Performing Arts – Page 37

Dance links cultures

Sula Boxall will perform with Flamenco Rosario in Flamenqueando on Sept. 17 at Vancouver Playhouse. (photo by Tim Matheson)

The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival Sept. 10-20 features a lineup of local and international flamenco artists – including local Jewish community member Sula Boxall.

Founded by Flamenco Rosario in 1990, the festival is apparently one the few devoted to flamenco outside of Spain. It features both free workshops and ticketed performances by several different groups and, this year, “celebrates flamenco’s Spanish Gypsy origins with the Vancouver première of Mercedes Amaya Company (Mexico/ Spain).”

Boxall will perform with Flamenco Rosario in Flamenqueando on Sept. 17, 8 p.m., at Vancouver Playhouse. They will open for Mercedes Amaya Company.

“I am honored that Rosario [Ancer] asked me to be a part of Flamenco Rosario’s performance on Sept. 17. These types of opportunities do not come along very often in Vancouver,” Boxall told the Independent. “It is an amazing opportunity to grow as a dancer and be a part of her creative process and experimentation. To be dancing in the same performance as the renowned Mercedes Amaya is humbling and intimidating. Being able to watch other performers and learn from them is a chance for professional development; I’m looking forward to the other performances and workshops that the festival has to offer.”

Boxall was born in Vancouver. “My parents had moved to Canada three years previously from South Africa,” she said. “I grew up in the Kitsilano area, attending Trafalgar Elementary and the Prince of Wales mini school. I moved to Victoria to study at UVic before continuing my studies at UBC. Currently, I am an elementary school teacher in Vancouver and teach children’s flamenco classes at Centro Flamenco.”

She has always wanted to dance.

“Since I was able to walk, I’ve been dancing,” she said. “When I was in preschool, I would create performances in my living room for my parents. I begged for dancing lessons until my parents agreed to start me in ballet at age 5. I continued to dance for the next 11 years. After a nine-year break from dancing, I was drawn back into it with flamenco. For the last eight years, it has grown into another important part of my identity. Dancing is something that is a part of me and I am a better person because of it.”

According to her bio, Boxall studied ballet, modern, jazz and character dance at Arts Umbrella. When she returned to dancing in 2008, “she found a way to renew her love of dance with flamenco at Centro Flamenco” and Ancer’s mentorship was “an integral part of her development as a dancer.”

Boxall started Flamenco Rosario’s three-year professional training program in 2010, she traveled to Spain in 2012 and studied there, she regularly attends workshops in Vancouver and, in 2013, she had her first solo performance. She regularly performs around Metro Vancouver, and also participated in the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival in 2014.

“Flamenco is an art form that has connections to many cultures, including the Jewish culture. I feel that my love of the traditional Jewish melodies is closely tied to my love of flamenco music,” said Boxall about why she is particularly drawn to this dance form.

“Having the opportunity to move and feel through flamenco dance allows me to express myself,” she added. “Flamenco is incredibly complex and diverse and demands lifelong learning. It takes years of study to understand flamenco and, even then, there is always more to learn. The challenge is what draws me to continue and work on improving my skills and understanding.”

As for other aspects of Judaism or Jewish culture that play a role in her life, Boxall said, “When I was growing up, I regularly attended the Peretz Centre in Vancouver. Through the Peretz, I was allowed to explore different parts of Judaism and gain a greater understanding of my cultural background. The culture, traditions and history continue to be very important to me and my identity, in particular the elements of family and community. With my family and friends, I continue to celebrate the holidays and enhance friendships in the Jewish community.

“I’ve especially been drawn to the music and the way it moves my soul. My mother gave me a large book of Jewish music for Chanukah years ago and I continue to find joy in learning new songs.”

It is interesting to connect the secular humanist philosophy of the Peretz Centre with the way in which the weeklong flamenco festival is described on its website. Since it began, the festival has “grown to a mature understanding of Vancouver’s multicultural audiences by nurturing the form’s hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures, and by striving to reflect and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco’s universal message of humanistic tolerance.”

For tickets and information about the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, visit vancouverflamencofestival.org or call 604-568-1273.

Khalifa joins the circus

Jared Khalifa toured with Cirque de Soleil this year. (photo from Jared Khalifa)

Last November, Jared Khalifa’s career was at a low point. He had just come back from Denmark, where injuries in both ankles and one knee had limited his performance representing Canada at an international competition for tumbling, a high-intensity form of gymnastics where, after a running start, one tumbles, cartwheels and twirls at high speed down a course before coming to an artful landing at the end of the track. He was having a hard time getting motivated to get back up on his feet when he was contacted by a talent scout who had first spoken to him months before – a scout for the internationally renowned Cirque de Soleil.

Montreal-based Cirque de Soleil, famous for its innovative blend of music, narrative, dance and acrobatics, is now the largest theatrical producer in the world. The scout had expressed interest in Khalifa after seeing him perform previously but had told Khalifa, then 17, that he was too young. But, at 18, only weeks after his time in Denmark, Cirque wanted Khalifa to submit a demo.

