1. Be Prepared:
Before you attend the California Wine Fair—we encourage you to visit the California Wine website in advance to download the list of wineries and scope out your plan of attack. If you want to sample specific types of wines such as chardonnay or pinot noir, check out a number of websites to find the latest reviews, for example: www.winespectator.com. Make some notes and bring with you to the fair, highlighting the must-see wineries that you are interested in seeking out.

2. Eat & Hydrate Before the Tasting:

To keep from getting dehydrated, drink lots of water. Small appetizers and pallet-cleansing snacks are provided, but it is recommended that you have dinner before arriving.

3. Set Goals for the Tasting:

Figure out what you are interested in getting out of the tastings, for example:

Do you want to learn more about wines and how they’re made?

Do you want to visit specific wineries?

Do you want to buy or sample a specific type of wine?

4. Working the room:

Start with the wines that will be lightest in colour, flavour, and body and move through to the biggest and most flavourful wines. This is the ideal wine sequential order:

Bubbles/sparkling
Light whites
Heavier whites
Light reds
Big, bold reds
Port-style wines

5.  Meet the winemakers:

One of the highlights of the event is getting to meet the vintners and find out more about their work and products. The wine agents are all knowledgeable, friendly people who are there to help answer any questions that you might have about the wine, so do not hesitate to ask.

There are just a few tickets left for the California Wine Fair Ballroom Tasting next Friday the 11th (a fundraiser for the Arts Club). To reserve yours, email specialevents@artsclub.com or call 604.687.1644.

When I saw that the latter was going to put on Tracy Letts’ Tony Award winning and Pulitzer prize winning August: Osage County, I knew that I wanted to see it.

I thought it was an interesting play to see because I saw a brief clip of it during the Tony Awards a few years ago and Entertainment Weekly named it the best play of the decade (2000-2009).

In case people want to see the play, you have until February 27, 2011 to do so. Here is also the basic premise of the show courtesy of the Arts Club.

For the Westons, one hot summer weekend changes everything forever. This is the funny and poignant account of a dysfunctional family in the midst of a spectacularly entertaining meltdown.

One of the attractions of the play for me was the cast. A lot of familiar faces from Bard on the Beach are in it such as John Murphy as Little Charlie, Andrew Wheeler as Bill Fordham and Gerry MacKay as Sheriff Deion Gilbeau. And to me the main attraction was seeing Wendy Noel on the Vancouver stage again. I read that she hasn’t been seen on the Vancouver stage since 2006 and that is a shame because she was fantastic as Ivy, the middle Weston daughter. I have loved Wendy Noel since I saw her as Catherine Sloper in a mid to late 90s production of The Heiress, my favourite play of all-time.

Letts’ play is filled with sharp, bitingly funny dialogue and in the hands of Nora McLellan as the family matriarch, Violet Weston, she hits it out of the park.  Equal to the task is Karin Konoval as oldest daughter Barbara.

The only weak spot of the play is Anais West as Jean, Barbara’s daughter and Quelemia Sparrow as Johnna Monevata, a Native American hired to be cook and caregiver for Violet. West seemed to try too hard in the first act and you could just tell she was acting but she did get better in the second act and was starting to feel more natural. The same can be said for Sparrow but she was slightly better than West.

Sean Allan as patriarch Beverly Weston is great in his very short stage time. The rest of the cast like Susinn McFarlen and Brian Linds as Violet’s sister and brother-in-law respectively also bring in some nice comic relief.

August: Osage County does a great job of balancing comedic moments with some truly heartbreaking and emotional scenes.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! No one at last night’s opening was afraid of Blackbird Theatre Company’s production of Who’s Afraid Virginia Woolf?. It was a fantastic night and a great way to kick off the 2011 half of our Granville Island Stage season. Thanks to everyone who came out to the opening last night!  We’ve got snaps below and you can read the rest of Peter Birnie’s review here.

Breanne Jackson (Apprentice Stage Manager), Meg Roe (Honey), and Donna Wong-Juliani

Sasa Brown, Janet, Kayvon Koshkam, and Craig Erickson (Nick)

Michael Blake, Marlene Ginader, and Luc Roderique

On February 2, 2008 Lindsay Buziak, a 24-year-old Victoria, BC ReMax realtor, was savagely murdered. Jeff Buziak, a Calgary, Alberta-based realtor, works tirelessly to solve his daughter’s slaying.

On February 11, 2011, within hours of Buziak posting pics and comments online that identified Mary Standell and/or Robin Platts as being associated with several facebook nominee accounts, the offending group has replaced its admins.

Mary Standell and husband Robin Platts share a happier moment

This is the beginning of a series. Truly a fresh start.

