Courage Now
Photos: Youn Park
Courage Now tells the story of Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara, who helped over 6000 Polish and Lithuanian Jews escape the Nazis in 1940. Going against his government orders, he issued more than 2000 handwritten visas, risking both his life and his career. Some of those whose lives were saved have families living in British Columbia today.
CAST
Manami Hara, Ryota Kaneko, Amitai Marmorstein, Katherine Matlashewski, and Advah Soudack.
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
Amiel Gladstone: Director
Manami Hara: Playwright
Teddy Ngkaion: Assistant to Director
Michael Hewitt: Technical Director
Carmen Aguirre: Dramaturge
Kimira Reddy: Set Design
Vanka Salim: Set Design Assistant
Melicia Zaini: Costume Design
Riley Hardwick: Sound Designer
Itai Erdal: Lighting Designer
Stephen Elgar: Props Designer
The Pearl Fishers – Vancouver Opera
Photo by Emily Cooper
This dramatic opera tells the tale of two devoted friends and the woman that comes between them. The famous “friendship duet”, Au fond du temple saint, is one of the most beautiful and recognizable pieces in the opera repertoire. Be swept away by the lush orchestration and Bizet’s trademark melodies.
CAST
Aaron Blake, Phillip Addis, Vartan Gabrielian, Miriam Khalil
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
Rachel Peake: Director
Kamna Gupta: Conductor
Nicole Lamb: Technical Director
Krystal Kiran: Choreographer
Kimira Reddy & Scott Reid: Set Design
Sophie Tang: Lighting Designer
Stephen Elgar: Props Designer
Orlando
Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, has been described as “the longest and most charming love letter in literature”. Written as an ode to her lover, Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is a fantasia spanning the course of five hundred years. Dense with free-flowing images and streams of consciousness, Ruhl’s humourous and tight adaptation grapples with time, identity, gender, sexuality, betrayal, discovery, change, loneliness, poetry, and love — all tied into the eternal struggle to “find ourselves”.
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
Direction Thrasso Petras
Set Kimira Reddy
Costumes Christopher David Gauthier
Lighting Darryl Strohan
Sound Jack Goodison
90 Days
Expelled from Uganda, one family’s story of the exodus fifty years on.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Ugandan exodus of Asians, and based on the playwright’s own experiences, one of the largest expulsions of the 20th century is brought to life through the lens of a modest Ismaili family tearing themselves away from what they thought was home. Humorous, moving, and completely authentic, Western Gold is thrilled to present the world premiere of this fascinating new play.
CAST
Dhirendra: Yusuf Rahim
Nimet Kanji: Parin Rahim
Akshaya Pattanayak: Nasser Rahim
Parm Soor: Munir Kassam
Sabrina Vellani: Shamira Rahim
CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM
Rachel Brew: Assistant Stage Manager
Karen Chiang: Stage Manager
Matthias Falvai: Assistant Sound Designer
Layla A. Jaffer: Cultural Liaison
Rebekah Johnson (she/her): Lighting Designer
Angela Konrad: Director Mentor
Joelysa Pankanea: Composer / Sound Design
Kimira Reddy: Set Designer
Christina Sinosich: Assistant Costume Design
Donnie Tejani: Costume Designer
Himmat
A narrative in Punjabi and English, Himmat delves into the world of a father and daughter born generations and miles apart.
It is a gut-wrenchingly honest depiction of a working-class family’s struggle with addiction and labour. Told through flashbacks and set in Surrey Memorial Hospital, Himmat takes audiences on a journey exploring the complexities of family history and immigration. As secrets are revealed, Banth and Ajit unpack their memories, discovering how family dynamics and relationships change over time.
