2011-2012 season wrap up

Ah bah-dee bah-dee, that's all, folks! Last weekend was the final performance of 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW and of our season. This has been a pretty ground-breaking and varied year for us, so it seemed worthwhile to do a pictorial retrospective on what all we experienced together this season.  

May 31-June 9 | shelter from the storm | kyle jespersen

If you saw the production of THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT that we were a part of at The Cultch, then you saw Kyle Jespersen. You also may have seen him on our stage in A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR and 12 ANGRY MEN. He's got a show coming up with Touchstone Theatre next!

Rick was one of thousands of young men who sought refuge in Canada to escape the Vietnam draft. But, when he takes in a traumatized young American soldier who is deserting his post in Iraq, Rick begins to understand how much our country has changed in forty years. Set in Tofino, BC, SHELTER FROM THE STROM is a play about love and loss that questions our notions of courage and cowardice.

Playing May 31-Jun 9 at The Firehall Arts Centre
FREE preview: May 31, 8pm
Talkback: June 3, 8pm
Pay-What-You-Can: June 6, 1pm
Tickets through the Firehall Box Office

100 saints | director's notes

The notes from 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW director Anthony F. Ingram.

Sub-dermal hematomai are not laughing mattters. Nor, for that matter, are pornography, teen alcholism and losing one’s faith. It seems only appropriate, then, that I should be brought on to direct this play. Ask anyone. I’m not a funny guy. Odd, yes. But not funny. Not “haha, who’s that guy with the lamp shade on his head?” funny. Not “oh! Tell ‘em that great joke about the…” funny. Not even “drive-you-mad-quoting-MontyPython’s-Life-of-Brian” funny. When my friends think of me they think: serious, contemplative, moody, odd (there’s that word again), out-to-lunch, mercurial (that would be my English Major friends), and – I think the most often used and therefore, arguably, most accurate – “huh?” That being said, one of my favourite books is Douglas Adams’ “Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul”. So, perhaps I’ve been in preparation for this play for years. In any case, I want to express my thanks and appreciation to this cast for willing themselves to listen to my ravings for the last few weeks; they’re a talented and patient bunch. Which, if you think about it, means they’re virtuous, too! And thanks to Ron Reed and Pacific Theatre for, once again, giving me a good excuse for not being able to mow the lawn. Enjoy the show!

By the way, have you heard the one about the priest who walks into the vestry bathroom?

jessies | pt nominations

The nominations for this year's Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards have been announced! We are thrilled to have received nine nominations for DOUBT, DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and RE:UNION, plus three for THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT! All the nominations are listed below and a post is soon to come celebrating the nominations of those in our "PT family".

DOUBT:
Leslie Lewis Sword - Actress in a Supporting Role

DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (Annunciation Pictures):
Aleks Paunovic - Actor in a Lead Role
Jason Goode - Direction

A CHRISTMAS CAROL:
Brian Pollock - Set Design

RE:UNION (co-production with Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre):
Andrew Wheeler - Actor in a Lead Role
Evan Frayne - Actor in a Supporting Role
John Langs - Direction
Jason H. Thompson - Projection Design
Outstanding Production

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT (Pound of Flesh Theatre, Rumble Productions, The Cultch, Neworld)
Michael Kopsa - Actor in a Supporting Role
Marcus Youssef - Actor in a Supporting Role
Dawn Petten - Actress in a Supporting Role

100 saints | responses

"Saints is a touching and gentle reminder that what each of us wants and needs is love that is freely and generously given." | Haymen Leong, Converge Magazine

"This is why we are season subscribers. 100 Saints You Should Know is thought provoking, challenging, engaging and uplifting. The cast performances were exceptional." | Lorne and Joyce Braun, email

"The performances, are absolutely terrific. DeBoer’s Theresa is almost saintly and yet deBoer shows little scraps of playfulness, a little flirtiness that brings us so onside with her character. Abby is the teenager from hell and Gauthier’s performance is suspiciously right on. Been there? Done that? Stephanson shows us the confusion and loneliness behind Father McNally’s decency and Norris manages - just - to show that the intolerance McNally’s mother exhibits is really just fear. The little oddball Garrett is appropriately awkward and innocently portrayed by Lam." | Jo Ledingham, The Vancouver Courier