Postscript: After Jeff Buziak outed nominee accounts posting in the bogus forum and also in a legitimately investigative discussion group, “Find Lindsay Buziak’s Murderers”, on facebook, Mary Standell posted under her real name – to admit she was behind the pseudonyms and to deny her husband had any role in the campaign: “I, solely posted as Mel Bee and Quinn Tall. Robin did not have anything thing to do with either site, or posting elsewhere.” Standell and Platts have both been employed by the Government of British Columbia in the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation (ABR) Communications Office based in Victoria, B.C. That’s in the Ministry portfolio of B.C.’s Attorney-General Barry Penner, the MLA for Chilliwack-Hope. (Standell was Corporate Clerk for the ABR government office. Platts served as Penner’s Communications Manager with ABR.)

Update: In a “cabinet shuffle” on March 14, 2011, MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Mary Polak (Langley) replaced Barry Penner as Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.

The ceremony, held in the Backstage Lounge and lower lobby of the Granville Island Stage, honoured the amazing individuals, businesses, and governments whose generosity contributed to our recent renovations at the Granville Island Stage and the Revue Stage. The fundraising campaign for the project began in September 2007 and the renovations were completed in November of 2010.

Attendees included Spencer Herbert, BC Provincial MLA for Vancouver-West End; Ellen Woodsworth, Councillor, City of Vancouver; and Canadian Heritage staff members, with speeches by Jim Storie, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Arts Club; Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development; Geoff Meggs, Deputy Mayor, City of Vancouver; and Stan Hamilton, Chair of the Arts Club’s Capital Campaign.

You can check out The Georgia Straight’s coverage of our event here and the Vancouver Sun’s here.

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and to The Party Bazaar for selling giant novelty scissors so we could cut the ribbon!

Stephanie Cadieux , Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development; Jim Storie, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Arts Club; Howard Jang, Arts Club Executive Director; Geoff Meggs, Deputy Mayor, City of Vancouver; Stan Hamilton, Chair of the Arts Club’s Capital Campaign.

Speeches in the lower lobby of the Granville Island Stage

In front of plaque: Bill Millerd, Arts Club Artistic Managing Director; Jim Storie, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Arts Club; Stephanie Cadieux , Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development; Geoff Meggs, Deputy Mayor, City of Vancouver; Stan Hamilton, Chair of the Arts Club’s Capital Campaign; Howard Jang, Arts Club Executive Director

Ribbon-cutting: Foreground L-R: Geoff Meggs, Deputy Mayor, City of Vancouver; Ellen Woodsworth, Councillor, City of Vancouver; Jim Storie, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Arts Club; Stephanie Cadieux , Minister of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development. Background: Howard Jang, Arts Club Executive Director; Bill Millerd, Arts Club Artistic Managing Director; Stan Hamilton, Chair of the Arts Club’s Capital Campaign

Not only is Brian Linds playing Charlie Aiken in our upcoming production of August: Osage County, he is also the show’s sound designer. Brian has worked with the Arts Club for many years, most recently starring as Skookum Pete in The Patron Saint of Stanley Park,  and also designed sound for productions like The History Boys. We had a chance to chat with him about what it’s like to be on both sides of an artistic team!

You are both a busy actor and a sound designer.  Is one of these your first love?

Acting has always been my favourite of the two professions. It’s what I was trained to do and I have spent the last 30 years playing a vast array of great characters, traveling Canada and abroad, and working in some amazing shows with a lot of spectacular actors. On the other hand, I have been a lover of music since I was very young, and being a sound designer allows me to open doors to music I never new existed. For example, while creating the sound design for [Henrik Ibsen’s] A Doll’s House in Chemainus, I heard the music of Fartein Valen who was composing the same time as Ibsen was writing. It was as if the music had been composed for the first production it fit so well. I am also enjoying the technical aspect of sound design: finding the right effect by manipulating sounds, learning new tricks in the editing software, and creating and recording sound effects and ambient sounds.

How did you get into sound design?

I was acting in The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Arts Club in 2001, and Jamie Norris (who was in the show) was writing a show for Green Thumb Theatre. He knew of my love of music and of my extensive, rather large, collection of vinyl records (10,000). He asked if I might be interested in creating the sound design. Having done some radio work, I knew a minimal amount about editing on the computer and said, “Yes.” It was a perfect fit.

How often do you both act in and sound design for the same production? How do you balance your two roles? 

I have acted and created sound designs in about 4 or 5 shows. One of the advantages is that it allows me to get sound in the rehearsal at a very early stage. It also allows me to hear if I’m on the right track or if the director has suggestions early on. This is very helpful as I want to be focusing on the acting as we head toward previews. It can be confusing at times. Sometimes there is very little down time for me as an actor. When a break is called, I’m usually at the computer making sound adjustments. The technical rehearsals can be very interesting as I can’t be in the house and I need to rely on other people to make sure it sounds right. 

