Category Arts & Culture

Going solo at Fringe

photo - Susan Freedman was inspired by her parents’ love letters

Susan Freedman was inspired by her parents’ love letters. (photo from Susan Freedman) Among this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival offerings are several one- person shows, including Spilling Family Secrets by Susan Freedman and The Inventor of All Things by Jem…

Bard play becomes musical

photo - Erika Babins, choreographer, and Zach Wolfman, actor, in Awkward Stage Productions’ Titus, written by Andrew Wade and Jenny Andersen

Erika Babins, choreographer, and Zach Wolfman, actor, in Awkward Stage Productions’ Titus, written by Andrew Wade and Jenny Andersen. (photo by Corwin Ferguson) In its sixth appearance at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Awkward Stage Productions is presenting its first original…

Peddlers in new light

image - Roads Taken by Hasia R. Diner book cover

The award-winning Canadian film Lies My Father Told Me begins with a hunched over man on a horse-drawn wagon moving slowly through the snowy narrow streets of old Montreal. His grandson runs through the streets shouting Zayde, Zayde, as he…

At home anywhere in world

photo - Playwright, cyclist and world traveler Ira Cooper. Among his many endeavors has been teaching English in China

Playwright, cyclist and world traveler Ira Cooper. Among his many endeavors has been teaching English in China. (photo from Ira Cooper) “I lust to travel, to see places, to meet people and do theatre,” said Ira Cooper. In everything he…

Rumshinsky operetta rediscovered

image - poster of Joseph Rumshinsky’s Yiddish operetta Di Goldene Kale premièred 92 years ago at Kessler’s Second Avenue Theatre in New York

Joseph Rumshinsky’s Yiddish operetta Di Goldene Kale premièred 92 years ago at Kessler’s Second Avenue Theatre in New York, and was still being performed as late as 1948. The Aug. 5 perfomance at Nicholas Music Centre was the first since…

Reva Stone at ISEA2015

photo - Winnipeg artist Reva Stone is interested in “examining ideas about the mediation between our bodies and the technologies that are altering how we interact with the world.”

Winnipeg artist Reva Stone is interested in “examining ideas about the mediation between our bodies and the technologies that are altering how we interact with the world.” (photo by Harold Stone) The International Symposium on Electronic Art comes to Vancouver…

A BuzzFeed video master

photo - Allison Raskin, left, produces a weekly webseries, Just Between Us, with her best friend and comedy partner, Gaby Dunn

Allison Raskin, left, produces a weekly webseries, Just Between Us, with her best friend and comedy partner, Gaby Dunn. (photo from Allison Raskin) Tens of millions of online viewers may have learned a little bit more about being Jewish after…

Thirty years and counting

photo - Warren Kimmel as Javert in Arts Club Theatre’s Les Misérables

Warren Kimmel as Javert in Arts Club Theatre’s Les Misérables. (photo by Ross den Otter) This October will mark the 30th anniversary of one of the most adored, reproduced, translated and recorded performances of our time. If you are one…

TUTS takes on light and dark

photo - Dustin Freeland as Link Larkin, Erin E. Walker as Tracy Turnblad, Hannah Williams as Penny Pingleton and ensemble members in Hairspray

Dustin Freeland as Link Larkin, Erin E. Walker as Tracy Turnblad, Hannah Williams as Penny Pingleton and ensemble members in Hairspray. (photo by Tim Matheson) When Theatre Under the Stars announced its lineup earlier this year, I was excited. I’d…

Shakespeare musical

photo - Left to right, Jay Hindle, Josh Epstein and Daniel Doheny in Bard on the Beach’s Love’s Labor’s Lost

Left to right, Jay Hindle, Josh Epstein and Daniel Doheny in Bard on the Beach’s Love’s Labor’s Lost. (photo by David Blue) How do you get more people interested in Shakespeare? Give ’em what they want – music, song, dance,…