Playwright: Gavan Cheema
Actors: Gavan Cheema, Munish Sharma* and Veenu Sandhu*
Director: Paneet Singh
Dramaturg: Tim Carlson
Lead Producer: Theatre Conspiracy
Producing Partner: South Asian Arts
Sound and Projection Designer: David Mesiha
Lighter Designer: Parjad Sharifi
Set Designer: Kimira Reddy
Costume Designer: Elika Mojtabaei
Stage Manager: Yvonne Yip*
Production Manager: Reid Collinson
Sound Assistant: Cindy Kao
Marketing and Communications: Erin Purghart
Translator: Paneet Singh
In Response to Alabama
Three performers share the stories of their abortions with a small audience in an intimate setting. In doing so, they take on the myth and stigma surrounding abortion and open a door for the audience to inhabit their lived experience.
Performed by: Libby Willoughby, Mariam Barry, and Miranda MacDougall
Set Designer: Kimira Reddy
Nurse: Montserrat Videla Samper
SM: Kayleigh Sandomirsky
Director: Keltie Forsyth
Men Express Their Feelings
A comedy about culture, hockey, relationships and sex. Two dads and their sons are sentenced to stay in the hockey dressing room until they’ve talked through their feelings about a heated scuffle. In 90 hilarious minutes, these guys get to know each other and themselves a whole lot better, while redefining what it means to WIN. Men Express Their Feelings enriches, instigates, and empowers questions of gender, sexuality, identity and the cultural impact on all of these.
Directed by Cameron Mackenzie
Stage Managed by Liam Kearns*
Choreography & Intimacy Coaching by Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg*
Set Design by Kimira Reddy
Costume Design by Donnie Tejani
Lighting Design by Nico Weismiller
Sound Design by Sara Vickruck
Props Design by Carol Macdonald
Technical Direction by Ash Shotton
Assistant Stage Managed by Sabrina Banks
Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play
Six actors stand in the hot glow of the stage lights. Restless, bewildered, on edge. Another fucking dinner party story is about to begin but something’s different – the cultural tectonics are shifting, a new world is emerging, and the stage as usual is under siege.
Directed by Roy Surette; Starring Angela Chu, Nicola Lipman, Allan Morgan, Monice Peter, Alex Poch-Goldin, and Kerry Sandomirsky; Set Design by Kimira Reddy; Lighting Design by Itai Erdal; Video Design by Jamie Nesbitt; Costume Design by Christine Reimer; Sound Design by Alistair Wallace; Props by Ildiko Susany; Stage Managed by Stephen Courtenay.
we the same
Inspired by a true story…
In 1979, a Vietnamese family flee Saigon by boat, enduring pirate attacks, typhoons, shipwreck and starvation. Forty years later, a mother finally shares their tale with her daughter. A multicultural journey through reality, fantasy, and the supernatural utilizing ritual dance, shadow play, live music, and animation.
Produced by: Ruby Slippers
Photos: Ashley Song (Chimerik 似不像 IG @chimerikcollective)
Directed by: Diane Brown
Stage: The Cultch
LIKE IT OR NOT
Best friends Leah and Zoey have been inseparable since kindergarten. They like all the same things: soccer, tacos, and well, soccer. As their teacher Madame LaGrange is always saying, they’re two peas in la pod! But now that they’re in Grade Five, Leah would rather spend more time posting pics with mega fashionista Makayla than on the soccer field. It makes Zoey wonder… Maybe their shared interests aren’t so shared after all? This new comedy from the author of the Green Thumb hit, WHAT IF, takes a closer look at how young people can become more obsessed with how they’re seen online than how they’re seen “IRL”, and explores what happens when two friends start to grow up and grow apart.
Produced by Greenthumb Theatre
Cast: Melissa Oei, Camille Legg, Pamela Carolina Martinez
Playwright: Katey Hoffman
Director: Rachel Aberle
Assistant Director: Leslie Dos Remedios
Stage Manager: Anthony Liam Kearns
Set & Props Designer: Kimira Reddy
Assistant to the Set & Props Designer: Elliot Roberts
Costume and Wig Designer: Donnie Tejani
Sound Designer & Composer: Anton Lipovetsky
Photography: Tim Matheson
Playthings
This original story flashes across eras and fight styles, providing a dazzling display of fighting prowess and ability, interspersed with the modern, lively banter of the Gods. Underneath the fiery exchanges of words and swords, the play takes a hard-hitting interrogation of what drives humanity to violence.