Is your decision to take on both jobs affected by the demands of the role or the complexity of the sound design? 

Yes. It would be very hard to do a design for a play that featured a lot of underscoring or a major soundscape. When playing a major role, I want my time spent preparing, studying, and focusing for the role—not the hours and hours it takes to research and work on a sound design. Also, the sound designer needs to be in the house, watching and listening how the sound is being incorporated into a scene, a moment, or the play in general. 

Brian Linds with the rest of his castmates in August: Osage County. Photo by David Cooper.

What’s it like being on both sides of the artistic team?

I love the fact that I can work on productions I would never be a part of as an actor. This also enables me to work closely with the other designers and especially the director. The sound design/director relationship is very exciting for me. I love working with directors who understand the musicality of the play. How they can take what I’ve created or suggested and make it even better than I hoped. It’s a great feeling when the creative process is collaborative. It’s also wonderful to work with, and get to know, the other designers. I love it when sound connects with a beautiful lighting moment or video sequence. 

Is it easy to put on your designer cap and attend a production meeting, or is your mind still thinking of your role on stage? 

In a production meeting I am usually just a designer. Occasionally something will pop up regarding my character, but this is a time for technical questions to be answered and solved. 

Do you find being an actor, and seeing things from the actor’s perspective, helps you be a better designer?

Yes. As an actor in a show, listening to a sound cue night after night, I try to discover why it doesn’t work and hopefully try to not make the same mistake. As a designer, I can watch other actor’s process and become inspired by their work. 

What’s your favourite sound cue?

The one that comes to mind was for Hippies and Bolsheviks at Touchstone Theatre. I was hired to supply music for the show, but I couldn’t help myself and created the cue for the opening sequence. The play starts with two characters coming home from the Led Zeppelin concert at The Pacific Coliseum in 1973. I have connections to music people all over the world thanks to the internet, and I actually found a bootleg recording of that 1973 concert. After the band’s introduction, Robert Plant opens the concert with, “Hello Vancouver!” and the band segues into Misty Mountain Hop, the opening song for the play. The bootleg’s music was pretty awful, but I was able to dovetail that recording with a re-mastering of the same song from a Madison Square Garden concert the same year. It was pretty cool having the actual concert be a part of the show.

Hugh Hughes experiments on floating with a buoy 1: these are some clips of experiments I’ve done on “floating”

Hugh Hughes experiments on floating with a buoy 2

Hugh Hughes experiments on floating with buoy 3

Hugh Hughes experiments on floating with logs: this clip shows a few experiments done on floating logs

Hugh Hughes reflects on floating: some thoughts

Here is a heavily edited extract from Sarah-Jayne Levertons article. You can read the full thing by getting hold of a copy of the magazine (its on p158) from a Cornsih newsagent – or subscribe here.

Murray Lachlan Young is not your stereotypical pet. Satirical, witty and wholly modern, he has had TV and radio appearances in both the UK and America, and has worked with some of the biggest names in music. But now settled in St Levan, Cornwall, he has a very different, very personal aspiration ahead of him – to create a poem for Cornwall.

Murray first became recognised when he made his name on the underground music and cabaret scene in the mid-Nineties….

‘It was mad’ exclaims Murray. ‘Suddenly I was getting picked up in limousines and leading a rock and roll lifestyle. It was a whole different world from what I was used to’.

Murray now lives a very different life style from that of his early years. Settled in a remote Cornish village with his two young sons, he has set his sights on a different target – producing a unique poem for Cornwall.

‘Everywhere needs a poem’ he explains ‘ Cornwall has a very unique sense of identity, and I want to capture that. I’ve lived here for six years now and my home is right on the coast path so I go walking, wild swimming camping. I absolutely love the surfing. My children are growing up here and go to the local school. This will be my personal tribute to a very special place.

Murray is currently preparing for a month-long tour of the West Country where he will combine his childrens show Modern Cautionary Tales for Children with adult poetry evenings. These evenings, he explains, are very different from traditional readings. ‘I call it stand up poetry. I go to work on your ears, your brain and your funny bones. It’s meant to be satirical, amusing. It’s great fun, and I hugely enjoy what I do’.

During his tour Murray will search for inspiration for his poem. ‘It will be difficult thing to do and keep everyone happy. The most important aspects of the search will be combining my own thoughts and experiences with those of the people I meet while I’m on the road. I want to create something completely original. I’m keen to avoid cliches without throwing away core aspects of what Cornwall is all about’

Despite his success, his fame and the thousands of poems he has written, Murray still has a real love and passion for his poetry. ‘People and places inspire me. I will never lose my fascination with observing the behaviour of individuals and groups, seeing all the things we attach importance to and how we distract ourselves from the key issues in our lives. Poetry helps me focus on the bigger picture by making me observe the little things – at least most of the time.’

