agnes of god | photos

Apprentice Shona Struthers' production of AGNES OF GOD opened last night!  Congrats to Shona on producing your first show!  We've got some of her advance photos to share with you today.  You can see the show tonight or tomorrow only.

summer playground series

Every summer we host some of our emerging artists in our space, giving them the chance to produce passion projects, new scripts, and experiments that would otherwise be too risky if they were renting a theatre.  This year our apprentices have put together a fantastic line up of shows that couldn't be more varied for the Playground Series:

HERE LIES HENRY by Daniel MacIvor • June 3-6

A man enters the room with a mission to tell you something you don't already know. A bizarre, unexpected comedy about love, loss, and the body in the next room

An apprentice showcase production presented as a part of Pacific Theatre's Summer Playground Series.

Advisory: strong language and sexual content.

Featuring Brandon Bate
Directed by Phil Miguel
Sound Design by Julie Casselman
Stage Managed by Sharra Ganzaveld

"Here Lies Henry challenges the conventional relationship between actor and audience and spins it completely on its head in a powerful exploration of purpose and humanity."
-Sometimes Melbourne

"Nothing is obvious; meaning is found in the tiniest things. Everything else is just posturing, lies. We are all the same, Henry says. We are born; we have some experiences; we die."
-Toronto Daily Extra

AGNES OF GOD by John Pielmeier • June 11-13

A pregnant nun, a strangled baby, an inquiring legal psychiatrist, and a determined Mother Superior. A messy and mystical search for the truth. A part of Pacific Theatre's Playground Series.

Advisory: mature themes.

$10 in advance, by donation at the door.

Featuring Shona Struthers, Tina Teeninga, and Jenna Grubaugh
Directed by Amy Dauer

Stage Managed by Kristina Hampton
Lighting Design by Theo Bell
Sound Design by Ryan Scramstad

"A...challenging and thought-provoking drama" - NY TIMES

"A gripping and emotional theatre going experience" - broadwayworld.com

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW by William Shakespeare • June 24-27

A glamorous retelling of Shakespeare’s controversial battle of the sexes. Trapped in the sexist world of the 1950’s, Kate and Petruchio fight each other to escape a world in which neither of them belong.

THE STONEWATER RAPTURE by Doug Wright • July 8-11

Two teenagers’ sexual awakening has been severely hampered by the fundamentalist fervor that runs like power lines through the Bible Belt.

aug 15 & 16 | socrates 2nd wife | the playground series

This week's Playground Series show is a staged reading of local actor Simon Webb's new script (you saw him in MEASURE FOR MEASURE last January), SOCRATES' 2ND WIFE.  Produced by and featuring past apprentice Kirsty Provan!

A May/September marriage, the death of the world's greatest philosopher, and a rehearsal gone horribly wrong, all fall into play in a newly penned, wickedly delightful one-act comedy by local theatre veteran Simon Webb.

Featuring Simon Webb, Kirsty Provan, Richard Newman, Ryan McDonald, Rene Bucciarelli, Paul Kloegman, and Philip Miguel.

August 15th and 16th at 8PM.

Tickets can be purchased at-door (PWYC), or online ($10) at www.brownpapertickets.com.

aug 6-9 | maki ye | the complete suitcase stories

For every show this season at Pacific Theatre, Maki created a ten minute lobby play that not only recounted the events of her life in the theatre, but also picked up on the themes of the play on the main stage. They ran in the lobby each night around 7:30, and over the course of the year she accumulated a growing circle of enthusiastic fans, who often commented on her winsome vulnerability, plucky humour and fascinating story.

Now she's assembling the whole year's worth of "chapters" into a single story, and I sincerely hope that the people who've been touched and entertained by her work this season will hear about this opportunity to fill in the gaps with the stories they missed, revisit the stories that charmed and delighted them, and see them in the context of her whole fascinating story.

This week only: Wed-Sat 8pm + 2pm Sat matinee
Tickets online or at the door

july 24 - 26 | august in the spring | summer playground series

This week in the Summer Playground Series is Cara Cunningham's AUGUST IN THE SPRING!

August is a bright student who has recently been diagnosed with Aspergers. She has her sights set on grad school, but her country club mother has other plans - finding August a man. A whirlwind of dating and awkward, this new play features Julie Casselman, Kenton Klassen, Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin and Diane Tucker.

