Theatre Reviews

 

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Chilton Crane) and Nick Hunnings are featured in The Other Place

Teacher becomes the student and director for stage thriller The Other Place (with video)

In Hong Kong, Christy Webb taught acting. In Vancouver she’s gone back to school as a student. At 60, the actor director and teacher was looking forward to switching her focus from stage to screen. Then one of her teachers, Mel Tuck, handed her the script for Sharr White’s The Other Place. Now she’s making her Canadian directing debut with the Canadian premiere of the New York hit June 26 at the Pal Studio Theatre.


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The Foreigner conquered the local theatre scene as Pacific Theatre’s show picked up three out of the four acting prizes in the large theatre category. John Voth was named best actor in a lead role and Peter Carlone and Erla Faye Forsyth picked up prizes for male and female supporting performances.

Designer dominates Jessies and The Foreigner conquers local theatre

The 32nd annual Jessie Richardson Awards celebrating the best in Vancouver theatre doubled as Drew Facey Appreciation Night.The production designer picked up three trophies at the Commodore Ballroom Monday night after racking up an unprecedented eight individual nominations, including four out of five nods for outstanding set design for large theatre where he picked up the trophy for the Gateway Theatre’s production of Art.


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Sereana Malani, Daniel Doheny, Adele Noronha, Chirag Naik, Claire Hasselgrave (left to right) from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Bard on the Beach will show the Shakespeare classic from June 11 to Sept. 20 at the BMO Mainstage.

Costume designer Mara Gottler dreams darker for Midsummer remount

It’s easier for costume designer Mara Gottler to name the shows she hasn’t worked on for Bard on the Beach than the ones she has. More than 25 years ago actor Christopher Gaze asked Gottler if she’d be interested in designing some costumes for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that he and some friends were staging in a tent on the beach.


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Scott Bellis + Naomi Wright 2- photo David Blue

Bard revisits Shakespeare’s greatest hits for silver anniversary season

Bard on the Beach has revisited most of Shakespeare’s plays during the years but as part of its 25th anniversary season the company’s artistic director Christopher Gaze decided to remount two of Bard’s most successful productions — director Meg Roe’s staging of The Tempest and Dean Paul Gibson’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.


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The cast of the 1983 production of Reflections On Crooked Walking. From left to right: Simon Webb, Sharon Timmins, Bernard Cuffling, Rick Scott, Jane Mortifee, Photo: Glen Erikson

Photos: Vancouver's Arts Club celebrates 50 years

The Arts Club has produced or hosted hundreds of shows since opening its doors in 1964. Here are 10 pivotal moments in the theatre’s 50-year history.


 
 

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Emma Slipp (left) and Jillian Fargey (right) in The Concessions, playwright Briana Brown’s new play which receives its world premiere June 6 at the Firehall Arts Centre.

Theatre preview: New stage mystery gets flying start at Firehall

How can a single act of violence change a small town? That’s the question playwright Briana Brown set out to explore in The Concessions — her new play which receives its world premiere June 6 at the Firehall Arts Centre.


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Kara Lindsay in Wicked, which runs from May 28 to June 29 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Theatre review: Wicked flies in Vancouver (with video)

Hello Yellow Brick Road. When Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003, most of the major New York critics agreed — the show didn’t work. Sure, there was a lot of talent on stage — everyone loved the lead performers — but unlike the witches of Oz, the verdict was that the production, the music and the story didn’t fly.


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Omari Newton leads a poetry writing workshop at the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre this week as part of a youth hip-hop workshop series sponsored by urban ink productions. His latest, a musical, has its western Canadian debut on Thursday. Photo credit: Jessica Hallenbeck.

Spotlight: Police shooting inspires hip-hop musical Sal Capone

Omari Newton was in Clinton, B.C., working as an extra on the movie Shooter when he heard about a real-life shooting that haunted him. Fredy Villanueva was an 18-year-old Montrealer who was shot and killed by the police in broad daylight while he was trying to stop his brother from being arrested. Villanueva was unarmed.


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Reefer Madness The musical

Theatre: Reefer Madness The Musical ‘perfect’ for Vancouver audiences

Vancouver just became home to its first marijuana vending machine and drug dispensaries with pot leaf logos are almost as ubiquitous as Starbucks outlets. But the pop rock musical Reefer Madness isn’t about the city’s drug scene. The marijuana musical which debuted in Los Angeles in 1998 offers a modern stoner spin on the classic 1936 anti-marijuana movie Reefer Madness.


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This May 12, 2014 photo released by The Publicity Office shows Norm Lewis, left, and Sierra Boggess acknowledging applause on the pair's opening night with the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera at The Majestic Theatre, in New York. Lewis is the first African-American actor to take on the title role in Broadway's “The Phantom of the Opera.” (AP Photo/The Publicity Office, Bruce Glikas)

Norm Lewis welcomed as Broadway's first black lead in 'Phantom of the Opera'

A thunderous standing ovation congratulated Norm Lewis as he became the first black actor to take on the title role in Broadway's "The Phantom of the Opera."


 
 
The cast of RIP! A Wrinkle in Time, from left, Tara Travis, Stefano Giulianetti and Simon Webb.

Theatre preview: Time travelling comedy RIP! A Winkle in Time a final challenge

Wayne Specht is thinking about time. He’s directing RIP! A Winkle in Time, a new comedy inspired by iconic sleepyhead Rip Van Winkle which opens Thursday Night at the Waterfront Theatre, as well as counting down his last few days as artistic director of Axis Theatre, the company he’s run for nearly 40 years.


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