Not at all about Cornwall – but just to whet your appetite here is another extract from that Exeter Phoenix show back in January 2010:-

And those Quest for the West tour dates:-

January 27th Broomhill Art Hotel, Barnstaple 8pm We Got Tickets here
January 28th Barrel House, Totnes 8pm We Got Tickets here
January 30th Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter 8pm We Got Tickets here
February 2nd Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury 8pm We Got Tickets here
February 4th Calstock Old Chapel*, Calstock 8pm reserve tickets at info@calstockarts.org
February 5th Falmouth Old Poly*, Falmouth 8pm tickets here
February 8th The Arts Club, St Ives 8pm, We Got Tickets here
February 9th Liskerett Community Centre We Got Tickets here
February 10th Shire Horse Suite, Bodmin We Got Tickets here
February 12th Acorn Arts Centre, Penzance We Got Tickets here
February 13th Bath Komedia*, 8pm An Alternative Valantines Special tickets here

Murray Lachlan Young – Modern Cautionary Tales for Children II

January 29th Barn Theatre, Dartington 2pm Tickets from here
January 30th Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter 2pm Tickets from here
February 5th Falmouth Old Poly, Falmouth 2pm. Tickets from here
February 12th Acorn Arts Centre, Penzance 2pm. Tickets from We Got Tickets – tickets from here

You can imagine my astonishment, therefore, on attending my first AGM of the PGW Society, to find that they took well under an hour to read through the committee members’ reports and re-elect the current committee.
I was seriously impressed at this efficient and no-nonsense approach, particularly because the committee members’ reports were in no way diminished in quality as a result. On the contrary, the Treasurer’s report was one of the funniest I’d ever heard – I didn’t realise that there were any Treasurers in existence with such a masterful turn of comic phrase – it was worthy of Plum himself!

On arriving at The George pub, I made my way to the upstairs room that had been reserved for the use of the Society, obtained, as we later discovered, at very short notice after being let down by the Arts Club. I quite liked the warm & friendly atmosphere of the pub (having never been to any meetings at the Arts Club, I wasn’t aware of what I had missed), although someone did point out to me later that the arrangement of chairs around the edge of the room did restrict mingling with fellow members somewhat.

In spite of this there was a thoroughly convivial atmosphere throughout the proceedings, and mingling did occur, partly prompted by two items of note that were being passed round the room – one was a draft copy of the “Chronology of P G Wodehouse Stories” compiled by Tony Ring, which generated considerable interest. The other was a photo album full of pictures from the bi-annual dinner. Having hurried across the room to peruse this terrifying tome, I discovered to my infinite relief that there was only one photo of me in it and I had somehow managed to look more normal and less deranged than I had expected. This was particularly gratifying as, leafing through the pages, I noticed that others had not got off so lightly!

After the committee members had read their reports and the committee had been re-elected, we were treated to a cracking performance by Geoff Hale, who spoke on the many and varied roles of servants in the Wodehouse stories. He explained how Wodehouse obtained first-hand experience of servant life when he was a boy, mentioned several characters who masqueraded as servants (prime examples being Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine), continued on to discuss the decline in quality of servants and finally wound up with a piece dedicated solely to the incomparable Sebastian Beach. All of this was liberally besprinkled with wonderfully apt quotations, which added extra colour and amusement. Much merriment was had by all and I for one was sorely disappointed to discover at the end of the evening that I would have to wait until February for the next Society meeting. Ah well, quality over quantity!

Last year’s production was a sold-out success and this year there are already 20 sold out performances! Make sure to check out the reviews and audience comments from last year’s show and get your tickets soon! It’s going to sell out again this year and then you might have to hit up Todd Talbot on Craigslist

Hiro Kanagawa

Q: You are a very familiar face on the Sci Fi Channel (as well as other places, like DaVinci’s City Hall). As a Vancouver-based actor, are these the types of roles that are available here, or is this a genre that you have always been attracted to?

A: For much of the time I’ve been an actor in Vancouver, I’ve taken what was available and/or offered to me. I guess I wound up doing a lot of sci-fi in the past because a lot of sci-fi was getting shot in Vancouver. Over time, the people who make and watch sci-fi come to know who you are and I guess it becomes a self-perpetuating thing.

 The Chris Haddock shows such as Da Vinci’s City Hall and Intelligence are more up my alley in terms of content. There again, I was fortunate to be presented with an opportunity where I could be a part of those shows as an actor and in the writing dept. Until recently I didn’t feel I had any choice with regard to what kind of roles I would take, especially in film/tv. I think a small handful of actors anywhere can afford to be real picky.

