Mar 6-8: TWIGS, PT apprentice show

Pacific Theatre and Stone's Throw Productions proudly present George Furth's theatre piece, *TWIGS*, a show with many hilarious and heartwarming characters. In this performance, the three apprentices have combined their different talents (directing, acting and technical production) to produce a night of laughter and fun.

*TWIGS *is comprised of scenes where the romantic relationships of the three daughters illuminate and emulate the romantic relationship between their mother and father. We find Emily moving into a new apartment, we find Celia having a night with old friends, we find Dorothy having an anniversary dinner and we find good ol' Ma getting ready for...? What do they all have in common? Well, come on out and see where these fabulous women will take us between March 6-March 8 at 8pm.

Tickets: Pay-What-You-Can (recommended price: $10)
To purchase tickets call our Box Office at 604.731.5518 or visit our website at 604.731.5483.

To Mar 15: Kindertransport at Jericho Arts

Lois Dawson is our resident stage manager at PT, and she's presently working on what looks like a true soul food show...

Hi everyone,

A quick plug for my current show, "Kindertransport", the story of of a jewish girl sent to England by her family prior to world war II and the impact it has on her life.

It is two hours long, and it runs Tuesday - Sunday at 8pm until March 15 at the Jericho Arts Center in Kits.
Further information about the show.
For tickets: 604-224-8007 or at the door.

The show is really powerful.

Thanks!
-Lois

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS: Audience response

Here's a note from one audience member - actress, filmmaker and former PT apprentice Genevieve Miedema

Hi Ron,

I wanted to let you know that David and I really enjoyed A Man for All Seasons when we went two Saturdays ago. It was our first night out together since Caspian was born and we were thrilled by the performance. What a great script! I loved the era-change for the costumes and thought the whole production was excellent.

It was a bit of a stretch to see a tall, thin man play Henry VIII, but he pulled it off, and his Cromwell was just creepy! The guy who played the butler/jailer etc. was a delight to watch. And your performance of Thomas was moving and poignant. It was exciting, as always, to see the familiar PT faces of Adam, Evangela, and Trish. Each character was convincing and captivating.

What a heartbreaking scene that was when Thomas had to make his friend dislike him by telling him what he really thought of his capitulation to the king... I've been recommending this play to everyone I know and I hope it does very well for Pacific Theatre. What a challenge to us all, as we try to justify our compromises.

Thanks for putting this show on, and thanks for blessing us with your work.

Geneviève (and David) Miedema

And another from a physician, a longtime fan of Pacific Theatre...

Yes, we were misting up in the north front row Friday night. My parents agreed it was one of the most outstanding performances to date. Not that you are intentionally competing with what London and NYC offer us. Bravo! Exemplary acting! Yes, don’t let so much time pass again. The reading of “Twelve Angry Men”, provided an inkling of what can be when directors remember where they began. Could be like when physicians become patients once in awhile. (Clearly autobiographical)

Theatre provides the extraordinary gift of engaging me completely; intermission being an uninvited dream-state. Reminds me of a comment made recently by NBC (Newfie by choice) philosopher Daryl Pullman. “We don’t just take a patient’s history, we are privileged to enter into their story.”

Profound fallout…..

In the early 80’s I had written in my journal Sir T.M’s quote about a vow being like holding water in your cupped hands. I claim that image to have inspired me against all odds now beyond the 25 year mark…

And what the heck, how about this one...

Thanks so very much for a wonderful night at Man for all Seasons- We were 'wowed' by the performances and the ability of the stage to bring story into an intimate and engaging experience for us. We talked all the way home about the density and intensity of the dialogue and it's delivery- so very powerful! Now I want to get the play to read! Do you ever tape performances?

Kudos to Ron- you must be exhausted- you put so much into your character- I could so clearly see Sir Thomas More's physical deterioration juxtaposed to the increasing determination of the will matched with wit to stand as a congruent servant of God.- Wonderful! thanks to everyone for giving it their all- Ok I'll write your next review- Blessings to you all, and thanks again it was a great diversion to our up-hill climb right now.

Mar 7: TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL opens at Gallery 7

Gallery 7 Theatre & Performing Arts Society proudly presents

The Trip to Bountiful
By Horton Foote

“…the rarest of theatre experiences, an evening which will prove an indelible memory.”

“Horton Foote has done, and done beautifully, the one thing that it is important for a playwright to do. That is, provide the disciplined material for expert actors to completely capture an audience and hold it through the evening.”

-World Telegraph
March 7 & 8, 13 - 15, 20 - 22, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Discount Matinees: March 8 & 15 @ 2:00 pm


MEI Secondary School Theatre
4081 Clearbrook Road, Abbotsford

Tickets Now on Sale! Please call House of James:
604-852-3701 or 1-800-665-8828

Apr 6: TWU Choirs at the Chan

Acoustic Splendor - Spring at the Chan Centre!
Sunday April 6/2008
2:30 pm
Chan Shun Concert Hall
Presented by the Trinity Western University Choirs
Tix available online

Wes Janzen, Artistic Director

Featuring Ay Laung Wang, solo organ
Trinity Western University Choirs, Wes Janzen
Pacific Mennonite Children’s Choir, Kim Janzen Carmen Fast, piano

Showcasing the Chan's fabulous acoustics, this sunny spring program will include spectacular organ solos performed by Ay Laung Wang, glorious choral selections sung by the Trinity Western University Choirs, and musical offerings featuring the award-winning sound of the Pacific Mennonite Children’s Choir.

Apr 17: ST JOAN opens at Chemainus

A classic "soul food" play takes the stage at Chemainus a couple months from now, with Sarah Rodgers directing - she helmed DRIVING MISS DAISY and THE ELEPHANT MAN at Pacific Theatre.

Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw

April 17 to May 17, Reopens June 7 to July 26
Chemainus Theatre Festival

1429 France. Joan of Arc, a charismatic young peasant girl, leads the French to victory over the English, but two short years later she is burned at the stake. Why? Regarded as one of the most riveting and powerful texts in the English language, Shaw’s monumental work re-examines Joan’s dramatic rise and fall in light of the nationalism, political corruption, religious intolerance and hero worship that caused not only World War I, but that also challenges our world today.

"One thousand like me can stop them. Ten like me can stop them with God on our side."

A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR at Covenant College

I met Camille Hallstrom a year and a half ago, soon after PT's premiere of A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR. She was traveling North America, visiting theatres and theatre artists doing work like we do, from some sort of a Christian faith perspective - and also, in the process, scouting shows to perform back at Covenant College in Georgia, where she heads the theatre program.

Well, STAR opened there last weekend, and she sent me a glowing account of their run so far, and attached their director's notes. Here are both, for your interest and edification.

Ron

*

Ron,
The show opened Friday to a sold out crowd who was positively rowdy in their enthusiasm. I thought we would have added 5-minutes to the run time with all the eruptions of laughter and applause (though as it happened, the actors were so jazzed we only added one-second to the previous night's length.)
I had people say it is the best show they've seen, others say "I wished numerous times I could have shouted 'Stop!; I want to think about what you just said!'" It's been a great experience for the cast and crew. Thanks for this play.
I'm really sorry you won't be able to see it. Hopefully a dvd I'm having shot and edited will turn out moderately watchable. If it does, I'll send it to you. ...
Blessings as you conclude your run of "Man for All Seasons."
And thanks again for this fine play.

Camille

*

DIRECTOR’S NOTES
"God has made everything beautiful in its time.
There is a time for every activity under heaven." (Eccl 3:11)

I consider my job at Covenant College equal parts encouraging students to work in theatre and discouraging them from it. Some of us are called to this wonderful, exciting, needy, dangerous “mission field”; others are not.

