Atwood vs Harper

Perhaps it's a mistake to be posting these pieces relating to the value of the arts in a time leading up to an election. I'm not a political partisan, and don't have any intention of campaigning for (or against) anybody - heck, I've got a play to rehearse! But I can't get out of my head the idea that my prime minister actually believes artists are rich people standing around drinking wine at galas and whining about government funding. Damn, that's a revolting caricature! Or that Canadians couldn't care less about the arts. Not the Canadians I know.

Vote how you want. There is a perfectly respectable politic that is convinced that governments shouldn't exist to dispense money, that money should be left in the hands of citizens to make their own decisions about what money should flow to what artists, etc. Some of my best friends - indeed, some of my theatre's most generous benefactors - are fiscal conservatives. It's not my view, but it's not a foolish view.

But this idea that Canadians don't like, want, or need art? This idea that artists receive huge amounts of free money from the federal government, which makes them wealthy and about which they do nothing but whine? THAT is a foolish view. And it's really, really troubling me. It would offend me if I overheard it at a coffee shop. To hear it from the Prime Minister of my country, in a public forum... I wonder if Winston Churchill could be persuaded to run for office in Calgary Southwest?

Oh well. At least it's got the arts into the conversation, this election. At least, at the ritzy wine-drinking galas where I hang out...

Here's Margaret Atwood weighing in, ever weighty. (And do check out the Globe & Mail link for a batch of other very pertinent articles. Like this one, from one of those "ordinary Canadians.")

To be creative is, in fact, Canadian
Mr. Harper is wrong: There's more to the arts than a bunch of rich people at galas whining about their grants
by Margaret Atwood
Globe and Mail, September 24, 2008

What sort of country do we want to live in? What sort of country do we already live in? What do we like? Who are we?

At present, we are a very creative country. For decades, we've been punching above our weight on the world stage - in writing, in popular music and in many other fields. Canada was once a cultural void on the world map, now it's a force. In addition, the arts are a large segment of our economy: The Conference Board estimates Canada's cultural sector generated $46-billion, or 3.8 per cent of Canada's GDP, in 2007. And, according to the Canada Council, in 2003-2004, the sector accounted for an “estimated 600,000 jobs (roughly the same as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil & gas and utilities combined).”

But we've just been sent a signal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that he gives not a toss for these facts. Tuesday, he told us that some group called “ordinary people” didn't care about something called “the arts.” His idea of “the arts” is a bunch of rich people gathering at galas whining about their grants. Well, I can count the number of moderately rich writers who live in Canada on the fingers of one hand: I'm one of them, and I'm no Warren Buffett. I don't whine about my grants because I don't get any grants. I whine about other grants - grants for young people, that may help them to turn into me, and thus pay to the federal and provincial governments the kinds of taxes I pay, and cover off the salaries of such as Mr. Harper. In fact, less than 10 per cent of writers actually make a living by their writing, however modest that living may be. They have other jobs. But people write, and want to write, and pack into creative writing classes, because they love this activity – not because they think they'll be millionaires.

Every single one of those people is an “ordinary person.” Mr. Harper's idea of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for anything that's attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite different. Human beings are creative by nature. For millenniums we have been putting our creativity into our cultures - cultures with unique languages, architecture, religious ceremonies, dances, music, furnishings, textiles, clothing and special cuisines. “Ordinary people” pack into the cheap seats at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The total attendance for “the arts” in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports events. “The arts” are not a “niche interest.” They are part of being human.

Moreover, “ordinary people” are participants. They form book clubs and join classes of all kinds - painting, dancing, drawing, pottery, photography - for the sheer joy of it. They sing in choirs, church and other, and play in marching bands. Kids start garage bands and make their own videos and web art, and put their music on the Net, and draw their own graphic novels. “Ordinary people” have other outlets for their creativity, as well: Knitting and quilting have made comebacks; gardening is taken very seriously; the home woodworking shop is active. Add origami, costume design, egg decorating, flower arranging, and on and on ... Canadians, it seems, like making things, and they like appreciating things that are made.

They show their appreciation by contributing. Canadians of all ages volunteer in vast numbers for local and city museums, for their art galleries and for countless cultural festivals - I think immediately of the Chinese New Year and the Caribana festival in Toronto, but there are so many others. Literary festivals have sprung up all over the country - volunteers set them up and provide the food, and “ordinary people” will drag their lawn chairs into a field - as in Nova Scotia's Read by the Sea - in order to listen to writers both local and national read and discuss their work. Mr. Harper has signalled that as far as he is concerned, those millions of hours of volunteer activity are a waste of time. He holds them in contempt.

I suggest that considering the huge amount of energy we spend on creative activity, to be creative is “ordinary.” It is an age-long and normal human characteristic: All children are born creative. It's the lack of any appreciation of these activities that is not ordinary. Mr. Harper has demonstrated that he has no knowledge of, or respect for, the capacities and interests of “ordinary people.” He's the “niche interest.” Not us.

It's been suggested that Mr. Harper's disdain for the arts is not merely a result of ignorance or a tin ear - that it is “ideologically motivated.” Now, I wonder what could be meant by that? Mr. Harper has said quite rightly that people understand we ought to keep within a budget. But his own contribution to that budget has been to heave the Liberal-generated surplus overboard so we have nothing left for a rainy day, and now, in addition, he wants to jeopardize those 600,000 arts jobs and those billions of dollars they generate for Canadians. What's the idea here? That arts jobs should not exist because artists are naughty and might not vote for Mr. Harper? That Canadians ought not to make money from the wicked arts, but only from virtuous oil? That artists don't all live in one constituency, so who cares? Or is it that the majority of those arts jobs are located in Ontario and Quebec, and Mr. Harper is peeved at those provinces, and wants to increase his ongoing gutting of Ontario - $20-billion a year of Ontario taxpayers' money going out, a dribble grudgingly allowed back in - and spank Quebec for being so disobedient as not to appreciate his magnificence? He likes punishing, so maybe the arts-squashing is part of that: Whack the Heartland.

Or is it even worse? Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very easily. Of course, you can always get some tame artists to design the uniforms and flags and the documentary about you, and so forth - the only kind of art you might need - but individual voices must be silenced, because there shall be only One Voice: Our Master's Voice. Maybe that's why Mr. Harper began by shutting down funding for our artists abroad. He didn't like the competition for media space.

The Conservative caucus has already learned that lesson. Rumour has it that Mr. Harper's idea of what sort of art you should hang on your wall was signalled by his removal of all pictures of previous Conservative prime ministers from their lobby room - including John A. and Dief the Chief - and their replacement by pictures of none other than Mr. Harper himself. History, it seems, is to begin with him. In communist countries, this used to be called the Cult of Personality. Mr. Harper is a guy who - rumour has it, again - tried to disband the student union in high school and then tried the same thing in college. Destiny is calling him, the way it called Qin Shi Huang, the Chinese emperor who burnt all records of the rulers before himself. It's an impulse that's been repeated many times since, the list is very long. Tear it down and level it flat, is the common motto. Then build a big statue of yourself. Now that would be Art!

Adapted from the 2008 Hurtig Lecture, to be delivered in Edmonton on Oct. 1

Colin Jackson, "Towards A Surplus Of Meaning"

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut funding for the arts to finance the war effort, he asked, “Then what are we fighting for?”

That's the opening line to a provocative article by Calgary film producer Bruce Harvey at thinkalberta.ca. In a time when some of our politicians seem to have declared war on - or at least declared their contempt for - the arts, I can only wish we could find a Winston Churchill for our day, for our country. Blood, sweat, tears - and art.

I found that quote when following up on an extraordinary article that artistic pal Morris Ertman emailed me this morning. It originates at that same site, and is written by Colin Jackson, president and CEO of the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts in Calgary.

