Tag: Theatre

Gender and Theatre – Join an Interactive Panel Discussion

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Watch Mairy Beam’s provocative and enlightening play What Difference Does it Make?  available now on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQU6WT6Igs8  and join us for a Play Discussion moderated by our own Rev Lara Cowtan on Saturday June 12 at 7:00 pm. ucv.im/gsa

What Difference Does It Make?  Minutes before Carmelle’s best friend arrives for a visit from Toronto, Lucy comes out as non-binary. A day later they’re all trapped together isolating from Covid 19. In this hotbed of needs and limitations the characters play out their destinies against the backdrop of a city in virtual lockdown. A sensitive and illuminating portrayal of a person in transition, a partner struggling to adjust and a broken-hearted houseguest inadvertently making things worse.

From the audience: 

  • “Up until I saw this play I didn’t get how significant and important and fundamental the journey to non-binary is.”
  • “captivating, touching, challenging, humorous, sad and informative”
  • “this play is a gem”
  • “true and raw”
  • “I have some thinking to do  . . . “

What Difference Does It Make? was originally produced by Toronto’s Haven Theatre, in February 2021.

This event is coordinated by UCV’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance as part of UCV’s recertification as a Welcoming Congregation.

Registration appreciated but not required:

https://ucv-gender-theatre.eventbrite.ca

Search the website for “gsa” for other information and events.

Our GSA meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:30pm.

All genders and sexualities welcome, even cis-straight.  Email [email protected] for the zoom link and agenda.

 

Irreparable Harm?

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Irreparable Harm? A Tale of TMX Resistence

Documentary Theatre on the BC Supreme Court Trial
230 People Arrested for Protesting the Trans Mountain Pipeline

Wanted

mugshot

Mairy Beam — Incorrigible Author, Playwrite and Theatre Director found guilty of criminal contempt for protesting TMX

Above: Councillor Jean Swanson gets arrested. Jean represents COPE on Vancouver City Council. She is an anti-poverty activist and a recipient of the Order of Canada (Photo by Tzeporah Berman)

Update from Mairy Beam

Mairy was arrested at the Kinder Morgan Burnaby Tank Farm gates on August 24, 2018, found guilty by Judge Affleck on Dec 5, 2018 and sentenced to serve 28 days of house arrest and 125 hours of community service.

Did the protesters at the Trans Mountain facilities in Burnaby cause irreparable harm to Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America, by delaying a few trucks for a few minutes on a few days in 2018? That’s what the BC Supreme Court believes. That’s why there’s an injunction barring anyone from coming within five metres of any site owned by Trans Mountain Pipeline. The 230 people who were arrested in 2018 for breaking that injunction have a different opinion as to who is causing irreparable harm to whom.

Most of those who were arrested and charged with criminal contempt of court for breaking the injunction have either pled guilty, or been found guilty by Judge Affleck – the same judge who created the injunction. These land and water protectors have made many impassioned speeches in court, trying to alert the judge to the harm that this pipeline expansion, if it proceeds, will cause to First Nations, and to the land and water that we all depend on for life. For that we have been labelled ‘sinister’, and told that by showing defiance of the law, we are inviting chaos and threatening civilization.

Several of the land and water protectors have formed the Sinister Sisters Collective to develop a documentary theatre piece about our journey through the BC Supreme Court. We are calling it “Irreparable Harm?” Using video footage from the arrests, excerpts from the court documents, and re-enactments, we will shine a spotlight on how our justice system treats those who are in opposition to the interests of large corporations.

We will be working over the summer months to compile the most dramatic moments of our encounters with the justice system. Our goal is to present a workshop in October, and then a full production of our theatre piece in the spring of 2020.

Stay tuned!

Theatre Forums at UCV

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Theatre Forums at UCV Jan 27 and Feb 24, 2019

The first two forums for 2019 will feature theatre with a focus on community-engaged theatre. In January, our own Diane Brown, artistic director of Ruby Slippers, will talk about improv theatre techniques and engage with the audience in some simple exercises. In February, we’re very pleased to have Lenore Rowntree, local writer and most recently, producer. Lenore has volunteered with MPA (Motivation, Power and Achievement, previously Mental Patients Association) leading a group of people living with mental illness to create a documentary theatre production, SRO (Single Room Occupancy not Standing Room Only) Stars, which had its premiere at the Heart of the City Festival. She will talk about Arts and the Filter of Mental Illness.

Mark the 4th Sunday in January and February on your calendar. Click here to see all upcoming forums.

If you are involved with theatre as writer, actor, behind-the-scenes or enthusiastic audience member you are invited to join our new group who are interested in planning some events for UCV including kids, youth and adults.

We also have an email group for people to share their recommendations for local theatre, and sometimes individuals put out an invitation to attend a play as a group. To subscribe to this email, send a blank email to [email protected]

See also Meg Roberts’ monthly group.

 

Doug Ennenberg at the Fringe

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Our own Douglas Ennenberg, chair of the Program Coordinating Council, co-chair of the Arts Committee and Board Member has a show at the Vancouver Fringe. It’s one of three pieces in Waterborne BLUE program.

O Sandana 150M
Lead Artist: Douglas Ennenberg

150 million years later… the world stops—and out of the basic elements, sand and water, comes… life. Under the sun, Sandadians build beautiful castles, sing the National Sandthem, and glorify the Sandadian flag. Meanwhile, under the stars, Wateries plan their attack. On the natural/industrial stage of the grassy knoll on Granville Island, two cultures try to make peace. Fantastical. Apocalyptic. Puppets.

NOTE: Although the link below says False Creek Gym, it’s actually outdoors in Ron Basford Park–just east of Performance Works on Granville Island.

 

75 minutes / Coarse language

See also Diane Brown’s Advance Theatre series.