For millennia Churchmen have, often in outrageous ways, castigated the stage. We must disagree with 18th-century William Law (“It is no uncharitable assertion to affirm that [an actor] cannot be a living member of Christ”) or 19th-century Samuel Miller (“The finger of God, [via a theatre fire that killed 75] points to this Amusement [showing] theatrical entertainments are criminal in their nature and ...directly hostile to... the Religion of Jesus Christ”). Still we cannot deny that the dramatic world has also historically been rife with sex, violence, loose living and heartache. Would a loving parent willingly send a child to wallow in such an abyss? Many could not, yet it cannot be denied that the “abyss” is in large measure the Church’s fault. Having, for centuries, abandoned the theatre to the world, we have no business complaining that the theatre is now worldly. It is shocking to read C.H.Spurgeon claim that “the moral character of the theatre [is such] that it has become too bad for mending.” How can he forget that “God was pleased to... reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven” (Col 1:19-20)? How unconscionable for 1st-century Tertullian to insist that “demons... [give actors] the artistic talents required by the shows!” It is “by Christ [not demons] all things were created” (Col 1:16) and “nothing [God created] is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1Tim 4:4). In the play, retired actress Kate Terry sighs: “[The stage] is corrupted and corrupting - not the place for a Christian, I fear. The meat has gone bad.” But Lilia gives the Kingdom reply: “Because the salt never got there in the first place! Simply because the battle is difficult, do we hand it over to the enemy?”

Ron Reed's play does an admirable job of summing up, in two hours, 2,000 years of Christian controversy in these matters. Parents recognize “God has given you a gift, lassie” one moment, then worry “as Christian parents, you cannot consent to your daughter losing her innocence to the stage” the next. Some Churchfolk tend to lionize one type of drama (they “only like a play if it's got a sermon in it!”) and demonize another (“Shakespeare… Frankly, I don’t see the point in it.”) But art has never been about giving a 3-point gospel presentation. As playwright and Christian apologist Dorothy Sayers once wrote: “Playwrights are not evangelists!.... If [one] writes with his eye on a kind of spiritual box-office, he will at once cease to be a dramatist, and decline into a manufacturer of propagandist tracts. It is his business not to save souls but to write good plays. Should he forget this fact, he will lose his professional integrity, and with it all his power -- including his power to preach the gospel.”

Well, okay, supposing Sayers is right, what then is “the point in it?” Lilia’s answer: “It’s beautiful. (And I want to be a part of that.)” Oh, but surely! That’s impractical; that can’t be Christian. More’s the pity it would strike us so, for though we may have forgotten, the Church has had a long and venerable history of “theological aesthetics.” There was a time when Christians realized their proper study was not merely Truth and Goodness, but also Beauty.

Historically, C.S. Lewis reminds us, a goal of education has been to teach people to feel right feelings: “By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.” Jonathan Edwards wrote “God is God, and distinguished from all other beings, and exalted above ’em, chiefly by his divine beauty, which is infinitely diverse from all other beauty.” And could it actually be iconoclastic, old John Calvin who encourages us: “Let us not be ashamed to take pious delight in the works of God open and manifest in this most beautiful theater [the world]”?

St. Paul exhorted us that “each one should retain the place in life… to which God has called him.” (1Cor 7:17) There’s little evidence this verse applies only to doctors and farmers and locksmiths and priests. Lilia tells her friend, “I think God likes me to act in plays”; but when the friend presses, “Why? To what end?” she can only reply, “I don't know.” Calvin (wild-and-crazy Bohemian sensualist that he was) perhaps supplies the answer in an elaboration on the passage above: “The contemplation of God's goodness in his creation will lead us to thankfulness and trust.... God has shown by the order of Creation that he created all things for man's sake.”

CJH
Soli Deo Gloria

Feb 14-24: Kyle Jesperson in STEEL KISS

Hi everyone,

A quick plug for my next show, "Steel Kiss," inspired by the fatal beating of a gay man by a group of highschool students.
It is one hour long, and it runs Feb.14-24 at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island. There is content warning for those under the age of 16.
For info about the show: www.greenthumb.bc.ca
For tickets: http://www.ticketstonight.ca/ticketstonight/event.details.php?id=1229

Me and the rest of the guys are amped up as heck about this show...

Thanks!
-Kyle

Letter: Gratitude for Rosedale Writers Week

Last year at this time Pacific Theatre hosted a Writers Week, made possible by the Rosedale On Robson Suite Hotel, which drew together playwrights from all over North America. Here's a recent email from Jeanne Murray Walker, whose play was workshopped.

Hi Ron,

...this is an anniversary, and I just want to say thanks again for bringing us together last January. For me, for many of us, I think, it was a profoundly wonderful time. Your generosity and the hard work of your staff at Pacific Theatre was heroic. I have gone on to revise the script I heard read there and will be listening to the next draft read by the Gordon College Theatre department next week. I think the script is almost finished. For me the time in Vancouver was transformational, and I suspect it was for other playwrights, too. I hope we can figure out a way to get together again. But whatever happens about that, last year's gathering drew us together and provided real, practical help for many of us, and I remain enormously grateful to you.

Wishing you all good things,

Jeanne

Feb 17: Pacific Rim String Quartet at Pacific Theatre

This reminder note from Brian Mix...

Hello friends,

Just a reminder that the next "Music at Pacific" concert is this coming Sunday, February 17, at 3:00 pm. The Pacific Rim String Quartet will perform Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet, Arvo Pärt’s Summa, and Shostakovich’s powerful and moving Quartet No. 8. The intimate 124-seat Pacific Theatre, located at West 12th Avenue and Hemlock, is perfect for experiencing chamber music.

Tickets are available at 604-731-5518 or www.pacifictheatre.org. For more information go to www.pacificrimstringquartet.com. Only 21 seats were vacant at the last concert, so order your tickets soon!

Hope to see you there,
Brian.

How Theatre Failed America, by Mike Daisey

Here's an article sent to me by a theatre buddy in Seattle. Reminds me to be grateful that we at PT are small enough, and unbeholden, and can still be lean and lithe, and do the theatre we want, however modestly. It does make me sad to see how poor my fellow artists can be, both in terms of annual income and in terms of opportunities to make their art. But I'm not actually sure the good old days ever were: I think it's pretty much always been this way for theatre folk, a hard road. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, it seems to me that life in the theatre has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left. Or not tried in the first place.

The Empty Spaces
Or, How Theater Failed America
by Mike Daisey
The Stranger (Seattle), Feb 5, 2008

Seven years ago, I left Seattle for New York—I abandoned the garage theaters and local arts scene and friends and colleagues—because I was a coward. I'd already tried to sell out once, by working at a shitty Wal-Mart of a tech company, but I knew I would not survive in the theater if I stayed. I fled to New York to bite and claw a living out of the American theater as an independent artist because I was young and stupid enough to think that would actually work. Today, my wife and I are one of a handful of working companies who create original work in theaters across the country. We're a very small ensemble: I am the monologuist; she is the director. We survive because we're nimble, we break rules, and when simple dumb luck happens upon us, we're ready for it.

We return to Seattle maybe once a year. During my first week back this time, I ended up at a friend's party, long after the rest of the guests had gone, in that golden hour when the place is almost cleaned up, but the energy of the night is still hanging in the air. We settled down in the kitchen under the bright light, making 4:00 a.m. conversation and, as all theater artists do, I asked the traditional question: "What are you working on?"

My friend's face fell, for just a moment—she's a fantastic actress, one of the best in the city, with an intelligence and precision that has taken my breath away for years. She corrected a moment later, and told me carefully that she wasn't going out for anything now—that she was giving it up. She has a job-share position at her day job to let her take roles when needed, but now she is going to go permanent for the first time in her entire life. After 15 years of working in theaters all over Seattle, she'd felt the fire go out of her from the relentless grind of two full-time jobs: one during the day in a cubicle, the other at night on a stage.

She said what really finished it for her was getting cast in a big Equity show this fall and seeing how the other Equity actors lived—the man whose work had inspired her all her life, living in a dilapidated hovel he was lucky to afford; the woman who couldn't spare 10 dollars to eat lunch with colleagues without doing some quick math on a scrap of paper to check her weekly budget. These are the success stories, the very best actors in the Northwest, the ones you've seen onstage time and time again. Their reward is years of being paid as close to nothing as possible in a career with no job security whatsoever, performing for overwhelmingly wealthy audiences whose rounding errors exceed the weekly pittance that trickles down to them.