The division of the art of daily life from the high arts of Western origin is only about a hundred years old. Picture a night at a European theatre in the 18th century. A cross-section of the population was there, behaving in a way we might consider unconscionably rowdy. The commoners in the pit heckled the performers. The wealthy in their boxes glanced up occasionally from their card games to catch an aria.

There were none of the march-on, march-off stage rituals of today. In the 1840s, when Hungarian composer Franz Liszt performed, he greeted patrons at the door and schmoozed with his audiences. Parisian papers criticized another pianist, Alexander Dreyschock, for playing so loudly, the ladies found it difficult to talk. These environs were doubtlessly hard on the artists, but attending a performance was a community experience – intimate, comfortable and shared.

In the 20th century, across Western cultures, we changed boisterousness into awe. Don’t clap between movements of a symphony. Sit down. Be quiet. Admire. This new code of behaviour identified the insider, the elite. It also amplified the authority of those few citizens who chose to denigrate the arts, artists and humanities.

The truth is Albertans, like all human beings, are artful and expressive. We sing, dance, bead, write, draw and paint. Statistics show we overwhelmingly want our children to be literate in the arts. We understand that fluidity with music, words, images and movement will add immensely to their happiness. Confident adults are those possessed with many means of self-expression.

Today the arts in Alberta are at a crossroads. In one direction lies innovation and influence. In the other, irrelevance and marginalization.

The path of innovation and influence amplifies the arts as a means for sharing ideas, values and emotions. Through them, we explore our empathy for each other. Arts enrich the character of our province. The achievements of Alberta artists burnish our pride.

Irrelevance and marginalization occur when the arts are perceived as elitist activities dividing the upper crust from the rest of the sandwich, a frivolity undeserving of serious attention and, at best, grudgingly supported.

The choice between the two paths lies with the province’s leadership and with us, the artists and the arts workers. We have degraded our ability to communicate with the wider community, a sad irony for people whose business is communication. We lost our confidence and, with it, our influence.

There is an urban myth beloved by the cranky that arts organizations are poorly managed. In fact, the failure rate among arts operations is exceptionally low, which is all the more admirable given that the field is notoriously poorly capitalized and the margins of error razor-thin. Another myth is that the public does not care. Also not true. A recent Ipsos-Reid poll showed that 84% of Calgarians think it would matter if there were no performing arts in Calgary.

Maybe because of embarrassment about emotions, maybe because of a desire to control the wild spirit of creativity, Albertans often talk about the arts in the language of the marketplace. There is an embedded mythology that to understand worth we must attach a cash value. Decisions revert to numbers and measurements. How misleading. The fundamentals of life are love, spirit, generosity, joy, well-being, values, rights. This is the language that takes us on our way to a more meaningful society.

The Lougheed government in the 1980s saw Alberta as an arts and cultural leader in Canada. The community responded, proud of the skill, talent and courage of our creators. Subsequent governments were the opposite, seeing the arts not as a community asset but as a private amusement. Some artists, rather than shrugging off such small thinking, internalized the notion of being marginalized. They acted as marginalized people often do – sounding whiny, clingy and entitled.

Alberta’s political parties have defaulted into service providers, promising to alleviate our traffic woes and fears of recession. Opinion polls drive policy. That narrow approach to politics ensures only one thing: that voters will decide nothing. Big political shifts happen because of influential leaders – good and bad – who win over their populations with the dream of a better society.

Boldness, vision, direction based on a blend of passion and reason should determine an election. Alberta, home to mavericks in business, arts and politics, is one of the jurisdictions where people would rise to a unifying call to action. People are looking for inspiration.

We can learn from American presidential candidate Barack Obama who, in a recent speech, said: “Unity is the great need of the hour – the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country. I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans. I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m talking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another, to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper. That, in the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.”

And, here lies our opportunity. We Alberta artists, citizens and artist-citizens can co-create our culture based on the best of Alberta’s heritage. Together we can write beautifully, speak eloquently and create film and images that move the hardest of hearts.

We can drop the labels of lesser or more worthy, elite or plain folks. And, in place of judgment, see each other as creative beings sharing a journey of wonder and delight. We are a people, most of whom are blessed with material wealth, health and education. We recognize what an unusual opportunity we have. There are very few places in the world with as robust an economy as Alberta. And fewer still of those wealthy places – think Dubai, Shanghai, Singapore – have the personal and political freedoms we enjoy. All that is missing is a shared dream and the self-confidence to execute it.

The British cultural thinker John Holden observes that throughout history great places did two things very well: they made money and they made meaning. Alberta is a world leader in creating wealth of the pocketbook. Now is our opportunity to create wealth of the soul.

Dec 14-16: FIRST CHRISTMAS revisited! (Reserve by Oct 4)

You've probably heard that PT's 2008/2009 season is our twenty-fifth. Who would ever have believed we'd last this long! Well, if you were around for the company's first couple of seasons, we've got a special invitation for you.

Part of our celebration of our anniversary year will be three performances of the company's inaugural production, FIRST CHRISTMAS: AN ENTERTAINMENT, featuring - if you can believe it - all of the original cast of that show! Byron Linsey, Elaine Adamian Myers, Allen des Noyers, Roy Salmond and I will be joined by musical guests Spencer Capier and the Nelson Boschman Trio for a Christmas Presence-style reading of that very first PT show. Frederic Buechner, Madeleine L'Engle, Annie Dillard, William Gibson, Simon & Garfunkel, Stan Rogers, and tons more, including original compositions by Allen des Noyers and Roy Salmond. Heck, the show's original director may even join us, Greg Myers!

The show runs three nights only, at Pacific Theatre. Sunday December 14 through Tuesday December 16. But because our Christmas readings always sell out, and we want to give special seating priority to those of you who were around Pacific Theatre in those very earliest days, we have reserved 60 seats for Opening Night, Sunday December 14, for people who saw shows or were involved with Pacific Theatre during our first two seasons. FIRST CHRISTMAS, BACKSTAGE TOUR, THE ZEAL OF THY HOUSE, FISH TALES, INTO AN EMPTY ROOM, the first couple editions of the Pacific Salt Company. You know who you are.

Those tickets will be held only until October 4: beginning the next day, they will be released for general sale. Tickets range in price from $11 to $22, depending whether you are a student or senior, or whether your ticket purchase is part of a season subscription package. You can order your tickets online (though the computers are being overhauled this week, which may cause complications) or at our box office: 731-5518.

We'll have a reception following that Sunday Opening Night show so everybody can reconnect, and celebrate Pacific Theatre's 25th Season - and a ton of memories.

See you there!


Ron Reed

Sep 24-27: DESDEMONA at Pacific Theatre

This one's directed by Kerri Norris (George MacDonald's wife in A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR, Penny in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU) and stars current Pacific Theatre apprentice Laura Van Dyke. One week only at Pacific Theatre...

Shadows & Dreams Theatre presents

DESDEMONA
"Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. Put out the light, and then put out the light"
Othello : Act 5, Scene 2

A lost handkerchief. A jealous husband. A violent end. But not an innocent victim.

As Iago's plots tear the palace of Cypress apart, take a glimpse into the back room and see the plots, secrets and sins of the women soon to be destroyed by the perfidy of men.
Paula Vogel's provocative retelling of Othello is a darkly comic meditation on class, sex, power, violence, and friendship (or lack thereof) between women in a man's world.

September 24th-26th (8pm) and 27th (2pm & 8pm)
at Pacific Theatre (1440 West 12th Ave, Vancouver)

Tickets $15
Tickets and Info : (604) 515-0704

Wajdi Mouawad, Open Letter to the Prime Minister

This spring, the federal government added 50 million dollars to Canada Council's annual allowance. Which was splendid. And, with the first increase to their coffers in many, many years, the Council stewarded wisely; this summer, many arts groups who previously went unfunded began to receive operating support, including Pacific Theatre, with our first $25,000 operating grant.