Khalifa submitted a mixed demo reflecting his broad mix of skills – singing, dancing, martial arts and gymnastics – and was told he had made it into the final selection for singers. He would be invited to make a live audition when the circus was next in town.

photo - Jared Khalifa did a two-month tour with Cirque de Soleil — Jared Khalifa’s two-month tour with Cirque de Soleil tool him from Louisiana to New York. *(photo from Jared Khalifa)*

A month later, he was contacted by another branch of Cirque’s talent scouts who were unaware of his possible selection as a singer – they were interested in offering him a training contract doing teeterboard. Teeterboard is a circus mainstay, where two performers collaborate on different ends of a giant teeter-totter, propelling each other into the sky to twirl and tumble in the air. The circus was coming for Khalifa from multiple angles, and soon he was signed to do a show. He joined Cirque de Soleil for a two-month American tour, traveling from Louisiana to New York. With between five and eight shows a week, he did around 50 shows in those eight weeks.

Khalifa said he has had “a thrilling year,” which is surely putting it mildly. He said he learned a tremendous amount on the road with the troupe of perhaps 40 performers and 100 support staff.

“The troupe became very close,” said Khalifa, who is still friends with many of the performers he met. “Despite the exhaustion, I was exhilarated every day.”

How did Khalifa – who went to Vancouver Talmud Torah and King David High School – get to Cirque de Soleil?

He began studying capoeira, the Brazilian martial art that integrates acrobatic and dance elements, at 3 years old. That led to an interest in gymnastics and dance and, when he was 8, he also began studying musical theatre. He attended the summer musical theatre program at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! And, by his teen years, he was training in competitive tumbling. “It’s all about the elegance you bring to it,” said Khalifa, whose Instagram feed is a study in bending the laws of physics.

Since his return to Vancouver, Khalifa has signed with a film and television acting agency. He is part of the local troupe ShowStoppers and has also started studying hip-hop and urban street-style dancing. Khalifa – whose skills, as has been mentioned, include capoeira, musical theatre, dancing, singing, gymnastics, tumbling and circus performance – said, without a hint of irony, that his focus now is to become “more well-rounded,” an athlete and artist.

Matthew Gindin is a Vancouver freelance writer and journalist. He blogs on spirituality and social justice at seeking her voice (hashkata.com) and has been published in the Forward, Tikkun, Elephant Journal and elsewhere.

Mazal tov, Golde

August’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! crew. (photos by Hannes Photography)

This August’s Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! crew did a wonderful job of bringing Perry Ehrlich’s Break a Leg! to the Rothstein stage, as did the July graduates, no doubt. Ehrlich outdid himself on the script, which had more witty lines than groaners, with humor on so many items currently in the news; notably, the presidential race. In Ehrlich’s musical, Fiddler on the Roof’s Tevye actually does break a leg and Golde, who knows all his lines, steps in to take the lead role. She becomes the star, flipping traditions on their head as she rises beyond the theatre and into the political spotlight. Every one of the 76 young performers seemed to have a blast performing the show, and there were many, many talented singers, dancers and actors. The full-house audience certainly enjoyed themselves. The entire Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance! faculty is to be commended.

Hope amid dysfunction

Jewish community members Gina Leon (above) and Michael Germant are both co-producers, as well as actors, in Island Productions’ The Glass Menagerie. (photo from Gina Leon)

Tennessee Williams is one of the giants of the American theatre. His 1944 four-actor play The Glass Menagerie, which catapulted him to fame, is about to open in Vancouver, produced by local theatrical troupe Island Productions.

Island Productions is an international ensemble and includes, among others, director Mel Tuck and Jewish actors and co-producers Gina Leon and Michael Germant. Although the three come from different places and backgrounds, they are united in their reverence for Williams and his writing.

Leon was born in Johannesburg. She moved to Canada with her family when she was 7. “I spent my childhood in costume, always played something,” she recalled, “but, in high school, I painted a lot. My mother and grandfather were artists.”

Torn between visual arts and theatre, Leon studied both, theatre and art history at the University of Toronto, visual art at the College of Art and Design in Sydney and acting at the New School for Drama in New York. Now, she divides her time between acting and painting. “They feed into each other,” she said. “Art develops imagination, which is necessary for an actor. They are both telling a story.”

In The Glass Menagerie, Leon plays Laura, a young woman with physical disabilities who is mentally fragile. “The play is autobiographical for Williams, and the role of Laura is based on his own beloved sister,” Leon said.

“Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite playwrights, maybe the favorite,” she added. “He has a knack for telling stories that are very personal to him but also universal. The Glass Menagerie happens during the Depression, but everything in the story is relevant now. Because of his timeless appeal, Williams can reach a wide audience. I love his language, too. It is poetic and profound.”

According to Leon, while the play is the story of a dysfunctional family, “it’s also a story of hope. Laura plays with her glass figurines, polishes them in the play. They represent her hope, the connections she sometimes lacks in real life. Her glass menagerie has another meaning, too: it’s her safe refuge. She needs an escape from the harsh reality of life in the 1930s because she is so sensitive and vulnerable.”

photo - Michael Germant — Michael Germant *(photo from Michael Germant)*

Leon’s co-producer and fellow community member, Germant, spent his early childhood in Moscow. His family moved to Montreal when he was 6.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian, then I wanted to be a spy,” he joked. “When I went to university in Montreal to study French, I was miserable. I started taking acting classes and liked it.”

He began thinking of a theatrical career and later studied at the Montreal School for Performing Arts and the Vancouver Film School.

“When we lived in Moscow, my mother was a stage manager at a children’s theatre,” he said. “Although she didn’t work in theatre after we immigrated, she supported my decision of a career in the performing arts. Seven years ago, I moved to Vancouver to study with Mel Tuck. In 2013, when we organized our Island Productions company, Mel became the director.”