My friend looked at me imploringly—she's close to 40, at the height of her powers, but the sacrifices of this theater ask for raw youth: When she arrived in Seattle, she'd eat white rice flavored with soy sauce for lunch for a month at a time. "Maybe if I was 23 again," she said. "Maybe not even then." She looked down at the table as she said this, and I felt a kind of death in the room.

The institutions that form the backbone of Seattle theater—Seattle Rep, Intiman, ACT—are regional theaters. The movement that gave birth to them tried to establish theaters around the country to house repertory companies of artists, giving them job security, an honorable wage, and health insurance. In return, the theaters would receive the continuity of their work year after year—the building blocks of community. The regional theater movement tried to create great work and make a vibrant American theater tradition flourish.

That dream is dead. The theaters endure, but the repertory companies they stood for have been long disbanded. When regional theaters need artists today, they outsource: They ship the actors, designers, and directors in from New York and slam them together to make the show. To use a sports analogy, theaters have gone from a local league with players you knew intimately to a different lineup for every game, made of players you'll never see again, coached by a stranger, on a field you have no connection to.

Not everyone lost out with the removal of artists from the premises. Arts administrators flourished as the increasingly complex corporate infrastructure grew. Literary departments have blossomed over the last few decades, despite massive declines in the production of new work. Marketing and fundraising departments in regional theaters have grown hugely, replacing the artists who once worked there, raising millions of dollars from audiences that are growing smaller, older, and wealthier. It's not such a bad time to start a career in the theater, provided you don't want to actually make any theater.

The biggest reason the artists were removed was because it was best for the institution. I often have to remind myself that "institution" is a nice word for "nonprofit corporation," and the primary goal of any corporation is to grow. The best way to grow a nonprofit corporation is to raise money, use the money to market for more donors, and to build bigger and bigger buildings and fill them with more staff.

Using this lens, it all makes sense. The worst way to let the corporation of the theater grow is to spend too much on actors—why do that, when they're a dime a dozen? Certainly it isn't cost-effective to keep them in the community. Use them and discard them. Better to invest in another "educational" youth program, mashing up Shakespeare until it is a thin, lifeless paste that any reasonable person would reject as disgusting, but garners more grant money.

Every time a regional theater produces Nickel and Dimed, the play based on Barbara Ehrenreich's book about the working poor in America, I keep hoping the irony will reach up and bitch-slap the staff members as they put actors, the working poor they're directly responsible for creating, in an agitprop shuck-and-jive dance about that very problem. I keep hoping it will pierce their mantle of smug invulnerability and their specious whining about how television, iPods, Reagan, the NEA, short attention spans, the folly of youth, and a million other things have destroyed American theater.

The numbers are grim—the audiences are dying off all over the country. I know because every night I'm onstage, I stare out into the dark and can hear the oxygen tanks hissing. When I was 25, the Seattle Rep started offering cheap tickets to everyone under 25. When I turned 30, theaters started offering cheap tickets to everyone under 30. Now that I've turned 35, I see the same thing happening again, as theaters do the math and realize that no one under 35 is coming to their shows—it's a bright line, the terminator between day and night, advancing inexorably upward. A theater I'm working at this year is hosting a promotional event to coax "young people" to see our show. Their definition of young? Under 45.

There are clear steps theaters could take. For example, they could radically reduce ticket prices across the board. Most regional theaters make less than half of their budget from ticket sales—they have the power to make all their tickets 15 or 20 dollars if they were willing to cut staff and transition through a tight season. It would not be easy, but it is absolutely possible. Of course, that would also require making theater less of a "luxury" item—which raises secret fears that the oldest, whitest, richest donors will stop supporting the theater once the uncouth lower classes with less money and manners start coming through the door. These people might even demand different kinds of plays, which would be annoying and troublesome. The current audience, while small and shrinking, demands almost nothing—they're practically comatose, which makes them docile and easy to handle.

Better to revive another August Wilson play and claim to be speaking about race right now. Better to do whatever was off Broadway 18 months ago and pretend that it's relevant to this community at this time. Better to talk and wish for change, but when the rubber hits the road, sit on your hands and think about the security of your office, the pleasure of a small, constant paycheck, the relief of being cared for if you get sick: the things you will lose if you stop working at this corporation.

The truth is, the people in charge like things the way they are—they've made them that way, after all. Sure, they wish things could be better. Who doesn't? They're dyed-in-the-wool liberals, each and every one of them, and they'll tell you so while they mount another Bertolt Brecht play. The revolutionary fire that drew them to the theater has to fight through so much shit, day after day, that even the best of them can barely imagine a different path. They didn't enter the theater to work for a corporation, but now they do, and they more than anyone else know the dire state of things. I've gone drinking with the artistic directors of the biggest theaters in the country and listened to them explain that they know the system is broken and they feel trapped within it, beholden to board members they've made devil's deals with, shackled to the ship as it goes down. I've heard their laughter, heard them call each other dinosaurs, heard them give thanks that they'll be retired in 10 years.

Corporations make shitty theater. This is because theater, the ineffable part of the experience that comes in rare and random bursts, is not a commodity, and corporations suck at understanding the noncommodifiable. Corporations don't understand theater. Only people, real people, understand theater. Audiences, technicians, actors, playwrights, costumers, designers—all of them give their time and energy to this thing for a reason, and that dream is not quantifiable on any spreadsheet.

As I drove home from my friend's house that night, I felt myself filling up with grief. There will be some who read this who will blame her, think she should have sacrificed more, that this is a story of weakness. But I stand by her. I know in my heart she has given full weight, just as so many other artists have given over the years. Much of the best theater of my life I have seen in the garages of Seattle, unseen and forgotten by many. But I remember. Theater failed my friend, as it is failing us all, and I am heartbroken because we will never know the measure of what we've lost.

Mike Daisey is a monologuist, author, and working artist.

Feb 12, 16: THE HITCHHIKER

THE HITCHHIKER
a short film directed by Jason R. Goode
starring: Aleks Paunovic & Gina Chiarelli

These are the FINAL local screenings of this film.

TWO MORE LOCAL SCREENINGS:
1) New Cineworks 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 7:00pm (Pacific Cinematheque, Vancouver)
(Screening with other local short films)
$8 Members, $10 Non-members

2) Port Moody Canadian Film Festival
Saturday, February 16, 7:00pm (Inlet Theatre, Port Moody)
(Screening with the feature film: Guide de la Petit Vengeance)
$5

Martin is a desperate hitchhiker who just wants a ride. A car pulls over but the dirver won't help until she is sure Martin is completely "safe." With outstanding performances from Aleks Paunovic and Gina Chiarelli, and featureing the music of Blue Rodeo, two worlds collide in this story about what it means to help someone out.

Based on the play by Kathleen Parsons
Produced by John Sullivan & Jason R. Goode

FESTIVAL SELECTIONS include:

Palm Springs Festival of Short Films
Los Angeles International Short Film Festival
Calgary International Film Festival
Winnipeg International Film Festival
D.C. Shorts Film Festival
Beach Blanket Film Festival
Digital Narrative Arts Film Festival
East Lansing Film Festival
Flickerings Film Showcase
Longbaugh Film Festival
Everett Women's Film Festival
Portobello Film Festival (UK)
Northwest Film and Video Festival
World of Comedy Film Festival

Awards include:

Niagara Indie Film Fest (Best Independent Drama)
Women in Film Festival, B.C. (2nd Place People’s Choice Award)
Okanagan Film Festival (Opening Gala, People’s Choice Top 10)
Global Comedy Fest (Winner: Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress)

Feb 7: Happy Birthday, Sir Thomas...

Thursday February 7 is Thomas More's birthday. He'll be turning either 530 or 531, but once you pass the big five-o-o, who's counting?

Rumour has it St. Tom will be dropping by the Pacific Theatre lobby a little after 10pm for some birthday cake, so if you want to pass along some birthday wishes in person, meet a dead guy, hang out with some groovy actor types, or just score some free bd cake, come on by! And listen, just so we know how much cake to make, you can RSVP by booking yourself a ticket to see A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS that night. (Hot tip: apparently the saint himself will be at the show, as well!)

You heard it here first.



