Artists from around the world are getting ready to showcase some unique and innovative pieces at Art! Vancouver. This annual celebration of art will grace the Vancouver Convention Centre from May 25-28. One of the featured artists will be local BC boy, Ryan Cook, who uses chainsaws and a variety of hand tools to turn raw wood into unreal sculptures.
Read moreOpera Review: Vancouver Opera’s Dead Man Walking is a riveting journey driven by artistic brilliance
Photo credit: Trudie Lee, courtesy of Calgary Opera
It’s incredible how a stage production can sometimes transport you to another time and place so convincingly that you forget you’re watching a show. Such is the case with Vancouver Opera’s (VO) Dead Man Walking, a 21st century American opera. Dead Man Walking is both a fascinating and moving look into the capital punishment debate. VO’s production is absolutely magnificent – a collaboration of incredible vocal and acting talent combined with astonishing brilliance in musical direction, staging, sets, lighting and costume design. But above all else – it tells a compelling story that will likely stay in many people’s minds long after the curtain falls.
Read moreCurtain Up: First-ever Vancouver Opera Festival opens today
Caitlin Wood and Alex Lawrence in "The Marriage of Figaro". Photo credit: Emily Cooper Photography
Begin the overture on a history-making event in Vancouver. It’s opening night for the Vancouver Opera (VO) – not just for a new production, but for a radical and ambitious new endeavour. Instead of presenting a standard season of mainstage productions throughout the year, VO has elected to instead present the first-ever Vancouver Opera Festival. Starting today and running until May 13, three mainstage productions will be performed: Otello, Dead Man Walking and The Marriage of Figaro.
Read moreVertical Influences: Spellbinding contemporary dance and skating spun together
Photo credit: Alicia Clarke
Vancouver’s stand-out contemporary theatre, The Cultch, has added another exciting art form to its theatre season…contemporary ice-skating. Presented by Montreal’s Le Patin Libre, Vertical Influences is a spellbinding two-act show currently heating up the ice at Britannia Ice Rink in East Vancouver.
Read moreDon’t miss the ball – presale to Broadway Across Canada’s Cinderella begins this Friday
Who doesn’t love a classic fairy tale? As millennials, anytime anyone mentions a beloved fairy tale, we all seem to get super excited and exclaim, “I love <fill in name of story>!” This is probably because fairy tale memories take us back to our childhood days. A time period when life was simpler, a world of possibilities lay ahead, and no matter what kind of challenges we faced, we could dream.
Read moreTheatre Preview: Mess provides insight into overcoming anorexia →
Anorexia is the topic of Mess, a 75-minute play presented by The Vancouver International Children’s Festival and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.This critically-acclaimed show from England is unique because it’s not the dark play many people might expect. Instead, it’s been described as an experience that infuses humour, creativity and fun songs while offering a poignant look into the power anorexia holds over individuals and their loved ones.
Read more"The Phantom of the Opera" leads Broadway Across Canada's exciting 2017/2018 season
"The Phantom of the Opera" will open Broadway Across Canada's 2017/18 season. Image: Alastair Muir.
Broadway Across Canada (BAC) recently announced it's spectacular 2017/2018 season lineup, headlined by one of my personal favourite musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. This will be a fresh new staging of the show, featuring a new set and choreography. This production has sparked a lot of buzz and we'll get to see it right here at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
Read moreAges of the Moon pokes well-executed fun at aging →
There’s a famous quote that says, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” In Lonesome Moon Productions’ Ages of the Moon, a play by Sam Shepard, a one-day hangout session between two old friends brings up issues of lifelong jealousies, frustrations, and vulnerabilities while the two wait to witness a lunar eclipse that night.
Read moreJames and Jamesy light up the dark
Discovering yourself and the world around you is precious. Vancouver comedy duo Aaron Malkin and Alastair Kowles recently captured the essence and beauty of this discovery from an imaginative angle that wowed local audiences. Malkin and Kowles’ abstract comedic play, James and Jamesy in the Dark, took audiences on a fun journey using simple production elements, Pixar-like creativity and Charlie Chaplin-inspired vaudeville comedy.
Read moreThe Concierge of Vancouver is a fresh look at city's housing crisis →
From headline news stories to cocktail party conversations, Vancouver’s housing crisis seems to be a daily topic of conversation. Matchmaker Production’s current play, The Concierge of Vancouver, written by Sahul Ezer, looks into this topic from a pretty cool angle. While the writing of the play isn’t amazing, the story itself is fascinating and the talented cast deliver top notch performances.
Read moreEnsemble Theatre Company opens three plays this weekend
Good things come in threes – three tacos, three-day weekends, three slices of pizza (don’t judge). That’s why Ensemble Theatre Company, a Vancouver-based theatre company, is launching three different plays this weekend as part of its fourth annual Repertory Festival.
Read moreDisney’s NEWSIES inspires us to ‘seize the day’
Disney's NEWSIES is a sensational musical theatre experience that will blow you away with its phenomenal dancing, singing and acting. The show tells an inspiring story of how a community that was once told they didn't matter, stood up for their rights, 'seized the day' and made sure their voices were heard. NEWSIES is an incredible and uplifting experience you will not forget.
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