In the show, Germant plays Jim, a guest at the house of Laura, her mother and brother.

“Jim is Laura’s final hope,” Germant explained. “His colleague Tom invited him home to meet his mother and sister, but Tom didn’t tell Jim about Laura. When Jim meets Laura, he is drawn to her, to her imaginary world, to her dreamy personality, but this attraction can’t go anywhere. Jim is already engaged to another woman, but Tom didn’t know that. The entire play is a series of miscommunications. There is sadness there but there is also humor. Like many Williams’ plays, this one is funny but it is also poignant, heartfelt.”

Tuck confirmed the play’s controversial elements and its sophisticated treatment of emotions and ideas, comedy interwoven with bleakness. He knows it from personal experience, having played Laura’s brother Tom in a production of The Glass Menagerie long ago. “There is another connection, too,” he said. “Lynne Griffin, the wonderful actress who plays Amanda, Laura’s mother, in this production, long ago played Laura.”

Tuck’s theatre career spans more than five decades. According to his bio online, he has founded nine theatre companies and directed more than 300 plays; he has taught at institutions across the country and many of his students have become successful and award-winning actors. He still teaches at his studio in Gastown, while also acting himself and, of course, directing.

“The play takes place during the Depression era and we set it as a period play, but its themes are still relevant now,” he said. “We all move forward with our lives, but how much do we sacrifice?… Williams was always compassionate towards his characters, and this play is a plea to understand them all, with their faults and their vulnerabilities.”

The Glass Menagerie runs Sept. 6-25 at PAL Studio Theatre, 581 Cardero St. For tickets and more information, visit glassmenagerie.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com.

An open door to dance

Ziyian Kwan and Vanessa Goodman perform together in Simile, which concludes the Scotiabank Dance Centre’s open house on Sept. 10. (photo by David Cooper)

The Scotiabank Dance Centre’s open house on Sept. 10 culminates with Simile, featuring new work and performances by Vanessa Goodman of Action at a Distance and Ziyian Kwan of dumb instrument Dance.

All three pieces in the show – Kwan’s Still Rhyming, Goodman’s Floating Upstream and the collaboration In Vertebrate Dreams – are connected yet unique, Goodman told the Independent.

“Ziyian’s piece, Still Rhyming, is a beautiful work that responds to Patti Smith’s book M Train, and the piece has an incredible live sound score by Jo Passed,” she said. “It is a whimsical journey for the audience and Ziyian captures and transports my imagination while I am watching the piece. For me, Floating Upstream explores the notion of having one’s head in the clouds in a very simple sense: it is the idea

of being a dreamer, where anything is both possible and impossible. And, in In Vertebrate Dreams, we are creating a surreal world where human and animal instincts are being explored and subverted.

“In many ways, I think all three works are playing with a skewed perception of reality. However, I also believe that all three works are entirely different in their tone and expression. I think this has created a very diverse and engaging program.”

According to its description, Floating Upstream “plays with the fantastic being mundane and the mundane being fantastical.” Goodman explores these elements “through simple actions and coordinations that I employ daily, like walking or speaking,” she said. “In the opening of the work, I deconstruct the act of walking and try to transform it to feel as if I am floating through the space. Or simple gestures that I do while I am talking – with these gestures, I have experimented and distorted how I can embody them until they are unrecognizable.

“Floating Upstream has an original sound composition by Vancouver-based artist Loscil,” she added. “Loscil and I have been collaborating on several works over the last year, including my solo Container that just toured to Seattle’s On the Boards’ Northwest New Works Festival and Portland’s Risk/Reward Festival. It is so great to be continuing our creative process together, as I find creating with his soundscapes so rich and driving.”

Goodman has also been working with Kwan for some time, “supporting one another and collaborating in a number of ways since 2013,” she said. “Simile is, in many ways, a culmination of our interest in each other’s work and friendship. It is always such a pleasure and honor to collaborate with colleagues in new ways, to see where you can grow and be challenged inside your artistic practice.

“The idea for the duet seeded for us when we were doing a photo shoot for the production and we got several props to work with to create some imagery to publicize the show,” she explained. “We started exploring these masks and all of sudden we decided that we were compelled to make this work. What has become clearer for me as this process has gone on is that the work is about how we both are different animals when it comes to creation but, in a strange and wonderful way, we also complement each other and have created something that is unique to us working with one another.”

The evening also features lighting design by James Proudfoot.

Goodman expressed gratitude to the Dance Centre for Simile’s inclusion in the open house, saying that she and Kwan “are very excited to be sharing this program that we have been dreaming up for the last two years.”

The Sept. 10 open house starts at 11 a.m. with an hour class on pow wow, followed by a class on tap and then many other dance styles – including swing, Brazilian, Scottish, hip-hop, ballet – throughout the afternoon to 5 p.m., as well as a workshop on injury prevention. All classes are free and suitable for beginners.

Simile starts at 8 p.m. at the centre, which is at 677 Davie St. Tickets are $25/$20 from Tickets Tonight, 604-684-2787 or ticketstonight.ca. For more information, visit thedancecentre.ca.

Take a place on stage

A scene from one of the end-of-class performances by the Hebrew-language theatre group for women at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Director Orly Naim is also teaching an English-language course this year. (photo from Orly Naim)

One of the new courses at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver is Community Theatre. The classes, which start Sept. 15 and run Thursday evenings to June 15, will “use theatre methods of movement, role-playing, improvisation and other out-of-the-box routines” and help “individuals and the group to find new ways for self-expression.” They will also prepare participants for an end-of-course public performance.