Sadly, those announcements were followed by a series of announcements of government funding cuts to Canada Council, including the entire elimination of certain essential programs. Which was appalling. Hard not to feel cynical about the spring's increase; so that's where they got the money for the arts - from the artists! 

I've met a couple people in government in the past few years, and plan to talk with them to try and understand what they could possibly be up to. Every story has two sides.  When I make sense of their side, I'll post it here. But for now, here's the fiery, eloquent response of one other artistic director...

An open letter to Prime Minister Harper:

Monsieur le premier ministre,

We are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. You are Prime Minister of the Parliament of Canada and I, across the way, am a writer, theatre director and Artistic Director of the French Theatre at the National Arts Centre (NAC). So, like you, I am an employee of the state, working for the Federal Government; in other words, we are colleagues.

Let me take advantage of this unique position, as one functionary to another, to chat with you about the elimination of some federal grants in the field of culture, something that your government recently undertook. Indeed, having followed this matter closely, I have arrived at a few conclusions that I would like to publicly share with you since, as I'm sure you will agree, this debate has become one of public interest.

The Symbolism

Firstly, it seems that you might benefit by surrounding yourself with counsellors who will be attentive to the symbolic aspects of your Government's actions. I am sure you know this but there is no harm in reminding ourselves that every public action denotes not only what it is but what it symbolises.
For example, a Prime Minister who chooses not attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, claiming his schedule does not permit it, in no way reduces the symbolism which says that his absence might signify something else. This might signify that he wishes to denote that Canada supports the claims of Tibet. Or it might serve as a sign of protest over the way in which Beijing deals with human rights. If the Prime Minister insists that his absence is really just a matter of timing, whether he likes it or not, this will take on symbolic meaning that commits the entire country. The symbolism of a public gesture will always outweigh the technical explanations.

Declaration of war

Last week, your government reaffirmed its manner of governing unilaterally, this time on a domestic issue, in bringing about reductions in granting programs destined for the cultural sector. A mere matter of budgeting, you say, but one which sends shock waves throughout the cultural milieu –rightly or wrongly, as we shall see- for being seen as an expression of your contempt for that sector. The confusion with which your Ministers tried to justify those reductions and their refusal to make public the reports on the eliminated programs, only served to confirm the symbolic significance of that contempt. You have just declared war on the artists.
Now, as one functionary to another, this is the second thing that I wanted to tell you: no government, in showing contempt for artists, has ever been able to survive. Not one. One can, of course, ignore them, corrupt them, seduce them, buy them, censor them, kill them, send them to camps, spy on them, but hold them in contempt, no. That is akin to rupturing the strange pact, made millennia ago, between art and politics.

Contempt

Art and politics both hate and envy one another; since time immemorial, they detest each other and they are mutually attracted, and it's through this dynamic that many a political idea has been born; it is in this dynamic that sometimes, great works of art see the light of day. Your cultural politics, it must be said, provoke only a profound consternation. Neither hate nor detestation, not envy nor attraction, nothing but numbness before the oppressive vacuum that drives your policies.

This vacuum which lies between you and the artists of Canada, from a symbolic point of view, signifies that your government, for however long it lasts, will not witness either the birth of a political idea or a masterwork, so firm is your apparent belief in the unworthiness of that for which you show contempt. Contempt is a subterranean sentiment, being a mix of unassimilated jealousy and fear towards that which we despise. Such governments have existed, but not lasted because even the most detestable of governments cannot endure if it hasn't the courage to affirm what it actually is.

Why is this?

What are the reasons behind these reductions, which are cut from the same cloth as those made last year on the majority of Canadian embassies, who saw their cultural programming reduced, if not eliminated? The economies that you have made are ridiculously small and the votes you might win with them have already been won. For what reason, then, are you so bent on hurting the artists by denying them some of their tools? What are you seeking to extinguish and to gain?

Your silence and your actions make one fear the worst for, in the end, we are quite struck by the belief that this contempt, made eloquent by your budget cuts, is very real and that you feel nothing but disgust for these people, these artists, who spend their time by wasting it and in spending the good taxpayers money, he who, rather than doing uplifting work, can only toil.

And yet, I still cannot fathom your reasoning. Plenty of politicians, for the past fifty years, have done all they could to depoliticise art, to strip it of its symbolic import. They try the impossible, to untie that knot which binds art to politics. And they almost succeed! Whereas you, in the space of one week, have undone this work of chloroforming, by awakening the cultural milieu, Francophone and Anglophone, and from coast to coast. Even if politically speaking they are marginal and negligible, one must never underestimate intellectuals, never underestimate artists; don't underestimate their ability to do you harm.

A grain of sand is all-powerful

I believe, my dear colleague, that you yourself have just planted the grain of sand that could derail the entire machine of your electoral campaign. Culture is, in fact, nothing but a grain of sand, but therein lays its power, in its silent front. It operates in the dark. That is its legitimate strength.

It is full of people who are incomprehensible but very adept with words. They have voices. They know how to write, to paint, to dance, to sculpt, to sing, and they won't let up on you. Democratically speaking, they seek to annihilate your policies. They will not give up. How could they?

You must understand them: they have not had a clear and common purpose for a very long time, for such a long time that they have no common cause to defend. In one week, by not controlling the symbolic importance of your actions, you have just given them passion, anger, rage.

In the dark

The resistance that will begin today, and to which my letter is added, is but a first manifestation of a movement that you yourself have set in motion: an incalculable number of texts, speeches, acts, assemblies, marches, will now be making themselves heard. They will not be exhausted.

Some of these will, perhaps, following my letter, be weakened but within each word, there will be a spark of rage, relit, and it is precisely the addition of these tiny instances of fire that will shape the grain of sand that you will never be able to shake. This will not settle down, the pressure will not be diminished.

Monsieur le premier ministre, we are neighbours. We work across the street from one another. There is nothing but the Cenotaph between our offices, and this is as it should be because politics and art have always mirrored one another, each on its own shore, each seeing itself in the other, separated by that river where life and death are weighed at every moment.

We have many things in common, but an artist, contrary to a politician, has nothing to lose, because he or she does not make laws; and if it is prime ministers who change the world, it's the artist who will show this to the world. So do not attempt, through your policies, to blind us, Monsieur le premier ministre; do not ignore that reflection on the opposite shore, do not plunge us further into the dark. Do not diminish us.

Wajdi Mouawad

Original text here

Sep 11 - Oct 12: DOUBT, Arts Club

Dang we tried hard to get the rights to this one, back when it ran on Broadway and won the Pulitzer and all that. Pure Pacific Theatre stuff, truly. But the rights weren't available, and now we know why. Well, I'm glad it's getting done, and can't wait to see it.

DOUBT
September 11 - October 12, 2008
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
by John Patrick Shanley
Starring Gabrielle Rose, Jonathon Young, Sasa Brown, Michèle Lonsdale Smith
Director Rachel Ditor
Tickets: Arts Club

A clash of wills and generations have unexpected, life-changing outcomes in this riveting play about the blurred line between gossip and truth. Winner! Best Play: 2005 Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize.

"Provocative. A gripping story of suspicion" - Variety

"So full of high drama that the audience with which I saw it gasped out loud a half-dozen times at its startling twists and turns" - The Wall Street Journal

"A breathtaking work... positively brilliant" - Entertainment Weekly

"Eloquent and provocative. A gripping mystery" - Time Out New York

Here's a telling NY Times article about the original Broadway production. The reviewer compares the play to PILLOWMAN which, according to this writer, set out to do nothing more than tell a diverting story. Nothing wrong with that, but the critic celebrates playwright Shanley for aiming to do more...

CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Stories That Tell Vs. Storytelling
By Charles Isherwood 
May 6, 2005

...
But is this a healthy ideal? Entertainment can, after all, aspire to do more than merely serve up narratives diverting enough to keep us hooked for a couple of hours. (Or in the case of the egregiously overwritten ''Pillowman,'' three.)

Mr. Shanley's ''Doubt'' presents a potent counterargument. It, too, has a gripping narrative, about accusations of sexual abuse leveled against a priest in a Bronx Roman Catholic school in 1964. But here storytelling is in service to a wider, more mature vision: ''Doubt'' is as deeply, if subtly, imbued with ideas of larger resonance as any play to be seen on Broadway in the last decade.

Mr. Shanley has an abiding belief that theater, despite its marginal status in popular culture (or, paradoxically, because of it), can illuminate ethical and spiritual questions that are of both immediate and eternal relevance.

This may strike a discordant note in today's self-conscious, irony-saturated cultural landscape, in which sincerity is automatically suspect. The idea that theater should say something, and not necessarily with a smirk, may seem quaintly old-fashioned. It harks back to the ethos of this country's great theatrical moralist, Arthur Miller, whose dramas grappled, sometimes bluntly, with moral questions of immediate currency.

But it derives from an essential truth about the artistic endeavor. Great writers are driven to write to give enduring form to their perceptions about human life and thought, not just because they have a particular knack for prose or dialogue, style or structure. (Although you wouldn't necessarily know this from reading lavishly praised, extravagantly self-conscious novels that get so much ink -- and use so much -- today.)

Good art does not, of course, deliver messages like moral telegrams. The scandal over charges of sexual abuse that has recently plagued the Catholic Church may appear to be Mr. Shanley's inspiration for ''Doubt,'' but the play, which is partly based on his experience at a similar school, is no hand-wringing tract about the abuse of power and religious hypocrisy.

Just before it opened off Broadway last fall, Mr. Shanley decided to append a parenthetical phrase to the play's pleasingly trenchant title: it is officially called ''Doubt, a Parable.'' Mr. Shanley wanted to prod audiences to look beyond the play's surfaces, to experience it not merely as a he-said-she-said drama with narrow topical currency, but also as a broader commentary on the state of the cultural and political discourse in America, and indeed on the dangerous human tendency to take refuge in certainty when the truth may be more complicated and elusive.

After the play won the Pulitzer Prize, Mr. Shanley told The Times, ''People who have great certainty can be a force of good, but can also be incredibly destructive.'' And in an essay he wrote for The Los Angeles Times, which now serves as the introduction to the play's published text, he describes the poisonous cultural environment he was reacting against. ''We are living in a culture of extreme advocacy, of confrontation, of judgment and of verdict,'' he wrote.

Sister Aloysius (Cherry Jones), the nun who relentlessly pursues her suspicions about a priest's sexual misconduct, is the embodiment of the certainty that Mr. Shanley finds disquieting. With unshakable faith in her cause, she ignores all suggestions that the incident in question might involve a more nuanced or different truth. When another nun, who has come to question her role in the process, points to a paucity of actual evidence against the priest, Sister Aloysius replies fiercely, ''But I have my certainty.''

That certainty will have potentially devastating consequences: Sister Aloysius comes close to destroying a handful of lives, including, just possibly, her own. The play is a quiet indictment of the reverence for righteousness that has become an unhealthy hallmark of American culture in recent years.

And yet Mr. Shanley isn't just writing an op-ed piece in theatrical form. The play gets at a deeper, more universal truth. To be in doubt is not comfortable, as anyone can attest who has ever awaited lab results, fretted over a test score or stood vigil over a silent telephone, awaiting a call. It's a psychological itch, and you want to scratch your way to certainty. But it is often the first step on a path to greater spiritual or moral wisdom, a deeper compassion, a breaking free from constricting dogma.

The crisis that Sister Aloysius faces in the play's shattering final moment is one that everyone faces at one time or another: the discomfiting discovery that the world is not ordered as you thought it was.

...

To Sep 27: OSCAR & FELIX, Metro

SO slow getting this posted. Apologies. But Mark Edward Lewis (who you've seen around PT) and Anita Reimer (who just moved here after getting her MFA with Gillette Elvgren at Regent University) are both in OSCAR AND FELIX at the Metro. It's an updated ODD COUPLE - lotsa laffs, one would think!

Sep 6-27: Anthony Ingram in PINTER'S BRIEFS

PINTER'S BRIEFS
Blackbird Theatre
Closes Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 11:00pm
Presentation House, North Vancouver
604 990-3474
www.blackbirdtheatre.ca

Blackbird Theatre launches its 2008-2009 season with Pinter’s Briefs, a collection of quirky, superbly entertaining short plays by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, directed by John Wright and starring Simon Webb and Anthony F. Ingram. These rarely-performed comic gems – six short pieces and the iconic one-act play The Dumb Waiter – have been collected from the master’s oeuvre and polished to perfection by Vancouver’s award-winning Blackbird Theatre.

Pacific Theatre's 25th Season

Okay, my favourite part of the new PT brochure? Hands down, no question, the brag page...

Quotes from Colin Thomas, Christopher Newton, Joy Coghill, Bernard Cuffling, Peter Birnie, Rudi Krause, , Jo Ledingham, Karl Petersen, Todd Thomson...

You gotta know, that's encouragement! I've got it taped up on the wall beside my bathroom mirror. A reminder of why it's worth leaving summer behind and digging in on another great season.

Listen, it's our 25th Season. A big deal! So why not celebrate by giving PT a spectacular birthday present - one where you get most of the benefit! Check out season subscriptions at our snazzy website, or call the box office to book your tix: 604 731-5483.

See you at the theatre!

Ron Reed,

Artistic Director

Sep 10 - Oct 29, Wednesdays: Nelson Boschman Trio, Yaletown

Good news! NeBo has moved into town, and he's gigging already! A whole bunch of Wednesdays in September and October, down in Yaletown. And even gooder news! Unless I read it wrong... There's no cover!

Dear music fan friends,

If you have received this email, you have either:

a.) Heard my trio's music and don't mind it so much
b.) Been exposed to my trio's recordings against your will
c.) Met my wife and think she's amazing, so you might come out to one of my gigs because of her
d.) Asked me to let you know when I'm playing shows that are NOT private functions

...or maybe there are some other categories that would suit you more aptly.

Regardless, I am pleased to announce that my trio will be playing six shows in September and October at Blenz Coffee, in the heart of Yaletown. 

dates, times and other info 

Hope to see you there!

Nelson

Sep 5: Sara Ciantar double-header

At CHRISTMAS PRESENCE last year, Sara Ciantar played accordion one night, pipe organ the next. I could guess which she'll be using this weekend, but it would only be a guess...

"The sun'll come out tomorrow..."
At least I hope so.
And then when the sun goes down i do hope that you'll join me for a double header of an evening.

First I'm playing at trees coffee house. You've all probably heard that trees has the best cheesecake of Vancouver.
It could be true. But don't trust me on that one. I'm lactose intolerant. You'll just have to try yourself.
So! Friday the 5th. things heat up at 8.
I'm on the bill with Erin Graves and the Creaking Planks
450 Granville St is right at the bottom where all that construction is-near the water.
It's a pass the hat scenario in case you're planning on coming to both (I wish!) and can't afford both.

Then I'm racing off to the Media Club to play with James Lamb and Aaron Joyce as we warm up the stage for NatJay's CD release
we're on at 10:30
The Media club is at 695 Cambie-Downtown

I hope to see you at either event.
Have a great sunny day! :)

sara

Nov 8: Kurtis Lamkin on Bowen

Bowen Island poet Richard Osler has become a regular at PT's CHRISTMAS PRESENCE. This just in from Richard...