Ron Reed,
Soul Food Chef and Personal Pal of Sir/Saint Thomas More

Tickets: 731-5518 or PT website

P.S. Here are some other links...

Press release for the Midnight Theatre Collective production of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS at Pacific Theatre

Film maker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma, etc) on A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Catholic film critic Steven Greydanus on A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Feb 22: Graham Ord, Abbotsford

Feb 17: Pacific Rim String Quartet at Pacific Theatre

A note from Brian Mix

Hello friends,

This is a reminder that the next Music at Pacific concert is on Sunday, February 17, at 3:00 pm. The Pacific Rim String Quartet will perform Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet, Arvo Pärt’s Summa, and Shostakovich’s powerful and moving Quartet No. 8. The intimate 124-seat Pacific Theatre, located at West 12th Avenue and Hemlock, is perfect for experiencing chamber music.

Tickets are available at 604-731-5518 or www.pacifictheatre.org. For more information go to www.pacificrimstringquartet.com. Only 21 seats were vacant at the last concert, so order your tickets soon!

Brian.

Feb 3 & 10: Reflections on Thomas More

I'll be preaching at Holy Trinity Anglican Church this coming Sunday, February 3, reflecting on the experience of playing Thomas More in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. That's in the church sanctuary, just upstairs from Pacific Theatre, at 1440 West 12th, Vancouver. There are two services, a contemporary service at 10am and a traditional service at 11:30. (The latter uses the Book Of Common Prayer, which was originally written by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop who presided over Thomas More's execution and the founding of the Anglican church which Thomas so vehemently opposed - intriguing ironies.)

The following Sunday, February 10, I'll be preaching at my own home church, Fraserview Mennonite Brethren (11295 Mellis Drive, Richmond). Again, talking about what's been stirred up in me by the story of Thomas More, though (to keep things interesting for myself, if no one else) I intend to talk about different things than in the Holy Trinity sermons. That service begins at 10am, and there are driving directions a the Fraserview website.

The Films Of 2005 (MCN)

Jan 24 - Feb 23: A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Don't Miss A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS at Pacific Theatre

Chris (C.C.) Humphreys is the best-selling author of five historical fiction novels – including one on Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, and an international actor seen on stages as wide-ranging as London’s West End and Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox. Midnight Theatre Collective and Pacific Theatre are honoured and privileged to welcome him to the cast of A Man for All Seasons, in the roles of the dread King Henry VIII and the relentless and calculating Thomas Cromwell.

When Henry VIII sets out to divorce his wife he seeks the support of Sir Thomas More – revered scholar, lawyer, and churchman - the Lord Chancellor’s quiet defiance ignites a ferocious battle as he struggles to avoid the dreadful inevitable choice, between King and conscience, loyalty, and martyrdom. A play for all time, Sir Thomas More is A Man for All Seasons. Midnight Theatre Collective’s version is set in post-World-War II era, a period steeped in suspicion, dangerous politics, and cold war.

This production of the award-winning masterpiece features Ron Reed (Shadowlands, God’s Man in Texas) in the role of Sir Thomas More and Chris Humphreys (The Rivals, Hamlet) as the formidable, unforgettable King Henry VIII. Also starring Trish Pattenden (Lettuce & Lovage), Evangela Dueck (Halo, Terrible Things), William Samples (The Birthday Party), Adam Bergquist (Last Train To Nibroc, Chickens, Portia My Love, The Odyssey), Damon Calderwood (The Elephant Man), and Julius Chapple (richardthesecond: a nightmare), and directed by Jeremy Tow (Agnes of God, A Streetcar Named Desire), Midnight Theatre Collective’s production of A Man for All Seasons is for all people whose conscience has ever stood up against the way they may be forced to live.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS by Robert Bolt
Jan. 24 – Feb. 23 (Opens Jan. 25), Wed–Sat at 8pm, Sat at 2pm ($10 Preview Jan.24)

Pacific Theatre, 1420 West 12th Ave (at Hemlock St), Vancouver, BC

Tickets: 604.731.5518, or online, or in person at the Box Office (1420 West 12th).

Jan 15-19, 22-26: HAMLET by Shadows & Dreams

The folks who brought you A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in the park in New Westminster last summer are at it again, including Kerri Norris, Frank Nickel and Stephen Elcheshen, all familiar from the PT stage.

Betrayal, Madness and Revenge, in Ninety Minutes
Shadows and Dreams Theatre Company Presents:

Hamlet
by
William Shakespeare

"How these things came about: so shall they hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I truly
deliver."

The King of Denmark has been dead a month, but his
spirit does not rest easy. Hamlet, the young Prince
of Denmark, should have succeeded his father, but
instead the King's brother Claudius has seized the
throne. (Not to mention Hamlet's mother, the widowed
Queen.) Yet Hamlet's sorrow at this betrayal turns
quickly to anger when he learns that Claudius may not
have just profited from the late King's death, but
caused it. His father's restless ghost sets Hamlet on
a dangerous path to discover the truth of the King's
death, weave a trap for Claudius, avoid the snares
that lay in wait for him and ultimately exact a grim
revenge that destroys far more than he intended.

Presented by just seven actors in an uninterrupted
hour and a half this production strips Shakespeare's
longest play down to its dark heart of sorrow, anger
and sudden tragic violence.

Tickets: Pay What You Can

Performances: January 15 – 19th Glenbrook Middle
School (701 Park Cres, New Westminster)
January 22 - 26th The
Beaumont Studios (316 W. 5th Ave, Vancouver)
Show times: 8pm, 2pm matinées on Saturday

Information: 604-515-0704 or
www.shadowsanddreams.org

Directed by Nigel Brooke (Burnaby)
Featuring: Patricia Johnson (Burnaby), Stephen
Elcheshen (New Westminster), Dana MacInnis (New
Westminster),
Frank Nickel (Richmond), Kerri Norris (New
Westminster), Marni Westerman (New Westminster),
Glynis Knowlden (Coquitlam), James Knowlden
(Coquitlam), Allen Pike (Burnaby)

A Man For All Seasons

First rehearsal tomorrow, which is good news. Bad news just a couple days ago: my buddy Dirk Van Stralen can't do the show after all. Followed by wonderful news today: director Jeremy Tow has cast C. C. Humphreys to take over the roles of Cromwell and King Henry VIII. Jer's excited, Chris is excited (judging from his blog), and I'm excited - I've not met the fellow, but in addition to exciting acting credits he's done a batch of novels, including two about Ann Boleyn! And now he'll be playing Ann's hubby-to-be. Swell.

Just so you know, we preview Jan 24, open Jan 25. All the details at the Pacific Theatre website.

Sep 12-28: REFUGE OF LIES Off-Broadway!

Just got word from director Steven Day in New York that the theatre is secured and the dates set for the Off-Broadway run of my play REFUGE OF LIES. The show will open September 12 2008 at The Lion Theatre, which is part of Theatre Row on 42nd Street (two blocks from Times Square), closing September 28. Here are a couple shots of the lobby wall, listing a heap of shows that have played in the Theatre Row spaces. (Can you believe it? DRIVING MISS DAISY, FOOL FOR LOVE, ALL IN THE TIMING, KRAPP'S LAST TAPE, THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, THE DINING ROOM, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE...)


And my gosh, look what opens there January 15? Mike Leigh's latest...

TWO THOUSAND YEARS
by Mike Leigh; directed by Scott Elliott
Presented by The New Group

The Acorn Theatre
Jan 15 - Mar 8
Hot off their recent smash hit Abigail's Party, Artistic Director Scott Elliott re-teams with longtime collaborator Mike Leigh on his latest play, which had a sold-out, run at London's National Theatre. Leigh's play tells how an assimilated Jewish family's quiet life in suburban London is upset when their son becomes seriously devout.

Rudi Krause, Thoughts on THIS WONDERFUL LIFE

To Dan:

Just home from watching "This Wonderful Life". In watching you, Dan, I could always see two faces, hear two voices: the character you were portraying at the time, and your own. Sometimes the former was stronger, clearer; sometimes the latter. I know you could have made the characters (pre)dominate. But the interplay between the characters in the story and the story-teller himself was fascinating to watch; it drew me in and engaged me so that I was able to see my own face as well. I was able to identify with George more and better than when watching the movie. A fabulous, riveting, endearing, moving performance; it added depth and substance to a story which is pretty darn great in itself. Well done.

