{"id":24567,"date":"2017-06-02T03:55:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T10:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=24567"},"modified":"2017-06-01T11:43:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T18:43:48","slug":"what-is-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/06\/02\/what-is-after-death\/","title":{"rendered":"What is after death?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theo Budd as CB, Eric Biskupski as Beethoven, Erika Babins as CB\u2019s Sister and Ryan Nunez as Van in <\/strong>Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which runs June 8-11 at <\/em><\/strong>CBC Studio 700<\/strong>. (photo by Javier Sotres)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It would be interesting to know what Peanuts<\/em> creator Charles M. Schultz would have thought of Bert V. Royal\u2019s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead<\/em>, which premi\u00e8red several years after Schultz passed away. Described as an \u201cunauthorized parody\u201d of the well-known cartoon strip, it seems more serious in its imagining of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the gang as teenagers.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Erika Babins plays CB\u2019s Sister in Awkward Stage Productions\u2019 presentation of Dog Sees God at CBC Studio 700, which opens June 9. (photo from Awkward Stage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Presented by Awkward Stage Productions next week, June 8-11, the show isn\u2019t part of Awkward Stage\u2019s regular season, said Jewish community member Erika Babins, who plays the character CB\u2019s\u00a0Sister. \u201cThis project sprung from a night of hanging out with friends and we were all lamenting the lack of opportunity to really sink our teeth into a meaty and relevant piece of theatre,\u201d she explained. \u201cI\u2019m an artistic associate for Awkward Stage and I was chatting with artistic director Andy Toth, who more or less said, \u2018This sounds like a show that Awkward Stage should be a part of.\u2019 So, we\u2019ve had the benefit of the support and connections that Awkward Stage has in the theatre community and as\u00a0a not-for-profit, but we are producing it as a collective of emerging artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia entry on the play goes into detail about the plot. In short, after CB (Charlie Brown) and his sister (Sally) hold a funeral for their dog (Snoopy), which degenerates into an argument, CB goes on a mission to determine what happens to us after we die. Among many other things, we find out that CB loves Beethoven (Schroeder) and they hook up, but Matt (Pig-Pen) can\u2019t accept the relationship, so he harasses Beethoven, who eventually commits suicide. Also part of the story is that Van\u2019s Sister (which would be Lucy, with Van being Linus) has been \u201cinstitutionalized for setting the Little Red-Haired Girl\u2019s hair on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I would add,\u201d said Babins about the Wiki synopsis, \u201cis that the whole play is bookended within the context of CB writing a letter to his old pen pal.\u201d The pen pal has the initials CS, referring to Schultz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe target audience for this play is anyone who is a teenager now or remembers being a teenager,\u201d said Babins. \u201cThere is a lot of swearing and heavy subject matter so parental guidance is advised and it is probably not appropriate for elementary school-aged children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The promotional material for the Awkward Stage production notes, \u201cDog Sees God<\/em> shines a light on homophobia, drug use, pedophilia, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence, rebellion, sex, mental illness and self-identity. And it\u2019s funny!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taught at theatre school that comedy comes from the characters not realizing they\u2019re doing something funny, and these characters definitely don\u2019t know they\u2019re being funny,\u201d Babins said. \u201cFor them, everything that is happening to their group of friends is the worst thing ever but, for the audience, it\u2019s an opportunity to look back and laugh at the dramatic highs and lows that are adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Theo Budd as CB and Erika Babins as CB’s Sister. (photo by Javier Sotres)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She describes her character as \u201ca bit of an outcast herself. She\u2019s younger than the other characters and, as such, is not included in their tight-knit group. She spends the course of the play drastically altering her persona in an attempt to figure out where she actually belongs. Without giving too much of the story away, she does find her way back to a close relationship with her brother, who she grew up admiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babins added, \u201cOne of CB\u2019s big arcs in the play is trying to decide on what he thinks happens after you die, and each of his friends has a very different answer for him. Though none of the of the answers is expressly Jewish, it\u2019s an interesting lens to look at how these teenagers interpret religion in a secular small town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Sarah Harrison, Dog Sees God<\/em> previews at CBC Studio 700 on June 8, 8 p.m., and opens there June 9, 8 p.m., with performances June 10, 7 and 9:30 p.m., and June 11, 2 p.m. Tickets are $21, with $1 of every ticket sold going into the profit share for the cast and creative team (the preview is two-for-one). For tickets, visit dogseesgodvancouver.brownpapertickets.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theo Budd as CB, Eric Biskupski as Beethoven, Erika Babins as CB\u2019s Sister and Ryan Nunez as Van in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, which runs June 8-11 at CBC Studio 700. (photo by Javier Sotres) It would be interesting to know what Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz would have thought of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[4422,4420,7107,5943,3753],"class_list":["post-24567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-awkward-stage","tag-erika-babins","tag-peanuts","tag-teenagers","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}