The instructor, community theatre director Orly Naim, has previously taught at the JCCGV. In fact, the other course she is leading at the centre – a Hebrew-language theatre group for women – picks up where she left off when she went on maternity leave last year. Those classes start Sept. 12 and run Monday nights to June 19, also ending with a public performance by participants.

For both theatre groups, Naim teaches and facilitates throughout the year, and writes the end-of-class play based on material that is brought up in the group sessions.

But Naim’s experience extends well beyond the JCCGV. After graduating from Tel Aviv University with a degree in theatre, Naim, who is passionate about community theatre, worked in Jaffa with marginalized groups, such as Arab women and drug addicts, during the winters, and traveled to the former Soviet Union during the summer to work at Jewish youth camps. In Israel, she was involved in many different social and educational projects, not all of which were theatre-oriented. Her life changed when her partner got a job offer in British Columbia and the couple landed here with their children.

In her new environment, Naim searched for new groups with which to work. The JCCGV’s Israeli culture department gave her program a chance and the women’s Hebrew theatre group was formed. It had run for two years when the Independent spoke with Naim last summer, as she was starting maternity leave.

“As a social person by nature, I have found the immigration process to be very challenging,” Naim told the Independent. “You think you are prepared, but, once you land, reality is different from what you expected. Not surprisingly, most of the women in our group had similiar experiences and the group helped them to express these stories on stage and out loud. The group started slowly, but the rumor spread fast and we grew rapidly, to 15 women, in just few months. Our group is very diverse and each woman has her own unique experience. Since I love to write and direct, I collected the stories and we turned them into our first show.”

Naim said, “The nature of community theatre is finding a common denominator, and here it was our language barrier and the fact that we are all immigrants. We all face the same personal conflicts with our families back home and how to keep in touch with them, and all these issues were addressed in this stage play [that ended the classes]. It might look personal at first, but it was actually based on other women’s experiences.”

For Naim, the “Hebrew group have turned out to be my extended family and I miss all of them during this time off. The dynamic we created there was unique and special – you can ask anyone who was involved. You can’t hide true passion, and I’m so glad we were able to find it.”

For those wanting to try the new Community Theatre course, which is given in English, it is open to men and women 20+ years old and no previous experience is necessary; the Hebrew-language group is for women 20 and older. For registration and cost information on both programs, visit jccgv.com.

Shahar Ben Halevi is a writer and filmmaker living in Vancouver.

Up close, personal at Fringe

Jewish community member Erika Babins co-stars in How to Adult: The Musical. (photo from Coffee & Screaming)

As with the Jewish community Fringers profiled in the last issue of the Jewish Independent, the performers interviewed this week seek not only to entertain audiences but to spur self-reflection and even societal change. And they do so in a range of styles – musical, vaudeville and drama.

How to Adult: The Musical opens Sept. 8 at the Cultch Historic Theatre. It features three 20-something roommates who are trying to get their lives in order.

It is Amy Dauer’s writing debut and it is directed by Eleanor Felton, whose Eurydice received critical acclaim at last year’s festival. Dauer and Felton know each other from university.

“Last year, during the Fringe Festival, I told her she should write me a show to direct. And so she did,” Felton told the Independent. “It’s fantastic because Amy and I are also roommates, so a lot of what is in the script are things I recognize from our lives. I love the mixture of hilarity and disaster that feels very close to my life. And I love that, above all, this show is about the relationships between the characters rather than the events that are going on in their lives.”

Being a new musical, however, posed some challenges, the biggest of which, said Felton, “has been working with an evolving script and score. Peter [Abando] and Amy have worked really hard and the actors have been incredibly flexible, which was a huge blessing in the process.”

Jewish community member Erika Babins plays Imogen.

“Imogen is your textbook introvert,” explained Babins about the character. “She works from home on her computer all day as a graphic designer and, when she’s done, all she wants to do is curl up on the couch and watch Doctor Who on TV. When her friends suggest they go clubbing for her 25th birthday, it’s the worst thing imaginable. She finds it hard to stand up for herself and voice her opinions and usually defers to the judgment of her outspoken and confident best friend and roommate Holly. Throughout the course of the play, you see her getting frustrated with constantly being talked over and her ideas being vetoed, especially with Holly, who’s always been the alpha in their relationship, but with their other roommate Rosie and her brother, Graham, who suddenly reappears in her life.”

Babins can relate to her part.

“When I first read the character description, I joked that I was being type cast in this role. I even wore my Doctor Who shirt to the audition,” she said. “Like Imogen, I would rather stay home and read than go to a club or a party. I’ve also been able to bring my experiences with anxiety and panic attacks to the role, which has been both enlightening and really hard to explore. I’ve definitely had many moments in the five years since I graduated university where I’ve seriously sat down with myself and thought, ‘What is the point here? What am I actually doing?’ The big difference between Imogen and myself is that, unlike her, I have an amazingly strong support system of family and friends who I know I can talk to and who will either give me great advice or complain and berate the universe right along with me.”

photo - Bella Culpa opens Sept. 9 at Waterfront Theatre — *Bella Culpa* opens Sept. 9 at Waterfront Theatre. *(photo from A Little Bit Off)*

A strong support system is also at the heart of Bella Culpa, where Portland-based circus theatre duo A Little Bit Off – Amica Hunter and David Cantor – must rely on each other, as their comedy shows are not just vaudevillian and slapstick but acrobatic, as well.