A staged reading - pay-what-you-can at the door (cash only)
July 24-26, 8pm

gruesome playground injuries | photos

Some photos from GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES, closing this weekend!  This is your last chance to see this season's apprentices on stage.

july 17 & 18 | the black house and the blue sky | the playground series

As GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES is closing this weekend, we're up right away with the next show of the Playground Series: THE BLACK HOUSE AND THE BLUE SKY.  A new musical using the songs from the Stars album, The Five Ghosts, this is a pay-what-you-can, script-in-hand workshop presentation.  A rare opportunity for PT audiences to see a show in development and even give feedback!

THE BLACK HOUSE AND THE BLUE SKY
by Dani Bryant and Andrea Loewen
July 17 & 18 at 8pm
Pay-what-you-can (cash at door)

gruesome playground injuries | responses

"Despite its rather morbid title, Gruesome Playground Injuries is a surprisingly tender story of love and friendship with moments of sheer brilliance." 
- Mark Robins, Vancouver Presents

"Newcomers Pippa Johnstone (Kayleen) and Kenton Klassen (Doug) are both talents to watch. Klassen finds a whole lot of charm in Doug’s goofy hyperactivity... Klassen impresses. And Johnstone is so thoroughly grounded and subtly responsive that I kept imagining what it would be like to watch her on film." 
- Colin Thomas, The Georgia Straight

"Johnstone and Klassen yielded stellar performances...It may be difficult to shift through the eight disjointed scenes in the play, however director Chelsea Haberlin achieves this effortlessly by using the actors’ onstage costume changes to predicate the transitions. Garments designed by Christopher David Gauthier dangle on racks at opposite sides of Carolyn Rapanos’ bandage draped, alley-style stage.
- Cora Li, Vancouverscape

"Kenton Klassen finds joy and humour in his portrayal of accident-prone Doug. Pippa Johnstone brings a grounded solemnness to her role of Kayleen, a woman who finds herself going to extremes in her life in order to feel something." 
- Megan Gray, Vancity Buzz

"Both actors are quite remarkable, Mr. Klassen is bighearted with the goofy grin eager to show his wounds and saying things like 'I think kissing is going to be really nice'. He also really captures the different ages they have to play, each time we meet Doug, his life experiences have changed him. As Kayleen Ms. Johnstone is more quiet in her approach. Her character is much darker with more secrets, and watching the debate about what to say and what not to say in her eyes is mesmerizing. Ms. Haberlin's direction is tender and playful." 
- David C. Jones, Out TV

"Just saw this tonight. Compelling show! See it if you are able." 
-Jim May, Audience Member

"Good on ya Gang! I really enjoyed the show last night. All the best with this crazy little love story!!"
-Robert Salvador, Actor

Gruesome Playground Injuries runs Wed - Sat until July 12th. $15 Tickets available here. 

gruesome playground injuries | christopher david gauthier | costume design

Christopher David Gauthier is an award-winning, constantly-creating costume designer who is almost as excited about designing GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES as we are to have him on our team. Christopher’s work was last seen at PT for MEASURE FOR MEASURE, in GA TING with the Frank Theatre company, PROOF at Mnemonic Theatre, and he is nominated this year for a Jessie for Outstanding Body of Work in Costume Design for Small Theatre. 

How did you get involved with Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Pacific Theatre?

Pippa Johnstone asked me as we were working on The Honest Fishmongers' production of Measure for Measure presented at Pacific Theatre. So I said, sure I'll read it, but I was a bit leery about a co-op/low budget production at this point, but Pippa was a draw, Kenton is charming and [director] Chelsea Haberlin and I had been talking about working together so it had all that.
Then I read it.
And I said yes immediately.
The script is achingly beautiful, as well as dark, fiercely funny, and brutally honest.

(Pippa in Christophers's designs in Measure for Measure.)

What is your favourite part of Gruesome Playground Injuries as a designer?

Can't pick just one - I guess "the team", the actors are great, Chelsea is beautifully focused, and is open to discussion, nurturing of creativity, and Carolyn Rapanos's set design is in and of itself gorgeous, simple, evocative, and will integrate the costumes (hooray!).
But wait - the script is fantastic. Truly.
In fact it's one of the few scripts I've read that I just got immediately, on a really deep level, and my admiration for the clean, spare writing just grows and grows.