 In the past few years, though, I have increasingly started to turn stuff down, both film/tv and theatre.  At first, you think it’s a risky thing to do—you worry about whether you can financially afford to do such a thing, you worry about whether you’re going to piss off producers or casting directors or friends as the case may be. In the end, you get to a certain age and place in your life and you feel like you want to write your own ticket and you can’t, won’t, and don’t want to do everything that gets presented to you. And in the end, turning things down has worked out well for me so far…knock on wood.

 Q: You have many TV writing credits and background, but you keep coming back to the stage. What inspires you to keep creating work for the theatre?

A: My natural inclinations as a writer might be more suited to stage—my natural inclination is to write long, dialogue heavy scenes. Having said that, I do have some unproduced film/tv projects I’ve written in the pipeline and if they come to fruition, I may do that for a while. I haven’t dedicated myself to any one thing in my life—I took music pretty seriously when I was younger, then I was a visual artist in my college years, and so on. So some ideas might best be expressed in plays, some in a three-minute pop song, some might make a good movie or tv show. And so on.

Q: I have to ask: what was it like to work with Christopher Guest and the cast of Best in Show? Was it very improvisational, and was it a departure from your normal acting process for TV?

A: It was all improv, the script was 20 some pages long and consisted mainly of slug lines and a brief description of what happens in the scene. Very different process from most film/tv beginning with the audition process, which was all improv as well. At the first audition the casting director offered me some potato chips and kept insisting and I kept declining until I finally clued in that maybe having some chips was the audition. I went off on how bad iodized salt is for your skin, and I guess that did the trick. I then got called back for the dog psychologist (Jay Brazeau in the film) and then for a dog thief (ultimately not in the film). The audition for the pet store guy I eventually played consisted of Christopher Guest screaming at me non-stop for a couple minutes and me trying to get in a word here and there. The scene was ultimately shot in a pet shop near Pacific and Davie. When I got there Christopher Guest said he wanted to try it with a Japanese accent. We shot the master, then he went around asking everybody in the crew if they thought the accent was funny. It wasn’t. So it went.

Brian Linds. Photo by David Cooper.

Q: “Magical realism” is a term some might use to describe Patron Saint. Would you agree?

A: I wouldn’t use the term “magical realism” myself. I think that’s a fairly specific literary genre—the attributes of it are open to debate—nevertheless, I think the term is over used and has started to lose any meaning. I don’t think having ghosts and other supernatural or fantastical elements in a work necessarily qualifies as “magical realism.” If that were so, A Christmas Carol would also be “magical realism.”

Q: How did the ReACT reading process help shape Patron Saint?

A: Maybe a good opportunity here to talk about my long association with ReACT and with Rachel Ditor and the Arts Club. My last three works Tiger of Malaya, Tom Pinkerton (still unproduced sequel to Madama Butterfly with music composed by David MacIntyre), and Patron Saint have all been in the ReACT reading series and all have been dramaturged by Rachel. As you know Patron Saint was one of the Arts Club Silver Commissions.

Rachel and I had a conversation several years ago in which she said it might be fun to organize a festival of science fiction plays, as that seemed to be a popular genre in literature, film and tv, but pretty much unexplored in theatre. 

So of course when I received the Silver Commission, I set out to write a science fiction play. As you noted, I have a lot of experience acting in the various science fiction shows that have been shot here, and I thought I had a pretty good idea of how to approach sci-fi for the stage. I pitched a surreal apocalyptic sci-fi play called The Dark Divide to Bill and Rachel. I turned in a very detailed outline and even a rougly 30 page first draft, but the play wouldn’t “write itself” and I was having a hard time with it. Around this time, my son Niko was about a year-and-a-half to two years old and my wife got pregnant again. Being the responsible type, I started talking about how we needed a will and clear instructions on what would happen to the kids if, god forbid, we should both be killed. Etc. So I was thinking a lot about what would happen to my kids if I died? I started to think about what they would know about me, since they were not at the age that they would really be able to remember. I realized it would be many years before they would be able to see any filmed work I had done and understand it. Many more years before they could read and understand anything I had written. That seemed wrong to me. I wanted to leave something they could access much earlier in their lives.

So that inspired me to create something that they might be able to access fairly young, six or seven, say, the earliest age that you could expect a small child to sit through a live play. That’s really how Patron Saint came about. The storm and the bigfoot and the crazy person in the forest all evolved out of The Dark Divide. It pretty much wrote itself. And I originally wrote it visualizing an audience consisting of very young children. But as I got into it, my natural tendencies came out, which is, I’m not really interested in dumbing things down for a young audience, so the play turned out to be more of a “family” play then a “young audiences” play. We have been adjusting Skookum Pete over the past few months because he still had elements of addressing an audience of children and that wasn’t working anymore.