"This show was excellent. Quite often hilarious, mixed with a wonderful sense of heartfelt sentiment that had us both very nearly wiping away tears on several occasions. I even walked away from the play with a big lump in my chest, a feeling like I was just hit over the head with a flood of positive emotion and well… sweet joy. ... It was simply a wonderful little story with a fantastic cast – especially kudos to Rebecca deBoer for effortlessly playing the lead role and being absolutely believable, as well as Chris Lam and Kerri Norris for holding up a lot of the best comedy bits throughout. Joel Stephanson as the disillusioned priest was also quite good in his own right, very believable and one particular monologue of his near the mid-way point had me glued to his every word. Last but not least we also have Katherine Gauthier as the rebellious teenager and she too did a fine job with the character, being both believable and often jumping effortlessly between being hilarious & touching." | Steven, website comment

"100 Saints contains some rich ideas about human experience, characters you can care about, and a few terrific performances. ... Theresa wants to experience “a surge of the heart,” and at its best that’s what this play delivers." | Jerry Wasserman, The Province

"Once again, live theatre sparked a flame of significant musing." | Trilby Jeeves, GVPTA Blog

"I feel connected to these stories, almost like they’re my own. And if you’re at least a little bit like me, then you too will connect with them. So let’s do it, let’s just go ahead and call them our stories. Saints is telling one of our stories." | Kimberley Dawn, GVPTA Blog

"If you love the experience of being captivated by laughter and then moved, if you enjoyed the stimulation of curiosity then I know 100 Saint You Should Know." | David C. Jones, OutTV

"There's some terrific acting here... in a performance that's deeply thorough and downright inspired, actor Chris Lam makes Garrett irresistibly charming... Rebecca deBoer plays Theresa with such authenticity, such ease and understatement that she is a nonstop joy to watch. Joel Stephanson brings winning, deadpan humour and subtle responsiveness to Matthew." | Colin Thomas, The Georgia Straight

"100 Saints is a true ensemble production with the entire cast taking equal responsibility for the play’s success. Kerri Norris and Katherine Gauthier perhaps deserve special praise for delivering such a vivid contrast of the spiritual divide." | John Jane, Review Vancouver

"Saw it last evening. Well done! Wonderful to see Rebecca back on the stage, in such a real role... Thank you for such a thought provoking piece of theatre." Fiona Topp, facebook

"At the end of the day, I found the show to be a love letter to mothers, the bonds they have with their children, and unconditional love." Alan Woo, Fun Fun Vancouver

And probably our favourite audience comment ever...

"I just saw 100 Saints You Should Know last night. Brilliant script, wonderful acting. Excellent show! I couldn’t help noticing that the opening play by Matt in the Scrabble game was a really weak move. He played “JUICED” for 34 points (double 17 points). That means only one of the 1-pointers was on a DLS, which means he must have started with his J on the center square instead of on the DLS square which would have been a 48-point move. Maybe the playwright isn’t really a very good Scrabble player, or maybe Matt was really trying to downplay his abilities so as not to cream his mother too quickly." Rosie Perera

From the Twitter Feed
@mackgord: #100saints you should know @PacificTheatre is an awesome show. Lotsa food for thought. Messy in all the right ways. Thoroughly human.
@andrew_sr: #100Saints is a great production with deep, messy, flawed, redeemable and utterly beautiful characters.
@juliachurch22: Saw #100Saints at @PacificTheatre tonight and got a highly recommended surge to the heart!
@jucasselman: Sometimes art hits too many heart longings and frustrations at once to know just how to explain it. Go see 100 Saints.
@scarletsatin: That Rebecca deBoer, she is one of a kind. Her performance is stunning as always in #100Saints
@saravickruk: Saw a great play tonight called 100 saints you should know @PacificTheatre

100 saints | meet garrett

The last in our series of cast/character introductions is Garrett. In 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW he's the grocer's son. Just got his driver's licence so he likes doing the deliveries for his dad, as well as going for long walks by himself at night. He's also got a few questions and could use a few answers to go with them...

Playing Garrett is PT newcomer Chris Lam. You may have already seen him around town, though. He's up and coming in the musical theatre scene, recently performing in THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD and in JUDGE DEE AND THE HAUNTED GARDEN. Last year he also directed PT alum Sarah Ruth (THE GREAT DIVORCE) in EINSTEIN'S GIFT at Carousel Theatre!  Here's some visual proof of Chris' journeys through the theatre scene in Vancouver:

JUDGE DEE AND THE HAUNTED GARDENS

THE MYSTER OF EDWIN DROOD

EINSTEIN'S GIFT

sacramental value of the stage | call for papers

Call for Papers - "Sacramental Value of the Stage..."