Further reflections:

The movie ends and so does the play; but not George Bailey's wonderful life. The money in the basket is used up. Another baby is born (a colicky one at that). Mr. Potter doesn't die for some time. The kids grow up and get into trouble of one kind or another. Mary gets sick, seriously ill. Does that mean that George's life was only wonderful on that one memorable Christmas?

No, as Dan reminds us in the play: it's not about Christmas; it's about all the other days. And all those other days (past and future) make up George's wonderful life. Of course, he doesn't it think it's wonderful all the time. He may have learned an important lesson under Clarence's lovely tutelage. But there will be days when that lesson will have faded, will be forgotten.

Our lives are wonderful not when and because we think they are wonderful. They are wonderful. Period. And it's not because we are stupid or fallen that we don't usually acknowledge that fundamental, mysterious truth. It's simply because we are human and limited. The weather changes; the sun doesn't always shine; time cycles through the seasons. To everything there is a season - including the recognition and the celebration that life is wonderful and beautiful.


Rudi Krause is a Pacific Theatre subscriber and a poet. I've read a couple of his pieces at Christmas Presence, unforeseen and one way

Dec 19: Sutherland Christmas Presence credits

ACT ONE

Nelson Boschman Trio – O Tannenbaum

Ron Reed - Robert Farrar Capon: Advent
Michael Hart - All Hail And Welcome

Ron Reed – Dina Donohue: No Room At The Inn

Garth Bowen - Go Tell It on The Mountain

Ron Reed - Garrison Keillor: The Seven Principles of a Successful Christmas

Garth Bowen - God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Ron Reed – Frederic Buechner: The Face In The Sky
sheree plett & eisenhauer – what child is this

Michael Hart - Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Ron Reed - Sufjan Stevens: Christmas Tube Socks
Nelson Boschman - Star Of Wonder (Sufjan Stevens)
Ron Reed – Tom Carson: Snow Angel
sheree plett & eisenhauer – time of year

ACT TWO

Nelson Boschman Trio – Joy To The World

Ron Reed – Luci Shaw: Presents

Ben Goheen - Ave Maria

Garth Bowen - White Christmas
Ron Reed - David Sedaris: Santa's Little Helper

Michael Hart - Light Of The Stable

sheree plett & eisenhauer – oh emmanuel

Ron Reed – Ron Reed: It's A Wonderful Life
Nelson Boschman - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Ron Reed - Frederic Buechner: excerpt from Emmanuel

sheree plett & Eisenhauer - Silent Night


Some of these readings and several others are posted at Oblations

Dec 15: Valley Christmas Presence credits

ACT ONE

Nelson Boschman Trio – I Saw Three Ships
Ron Reed - Robert Farrar Capon: Advent
Michael Hart - Si Nous Marchons

Ron Reed / band – Blue Xmas / Blue Train
Ron Reed – Luci Shaw: Presents

Carolyn Arends - Christmas Must Be Tonight

Ron Reed – Frederic Buechner: The Face In The Sky
sheree plett & eisenhauer – what child is this

Carolyn Arends - It Was A Holy Night

Arnica Skulstad-Brown - Mike Mason: Christmas In July

Nelson Boschman - Star Of Wonder (Sufjan Stevens)
Ron Reed – Tom Carson: Snow Angel
sheree plett & eisenhauer – time of year

ACT TWO

Michael Hart - O Holy Night

Ron Reed - Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Christ Climbed Down

sheree plett & eisenhauer - I Will Not Let Go

Arnica Skulstad-Brown - Annie Dillard: God In The Doorway

Carolyn Arends -

sheree plett & eisenhauer – oh emmanuel

Ron Reed – Ron Reed: It's A Wonderful Life
Nelson Boschman - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Ron Reed - Frederic Buechner: excerpt from Emmanuel

Carolyn Arends - Is Bethlehem Too Far Away?
Michael Hart - O Come All Ye Faithful

*

Some of these Christmas readings and others can be found at Oblations

Dec 11: Christmas Presence at Holy Trinity credits

Featuring The Gallery Singers, Sara Ciantar (organ), Trish Pattenden and Ron Reed

ACT ONE
Ron & Trish - Charles Dickens: Scrooge & His Nephew
Gallery Singers- Es nacido
Trish - Scripture: The Annunciation
ALL - Joy To The World
Ron - Scripture: The Birth
Gallery Singers - O Magnum / Nino Dios
Trish - Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Match Girl
ALL - The First Noel
Ron - Scripture: The Magi
ALL - O Come All Ye Faithful
Gallery Singers - Convidando esta la noche

ACT TWO
Gallery Singers - I Saw Three Ships
Trish - Scripture: The Shepherds
ALL - Away In A Manger
Ron - Charles Dickens: Seven Poor Travelers
Gallery Singers - Guastavino / Medina / Pereira
Ron - David Kossoff: Seth
ALL: Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Trish - Robert Louis Stevenson: Christmas Prayer
Gallery Singers - We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Ron - Dylan Thomas: A Child's Christmas In Wales
ALL: Silent Night

Dec 10: Christmas Presence credits

ACT ONE

Nelson Boschman Trio – I Saw Three Ships
Verve Collective – Rudolph / Frosty Medley

Ron Reed / band – Blue Xmas / Blue Train
Ron Reed – Luci Shaw: Presents
Verve Collective – The Christmas Song

Ron Reed – Frederic Buechner: The Face In The Sky
sheree plett & eisenhauer – what child is this
Ron Reed - Wayne Harrel: The Camels Of Ancient Yore

Nelson Boschman Trio – Angels We Have Heard On High

Becky Branscom – Annie Dillard: God In The Doorway

Verve Collective – Let It Snow!
Ron Reed – Tom Carson: Snow Angel
sheree plett & eisenhauer – time of year

ACT TWO

Verve Collective – Angels We Have Heard on High
Ron Reed – Dina Donohue: No Room At The Inn

Tom Pickett: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Richard Osler & Holly Burke – poetry

Verve Collective – Carol of the Bells
Nelson Boschman - Star Of Wonder (Sufjan Stevens)

sheree plett & eisenhauer – oh emmanuel

Ron Reed – Ron Reed: It's A Wonderful Life
Nelson Boschman - O Come O Come Emmanuel
Ron Reed - Frederic Buechner: excerpt from Emmanuel

Verve Collective – Silent Night
Ron Reed - Robert Louis Stevenson: Christmas Prayer

*

THE PLAYERS

Bit of a jazz flavour tonight, especially with Verve Collective as our featured performers. Some PT fans will know this swinging a capella squadron from our 2007 Valentines Gala at the Vancouver Art Gallery. They came our way through friend-of-Pacific-Theatre and Collective member Jennifer Nagel, but alas we won't be hearing from Jennifer tonight: in the spirit of the Nativity season, she's taking time off to raise her new little baby!

Like the fabled MacNamara, jazz pianist Nelson Boschman is the leader of our Christmas Presence house band: his Mennonite Jazz Committee (love that moniker) just released a brand new Christmas CD, "Dawn Of Grace," and The Nelson Boschman Trio put out "Keeping Time: Volume 02" this fall – like Volume 01 (which includes my great favourites "Song For Ordinary Time" and "Jerusalem Hymn") the recordings are structured around the liturgical calendar, and the new one features quite a few Advent / Christmas / Epiphany numbers. You can order either of the Keeping Time cds or buy downloads of specific songs at the CSCSS website. I'm not sure where you can buy the MJC recordings (apart from the PT lobby at Christmas Presence), but if I find out from NeBo, I'll be sure to let you know. Also in the band we had Brett Ziegler on keyboards, Kenton Wiens and Rick Colhoun on drums and percussion, and Becca Robertson on bass.

sheree plett and Eisenhauer (that's her husband Jeremy) have just put out a brand new Christmas cd called "Lights Used To Shine" – and hey, there's even a dedication "to everyone at christmas presence – without them this album would probably not exist." My. That feels good. sher and jer (along with the band) are pretty much our "artists in residence" this Christmas: they'll be playing with us again Dec 10 at PT, Dec 15 in the valley and Dec 19 on the North Shore.