Sara-Jeanne Hosie and Monique Lund in the Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas: The Musical. Photo by David Cooper.

Based on the 1954 musical film starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, the stage version debuted in 2004 with a book by David Ives and Paul Blake and music by Irving Berlin.

Directed by Bill Millerd, musical direction by Bruce Kellett and choreography by Valerie Easton. Starring Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Monique Lund, Todd Talbot, Jeffrey Victor, Susan Anderson, Allan Gray, and Mark Weatherley and featuring Robert Allan, Scott Augustine, Adam Charles, Brennan Cuff, Anna Kuman, Jeremy Lowe, Kristie Marsden, Marianne McCord, Laura McNaught, Keri Minty, Shane Snow, Fiona Vroom, Rachael Withers.

Arts Club Theatre Company presents Irving Berlin’s White Christmas: The Musical from December 4, 2010 – January 2, 2011 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, 2750 Granville St.  Tickets are available online or by phone at 604-687-1644.

“A rollicking riot of fun” —Peter Birnie, The Vancouver Sun [Read More]

“Audience members were crying with laughter” —Colin Thomas, The Georgia Straight [Read More]

“So many laugh-out-loud funny moments, that “riotously funny” doesn’t quite do it justice” —Mark Robins, GayVancouver [Read More]

“A rollicking ride of tickle-your-funny-bone jocularity” —Roger Wayne Eberle, Review Vancouver [Read More] 

“Who knew Hitchcock could be hilarious…this show is one you won’t want to miss” —Jonathon Narvey, Plank Magazine [Read More] 

Shawn Macdonald, David Marr, Martin Happer. Photo by Emily Cooper.

Audience reviews:

“The Art’s Club production of The 39 Steps was absolutely marvelous and I would highly recommend it to anyone that has a desire to spend an evening where not only will you be surprised but I dare you not to laugh out loud several times during this production. Well done Arts Club actors and staff. You have exceeded my expectations yet again!”
—Barb, Vancouver

“Brilliant. Most enjoyable”
—Alan, Richmond

“It was a wonderful show. I took my 15 year old daughter and she loved every minute of it. Great acting, sets, costumes. 10 out of 10″
—Callum

“Great show. Very energetic, fast-paced, creative, and engaging. We laughed all the way through. The four actors are amazing. Highly recommend”
—Ruth

“It was absolutely inventive and hilarious. Truly some brilliant acting with such a minimal set. It transported us into their world. The cast of 4 were phenomenal. Thank you for entertaining us!”
—Manoj

“Wonderful! The acting was superb, and my husband and I laughed all the way thru it. Pure entertainment! Thank you for another wonderful performance, we cannot wait for the next one”
—Valerie, Richmond

Read more audience reviews here.

Congratulations to the cast, crew, and artistic team.  Have a great run!

Dean Paul Gibson (Director), Stephen Dimopolous, Nicola Lipman, and Jay Brazeau

Diana Coatsworth (Annabella Schmidt/Pamela/Margaret) and friend Judy Closkey

Luisa Jojic and Martin Happer (Richard Hannay)

Shawn Macdonald (Man #2) in centre and friends

David Marr (Man #1) and Shirley Broderick

Jillian Fargey, Dean Paul Gibson (Director), Mike Snellgrove, Alessandro Juliani, Meg Roe, Bob Frazer, and Robert Maloney

Angela Beaulieu (Stage Manager) and Sharon Thompson



As a stage performer, he was also a very dear and cherished member of our Arts Club family. In an interview with The Georgia Straight, Bill (Millerd, our Artistic Managing Director) said, “He first performed for us in Ain’t Misbehavin’ in the mid 1980s at the Revue Stage, and he was just electric. He would just take the audience into his embrace. Really, that was his personality. He embraced people and was one of those just very open, honest, performers….He was just one of those dynamic forces that suddenly are gone.”

“You know how people always say ‘Have a nice day’? He’s the kind of person that would say it and mean it. He would look at you with his eyes and he had a big smile and you felt good. You just felt better for knowing him as a person…He just had a tremendous amount of grace.”

To fully honor Denis’s wishes, his family will not be holding a public memorial. Denis wished for everyone to “raise a toast to LIFE in the privacy of your daily lives.” Thank you for your understanding and support. Here are photo memories from just a few of the many productions Denis did with us and we welcome you to share your Denis memories and thoughts below.

Rest in peace, Denis. You were truly one of a kind and will be deeply missed.

Younger but the same magnetic smile!

The 1000th performance of Ain't Misbehaving in the mid-80s

Denis with dear friend Sibel Thrasher during Ain't Misbehavin'

Reflections on Crooked Walking-1992

Blowin' on Bowen-1993

Five Guys Named Moe-1995

Denis, Anyone? 1996

Dames at Sea-2002

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in the summer of this year

Movie poster from Hitchcock's 1935 film

The 39 Steps has had several incarnations and each has had its own look when it comes to the artwork.  From novel, to film, and finally stage, here’s a little history and some nostalgic artwork!