Produced by Affair of Honor
Director & Playwright: Nathania Bernabe & Jackie T. Hanlin
Stage: Presentation House Theatre
Zoning Out
A single mother from Iran immigrates to Canada with her child. She faces the challenges met by many newcomers in a new country. But her story goes in an unexpected direction when she learns that her child is on the Autism spectrum.
Produced by: Blackout Theater
Playwright & Directed by: Amir N. Hosseini
Stage: Presentation House Theatre
No Child
Provocative and insightful, No Child… transports the audience to the underfunded Malcolm X High School in the Bronx, where an intrepid substitute drama teacher refuses to give up on a group of at-risk students—despite their hardened attitudes and tough-talking attempts to push her away.
Produced by: The Arts Club Theatre Company
Directed by: Omari Newton
Stage: Newmont Stage at The BMO Theatre
The Crucible
The Crucible is a timeless parable of morality, a scorching indictment of intolerance, and a central work in the canon of American drama
Photos by: Javier Sotres
Directed by: Jessica Nelson
Stage: The Frederic Wood Theatre
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of The Screw is a smart, tense, suspenseful play by Jeffrey Hatcher that was adapted from the famous, provocative 19thcentury novel by Henry James
Produced by: Aenigma Theatre
Photos by: Harika Xu
Directed by: Tanya Mathivanan
Stage: Studio 16
The Glass Menagerie
The play is a ‘memory play’ narrated by character Tom, based on his memories of his mother Amanda and mentally fragile sister Laura. It is set in their old St. Louis apartment
Stage: The Frederic Wood Theatre
Great Slave Lake
One-act unusual mystery. Two women, Gretchen and Margaret, sit on their next door front porches in a small Ohio town in the autumn of 1938 and talk about their husbands, both named Clyde, each a brother of the other woman, who have mysteriously disappeared on a fishing trip to Canada a few months earlier
Photos by: Erika Champion
Directed by: Michelle Thorne
Stage: Dorothy Somerset Stage
The Shallow End
One act play about the relationship between three teenage girls
Photos by: Erika Champion
Directed by: Jenny Larson
Stage: Dorothy Somerset Stage
Burqa Boutique
In the midst of war, a multi-generational group of women take refuge inside a burqa boutique that’s free from political allegiances
Produced by: Revolver Festival
Photos by: Jayda Paige Photography
Directed by: Gavan Cheema and Jamie King
Stage: The Cultch – The Greenhouse stage
The Way You Carry On
Two estranged sisters reunite in an East Van backyard: one queer and poly-amorous, the other monogamous and on the run from motherhood
Produced by: Revolver Festival
Photo credit: Jayda Paige Photography
Directed by: Mika Laulainen
Stage: The Cultch – Greenhouse Stage
Fireflies
A multimedia exploration of body autonomy and non-binary identity in a dystopian future Japan
Photos by: Jayda Paige Photography
Directed by: Patricia Trinh
Stage: The Cultch – Greenhouse Stage
The Time Machine
The Time Machine, is a science fiction classic written by H.G. Wells, in the Victorian Era. Tracey Power and the Acting C ensemble have updated this story to jump 1000 years in time and discovers what the world may look like if we pay no attention to climate change and the voices of young people.
Produced by: Gateway Theatre
Directed by Raugi Yu and Eileen Barrett
Stage: Richmond Gateway Theatre Studio Stage
Seussical JR.
Transporting audiences from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat narrates the story of Horton the Elephant, who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called the Whos.
Produced by: Gateway Theatre
Directed by: Christina Cuglietta and Abbey Dutton
Stage: Richmond Gateway Theatre Studio Stage
Virtual Set Design for Theatre 