SET DESIGN

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.