shed

kerry onstage

offstage: wall

backstage: painting gel frames

SOUL FOOD: Painters, Doves, Sons, Briefs, Jazz, more

Rare opportunity to hear painter Chris Anderson at Trinity Western this week (Oct 15/16), presenting the 2008 Distinguished Lecturer series;  "Till We Have Faces Revisited: The Image of Christ in Culture," "Beauty in the Ordinary Places of Life" and "Art Overcome by Grace: New Hope for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful Community."

Then MOURNING DOVE opens at Pacific Theatre on Friday (Oct 17). You know it will be emotionally powerful and thought-provoking, inspired as it is by the Robert Latimer story, but what's hard to convey in a press release is how funny and life-affirming the play also is. How do you tell people that a play about a man who ends his daughter's life is entertaining, and full of laughs? It doesn't sound, I don't know, respectful. But believe me, it is. This show is pure Pacific Theatre. Angela Konrad directing, Kerry Van Der Griend, Anita Wittenberg, Laura Van Dyke and I performing. The next night (Sat Oct 18) we'll follow the performance with a book launch for Shawn MacDonald's PRODIGAL SON, which Touchstone and PT premiered in a memorable production a couple seasons back.

Also, Anthony Ingram in PINTER'S BRIEFS continuing at Studio 16 (til Oct 16) - vintage Pinter, very well served. Nelson Boschman Trio continues Wednesday evening gigs at the Blenz in Yaletown (through Oct 29).

A little further away, but worth marking on your calendar. TARTUFFE at Trinity Western (Oct 22- Nov 1). Pacific Rim Quartet, Pacific Theatre's resident string quartet, with their first concert of the season coming up Oct 26.

*

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts 

to finance the war effort, he asked, 

“Then what are we fighting for?” 

(More here)

Oct 15/16: Chris Anderson, painter, Distinguished Lecturer, TWU

If it were not the case that I'd by lying if I said there is anything I'd rather be doing than rehearsing a play, then I would say I was kicking myself that I won't be able to attend these Distinguished Lecturer addresses at Trinity Western this coming week. But it is, so I won't. But you could. So, do.

Chris Anderson will be speaking on the following topics on campus next week, as Trinity Western University's 2008 Distinguished Lecturer

Oct 15 Chapel hour 11:00-11:40 "Till We Have Faces Revisited: The Image of Christ in Culture"
Oct 16 Chapel hour 11:00-11:40 "Beauty in the Ordinary Places of Life"
Oct 16 Verge Series Talk 7:30 "Art Overcome by Grace: New Hope for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful Community"

Bio for Chris Anderson

For over a decade, the art of painter Chris Anderson has addressed the theme of American cultural traditions and life in the contemporary home and neighborhood.

Anderson studied visual art in Italy, at the Tyler School of Art in Rome, in New York at the Pratt Institute of Art, and in California, at Scripps College (BA, 1971) and the Claremont Graduate University (MFA, 1973).

The artist has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including fellowship grants from The National Endowment for the Arts (Painting), New York Foundation for the Arts (Painting), and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation (Painting) among others.

From 1996 to 2000, Anderson lived and worked as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Arts in Berlin. In addition, Anderson has been the recipient of numerous residency fellowship awards from foundations in the U.S. and abroad, most recently from the Fieldstead Foundation for work in Austria, England, and Scotland.

She has guest lectured or taught for numerous art institutions, including the Columbia University Graduate Department of Art, the University of Notre Dame, and Regent College in Vancouver, Canada.

The work of Chris Anderson has been shown extensively here and abroad and may be found in over fifty public and corporate collection, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Kebble-Villa Museum, Germany; Bilbao International Exhibition Centre, Spain; The Washington Gallery; and The Rockefeller Arts Center.

Chris now lives in Lower Manhattan and works in her studio at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York City's Garment District.

Oct 6-16: PINTER'S BRIEFS with Anthony Ingram held over

Anthony Ingram writes...

Hi folks.

For those of you who weren't able to make it over to the North Shore, and those of you who want to see it again...

Pinter's Briefs previews Tuesday Oct 6 at 8pm,
Opens Wednesday Oct 7 at 8pm
Runs until October 16th

at Studio 16 - on 7th Avenue just West of Granville Street.

WHAT THE MEDIA IS SAYING:

"Simon Webb and Anthony F. Ingram are in top form for this riotously funny and, of course, absolutely absurdist take on life in the no-so-United Kingdom"
- the Vancouver Sun

"a heart-stopper; hilarious and crushing in equal measures"
- the Globe & Mail

"Blackbird Theatre, the independent company that has established itself as the local source for high-quality classic drama, has put together a fascination evening of early Pinter pieces for two actors."
- the Province

hope to see you there.

Anthony F. Ingram

Oct 22 - Nov 1: TARTUFFE at TWU

All the details at Theatre TWU website