Bella Culpa, which opens Sept. 9 at Waterfront Theatre, is set in an Edwardian-era manor house, and Hunter and Cantor play two servants who are trying to finish (unsuccessfully) all of their chores before a big dinner party.

“We tend to approach our work from many angles at once,” Cantor told the Independent about their creative approach. “Once we have an idea for a show, we think of the overarching theme, the props we want to use, the characters, and we tend to approach all of those areas by playing games, or doing exercises. Through the games, we find things we like, which we take and apply some structure to. Once we have a few well-crafted bits, then we start weaving them together and making things flow together, to grow and expand out into a full show.”

Cantor – who is first cousin, twice removed of famed vaudeville and film actor Eddie Cantor – met Hunter at the Circus Centre in San Francisco in 2013.

“We were inspired by many of the same artists, so we started working together,” he said. “When the opportunity arose to travel to Europe and perform in some festivals, we jumped at the chance, and A Little Bit Off was born.”

About the enduring popularity of vaudeville and slapstick, Cantor said, “Language can be a very useful tool when it comes to conveying ideas to other people, but it can also be a mask. While it lets us connect on an intellectual level, it also distances us. Having our work centre around the body, it gets closer to what makes us all human. It’s a way to speak across any language barrier, any generational gap, any cultural differences. Our work is very much about tying people to their humanity and giving them a shared experience with the temporary community that forms any time you see a show in a theatre.”

As to the physicality involved in their performance, Cantor said, “All art takes risks. Our risks are sometimes with our bodies. We take care to use good technique, which mostly protects us, but there is an element of chaos that we choose to include, that makes the slapstick a bit more real, and the audience can see that, and we hear it in their reactions. They gasp at the falls, and then there is a laughter that comes with the relief of tension, as they realize that it was part of the shtick.

“We, luckily, to this point have avoided any serious injuries from our slapstick. We have had other show mishaps. In our last show, Beau & Aero, we use a tambourine as a prop. We were nearing the finale of the show and Amica stepped on one of the tambours, the little metal cymbals, that had fallen off, due to the abuse we put the prop through in the show. It was razor sharp and sliced Amica’s foot open quite badly. She left bloody footprints all over the stage and on my costume as we finished the show with an acrobatic number. Luckily, the footprints were up my back and, hence, not visible to the audience. We left immediately after the show to a pharmacy to get superglue and glue her foot shut. Had we been in Canada, with proper health care, we could have gone to the ER, but we do what we have to.”

photo - Ariel Martz-Oberlander’s The Lilacs that Come a Month Early are Still so Beautiful is part of the Fringe's Generation Hot program — Ariel Martz-Oberlander’s *The Lilacs that Come a Month Early are Still so Beautiful* is part of the Fringe’s Generation Hot program. *(photo from Ariel Martz-Oberlander)*

Moving from health policy to the environment, climate change is front and centre of the program Generation Hot, which features nine “young artists responding to the climate crisis through new performances.” Guided by The Only Animal co-founder Eric Rhys Miller and mia susan amir of The Story We Be, the mentees have created various works. Divided into three programs, local Jewish community member Ariel Martz-Oberlander’s The Lilacs that Come a Month Early are Still so Beautiful shares Program C with Cosmic Justice by Nelson Ellis and Howard Dai. Program C opens Sept. 10 in the Anderson Street parking lot.

“This piece is vitally personal, there are parts that are deeply vulnerable and, therefore, risky to present publicly,” Martz-Oberlander told the Independent about her play. “I believe strongly that the personal is political, and that we can only talk successfully about large-scale issues by addressing the specific ways these issues are experienced in the small details of the day to day. For this piece, I am working with a cast of six enthusiastic, intelligent actors who fully bring their own worlds to this piece in such a rich way.”

The play’s description reads, “A grandmother, millennials, a woman coming to terms with abuse and ‘The Last of His Kind’ all share the stage. What is the everyday normalcy of climate change, or the deep abnormality of ignoring a crisis so large it already affects everyone? The characters struggle to hold on to the answers even as a world that ended five minutes ago slips away.”

“In the play,” said Martz-Oberlander, “the last of an unidentified species struggles to curate a message that will illustrate the urgency of the situation; however, the vignettes presented always get away from him, and the result is bittersweet.”

She added, “Jewish viewers will recognize a twist on the traditional Passover seder scene halfway through the play, as a young girl struggles to bring social justice to her family table.”

For tickets and information on all the Fringe shows, visit vancouverfringe.com.

Fabulous fare at Fringe Fest

Jolene Bernardino is among the cast of Deborah Vogt’s Carry On: A Musical. (photo by Landon Shantz, graphics by Braden Neufeld)

How many hours do you think you’ve stood around baggage carousels waiting for your luggage? Were you able to do something productive with your time? Or was it luggage limbo? Waiting for luggage becomes the backdrop of one of several plays with Jewish connections at the Vancouver Fringe Festival this year.

When Deborah Vogt and her team in Smackdown 2015 (a 24-hour musical theatre competition) picked “YVR Baggage Claim” out of a hat last year, the brainwave was immediate.

“I think that we were all inspired by the limbo of baggage claim: the idea that you’ve finished your flight, you’ve gone through customs and you just want to finish your journey, yet you’re stuck and powerless while waiting for your bags,” she told the Independent.