Over the past few years I have heard Kurtis Lamkin from South Carolina at the Skagit River Poetry Festival down in La Conner, Wa. He is an outstanding singer, poet , performer, troubadour! Last May in La Conner I asked if he would come to Vancouver and Bowen and he said yes! He will performing on Friday November 7th at a private fund raiser for Souls in Stride, an African Charity , focussed on improving the health and safety of woman in Africa, co-founded by former Bowen islander Deb Woodley. Then on the 8th he is coming to the Rock!!!!

I am most excited about this opportunity to showcase Kurtis on Bowen! Hope you can join us on Saturday, November 8th at 7:30 at Cates Hill Chapel.

Richard Osler

Sep 24 - Oct 25: SUSAN AND GOD at Taproot

Here's a rare chance to see a play that was huge in its day, but rarely performed in ours. Just a few miles south...

“a rare gem” – The New York Times
Susan and God
By Rachel Crothers
Directed by Scott Nolte
at Taproot Theatre, Seattle
September 24-October 25
A witty 1930s social satire

Treat yourself to “a rare gem” this fall with Taproot Theatre’s production of Susan and God. She’s bright, charming, intelligent and at the center of the gossipy, fun social set lazing their summers away in the Hamptons. And now, darling, she’s found God. Or at least her version of him. Susan’s newest fad becomes everyone else’s newest headache until Susan receives a startling revelation of her own. This witty social comedy wowed New York with a 2006 off-Broadway revival of the 1930s play.

Producing Artistic Director Scott Nolte directs a talented cast of Alicia Anderson, Don Brady, Kevin Brady, Austen Case, Ryan Childers, Heather Hawkins, Nolan Palmer, Lisa Peretti and Nikki Visel.

For tickets call 206.781.9707 or visit the Taproot website

Vancouver Fringe Festival: Tina Teeninga recommends...

Tina's lovely one-woman-show THE SADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD took her to a couple of other Canadian fringe festivals, and she got a good look as some of the shows that will be onstage here in September's fest. Here are her recommendations...

Hello my Theatre-going and loving friends,

I really encourage you to go out and see at least one Fringe show. There is some remarkable talent at The Fringe this year. Here are shows I reccommend, and a little about why:

-Crude Love: A suspenseful, romantic comedy with ethics. Highly recommended. Funny, sexy, structurally and wonderfully entertaining script, great acting.

-The Sputniks: A drama, with comedy, about a family who escapes from the USSR. Beautiful script, lovely acting. Often compared to my show, The Saddest Girl in the World.

-The Spy: A farce of spy shows and of mime. Very funny!!

-Mr. Fox: Engaging performance about the man behind the mascot. Very high energy and quite funny.

-Boom: Highly idiosyncratic, eccentric and funny show about a man who makes bombs. I really enjoyed it.

-Die Roten Punkte: This is the show everyone goes to. It’s good, especially if you like funny, quirky performances that spoof Nick Cave, The White Stripes or Emo.

-Totem Figures: This isn’t a play, but a stand-up-monologue. I found it fascinating and inspiring. A really good one for artists, as it more than validates what we do for a living.

Of course, there are so many shows that I haven’t seen at this year’s Fringe Festival. A lot of them are sure to be excellent. (Confessions, La Mexicaine de Perforation & Old Growth are ones that caught my eye.)
Take a risk – try out a show you know nothing about!

All the best,

Tina

Tina Teeninga | Otherwise Productions
The Saddest Girl in the World

Pacific Theatre Announces New General Manager, John Sutherland

Pacific Theatre Announces John Sutherland as New General Manager

Pacific Theatre is pleased to announce the appointment of its new general manager, John Sutherland.

Mr. Sutherland brings with him an extensive array of marketing and strategic management experience in the non-profit industry. Born and raised in Ontario, he moved to BC in 1978 to begin his career as business professor at Trinity Western University, where he would become Dean of Business and Economics, a post he held for sixteen years. Other experience includes long-term service on the Abbotsford School Board, work as a non-profit consultant and even as a radio talk-show host. He is widely published, particularly in the areas of business ethics and labour relations. He holds an MBA from Queen’s University.

“I have watched with interest and admiration the growth of Pacific Theatre from Ron Reed's dream to its creative and powerful reality,” says Sutherland. “To now participate in its 25th anniversary as the new General Manager is a dream of my own come true.”

John will begin his duties in September, as several key personnel begin phasing out to pursue other opportunities. The board of directors and staff, including Founding Artistic Director Ron Reed, are delighted to have him aboard:

“The last few years have been instrumental in the artistic growth of our company. I am so pleased with the achievements we’ve been able to make in the debut of exciting new plays, our collaboration with other companies, and the development of our emerging artist program. John’s addition to our team marks a key turning point in Pacific Theatre’s organizational development. He is an impassioned leader with a heart for our mandate and the business smarts to take us to a new level.”

John’s commencement coincides with the launch of Pacific Theatre’s 25th Anniversary Season and pre-production of Emil Sher’s Mourning Dove, opening October 17.

Soul Food: Sad Girls, Curtain Calls

A quick note to alert you that two intriguing shows launch this week, Tina Teeninga's one-woman-show THE SADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (Aug 26-30 at Carousel on Granville Island) and Betty Spackman's art installation CURTAIN CALLS which opens Aug 27 (at the Fort Gallery in Fort Langley).  

There's not much of a specifically Soul Food nature on big screens just now, but the shelves at Videomatica are loaded with nourishing, tasty-fresh New Arrivals.  Excitement's starting for PT's season opener MOURNING DOVE, but first up - my trip to New York to see REFUGE OF LIES open Off-Broadway! Where I'll also check out the competition, just a block down 42nd Street - Frank Langella in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. 

And as always, lots of other good stuff for you to browse over at the Soul Food Vancouver blog and its cyber-buddy, Soul Food Movies.

August 26-30: Tina Teeninga's THE SADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD

It's here! Tina Teeninga's one-woman-show has been really well received on its Fringe Festival tour, and now it's playing Vancouver in the time leading up to our Fringe Festival here. (Just to be clear, it' won't be running in Vancouver's Fest, so this week is your chance.)

You'll remember the shows Tina penned during her apprenticeship at Pacific Theatre: Broken Things, Normal, and River Bottom Baby all played on our stage as apprentice showcase / Stones Throw productions. She's also at work on a full length play that she first presented as part of our Rosedale Writers Week, and you saw her as Max and the work camp boss in REMNANTS (A FABLE).

Move fast; opening night is already sold out, and Wednesday is darn near full!

THE SADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD

by Tina Teeninga

Separated from everyone she knows. Haunted by a bloody past. Natya believes Canada is the beginning of a new life. Canada harbours dirty secrets of its own, however, and Natya must face personal demons in a fight to survive. Natya’s one possible ally is Ava: an innocent woman she has never met, whose dreams of jewels glimmer with hope.

When: August 26-30th, Tuesday – Saturday at 8 pm. Sat mat at 2 pm
Where: Carousel Theatre’s Studio Space, 1411 Cartwright Street
Tickets: $10 (GST incl). To reserve call 604-269-0763, or visit saddestgirl.com

“««««! Teeninga accomplishes an impressive feat…she holds our attention with her talent alone” (Winnipeg Free Press)
“««««! A journey worth taking” (Winnipeg Sun)
“Don't miss it!" (Cory Wreggitt)

Tina Teeninga | Otherwise Productions
The Saddest Girl in the World
www.saddestgirl.com

Note from Emil Sher, MOURNING DOVE playwright

Admittedly, it's a long time now since the predominant stance toward Pacific Theatre (and our faith-related mandate) was suspicion, skepticism or even antagonism: the culture has changed, and certainly our place in the cultural community has shifted as people have gotten to know us and our work, and their misgivings and fears about the company have diminished as they come to understand what we're actually about. But I'll also admit that it still surprises me from time to time to read the degree of understanding and affirmation in this email sent to me by playwright Emil Sher, whose MOURNING DOVE will open our 25th anniversary season...