The 2012 South Western Region Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature will be held October 5-6 at Oklahoma Christian University in cooperation with Oklahoma Baptist University. The theme of the conference is Theatrum Mundi: Faith, Representation, and Multiculturalism.

The keynote speaker will be Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang, who will deliver the 8th annual McBride Lecture for Faith & Literature. Mr. Hwang will also appear, along with members of the editorial board of the journal Ecumenica, on a panel addressing issues of faith in contemporary drama.

Call for Papers

Shakespeare’s famous proclamation that ‘All the World’s a Stage’ is just one among numerous Renaissance assertions of the Theatrum Mundi. In his 1612 Apology for Actors, Thomas Heywood, for instance, argues that

. . . the world a Theater present,
As by the roundnesse it appears most fit,
Built with starre-galleries of hye ascent,
In which Jehove does as spectator sit.

This metaphor gave thinkers in the early modern period and beyond both a means of defending the sacramental value of the stage itself ­ and of representation more broadly ­ and a means of conceptualizing God’s relationship to his creation as its author, director, and primary spectator. As we consider this metaphor today, we might consider the implications of the Theatrum Mundi concept for the expanded stage of a global society. Is all the world a stage?

For this conference we seek papers that address questions of representation before the divine. While we are, in keeping with our keynote speaker, especially interested in papers on dramatic literature, faith, and multiculturalism, we are also interested in how non-dramatic texts grapple with God as author, director, and/or audience for the theater of human activity. We will also consider papers more broadly interested in the intersection of Christianity and literature, as well as creative writing dealing with issues of faith.

Email one-paragraph abstracts and session proposals by July 6 to Benjamin Myers (swccl@okbu.edu).

Sink-A-Thon

PT favourite Erla-Faye Forsyth has taken it upon herself to fundraise for a much needed "human" sink in our green room. Read on to find out how you can help her Sink-A-Thon!

If you are an artist who has worked at PT, or if you've even just visited our green room, then you know that our sink needs some serious loving. Because we only have one we have to wash our dishes, brush our teeth and get our drinking water from the same sink that we use for production needs like cleaning paint brushes.

The sink looks like this right now:

Not so great, right? That's what Erla thought when she was here in March performing in DOUBT. She's spearheaded a campaign to raise the $1200.00 necessary to replace this sink and get separate ones installed for paint use and human use. She's over halfway to her goal as she's raised $700.00 so far!

If we can raise the funds we are hoping to install these new sinks by August.

Call the office at 604-731-5483 to make a donation to the Sink-A-Thon. We'll keep you posted on the progress as we go. Thanks to Erla and everyone who has donated so far!

pt kids | scholarships available

We are pleased to announce that two scholarships are available for registrants in our first kids summer theatre school!

Thanks to a generous donor, we are thrilled to be able to offer two full scholarships to children who would like to attend but would otherwise be unable.

More information about the camp itself can be found here.

To learn more and apply for the scholarship, contact Kaitlin at kaitlin@pacifictheatre.org.

100 saints | more photos

Round two of photos for 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW.  Show closes May 26th!

100 saints | ron's notes

Ron's AD notes for 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW give you a bit of insight into how he picks a season.

There are a lot of different reasons I might choose a show for Pacific Theatre. I suppose it might seem obvious - “The play’s the thing” - but often there’s more involved than just the appeal of the script. Especially around here.

I read this sparkling piece a few years back, and knew it would be a pretty decent fit for the right season at Pacific Theatre. Because one factor in building a season is variety, range, balance, shape: how would 100 Saints fit with the other shows in a particular year? We have one of the most loyal audiences anywhere, which means you’ll come back show after show to see what we’re up to. So there’s no room for the same old same old: if we can manage it, no back-to-back tragedies, just as we avoid a string of feel-good life-affirming musicals. When you write a play, it’s all about reversals: the story changes direction with every scene, your expectations are continually set up then confounded. So too with a season: Re:Union followed by A Christmas Carol followed by Danny followed by Doubt. And so on. So.... The first time 100 Saints fit perfectly in the unfolding story of a PT season turned out to be now.