“As emerging artists, this feels unsettlingly close to home. We’re at different stages of our careers, but all somewhere in between school and working full time as artists. Do we commit, with the hope that eventually what we’re waiting for will come true? Or do we acknowledge that maybe our bags are lost and go home? And, more importantly, how do we stop and breathe and enjoy our surroundings in the meantime?”

Thus, Carry On: A Musical was born, in which the audience gets to examine the type of people we encounter in baggage claim areas; their physical and emotional baggage.

“Each of our characters is dealing with one kind of baggage or another – the fun part is watching how different people cope with what is lost, damaged, deep-seated or brand new.”

While this is intended to be a fun, silly show, it also addresses real conflicts that people live with every day, Vogt said.

“An important theme for us is the idea that there is no ‘right’ way to live life. Everyone has baggage, and that’s OK. Just like in an airport, there are many directions to take. It’s OK to make mistakes or accidentally get on the wrong flight, because that’s all part of the journey.”

* * *

photo - Randy Ross explores his singledom in The Chronic Single’s Handbook — Randy Ross explores his singledom in *The Chronic Single’s Handbook*. (photo by Sue Brenner Photography)

Enjoying the journey is a key message in writer/performer Randy Ross’ The Chronic Single’s Handbook. In it, Ross addresses the issues of relationships, examining why he’s single, whether some people are meant to be single and whether we should always hold out hope for that oxytocin-creating state we call love.

Based on a book that he’s been working on for seven years, called God Bless Cambodia, Ross places his quest amid a world tour where he strikes out with women on several continents but gets lucky (in many different ways) in Cambodia.

The play is not without its controversy. Because of its raw sexual exploration, some critics have called the work “misogynistic,” while others sing its praises. (It’s rated 18+.)

“The narrator’s trying to figure out why he’s still single,” Ross explained. “He tells stories of past relationships that failed. One is a domination scenario/date. Another is with a sex tourist in Cambodia who gives him a tour.”

In the end, you won’t please everyone, he said.

“My mother has seen the show – twice. She just says, ‘Boys will be boys,’ and we’re New York Jews, so this is our sense of humor. If you look at the whole Clinton/Lewinsky investigation, you could call most of the United States hypocrites.”

In the end, one key thing Ross discovers is that being single may be who he is. It’s a story of acceptance.

In the 35- to 54-year-old crowd, he said, one out of seven has never been married, so marriage is no barometer of mental health.

“Where I live in Boston, most of my friends are in their 50s and have never been married. And that number was comparable for women. You have 70 good years in your life, get on with your life.”

At the same time, Ross believes we are actually meant to be in some type of relationship – whether it’s marriage or not – and that everyone should experience the effect of the “cuddle drug.”

* * *

photo - Windy Wynazz makes a deal with the Devil in Rich and Famous — Windy Wynazz makes a deal with the devil in *Rich and Famous*. *(photo by Shoot That Klown)*

Following from her previous Fringe performance Uncouth, San Francisco–based Windy Wynazz (aka Wendi Gross) is back as co-writer, producer and performer in Rich and Famous, co-written and directed by Deanna Fleysher.

“I’ve built on what Uncouth was last year, but I’ve made it more personal,” said Wynazz. “I make a deal with the devil and undergo a transformation through the play. The theme is similar to making it in showbiz.”

Wynazz said she was interested in exploring what success is at different times of our lives.

“I’ve reevaluated what ‘making it’ looks like,” she told the Independent. “It was even reflected in the intense creation period with Deanna. She prods and provokes to bring out the most juiciest and most enjoyable. But, at one point, she said to me, ‘Well, you didn’t make it, Wendi. How does it make you feel?’ I feel tied up in performing, it’s what I love to do. So, that’s success as well. There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.”

While Rich and Famous is more linear and verbal, as well as less raunchy, than Uncouth, the audience might still expect some coarse moments, given that Wynazz describes the character as a mix of Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball and Lady Gaga.

“People will be dancing with delight when they leave,” said Wynazz. “The idea is that it’s positive and uplifting.”

* * *

Continuing with the theme of self-discovery, Vancouver’s Theatre Terrific jumps into the mix with The Hidden Stories Project.

Inspiration for the play comes from the poem “We are These” from the book In Honor of Our Grandmothers: Imprints of Cultural Survival, authored by Garry Gottfriedson and Reisa Smiley Schneider, with artwork by George Littlechild and Linda Dayan Frimer.

“With Hidden Stories, we used a Cree medicine wheel,” said artistic director Susanna Uchatius. “Each actor is put in a process determining which direction they are connected to. Whenever you start to build something like this, it’s a bit of chaos and a lot of fog. We walk through everyday life and the face we give to the public is actually our mask. Working through the medicine wheel, identifying our animal spirit … and putting on a mask allow the actors to really express who they are.”

Setting this play apart are a number of features.

First, it’s site-specific, taking place outside near the lagoon on Granville Island – rain or shine.

Second, Theatre Terrific includes actors of all abilities. “We have in our group people with autism, cerebral palsy and Downs syndrome,” Uchatius explained. “We bring people together who would normally not come together and unite as ensemble to speak in a common voice.”

It’s also very accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, as there is a lot of imagery but not as much verbal communication.

photo - Butt Kapinski stars in Dick on the Fringe on Sept. 6 — Butt Kapinski stars in *Dick on the Fringe* on Sept. 6. (photo from *vancouverfringe.com*)

“What they’re doing refers to hope and fear. It’s a lifecycle: you’re born, you eat, you speak, you love, you dance, you die. Many people will be surprised to identify with what they see. We deal with basic issues that matter to everyone.”