Hi, Ron,

Your collective commitment to the play is palpable and inspiring, and I'm delighted you'll be acting in it. I was also heartened to learn that Angela teaches at TWU and will bring the very same sensibilities that Pacific embodies. I'm Jewish and love the idea that you use theatre to serve Christ. For that matter, I'm inspired by anyone whose actions are grounded in their faith (the assumption being that that faith is a loving one and not one shaped by extremism or dogma). That you, Angela and your colleagues will explore the text of Mourning Dove on a deep level and interpret it in the context of the theological questions you bring to the table is gratifying beyond words.

I look forward to the road ahead...

Regards,

Emil

January 1-4: Poetry Retreat, Rivendell, Bowen Island

This just in from poet Richard Osler...

Hi All:

I am organizing a four day retreat with Patrick Lane for January 1st through 4th at Rivendell Retreat Centre here on Bowen Island. The theme will be Poetry of Praise. Patrick willl be the retreat leader and lead all of the sessions except one which I will facilitate.

Patrick is not only one of most celebrated Canadian poets he is also a generous and accomplished teacher. Patrick constructs challenging writing exercises for his retreats which encourage participants to explore new levels of their craft. Whether you are a new or accomplished poet you will feel welcomed and and inspired by this extraordinary poet and teacher.

The cost for the retreat will be $535 all inclusive of tuition, room and meals. To register please send a deposit of $100 made out to Richard Osler, Box U57, Bowen Island, BC, V0N 1G0.

The retreat is filling up quickly and space is limited to 17 participants.

All the best,

Richard Osler
604 836 7875

How I wrote REFUGE OF LIES

Here's an interview I did for the REFUGE OF LIES publicist in New York...

How did you come up with the name of the play.

The play was originally titled "Flesh And Blood," because of the communion element in the story, the emphasis on family connections, and because of the one Jewish school of thought that says you can only be forgiven by the person who's been wronged, "or by their flesh and blood."

But a local playwright and theatre critic had a play out at that time also called Flesh And Blood, so I asked him, and he preferred I change the title. I had about three days to find a new title, started looking through Shakespeare and the Bible for cool-sounding pertinent quotes, and when I found the passage in Isaiah I was very taken with the resonances not only with deception and retribution, but also the connection with the "hiding place" involved in the play, and therefore other well-known Dutch holocaust stories such as "The Hiding Place" and "The Diary Of Anne Frank." And certainly the complex idea of our sins being "hid in Christ."

The structure is unusual. Can you comment on that?

I got the idea of the Jewish man's initial mysterious appearance (the incident of stopping at the stoplight / seeing the man at the bus stop) when that I had exactly that experience while preparing to write the play. (I was in something of an altered state after viewing an extraordinary production of A LIE OF THE MIND). So I played the story through, alternating between escalating scenes with this mysterious man and scenes without him, only coming to realize in the course of writing that his presence related the increasing threat experienced by Rudi from "the real world," as the accusations and court case materialize. The more extreme "dream occurrances" weren't really pre-planned, but came out during the writing of the first draft during a 24-hour playwriting competition at what was then called The New Play Centre in Vancouver: I think I was practically in a dream state myself while writing them, no exaggeration. I would fall asleep sitting at the computer, and wake up to find three pages of "j" or "x" or... Or the climactic scene of the play.

A couple years ago I watched Peter Weir's THE LAST WAVE, which I'd seen 20 or 25 years ago and which made a huge impact on me at the time, though I could remember few details – another "altered state" theatrical experience. Revisiting the film some years after completing the initial version of REFUGE OF LIES, I was astonished to see the escalating appearances of the aboriginal man outside the house, at the door, inside the house, etc., and to re-encounter the idea of "dream time." I had completely forgotten about both aspects of the film, but clearly see how they worked themselves into my play.

I wove in the Paraguay flashback scenes and some present-time Simon scenes in the next phase of script development, when Stuart Scadron-Wattles commissioned the piece for its premiere at Theatre & Company in Kitchener, Ontario – a really fine production that featured Ted Follows in the role of Rudi. Revisiting the play now, for the Firebones production in New York, I fleshed out the role of Rachel with Libby Skala in mind.

What character or cultural background creates the language style?

When I moved from Calgary to Vancouver in 1978 I found myself in a community church founded by a bunch of people who had left the Mennonite denomination to start their own little fellowship in a college cafeteria. So I kind of picked up their culture by osmosis – foods, scraps of Low German, all those Wiebes and Reimers and Neufelds. I'd also known some Dutch people here and there, so there's a blending of the two cultures, as there would be in Rudi's marriage. Since initially creating the play, my family and I have ended up at a Mennonite Brethren church – it's not just the pacifism: damn, those Mennonites can make music! – and I've been able to nuance some of the details in my revisions for this production.

Also in those ensuing years, I got to know a couple who are subscribers to Pacific Theatre (my company in Vancouver), and when I began this round of rewrites it dawned on me that they may have known Jacob Luitjens, whose case precipitated the writing of my play. It turns out that in fact they'd served on the ministerial team at the church where he was a member! I invited them to the round-table develompment readings this spring, and their comments further informed several details.

NYC: A Man For All Seasons

Guess what show has its first preview the night REFUGE OF LIES opens? On 42nd Street, two blocks from The Lion? Roundabout Theatre Company's production of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, with Frank Langella as Thomas More! I saw Langella as Richard Nixon in FROST/NIXON last year, and it was one of the best stage performances I've ever seen. Apparently I wasn't alone in that opinion: he won the Tony for it.  (Wonder if he needs any tips?)

NYC: Prayer, by Jonathan Kravetz

Scanning New York theatre pages to decide what to see on my trip there in September, this one caught my eye. It's in the NYC Fringe, so I won't be able to see it, but I wonder if I can track down the script?

PRAYER
by Jonathan Kravetz
"You believe what they tell you to believe. That's sad for a grown man." In a world of religious fundamentalism, Jacob Bergson finds himself wrongfully imprisoned. His only hope is Sophia, his strangely absent wife. Prayer will challenge your ideas about the nature of morality through one man's search for justice and redemption. Prayer is the new drama by Jonathan Kravetz. Directed by Joseph Beuerlein. It will appear in the New York City Fringe this coming August!

Aug 27: Betty Spackman, "Curtain Calls"

Betty Spackman is an artist friend of mine whose work, curiously enough, I've not yet seen. Fortunately that's about to change.  

Artist Statement: Betty Spackman

“Curtain Calls”

Creating with found objects is something I have always done, even as a child. I love the surprise element of material combinations and the creative process of transforming those materials into something new. I enjoy the search for eclectic ‘recyclables’, and the ‘magic’ of juxtaposition. It is also a way of purging my own material life by sharing objects I have collected in my personal journey. In so doing I invite the viewer to see slivers of my personality, to peek into my soul.

As an installation artist I have always been interested in ideas about space, about psychology and architecture such as those in Gaston Bachelard’s book, “The Poetics of Space”. But researching issues of popular culture in my own book, “A Profound Weakness. Christians and Kitsch” also put my attention toward the phenomena of spaces we enter through the imagination such as the gigantic in theme parks, and the worlds of miniatures. Many of these particular pieces utilize the essence of the miniature, which allows the viewer to enter with the imagination as well as the eyes into places that might be fun or foreboding.