But what brought it to the front of my mind for this season was more about the players than the play. Risking unprofessionalism, I’ll be honest: a year ago, at the last moments of finalizing our current season, I couldn’t decide between Kaitlin Williams and Kat Gauthier to play Sister James in Doubt. I was stuck: both were amazing in the role. Then came bad news: the show I had lined up to close our season became unavailable. A huge disappointment - until I realized that could open up a role for Kat or Kaitlin. A few hours later - at the dinner table in fact - 100 Saints drifted into my mind, and I saw Kat in the key role of Abby, clear as if she was on stage in front of me. I left the dinner table early, dug up the script to check out my intuition, and sure enough - it was a role written for her.

And just as quick, I knew I had a role for Rebecca deBoer, who had just previously let me know she’d again be available for the stage after having brought a couple of new humans into the world. Done.

The rest of the casting fell into place effortlessly: there was no scrambling, just the perfect PT actor for each role.

But here’s the best part. Until Monday, March 16, 2012, sometime between 10 AM and noon, I thought this was a pretty decent play with a superb cast. But as we listened to the table reading on the first day of rehearsals - the first time we’d heard all the actors together, and the whole story in one piece - I realized that this play was so much more than I had anticipated. I was shaken.

Some plays come off the page the first time you read them. Others really need to be embodied before they have their full effect. 100 Saints You Should Know is, for me, the second kind of play: a perfectly enjoyable read, to be sure, but once it comes to life in a company of actors... A potent, nuanced, affecting, thought-provoking, substantial play.

john patrick shanley | storefront church

Oh boy. Look what opens tonight in New York. Wonder how soon we can have it on our stage at Pacific Theatre? Maybe another Shanley double bill? I'm heading down to Lamb's Players in a few weeks for the opening of Scott Hafso's musical adaptation of Joe Versus The Volcano. Wouldn't that be fine?

STOREFRONT CHURCH
World Premiere
Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley

May 16 - June 24
Atlantic Theatre Company at The Linda Gross Theater, NYC

Storefront Church is the final installment of the trilogy called Church And State, which began with Doubt.

The story concerns a Bronx Borough President who is forced, by the mortgage crisis, into a confrontation with a local minister. The question they confront is one that faces us all. What is the relationship between spiritual experience and social action?

There's a swell video over on my oblations blog.

Here's a note from Shanley's facebook page, just prior to opening: "I construct a play. The actors help me lift the pieces into place. Some don't fit perfectly. I trim and lengthen. Parts look good but don't support weight. They must go. We are building a house. On May 16th, we will open the doors and the house will fill with people. Everything we do, we do to prepare for this arrival. We must be ready. The audience is like a King."

july 9-13 | pt kids summer theatre school

This summer we're launching our first ever summer theatre school!

From July 9-13th kids ages 9-12 are taking over Pacific Theatre! They will develop a range of performance skills through improvisation, theatre games, music, dance and storytelling. The camp will conclude with a showcase for the parents on the final afternoon. Local actor and PT staff member Kaitlin Gordon will teach the kids along with a team of enthusiastic assitants and guest instructors.

Kaitlin has been teaching and working with kids for over ten years, and is excited to share her love of theatre this summer with the younger PT community. It’s bound to be a memorable and fun-filled week for kids as they discover the joys of acting and performing!

Register now - space is limited!

PT KIDS SUMMER THEATRE SCHOOL
When: July 9-13th, 10am-3pm
Where: Pacific Theatre – 1440 W 12th Ave
Who: Kids ages 9-12 who love to perform!
How much: $150 (plus HST) per child
(Family discount – each additional child from the same household is $100)

Email Kaitlin at kaitlin@pacifictheatre.org or phone 604.731.5483 to reserve your spot now. Or you can download our registration form here.

Theatre Club | 100 Saints Discussion Guide

Theatre club members! 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW is one of those plays that you're going to want to talk about after. We've prepared a discussion guide to help you get the conversation rolling at your next theatre club gathering.

This season at Pacific Theatre we've encouraged our audience members to gather together and form their own theatre clubs. Much like a book club, a theatre club allows our audience to meet together and chat about the play after they see it. We've heard time and time again about the great discussions PT plays spark on the drive home after a show. We thought it might be nice to expand these conversations beyond the commute!

If you're interested in starting your own theatre club, contact Kaitlin for more information and ideas. 

If you've already got a theatre club going and would like a copy of the 100 SAINTS discussion guide, you can find it here. 

Happy clubbing!

100 saints | opening night

Some shots from opening night of 100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW.  Starting with apprentice Maki Yi in front of the sign on that glorious sunny day - what a night for an opening!