Buchan as Governor General of Canada in the late 1930's

THE BOOK: Born the eldest of five children into a middle-class family in Perth, Scotland, and raised in Fife, John Buchan studied on scholarship at Glasgow University, enrolling at age 16.

In 1914, Buchan, aged 39, began writing The 39 Steps while recovering from surgery.  The spy novel was published just 13 months later and serves as the reader’s introduction to an adventurous hero, Richard Hannay, who appears in four sequels. The first and second sequels take place during World War I, while the other two occur during the postwar years.

Two different covers for the original novel. Could that be a Fokker plane chasing our hero, Richard Hannay, through the Scottish moor?

THE FILM: In 86 minutes, Alfred Hitchcock radically alters Buchan’s novel by introducing a female lead and romantic interest to the plot.  Madeleine Carroll as Pamela is the beautiful blonde British actress whom Hitchcock linked to Robert Donat’s Hannay and his attempts to reach Alt-na-Shellach, Scotland.  Hitchcock’s 18th film is considered his first masterpiece, which pioneered the theme of “innocent man on the run” that Hitchcock would use throughout his career.  Hitchcock’s other free adaptations, not referenced in Buchan’s novel, include “Mr. Memory” (Wylie Watson) at the London Palladium and Hannay’s jump from the train on the Forth Rail Bridge in eastern Scotland.

Various posters for the 1935 film

Screen shot of the stocking scene.

A definite horror feel lends itself to this poster!

THE PLAY: Adapted by Patrick Barlow, The 39 Steps has been transformed into a Monty Python flavoured spoof.  The play first saw the light of day in 1995.  Asked by Edward Snape of the production company Fiery Angel, Patrick Barlow adapted the script using Hitchcock’s film as his starting point, as it is more inherently dramatic than the novel. After a tour the show came to the Tricycle Theatre in London in August 2006 and was so successful it gained an immediate transfer to the West End, where it is still running. The show then transferred to Broadway and ran for over two years before moving Off-Broadway to the New World Stages.

Richard Hannay (Martin Happer) jumping off the 'Forth Bridge' to escape enemy spies (Shawn Macdonald and David Marr) in our production of The 39 Steps.

Jonathon Young and Laura Mennell. Photo by David Cooper.

The season opened with two premieres: Tear the Curtain! at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage and Don Quixote at the Granville Island Stage. The process of bringing those two productions to life was a consuming passion for nearly four years; Tear the Curtain! was commissioned from the Electric Company in 2006 as part of the Silver Commissions Project. The reaction to this production has been unprecedented—whether you loved the work or you were baffled by it, you wanted to talk about it. Many people wrote to us, stopped to talk with our front of house staff, or chatted with fellow audience members; subscribers were calling each other; and the buzz by the water cooler at work and over dinners with friends and family was noticeable. Several patrons returned for a second and third viewing. It has been heartening to realize that the conversations that started around a table so many years ago with these artists, brainstorming about the ambitious stories they wanted to tell, turned into equally passionate discussions around your tables. 

At the lively talkback session we held during the run of Tear the Curtain!, Jonathon Young spoke of challenging audience’s expectations. Whether the outcome was totally successful is up to you, but as theatre artists, they didn’t flinch in their determination to take the next steps in their examination of new forms of theatre. With our next show The 39 Steps, the story telling is also unconventional, which reveals the immense range of what can be conjured on stage when artists are brave enough to invent and audiences take that step alongside them. Thank you. –Bill Millerd, Artistic Managing Director

Craig Erickson. Photo by Brian Johnson.

THE GREAT GEORGIA STRAIGHT DEBATE

One of the most public debates about the show occured in the comments section of The Georgia Straight review, where it is ranked as the most popular Arts article almost a month after it was published! Below is an excerpt of the final comment by co-playwright and lead actor, Electric Company Theatre’s Jonathon Young himself:

“The reactions to Tear the Curtain have been extreme (both negative and positive) and have come from all sorts of people, not just theatre artists but from many demographics: housepainters, teachers, doctors, filmmakers, students, teenagers and the elderly etc. There was one gentleman in his 70′s who came back a fourth time!

It is obviously not for everyone but I do stand behind it and I’m grateful that it has generated such intense and widespread reaction. One of our objectives with Tear the Curtain was to create a radical piece of avant-garde theatre on a commercial mainstage. And to deliver a solid, compelling, traditional narrative. These two sides of Tear the Curtain are definitely in opposition to each other: the avant-garde which has always existed to deconstruct, disorient and challenge the viewer and the narrative which must deliver catharsis and clarity and closure. And this internal debate has spilled out onto the streets as it were.