Musically, we'll also be joined by Pacific Theatre regular Tom Pickett, who you've seen onstage in memorable shows like DRIVING MISS DAISY, TENT MEETING, MASTER HAROLD & THE BOYS and plenty of others.

And Richard Osler is back with us again following his Christmas Presence debut last year, and this time he's joined by musician Holy Burke. We love to feature poets on our stage – doing what we can to preserve endangered species – and if you haven't read it, and have a heart for Africa, you may want to check out his book "Again, No More: Poems Of Africa." Carolyn Arends has posted several of Richard's Africa poems and stories in her online journal. For copies of his book (which includes a cd of the poet reading his own work), contact Richard directly at osler@shaw.ca


For other Christmas readings, check out Oblations

Dec 9: Christmas Presence credits

ACT ONE
Nelson Boschman & the band - I Saw Three Ships
Garth Bowen – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Ron Reed – William Nicholson: Christmas Drinks Party
Sara Ciantar – How Long
Ron Reed – Charles Dickens: Seven Poor Travellers
sheree plett & eisenhauer – lights used to shine
Luci Shaw – The Overshadow, Virgin, Madonna and Child with Saints
Karly Warkentin – a new song for Christmas Presence
Ron Reed – Frederic Buechner: The Face In The Sky
sheree plett & eisenhauer – what child is this
Ron Reed - Wayne Harrel: The Camels Of Ancient Yore (as told by a forgetful Grandmother, c1600)
Garth Bowen – Go Tell It On The Mountain

ACT TWO
Nelson Boschman & the band – Christmas Time Is Here
sheree plett & eisenhauer – cloak room
Luci Shaw - Madeleine L'Engle: The Tree
Luci Shaw – Mary's Song
Garth Bowen – White Christmas
Ron Reed – David Sedaris: Santa's Little Helper
sheree plett & eisenhauer – oh emmanuel
Ron Reed – Ron Reed: It's A Wonderful Life
James Lamb – O Come O Come Emmanuel
Ron Reed - Frederic Buechner: excerpt from Emmanuel
Garth Bowen – Alleluia
Ron Reed - David Kossoff: excerpt from Seth

*

THE PLAYERS

Luci Shaw was our special guest last night, driving in all the way from that o so little town of Bellingham just to read us her poems, and one by her dear friend Madeleine L'Engle. Her brand new collection of Christmas and other incarnational poems, Accompanied by Angels, is available at the Regent Bookstore, as is her classic anthology of Christmas pieces by various poets A Widening Light, which includes the L'Engle poem Luci read for us.

Like the fabled MacNamara, jazz pianist Nelson Boschman is the leader of our Christmas Presence house band: his Mennonite Jazz Committee (love that moniker) just released a brand new Christmas CD, "Dawn Of Grace," and The Nelson Boschman Trio put out "Keeping Time: Volume 02" this fall – like Volume 01 (which includes my great favourites "Song For Ordinary Time" and "Jerusalem Hymn") the recordings are structured around the liturgical calendar, and the new one features quite a few Advent / Christmas / Epiphany numbers. You can order either of the Keeping Time cds or buy downloads of specific songs at the CSCSS website. I'm not sure where you can buy the MJC recordings (apart from the PT lobby at Christmas Presence), but if I find out from NeBo, I'll be sure to let you know. Also in the band we had Brett Ziegler on keyboards, Kenton Wiens and Rick Colhoun on drums and percussion, and Becca Robertson on bass.

sheree plett and Eisenhauer (that's her husband Jeremy) have just put out a brand new Christmas cd called "Lights Used To Shine" – and hey, there's even a dedication "to everyone at christmas presence – without them this album would probably not exist." My. That feels good. sher and jer (along with the band) are pretty much our "artists in residence" this Christmas: they'll be playing with us again Dec 10 at PT, Dec 15 in the valley and Dec 19 on the North Shore.

New to the line-up were three members of baroque folk ensemble Wicker Robot; Karly Warkentin, Sara Ciantar and James Lamb. Karly even wrote a new song for (and sort of about) Christmas Presence. Wow. Wish we'd been recording! The amazing Sara Ciantar not only has a cd ("How Long") produced by one of our two little drummer boys, Rick Colhoun, but she'll be playing the pipe organ at our Traditional Christmas Presence in the Holy Trinity sanctuary Tuesday December 11. Crazy talented.

Garth Bowen is a seasoned Christmas Presence veteran, and goes back even further, to a time before there even was a Christmas Presence – Garth and I were both in the cast of PT's very first production of COTTON PATCH GOSPEL at the Richmond Gateway. He's currently working on a Christmas cd, but in the meantime you can hear his marvelous "Alleluia" on the Pacific Theatre "Christmas Presence" cd.

For other Christmas readings, check out Oblations

Dec 8 closing: THE ECSTASY OF RITA JOE

With Lisa Ravensbergen as Rita Joe...

Dec 4: Stage & Screen, THIS WONDERFUL LIFE!

DON'T MISS THE 2nd STAGE & SCREEN SERIES DECEMBER 4, 8pm!

PAY WHAT YOU CAN** and FREE to subscribers
TICKETS: 604.731.5518
pacifictheatre.org

Don't miss the second of our Stage & Screen Series at Pacific Theatre on Dec. 4 at 8pm, an exciting and interactive evening about THIS WONDERFUL LIFE!

The second evening of this series features Artistic Director Ron Reed, and Dan Amos, the star of THIS WONDERFUL LIFE, discussing the relationship between the unique story-telling mediums of stage and screen.

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO JOIN IN THEIR DISCUSSION!

*Subscribers - if you are not going to use your tickets, please inform the Box Office so we can release them for others to use! Thank you for your consideration.
** Pay-what-you-can on Dec. 4 in person at the box office, or $10 in advance.

Dec 19 - Jan 6: Betty Spackman, Fort Gallery

Notes from the artist

“...The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

I have decided not to title this exhibition, although if I did it would be called something like, “’Oh Christmas Tree’: A Seasonal Lament”, or “Whose woods these are”, after Robert Frost’s well know poem, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening….as the work is somehow about trees. But it is really more about stopping long enough to see and to ‘hear’ - the trees and everything else around me.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

I think that popular philosophical question should perhaps be, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, where is everyone !?” I don’t want to ignore ‘the fallen’ anymore. I want to be present and listening and I want to understand how I am implicated in the fall. I want to have ears to hear and allow myself to be wounded with the wounds of the world around me.

At many levels I am greedy, careless and apathetic. It comes with being human, a self-centered North American human, preoccupied with survival and gratification. But in determining to stop, look and listen a little more closely to the world on the other side of my skin, I have learned my skin does not separate me from anything. Instead, I am implicated, ‘folded in’, ‘entangled’ as the Latin root of implicated suggests. Nature is not outside me; I am inside it. When I move I can push the air enough to jostle a leaf on the tree I pass by. When the leaf falls, when the tree falls I should also be jostled, I should feel the earth shake, feel my body shake…but I seldom do. I am fat and dull of hearing. I have too many “promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

In this show and a new installation work I am producing simultaneously, I attempt to understand my relationship and responsibility for the broken, fragile planet. I do this in the only way I am currently able to do. I celebrate life and lament its loss - through images and objects. If I could sing this would be a Christmas carol sung by a donkey. It would be a sad song about too many pine beetles and too few bees in the forest. It would be about human babies born without shelter and animals without their natural habitat. It would be about open wounds and about the promise of restoration. And it would be about trees.

Nov 25: Mennonite Jazz Committee, House of James

Friends & Family,

This sunday night, November 25th (7:00-9:30pm) we'd love to see you at House of James where the Mennonite Jazz Committee will be playing Christmas jazz ($7 at the door). DAWN OF GRACE is our brand new Christmas CD, hot off the press this week.

DAWN OF GRACE will be on sale that night for only $11.00 – so for $18.00 plus tax you get a concert and a CD!