* * *

The Fringe Festival runs from Sept. 8-18 on Granville Island. Fleysher opens the festival with a fundraising performance Sept. 6, where she reprises her character Butt Kapinski in Dick on the Fringe. Described as part Phillip Marlowe, part Elmer Fudd, Kapinski is the film-noir-style private eye who helps solve the great Fringe murder mystery (see jewishindependent.ca/butt-kapinski-not-your-childrens-clown). For more information, visit vancouverfringe.com.

Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work can be seen at phase2coaching.com.

From Mideast to the South

Pericles is one of the best Bard on the Beach productions this season. (photo by David Blue)

If the thought of being transported to the mystique and exotic locales of the ancient Middle East appeals to you, then you must see Pericles, which is currently playing on the Howard Family Stage at Bard on the Beach, alternating with Othello.

Director Lois Anderson takes this rarely produced play – only once before in Bard on the Beach’s 27-year history has it been performed, and scholars believe Shakespeare only wrote the second half of it – and creatively turns it into something magical, with puppets, terra cotta figurines, white-faced ghostly creatures and billowy sheets that morph from crashing waves to animals.

As you enter the tent, your breath is taken away by Jewish community member Amir Ofek’s captivating set design: soft desert hues, Corinthian columns, red and gold brocade-tasseled tapestries, woven baskets and blown glass. John Webber’s warm lighting pervades the room. The mood is reinforced by Malcolm Dow’s exquisite sound design; a melodic fusion of traditional Middle Eastern fare. Before it even begins, the play is a visual and aural treat.

Pericles is the tale of the nautical odyssey of a wandering prince, the eponymous hero Pericles of Tyre (Kamyar Pazandeh), as told through flashbacks by narrator and healer Cerimon (David Warburton) in the temple of the goddess Diana to a young woman he has saved from a brothel. As he tells her, it all began with a trip to Antioch 15 years earlier, when our hero hoped to marry the princess of that city but had to flee for his life when he learned the secret of her incestuous relationship with her father.

Pericles’ escape takes him to many ports, culminating with a shipwreck at Pentapolis. There, he wins the hand of the princess Thaisa (Sereana Malani) in a jousting competition and sets sail with his new wife, now pregnant, to reclaim his throne in Tyre. Daughter Marina (Luisa Jojic) is born on the ship and Thaisa dies in childbirth. Pericles throws his wife’s body into the sea and heads to the nearest port, Tharsus, where he leaves Marina in the care of his longtime friend, Governor Cleon (Luc Roderique), and his wife, Dionyza (Jeff Gladstone in an interesting gender-role reversal).

Fast-forward 14 years. Marina has grown into a beautiful young woman. Dionyza, jealous for her own daughter’s betrothal chances, arranges for a servant, Leonine (Kayvon Kelly), to murder Marina. However, pirates kidnap Marina before the dastardly deed can be done. She is sold to a brothel, but keeps her virtue with eloquent talk, and captures the heart of Governor Lysimachus (also played by Kelly).

In the meantime, Pericles returns to Tharsus to reunite with his daughter but is told that she is dead. I stop here so as not to spoil a very surreal ending – you will have to see it to believe it.

All of the cast, many of whom play multiple roles, are outstanding but special mention must be made of Pazandeh, who runs the gamut of emotions from victorious suitor to grieving husband and father; Jojic, who gives the right touch of innocence to Marina; Warburton, with his wizardly tricks; Gladstone as a very creepy Dionyza; and Kayla Deorksen as Bawd, the flamboyant brothel owner.

Costumer Carmen Alatorre’s costumes are spot on with flowing robes of bright, textured fabrics: earth tones to represent the land and shades of blue, the sea; the main characters are contrasted by off-white ghostly spectres.

Pericles was one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in its time and Anderson’s rendering makes it easy to understand why. The intimate setting of the Howard Family Stage is perfect for this showcase of hope, perseverance, redemption and ultimate reconciliation. I took my 11-year-old niece to opening night and she loved it. Of the four Bard productions, this one topped the list for me and it is highly recommended.

photo in Jewish Independent - Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello — Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello. *(photo by David Blue)*

Playing in repertory with Pericles on the Howard Family Stage, and featuring most of the same actors, is Othello, set in 1864 Charleston during the American Civil War.

What does it take to drive an intelligent, successful, respected man into a jealous husband capable of a murderous rage? A manipulative villain named Iago – and Othello really is the story of this vile person, who brings tragedy to all unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Directed by Bob Frazer – who played Iago in Bard’s last mounting of this work – this psychosexual drama gives a new perspective to the racism inherent in the testosterone-infused military world in which black Othello (Roderique) lives.

The story revolves around Othello’s rise to power in the union army and Iago’s (Kelly) planned revenge as he is passed over by General Othello for a senior position that is given to Cassio (Gladstone). To get even, Iago plants the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind as to the fidelity of his new wife, Desdemona (a mixed racial union), accusing her of an intimate tryst with Cassio.

Slowly, Othello is convinced – a handkerchief allegedly found in his good lady’s room the final proof – that Desdemona has been untrue and, in a moment of murderous passion, strangles her in her canopied bed. Emilia (Jojic), Iago’s wife but also Desdemona’s maid and confidante, walks into this deathly scene, tells Othello the truth of the handkerchief and outs her husband for his role in the tragedy. Othello is overcome with grief and remorse and takes his own life.