As a premiere of a new work, we have by no means created a perfect work of art and if we get a chance to go back to it we’ll be tinkering with it to ensure this balance between clarity and confusion improves. Meanwhile it has done the work it set out to do. To get audiences asking what is the nature and purpose of art? How far can we be challenged without disengaging? What do we look for in the theatre? Do we care about it enough as an art form that we are willing to experiment with what it can be?”

To read the rest of Jonathon’s comment and the entire debate, click here.  

Thank you to everyone who attended the show, sent us your thoughts, and talked about it with your friends, family, and colleagues, whatever side of the curtain you were on! What a way to start the season!

Lions Gate Financial and Raymond James present the Shooting Stars Foundation's Starry Night in Vancouver

Kim Kuzma is one of the many amazing artists schedule to perform at this year’s Starry Night presented by Lions Gate Financial and Raymond James!

It was 25 years ago that the Arts Club on Granville Island hosted the very first Starry Night. Since that time it has grown into the signature event of the Shooting Stars Foundation as part of an annual roster of six events. This magical, musical smorgasbord has inspired devoted fans to return for many years while winning a whole legion of new ones. This year will feature undiscovered gems and crowd favourites. All kinds of performers including Jim Brynes, Jane Mortifee, Jennifer Scott, Shari Ulrich, Bill Henderson, Roy Forbes, Joan-E, Sibel Thrasher, Babe Gurr, Linda Kidder, Joelle Rabu, Kim Kuzma and many others! Don’t miss it!!

Starry Night Orchestra: David Sinclair (Musical Director), Michael Creber, Randall Stoll and Rene Worst

Event Produced and Directed by: Kendra Sprinkling

Starry Night
25th Anniversary Show
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Stanley Theatre on South Granville
2750 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC Canada
Showtime: 8pm

Tickets Available at:
Vancouver Tix
Phone: 604-629-8849
VancouverTix.com

Sara-Jeanne Hosie in the Arts Club’s production of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. Photo by David Cooper.

Written by Dean Regan. Directed by Shane Snow, with musical direction by Nico Rhodes, set and lighting design by Ted Roberts, and costume design by Norma Bowen. Starring Sara-Jeanne Hosie (White Christmas, Arts Club) and Kevin James.

A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, presented by the Arts Club On Tour in association with Chemainus Theatre Festival, runs from October 8 – November 15, 2010, at various theatres in North Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Surrey, West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Kelowna, Nelson, Cranbrook, Mission, Burnaby, Vernon, and Chilliwack.  Tickets are available from the local theatres, click here for a more detailed schedule.

What Lurks Behind?
Glamour! Intrigue! Suspense! A collaboration with the innovative Electric Company Theatre, the premiere of this stylish thriller is inspired by the “reel” history of the Stanley Theatre. Experience a multimedia spectacle featuring your favourite Hollywood film noir archetypes: the mob boss, the femme fatale, the hardboiled detective, and his girl Friday. Does the truth lie somewhere between the stage and the screen? Tear the Curtain! is set in a fictionalized 1930s Vancouver, where two prominent mob families: the Dugan’s (who run all the live joints) and the Pamploni’s (who own all the cinemas) use respectable businesses (like their cinemas and theatres) as a front for illegal activity. But what really happened in Vancouver in 1930? Read more on the Arts Club Theatre Company blog at Flashback! Vancouver, 1930.

For more information about this production, please visit artsclub.com.

Tear the Curtain
Stanley Theatre
(Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage)
2750 Granville Street
September 9 – October 10, 2010

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"All the world's a baseball diamond, And all the men and women merely players." Shakespeare's first draft of Jacques' monologue in As You Like It.

The 5^th Annual Theatre in the Summer Classic took place on Monday, August 2 at Trout Lake Park –- and what a game it was! 

This summertime tradition pits the cast, crew, and staff from both the Arts Club Theatre Company and Bard on the Beach against each other in a serious softball battle to the death!

The Arts Club had a team of almost 20 this year, including actors from our productions of Salt-Water Moon, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, White Christmas, Glengarry Glen Ross and The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was truly a beautiful (albeit warm) summer day to get out on the diamond, and to have some fun with our colleagues. 

It was a hard fought game, with no one team leading by more than 4 runs at any point. It came down to the final inning, when the Arts Club was up 20-16, with Bard coming up to bat. A quick out and one run later, the score was 20-17 with one person on base. The Arts Club retired the next two batters, winning the game by the final score of 20-17.

We’d like to thank and congratulate everyone from Bard on the Beach for a great afternoon, and for a lot of laughs.  The Arts Club leads the series 3-2.  Those Shakespearians better bring their “A” game next summer!