Hope to see you there!

Nelson Boschman

Nov 29 - Dec 29: THIS WONDERFUL LIFE

THIS WONDERFUL LIFE
an exhilarating one-man version of the beloved Christmas Classic
November 29 - December 29

It is Christmas Eve in a wartime New England town. Despairing over a life of dreams deferred, George Bailey sets out to throw himself from a bridge – until a dotty angel-in-waiting shows him what might have been had he never lived at all. A single actor stunningly recreates over two dozen memorable characters in this imaginative tour-de-force.

Pacific Theatre is delighted to join you in your Christmas festivities with this quintessential holiday show. The heartwarming drama was first brought to the silver screen in 1946, and has seen multiple incarnations in its 61 years. The Canadian premiere of this one-man revivification stars Dan Amos (The Quarrel, A Bright Particular Star) as the entire cast of over two dozen unforgettable characters.

Ever-faithful to the script, playwright Steve Murray brings us all the show’s beloved or unforgettable characters, including George Bailey, Mister Potter, Clarence, and little Zuzu, who reminds us all that every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

Directed by Morris Ertman, with scenery and lighting design by Kevin McAllister, and sound design by Paul Moniz de Sá. At turns hilarious, touching, and even dark, This Wonderful Life is a holiday show not to be missed!

8pm Wednesdays to Saturdays, with 2pm matinees on Saturdays
November 29 is a PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN preview -
show up on the day of at the box office to pay what you can,
or book in advance for only $10
December 7 - talk-back night
December 26 - special Christmas matinee, 2pm

Book your tickets with our Box Office at 604.731.5518 or buy tickets online!

MAKE A NIGHT OUT OF IT!

Book your stay at the "Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel" in the heart of Vancouver. Ask for your "Friends of Pacific Theatre" rate and receive an incredible discount!

Call our Box Office for details, or book your stay with Rosedale - their reservation team are standing by to serve you! Call 604.689.8033 or 1.800.661.8870 and ask for your "Friends of Pacific Theatre Rate" today!

Friends of Pacific Theatre Rate | Regular Rate
Standard 1 Bedroom $109 | $127
Deluxe 1 Bedroom $119 | $137
2 Bedroom $159 | $177

All rates are based on single or double occupancy, additional adults are $20 each, and parking is extra (currently $10, going up to $11 in January).

Nov 28 - Dec 1: HOLY MO at TWU

THEATRE AT TWU PRESENTS
Holy Mo & Spew Boy by Lucia Frangione

Using wacky humour, wonderful music and a wagon full of props, three comic fools tell their unexpected version of the stories of Moses and David. This "post-modern old testament comedy" has delighted audiences in productions at Pacific Theatre and Rosebud and will surely charm us all once again. An interesting twist in the TWU production is that the three clowns have been double cast, with one cast playing Holy Mo and one Spew Boy. And you thought it was crazy enough!

November 28 - December 1 at 8 p.m.
Matinees Friday November 30 at 4
Saturday December 1 at 2

Tickets and info at TWU Theatre website

Nov 20: TWU, "Music, Creativity & Spirituality"

Geneva Lecture Series presents
Dr. David Squires, Associate Professor of Music and Dean of the Faculty of Professional Studies and Performing Arts, TWU
“Music, Creativity, and Spirituality: Contexts and Meanings”
Tue Nov 20, 7:30

It’s clear that music is expressive, but what and how does it express? Where is meaning located? Touching on some of the most significant responses to these and other related questions, the lecture will then examine musical creativity as an inherently spiritual activity, with examples from composers within and beyond the Western classical tradition.

All lectures are sponsored by the Geneva Society, and are held in the North West Auditorium on the Trinity Western Campus, Langley

Nov 22: Ron Reed in Langley, "Soapbox Or Sandbox"

Soapbox Or Sandbox?
Nov 22, 7 pm
Fraser River Presentation Centre
Township of Langley Municipal Building
20338 - 65th Avenue, Langley

"Art is the community's medicine for the worst disease of the mind"
R.G. Collingwood

There are artists who view themselves as prophets, the enlightened ones who confront their audiences with Great Truths dispensed from the mountaintops of creative insight like stone tablets: "Take that. It'll do you good." But while art - particularly the narrative arts, like theatre - does have meaning, and imparts meaning, it is rare that good art is intended to convey "a message". So what, exactly, does art do in us? And how does it do it? And who is it done for, and why? Reflections of an actor, playwright, artistic director and movie critic on art-making and community-building, and how the compulsions of the artist might feed the soul of the community.

*

Ron Reed is the artistic director of Pacific Theatre, which he founded in Vancouver in 1984. Some of the company's acclaimed recent productions include Grace, Cariboo Magi, Prodigal Son, Espresso, The Farndale Christmas Carol and Shadowlands. Recently nominated for Canada's prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, Ron is an actor, playwright, director and teacher whose work has been received Jessie Richardson, Dora Mavor Moore and Sterling Award nominations: he won the Chalmers Canadian Play award for Book Of The Dragon. Current productions of his plays include Tent Meeting (Rosebud, Alberta), Remnant (St Louis, Missouri) and A Bright Particular Star (Lookout Mountain, Georgia): Refuge Of Lies will open Off-Broadway in August 2008. Ron will play Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons at Pacific Theatre in February, and will direct a company of emerging artists in You Can't Take It With You to close the Pacific Theatre season in May. Ron is currently Artist In Residence at Trinity Western University, where he has taught acting for almost 20 years. He is working on a series of books about film entitled "Soul Food Movies: A Guide to films with a spiritual flavour." He lives in Richmond with his wife Carole and two daughters, Katie and Thea.

To Nov 17: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, Gallery 7

Gallery 7 Theatre & Performing Arts Society proudly presents…

L.M. Montgomery’s Classic story
Anne (of Green Gables)
Adapted for the stage by Paul Ledoux

November 2 & 3, 8 – 10, 15 – 17, 2007 @ 7:30 PM
Discount Matinees: Nov 3 & 10 @ 2:00 PM

The Town of Avonlea will never be the same. When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert request a young boy from the orphanage to assist around the farm, they are bemused when they find the energetic and ever-so-dramatic Anne Shirley at their doorstep instead. Experience L.M. Montgomery's beloved tale of hope, idealism and family in this special Canadian stage adaptation fit for the entire family.

MEI Secondary School Auditorium
4081 Clearbrook Road, Abbotsford

It’s a hit! Audiences are coming out in droves. Make sure you don’t miss this great family event.

Get your tickets @ House of James…
604-852-3701
2743 Emerson Street, Abbotsford.

Nov 19/20, 26 / Dec 1 / Jan 12, 31: Leora Cashe

Check Leora's website for details on all of these...

Monday and Tuesday November 19 & 20th
World Kindness Concert, Unity Church, Vancouver

Monday November 26th
Yvon-Justin Cote Book Release 'LIAR"
Boneta Restaurant, Vancouver

Then...

Saturday December 1st
Another Side Now - The Songs of Joni Mitchell
CD Release Concert, Unitarian Church, Vancouver

You're invited to our CD Release concert featuring the music of my first vocal influence, singer/songwiter, Joni Mitchell. Ross Taggart inspired me with the idea of recording this tribute CD and we're really excited about the finished product. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation in support of International World Aids Day. Purchase tickets on line at Tickets Tonight or by phone at 604-231-7535 or at Zulu Reords on 4th, 604-738-3232. Come and celebrate with me!

And then in the new year...
Saturday January 12
Evergreen Cultural Centre, Coquitlam

Thursday January 31st
Jazzilla, River Rock Theatre, Richmond

Nov 17, 23/24: Nelson Boschman jazz

LAST MINUTE UPDATE: CAPONE'S GIG CANCELLED. I THINK THE RESTAURANT OWNER WAS ARRESTED FOR TAX EVASION OR GUNNED DOWN IN A HAIL OF BULLETS OR SOMETHING...

Nelson Boschman is the pianist who's become the de facto leader of our de facto "house band" for Christmas Presence and all the other gigs like that around Pacific Theatre: Confessions, Passion, Testimony, all that. His late-summer CD release concert was a huge treat, and it looks like we'll have more chances to see him around Vancouver in the next while!