Iago is a sadistic sociopath who manipulates those around him with his ersatz sycophantic charm. Kelly is sublime in this role – you love to hate him. Tall and slender, Roderique portrays a sympathetic Othello with a quiet sense of dignity and authority that disintegrates as we watch his metamorphosis into uncontrollable and lethal rage. Deorksen is a sweet-tempered but strong-willed Desdemona. Jojic gives a heart-breaking performance as a passionate and loyal servant torn between her duty to her husband and that to her employer. Lesser roles are ably played by Malani (Bianca), Andrew Cownden (Roderigo), Ian Butcher (Gratiano) and Shaker Paleja (Montano).

Costumer Marla Gottler provides crisp navy uniforms for the Union soldiers and gorgeous Scarlett O’Hara-type frocks for the ladies. Music is pure southern comfort with banjos strumming “Dixie.” Unfortunately, the set design is a problem. The same Ofek-designed Pericles set is used, and that Middle Eastern look with its columns and arches seems out of place in a moonlight and magnolias milieu. However, the minimalist use of props – a couple of boxes here, a table there – allows the audience to focus on the powerful words that make Othello one of Shakespeare’s most eloquent works.

This production is good, but it would have been so much better had it made more use of its Civil War setting, other than just to give a perfunctory nod to the fashion and music of the time.

Othello runs to Sept. 20 and Pericles to Sept. 21. For tickets and more information on these shows – and Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor – visit bardonthebeach.org.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Goodnight boredom

Left to right: Kazz Leskard (Iago), Claire Rice (Desdemona) and Courtney Shields (Constance) in Awkward Productions’ Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. (photo by Derek Fu)

Have you ever wished you could change the course of a play, making the plot … well … just a little bit different?

What would have happened if someone had told Othello that Iago was tricking him? What if Romeo and Juliet hadn’t died? Would the plays have been successful as comedies and not tragedies?

These are the questions taken on in Awkward Productions’ Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, part of the first annual Fakespeare Festival.

Written by the award-winning Ann-Marie MacDonald, Goodnight Desdemona is an outlandish and hilarious romp that follows associate professor Constance Ledbelly (Courtney Shields), who is trying to prove a peculiar notion.

Doing her PhD in Shakespearean literature, her thesis revolves around a made-up tome written in code, called the Gustav Manuscript. She believes the work proves that Othello and Romeo and Juliet were originally written by an author who had included a wise fool and that the plays were supposed to be comedies. Shakespeare, she posits, got rid of the fool, turning them into tragedies. If she can only decipher the code, she can find out the identity of the fool and that will lead her to the original playwright.

The theory is laughed at by her colleagues, including a professor for whom she works (and with whom she is in love), who takes advantage of her desire to please him by having her write all his papers. Her work garners him a post at Oxford, which she believes she deserved, and, to top it off, he is running off with another woman, leaving her alone and out of a job.

Disgusted with herself, feeling hurt and betrayed, she begins to trash her office and finds herself transported into the world of Shakespeare, first landing in Othello, when Iago is about to trick Othello into thinking Desdemona has been unfaithful, and next in Romeo and Juliet, as Tybalt is about to kill Mercutio.

Like Alice in Wonderland, Constance is at first bewildered by her surroundings, but, as she is an expert in Shakespeare, she easily comes up with a backstory and picks up the language of the time. She impresses everyone with her knowledge and is accepted as a contemporary, allowing her to proceed on her quest to find the fool that Shakespeare had eliminated and, from there, find the real author.

But, her presence changes the course of events, and the two tragedies become comedies. This is where the play really takes off.

While in Venice, she reveals Iago’s trickery and befriends Desdemona, who, in turn, helps Constance find her own confidence, but also encourages her to revel in killing, which turns Constance’s stomach (being a vegetarian) and causes her to question her usefulness.

“Next to Desdemona, I’m roadkill,” a dejected Constance laments.

In Verona, the turn of events leads to a squabbling marriage between Romeo and Juliet, both of whom fall in love with Constance, leading Romeo to dress in drag, thinking Constance is a lesbian. The thought excites Juliet, who revels in the idea of a girl-on-girl tryst.

The hilarity of these ludicrous set-ups is enhanced by the dazzling wordplay that infuses MacDonald’s script. A “creep” becomes a “base annoysome knave,” for example. Calling herself an academic from Queens, Desdemona believes that Constance is referring to the queen of the Amazons and treats her as one. When Constance appears in Verona, she’s wearing pants and is mistaken for a boy, with uproarious results.

In the end, Constance finds her fool in an unexpected place (alas), and returns home with the confidence to finish her paper, academic derision be damned.

Though the dialogue is lightning-fast and the one-liners are nonstop, Shields carries the weight of the wordy script brilliantly. Jewish community member Zach Wolfman as Mercutio (as well as numerous other characters) calls upon his Shakespeare training to add his own comedic nuance to the production.

It’s not surprising that MacDonald has won several awards for this literary tour de force, including a Governor General’s Award and Canadian Authors Association Award. It is definitely one not to miss.

The Fakespeare Festival features Goodnight Desdemona, as well as Titus Andronicus: The Light and Delightful Musical Comedy of Titus Andronicus. Both plays run at York Theatre, 639 Commercial Dr., until Aug. 28. Tickets are available from tickets.thecultch.com or 604-251-1363.

Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer and media trainer in Vancouver. Her consulting work can be seen at phase2coaching.com.