My early solo exhibitions in Europe were installations of tents. Temporary housing units continue to be a theme of both my personal and my art life. Curtains, those ‘tent flaps’ of fabric or psychological fabrications that conceal/reveal, protect and divide personal space, started appearing in my drawings and paintings many years ago and I have pulled them out again for this show. Each opening is a tear in a wall, a peek into an interior space, a covering of a secret, an entrance to a story.

Assemblage work has been for me a kind of visual poetry – finding the right object that will work with the one before it, the one after it. The process for Curtain Calls was discovering one-act plays that had different characters and props. For some of these small ‘stage sets’ the play – in both senses of the word - came easily and finding a ‘script’ was a pleasurable game. Others I struggled with. There were divas that wanted to change their lines, stubborn, difficult dialogue with foreign accents, lighting problems and actors who ignored their cues. But I have decided to let them all perform in their awkward honesty and if called upon to even take a bow.

Betty Spackman

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

REFUGE OF LIES

Sep 12 - 28

The Lion Theatre, Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York

produced by Firebone Theatre

tickets available here

Well, I'll be flying into New York on September 11 to see my Off-Broadway debut! Very excited.

I did three rounds of script revision in June and July, have one last scene to touch up just a bit, but the play is about as good as I can make it. Several friends from various parts of my life will be converging on NYC, I've got tickets to see ballgames in the final seasons at both Shea and Yankee Stadia, and plans to revisit the painting that caught my attention a year and a half ago at the Frick.

I'm just now figuring out what shows to see when I'm in New York. Considering THE QUARREL, though - quite seriously - I don't expect it to measure up to the exquisite Midnight Theatre Collective production that was my favourite show in PT's 2006-2007 season. A friend and NYC afficionado who'll be joining me there mentioned THE SEAGULL and ALL MY SONS, which are both favourite plays of mine.  Unfortunately the National Theatre of Scotland production of THE BLACK WATCH won't have opened by the time I head back home.  

Any tips, anyone? 

Ken Myers on browsing

A few summers ago I hit up some folks at my church for money to buy the back catalog of Mars Hill Audio for our library, then immersed myself in those recordings while I puttered around the house. Ken Myers, the head Martian, has recently posted a thoughtful, thought-provoking response to Nicholas Carr's Atlantic essay "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" which makes me keen to go out and buy a copy. Here's where he starts...

That's why they call them browsers
by Ken Myers, Mars Hill Audio

Lately, a lot of what I'm reading has been concerned with how I'm reading, with whether other people are reading, and with how reading influences our inner lives, both our brains and our souls. Nicholas Carr's Atlantic essay, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (July/August 2008) is an elegant exploration of some of the themes explored by media ecologists. Carr has the feeling, he confesses, that the way he thinks has been changing. It's increasingly hard for him to concentrate on extended arguments presented in books for any sustained period. "I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text." He reports that many friends and colleagues report the same sensation, and he's convinced that the cause behind this effect is all the time he spends online.

As Carr describes it, the way knowledge is organized and acquired online encourages certain mental habits while discouraging others....

Read the entire Myers article here, and the Carr essay here

Oh, Mars Hill is also offering a conversation with Eugene Peterson related to his series of five books on spiritual theology. All the right people hang out on that darn hill...

Aug 1: Pickett on "Gospel Train"

A note from Tom...

Hey Everybody: In case you are going to be home tomorrow (Friday August 1) from 8 – 9:30pm I am going to be sharing some music, friendly gossip and good times on the Gospel Train on Co-Op radio.

That’s CFRO Co-op Radio 102.7FM

Love and Gratitude,

Tom Pickett

Pacific Theatre article by Rosie Perera

Nice profile of our company by Pacific Theatre regular Rosie Perera, for COMMENT Magazine....

Vancouver's Pacific Theatre: Good art with Christian motivation but no "agenda"

Since its beginnings in 1984, Pacific Theatre has become one of the premiere professional theatre companies in Vancouver, winning awards and accolades year after year. Its reputation goes way beyond the Christian audiences which were its staple during the first decade. This coming season marks Pacific Theatre's twenty-fifth anniversary. I had the privilege of meeting with founding artistic director Ron Reed and asking him to reflect on the past quarter century of producing great plays for this theatre-savvy city.  (more...)

Jul 20 - Aug 10: AS YOU LIKE IT, Shadows & Dreams

One of my most memorable Sunday afternoons last summer was watching a freewheeling, hilarious Midsummer Night's Dream in New Westminster's glorious Queen's Park, with PT pals Frank Nickel, Kerri Norris, Steven Elcheshen and Mark Vandenberg.  This year, Laura Van Dyke joins the craziness - a TWU Theatre grad  who played Benjamin in REMNANTS and Gay Wellington in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, and - now as a PT apprentice - will be seen in PT's season opener, MOURNING DOVE, this October.  

Shadows and Dreams Theatre Company Presents

As You Like It

by

William Shakespeare

Shadows and Dreams Theatre Company is back after last years successful productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet with another of the Shakespeare's timeless comedies. Duchess Senior has been usurped of her throne by her sister, Duchess Frederica, and has fled to the Forest of Ardenne, where she lives like Robin Hood with a band of loyal followers. Her daughter Rosalind remains at court because of her close relationship with her cousin Celia. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando. But before the two can begin a relationship Rosalind is banished and ends up disguised as a man in a nearby forest. There she tests the faith of her beloved (and also banished) Orlando who can't recognize her in her shepherd's disguise. Shepherds, fools and clowns romp through the forest sparring about love, melancholy in this family friendly production. Directed by Kerri Norris.

FREE!!! No tickets required.
Queen's Park Bandshell, New Westminster

Sun July 20th - 2pm 
Sat July 26th - 2pm 
Sun July 27th - 11am 
Sat Aug 2nd - 2pm 
Sun Aug 3rd - 11am 
Sat Aug 9th - 2pm 
Sun Aug 10th - 11am 

** Performances are rain or shine – 

if there's an audience there's a show **

For more information call 604-515-0704 or visit www.shadowsanddreams.org.

"A Jesuit Off-Broadway": THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT

Pacific Theatre has been talking with Pound Of Flesh theatre for a couple years now about a production of Stephen Adly Guirgis' play THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. It's an extraordinary script, perfect for PT in every way but one: a cast of a dozen, and no Emerging Artist roles. We almost pulled it off for this fall, but not quite. We'll talk some more: maybe in 2009-2010?

At any rate, this week's IMAGE Update brings word of a behind-the-scenes memoir about the show...

A Jesuit Off-Broadway by James Martin, SJ

Priests and actors don't typically run in the same crowd, but in 2004 when actor Sam Rockwell made a phone call to the Jesuit priest James Martin, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Rockwell had recently been cast as Judas in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, an off-Broadway play written by Stephen Adly Guirgis. A self-described "confused, often irate and disconsolate lapsed Catholic," Guirgis had been troubled by Judas since his Sunday school days. His play, set in modern times, follows the trial of Judas--a controversial and enigmatic (and therefore artistically compelling) figure. Guirgis and Rockwell asked the priest to serve as their theological consultant, and over the course of six months Father Martin became a collaborator with them, the rest of the cast, and director Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the making of the play.

These unlikely friendships became the subject of Martin's new book, A Jesuit Off-Broadway, which is largely devoted to recounting the many conversations they had about theology and "life's big questions." And if that sounds wearying or self-absorbed, it somehow manages not to be. Martin writes in a way that is honest, accessible, and thorough, and his book is a loving tribute to the relationships formed over those six months. He also bears witness to the cast's fascinating artistic process, watching them as they attempt to understand their characters, and the Gospel itself, through art. At one point the cast even takes a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view paintings of Jesus, Judas, and the events of the Gospels.

