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