What are the specific challenges of working on Gruesome Playground Injuries?

Well, there are lots of time shifts as it covers 30 years, and it has been decided that it all needs to happen onstage, but in essence we (and especially Chelsea) have turned that into a plus. It does have to happen onstage, it makes sense, and it helps the design. So we limited the palette, and came up with a simple idea that I think will be effective AND theatrical. And it turns out the injuries which look crazy difficult at the beginning seem not so wild once you are into it (additionally make-up/blood products are fantastic and very user friendly today.)

If you had to pick one year for clothing between 1984 and 2014, which styles or trends would you pick & why?

As a designer while there are things I like and dislike in fashion/styles of every time but I don't like to pick a favourite time/era, I think it can end up limiting you either consciously or unconsciously.
For this play we are less concerned with period, there is a bit of timelessness we are aiming for, as the pieces need to be interchangeable for the show.
Unrelated to the show I do have a huge fondness for Cyndi Lauper's taste as it's developed, she's always been able to grab the key elements in any period and make them her own. I like that, taking the current and making it personal. I dislike the tendency to judge a period you didn't live through. Of course it looks weird to you!

If you could describe the play in three words what would you use?

Honest, Pithy, Bittersweet.

There you have it folks. Come see this genius' designs in action at GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES here at Pacific Theatre running July 3-12th.

 Find more info about the show, and the rest of our summer series here.

playground series 2014 | pacific theatre

PLA

Pacific Theatre's 2014 Playground Series

The Playground Series is a summer series where Pacific Theatre invites its emerging and recently-emerged artists to develop their own work on our stage. We are thrilled to announce the 2014 line up!

CRIME & PUNISHMENT  by Marilyn Campbell & Curt Columbus  

 A Stone’s Throw Production  June 25 - June 28 

Featuring PT Apprentice Ryan Scramstad

Described as a “conversation on the nature of evil,” Crime and Punishment is the story of Raskolnikov, a university dropout obsessed with a theory and ravaged by poverty. Fighting a battle between his justification for committing a horrific crime and the guilt which stalks him, Raskolnikov searches for absolution. With a police inspector hot on his trail and an unlikely friendship with a compassionate prostitute ever in his thoughts, Raskolnikov relives the events surrounding his actions in this psychological drama.

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES  by Rajiv Joseph             A Stone’s Throw Production  July 3 - 12

Featuring PT Apprentices Pippa Johnstone & Kenton Klassen 

A decades-spanning relationship of an accident-prone dare devil and a corrosive masochist who navigate friendship, love, and the wounds created in between. Over the course of 30 years, their lives continue to intersect at the most bizarre intervals and places, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together. Gruesome Playground Injuries tells a different kind of love story through sharp humour and even sharper insights into the human condition.

THE BLACK HOUSE, THE BLUE SKY by Dani Bryant & Andrea Loewen A Xua Xua Production  July 17 & 18

A new musical based on Canadian indie rockers Stars’ acclaimed album The Five Ghosts. A coming of age story for those who missed the point the first time around.

AUGUST IN THE SPRING by Cara Cunningham
A Satellite Theatre Production   July 23 - 26 

August is brilliant, socially awkward and desperate to stay a student forever. Her mother is determined to find her a man. 

THE COMPLETE SUITCASE STORIES by Maki Yi 
August 6 - 9 

The 10-minute stories of the Lobby Project throughout PT’s anniversary season will be back as a complete stage production.

SOCRATES SECOND WIFE by Simon Webb
A ProVan Production   August 13 - 16

It’s the day of Socrates execution. As the hour draws near, his young second wife, Xanthippe, visits his cell, and the two lovers dissect and discuss his Philosophy of Love, as they argue about his choice to die.

Rosedale on Robson Writer's Week:
IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE by Shauna Johannesen 
A Pacific Theatre Production   September 19 & 20 

When Colleen returns home for her father’s funeral, she has to face the guilt over missing his last days, her own loss of faith, and the reason she left town. Between the crappy flowered cards and lasagne casseroles, the over-priced caskets and hidden bottles of wine, Colleen has to decide whether she can live without the love of her life, how she fits in her messy, religious, grieving family, and what it means to live with yourself.

The Playground Series is curated by PT artist Tina Teeninga.