Hello all,

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve got a few restaurant/club gigs coming up in Vancouver. Here are the details…

Saturday Nov 17, 8pm
Bogart’s Chophouse & Bar
1619 W. Broadway (between Burrard & Fir)
I’ll be playing with the Kristian Braathen Trio
Kristian Braathen drums
Derek Defillipio bass
Nelson Boschman piano

Friday Nov 23 and Saturday Nov 24, 7:30pm
Capone’s Restaurant & Live Jazz Club
1141 Hamilton (in Yaletown)
Debbie Low vocals
Nelson Boschman piano
Jen Hodge bass
Kristian Braathen drums



So, if you’re craving a fun night out with some great food & music, come on out! It would be great to see you there…

Nelson
myspace

Nov 24: Michael Hart Africa concert

This just in from Brett Ziegler, our Christmas Presence keyboard man - telling about an upcoming concert with Michael Hart (backed by Spencer Capier), more Christmas Presence regulars. I'll post more about unfolding Christmas Presence plans before too long, but for now I can tell you that we'll be doing the show Dec 9 and 10 at Pacific Theatre, and Dec 15 in Abbotsford (where we'll be joined by Carolyn Arends and Brian Doerksen!). And a different sort of Christmas Presence on Dec 11, a benefit for Holy Trinity church featuring the Gallery Singers: not only will they sing from their glorious Christmas repertoire, but we'll all join with them to sing beloved Christmas carols, along with Holy Trinity's gorgeous pipe organ! But back to the topic at hand: here's Brett to tell us about Michael's upcoming gig...)


Hi Ron!

I'm wondering if you can "Soul Food" this upcoming event for me. It's a Michael Hart concert at my church, supporting AIDS programs and short term missions work in Uganda and Burkina Faso.

I've got Michael and Spence playing together, and Christine Magee opening. Michael produced Christine's CD, and she just won a Covenant award for best jazz/blues song of the year. I'd really appreciate it if you could help me get the word out.

Thanks lots!
brett.

Nov 12: BOYS NEXT DOOR auditions, Gallery 7

OPEN AUDITIONS:
The Boys Next Door

Monday, November 12, 2007 @ 6:30 PM*

MEI Secondary School Auditorium
4081 Clearbrook Road, Abbotsford

Call 604-504-5940 to register.

*Please note that this date is different than the one originally published.


THE STORY:

Take a peek into the home of four mentally-handicapped men as they live out their existence in a communal residence under the supervision of a caring, yet burned out, social worker. One fights the temptation to eat the left-over pastries from the donut shop he works in and another takes great pride in the bundle of keys that hangs from his waist. Still another attempts to comprehend complex book despite his child-like mind and another masquerades as a professional golf instructor. Though confined by their physical reality, they reach out in spirit and find laughter, love and a sense of meaningful purpose for their lives. This is a charming and thought-provoking play for more mature audiences.

PRODUCTION RUN:

January 18 & 19, 24 – 26, 31 – February 1, 2008 @ 7:30 PM
Discount Matinees: January 19 & 26 @ 2:00 PM

REHEARSALS

Monday, Wednesday & Thursday evenings, 7PM – 10:00 PM
There will be a one-week Christmas Vacation break between Christmas and New Years.

CAST REQUIREMENTS

ARNOLD WIGGINS – mid forties, very nervous man, always buys Wheaties
LUCIEN P. SMITH – about fifty, enjoys reading technical books
JACK PALMER – mid thirties, a burnt out social worker.
NORMAN BULANSKY – a large, sloppy man of about thirty, works in a donut shop, wears on overflowing key ring on his belt
BARRY KLEMPER – about twenty-eight, tries to make a living teaching golf lessons
SHEILA – an overweight girl in her late twenties or early thirties, speaks poorly.
MR. KLEMPER – Barry’s father, a course, middle-aged man. Has one arm.

An additional two performers, one male and one female, between the ages of twenty five and fifty five, are required to play multiple roles.

While the play is about those dealing with mentally handicaps, auditions are open to all male and female community performers.

Nov 9: HAUNTED BY GOD: THE LIFE OF DOROTHY DAY

HAUNTED BY GOD: THE LIFE OF DOROTHY DAY
A compelling one-woman show about the co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement. After her death in 1980, the New York Times eulogized Dorothy as a “nonviolent social radical of luminous personality.” The production incorporates all the wit and prophetic grit of Dorothy’s own words about war, peace, American society, compassion, and protest in the Spirit of Jesus.

Sat Nov 9, 8pm
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, 1803 East 1st Ave.
Tickets $10 at the door.
604 255-1411

Nov 3: Dave Olson CD release

Don't know if you remember Dave Olson. He played for CHRISTMAS PRESENCE a whole lot of times, and more recently played bass for the Good Noise gospel choir. I think he moved to Edmonton or something like that, but he's back in town at least for one night. Too late to meet the RSVP deadline on this one, but maybe you can sweet talk your way in?


Dave writes...

Hello all...it has been a long time coming. But, my CD “Be Still” is finally here. If you like funk, fusion, jazz or soul you will probably like this CD.

Be Still features some of the finest musicians Canada has to offer...and one from England :)

Please join me for some light appetizers and cocktails (6:30-7:30pm) and great music – it’ll be great to see you all!

Please RSVP by October 31, 2007.

Here are the details:

Date: Saturday, Nov 3, 2007

Location: The 501 located at 501 Pacific Street. Corner or Richards and Pacific in downtown Vancouver.

Time: Doors open at 6:30pm...listening will begin at 7:30pm. (I have a great soundman lined up with an awesome sound system!)

Just in time for Christmas, the CD will be for sale at the listening party for the following prices...

Buy 1 @ $15.00 each
Buy 2 @ $12.50 each
Buy 3 or more @ $10.00 each

If you have any questions please contact me at 780-819-7638 or do@telus.net. You can also send a note to Rondalyn Fitz at 604-315-4054 or fitz_r@sd36.bc.ca

See you there!
Dave

780.819.7638
do@telus.net

Nov 17 - Dec 7: Lisa Ravensbergen plays RITA JOE

A few seasons back, Lisa Ravensbergen was Artist In Residence at Pacific Theatre. Since then she's been working all over Canada, and well before that she was in our Pacific Salt Company! But next up, she'll be playing the title role in this Canadian classic. Wow. Congrags, Lisa!

Firehall Arts Centre presents
THE ECSTASY OF RITA JOE
by George Ryga
November 17 - December 8, 2007

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the premiere production of this Canadian classic, the Firehall celebrates it's 25th Anniversary season ith the production of this tragic yet moving story featuring Lisa Ravensbergen as Rita Joe and directed by Donna Spencer. Readings from other Ryga works will be scheduled throughout the run of the play.

Performances nightly at 8:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Pay-What-You-Can performances on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm.

Firehall Arts Centre
280 East Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC
604 689.0926

PS Turns out Duncan Fraser's in it too. Remember the exterminator in GRACE?

Nov 25 closing: Craig Erickson in GLASS MENAGERIE

And guess who's playing The Gentleman Caller around the corner at the Stanley? Craig Erickson, who's been seen in such Pacific Theatre shows as GRACE, GOD'S MAN IN TEXAS, PRODIGAL SON, and even... THE FURNITURE OF HEAVEN.


THE GLASS MENAGERIE
A Portrait of a Family
by Tennessee Williams

October 25–November 25, 2007 | Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage

“Stay fresh and pretty! It’s almost time for our gentleman callers to start arriving.” Tennessee Williams’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece - The Glass Menagerie, is an astonishingly intimate and moving portrait of the Wingfield family. From a dingy St. Louis apartment, faded Southern belle Amanda yearns for her idealized youth, while her grown children, Tom and Laura, struggle to escape their overbearing mother. Just when happiness seems beyond the grasp of these fragile individuals, hope arrives in the form of a gentleman caller.

This theatrical classic complements the Arts Club production of His Greatness, by Daniel MacIvor, the season opener the Granville Island Stage.

“Tennessee Williams’s first masterpiece” —The New York Times

Winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play