This process of encountering theology through a creative endeavor is what's really at stake in the book: Martin realizes that after nearly 20 years as a Jesuit he has become overly familiar with the theology he's explaining to his new friends. "Seeing the Gospel stories through the eyes of people like Sam reminded me of the inherent shock of the story," he says. The experience, in short, became a way to rediscover the richness of his faith. And the feeling was mutual. In his foreword to the book, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis writes, "I drown in doubt, and to the degree that that's true, Father Jim, from our first meeting and right up to today, is slowly teaching me to swim."

Jul 19: Tom Pickett, Cellar Jazz Club

Tom Pickett (DRIVING MISS DAISY, MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS, PLAYLAND, etc.) is the featured guest of the Bradley/McGillivray Blues Band this Saturday night. Here's what the band says about Tom and the gig;

Hi Everybody,

Don't forget we've got a very special concert coming up at the Cellar Jazz Club this Saturday, July 19th, at 8:30 pm.

Acclaimed Vancouver actor and vocalist Tom Pickett is our featured guest. Tom joined us at the "Livin' This Way" CD Release Party at the Yale last November and the crowd went wild. Many of you asked to see Ruth and Tom perform together again...so here's your chance :-) 

We've got another treat lined up for the night...sax player Cory Weeds is sitting in for a few numbers. This is going to be one fantastic night of groove, improv and spontaneous musical magic!

Cellar Jazz is at: 3611 West Broadway (at Alma), Vancouver, B.C.
$10 cover (1/2 price with coupon below)
$15 minimum food/beverage charge
Reservations strongly recommended: 604-738-1959 or www.cellarjazz.com

And if you looked real close, you noticed that the graphic above is actually a coupon. Print that baby and you're into the gig for five bucks! There's a printable copy at the band's website.

Jul 20: DIRT, Christopher Domig, Seattle

I met Chris Domig at Schloss Mittersill when I was there in 2003. Last summer he presented DIRT in the NYC Fringe Festival, and received Best Actor honours.  He's taking the show to the Edinburgh Fringe, and en route, one performance in Seattle.

DIRT

July 20, 7pm

Fremont Abbey, Seattle

"A play about racism and the havoc it wreaks on the human spirit. For seventy-five minutes, the stage belongs to Austrian-American actor Christopher Domig, who brings depth, turmoil, and even a touch of well-pruned humor to the lonely role of Sad, a 30-year-old Iraqi man living illegally in the United States. He sells roses on the street: his name is Sad but he is not sad.

"Sad is an Arab living in New York City in 2008. He loves the English language, and America too. He is thankful for the life he is “allowed” to live in this country, and is sensitively aware of his rights – and lack thereof. He is careful about what he says and does, to the point that he remarks repeatedly he has never once sat on a park bench in this city. To Sad, the benches are reserved for the people he at once admires and abhors, including the 40-year-old men that buy his roses but refuse to look him in the eye. He resents their behavior yet feels obligated to respect them, and the exploration of this conflict drives the play."

by Audrey Dimola, LIC magazine, Issue 10

“See this show....Christopher John Domig is captivating, highly skilled, and utterly heartbreaking“ 

-NY Theatre

“riveting Christopher John Domig“

-Time Out 

“Stunningly realized in Christopher John Domig's performance.”

- Backstage Critic's Pick 

“An exciting new actor who stands out from all the rest. Go see Dirt and discover Mr. Christopher Domig. It’s a dazzling performance.“ 

-Talk Entertainment

“A brilliant performance from Domig“

- Downtown Express

“Christopher Domig gives a stellar performance“

- Off-Off-Online

“extremely capable, charming performance of Christopher Domig“ 

- Newbienyc.blogspot.com

“A startling young actor whose name is Christopher Domig, will not remain unknown for long. Watching Domig in DIRT brings to mind a young Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino when they were just starting off Broadway.”

-Theater Life

“Christopher Domig is one of the finest actors we’ve seen lately. Watch for big things from him in the future.”

- Off-Off-Online

“…aptly played by Christopher Domig, who captures the subtle nuances of his dejected character”

-Show Business

“A powerful, mesmerizing and thoroughly enthralling performance by Christopher Domig“

-Talk Entertainment

“The fire and vigor in this young actor’s eyes keeps us peeled to his thoughts.“

-Theater Life

Jul 31 - Aug 16: METAMORPHOSES in PT space

Not a PT production, but our resident Stage Manager Lois Dawson is in the booth, and you've seen the director, Christine Willes, at Pacific Theatre - she played the mother in PRODIGAL SON. For my money, one of the strongest performances I've ever seen on our stage.

The show itself has some real interest. Apart from being staged in a swimming pool (!), it's also noteworthy that two of Pacific Theatre's sister companies have staged the piece, Lamb's Players in San Diego and Theatre & Company in Kitchener. I'll definitely be checking it out.

Jul 29: Scott Cairns at Regent College

Poet Scott Cairns will give a reading (with Marilyn McEntyre) in Vancouver, B.C. as part of Regent College's Summer School 2008. The reading will be held Tuesday, July 29, from 8:00 – 9:30 p.m. in the Regent College Chapel. The event is open to the public and free of charge. Regent College is located at 5800 University Blvd., Vancouver, B.C. V6T 2E4. For further details, call 604 221-3378.

All evening special events are free and held from 8:00-9:30 pm in the Regent Chapel. These events can draw large crowds, so plan to arrive early for a good seat. Private taping is not permitted. Audio recordings may be ordered following each lecture.

Jul 1: Damien Canonized

They need a relic? Something that's been touched by Father Damien? Can I volunteer?

VATICAN VOTES TO ELEVATE FATHER DAMIEN TO SAINTHOOD
Celebrations Expected For Belgium, Hawaii
July 1, 2008

HONOLULU -- The Congregation of the Causes of Saints at the Vatican has voted to canonize Father Damien of Molokai to sainthood.

After the verification of two medical miracles, after decades of investigation into the life and works of Damien De Veuster, the Consisterie at the Vatican has at long last voted to elevate the Martyr of Molokai to its Pantheon of Saints. The measure now awaits the signature of Pope Benedict XVI.

"People are very excited because they know he was a great person and role model, and that is the most important thing of the sanctification, he finally can be the role model we need," Damien historian Hilde Eynikel told KITV from Belgium.

The search is now on for a relic of Father Damien, which will be presented to the pope at the sanctification. A relic can be something touched by the saint, worn by the saint, or an actual body part of the saint. The diocese in Brussels is now looking into the retrieval of such a relic from Damien's tomb in Leuven, Belgium. Damien's grave in Kalaupapa contains only his right hand, which was re-interred following his beatification in 1995.

The canonization will take place in Rome, possibly at the end of next year, with celebrations in Belgium and Hawaii. The pope will probably not travel to Hawaii. Cardinal Daneels of Belgium may be in attendance.

Supporters of the sainthood effort are overjoyed that now the world will know what Hawaii has known for 100 years -- that Father Damien of Molokai is a saint.

He was born Joseph De Veuster in Tremeloo, Belgium, in 1840. De Veuster's older brother, Pamphile, was set to travel to the "Sandwich Islands," but was too sick to go. Instead, De Veuster traveled to Hawaii in his brother's place. The Roman Catholic priest arrived in Hawaii in 1864 and took the name Damien. He served the leprosy patients at the Molokai colony at Kalaupapa for 12 years before he succumbed to Hansen's disease at age 49.

His body was exhumed from his Molokai grave in 1936 when his remains were sent to Belgium, for reburial. In 1995, a relic of his right hand was given back to the Hawaii Diocese and returned to his Molokai grave.

Jul 14-18: Kids and Youth Summer Acting Class at PT!