the Cultch

The joys of connection

Actor Kerry Sandomirsky – who has more than 130 stage and screen credits – is making her producing debut with the Vancouver première of The Sound Inside, written by Adam Rapp, which was nominated for six Tony Awards in 2020, including best play. The Nov. 14-24 performances at Vancity Culture Lab represent two other milestones – the first production of Sandomirksy’s newly established company, all day breakfast theatre, and the launch of the Search Party’s New Cartography initiative.

Actor Kerry Sandomirsky produces her first play – the Vancouver première of The Sound Inside, by Adam Rapp – and launches her new company, all day breakfast theatre. (photo from the Cultch)

“I was looking for something to produce, so I was reading a lot of scripts,” Sandomirsky, who is Jewish, told the Independent. “There was something about The Sound Inside that kept pulling me back. Adam Rapp describes it as haunting, and I think I was haunted by it. My aunt and uncle who live in LA are avid theatre-goers. On two previous occasions they have suggested work I should consider. Coincidently, those pieces became important touchstones in my career. When I was in the middle of negotiating rights for The Sound Inside, they contacted me once again about this compelling show they had just seen. I hung up and bought the rights.”

Being a producer comprises multiple responsibilities.

“Producing involves raising money, putting a team together, creating a budget, getting insurance, finding a theatre, organizing and initiating publicity and marketing campaigns, and ensuring the production is created in a supportive environment,” said Sandomirsky. “So often in life we are in a state of reactive business, and producing was a way for me to take agency.”

Sandomirsky not only produces The Sound Inside, but co-stars in it with Jacob Leonard; Mindy Parfitt, founding artistic director of the Search Party, directs.

Sandomirsky portrays the character of Bella Baird, “an under-appreciated novelist and tenured creative writing professor who forms an unlikely bond with a mysterious yet talented student, Christopher Dunn,” played by Leonard, who happens to have been a student of Sandomirsky’s when she taught at Studio 58. “Brimming with suspense, Rapp’s riveting play explores the limits of what one person can ask of another,” reads one description of the 90-minute play.

“The Sound Inside is about two people who have isolated themselves from the world, but, to their great surprise, find in each other a reprieve from loneliness,” said Sandomirsky of the play’s appeal. “It is about the delight of connection, the joy of a shared sense of humour, and the power of being seen.”

“The Search Party created New Cartography as a response to Kerry’s desire to produce The Sound Inside,” Parfitt told the Independent. “It has been a way for us to expand how we create theatre and to identify ways we can support and encourage artists to develop themselves.”

Mindy Parfitt, founding artistic director of the Search Party, whose New Cartography initiative offered Kerry Sandomirsky support in her first producing role. (photo from the Cultch)

The Search Party’s website notes that the initiative’s purpose is “to provide mid-career and established artists an opportunity to develop new aspects of their practice. Initiated by the artist, it provides hands-on practical experience in a previously unexplored area of their own creative landscape. Through the New Cartography program, artists receive mentorship, resources, tools and systems in theatre production.”

An application process for the initiative isn’t in place yet, said Parfitt. But, if artists are interested, they can contact her through the company’s website, searchpartyproductions.com.

“There are many aspects to this process which are new for me,” Parfitt said. “Kerry brought me the script. She and Jacob had done considerable work on it before I got involved and so there was some catching up for me to do. This is unusual as a director. Usually that process is completely reversed.

“We have been rehearsing part-time over several weeks, which also is different from the complete immersion that all of us are used to,” she continued. “The Search Party is dedicated to marrying a strong design with a compelling script. Kerry’s company – all day breakfast theatre – prioritizes actor-driven theatre. is an exploration in uniting our two visions.”

“Mindy has been instrumental in demystifying the many logistics of producing,” said Sandomirsky. “She has provided practical advice and infrastructural support. The experience has given both of us an opportunity to make theatre in a new way.”

For tickets to The Sound Inside, visit thecultch.com/ticket/the-sound-inside.

Laugh, cheer, boo at panto

Steffanie Davis, who plays Belle, with a couple of the young actors in East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, at the York Theatre until Jan. 7. (photo by Emily Cooper, illustrations by Cindy Mochizuki)

Every year, the Cultch and Theatre Replacement’s annual panto, celebrating East Vancouver and poking fun at pop culture and local politics, seems to outdo itself. East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, which opened at York Theatre last week, is a rollicking good time that doesn’t sacrifice quality for fun. The text, music, sets, performance – everything is top-notch about this production that will have you cheering, booing, laughing, clapping … generally having a great time.

In the story by new-to-the-panto playwrights Jivesh Parasram and Christine Quintana, Belle, who dreams of studying business at the University of British Columbia so she can get the skills to bring wealth to her East Van neighbourhood, is captured by Beast, an arrogant young man from West Van who is turned into a mattress by Enchantress for his unbending attitude. The curse will not be lifted until this young man, who “won’t flip for nobody,” is able to change his mind – a prized ability in this production. Unfortunately, the curse extends to the staff and patrons of the Japanese food store into which the man had entered to buy some sushi. Transformed into such items as miso soup, soy sauce and various types of sushi, these innocents rely on Belle to save them – and herself – “before the last cherry blossom falls.”

Using physical humour and wittily riffing on pop songs like “Flower” by Miley Cyrus, “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys and “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics, the panto cast is led by Steffanie Davis as Belle and Jason Sakaki as Beast, both strong actors with fantastic singing voices, funky moves and excellent comedic timing. The supporting cast is equally as skilled, and they are, in turn, supported by first-rate creative, design and production teams. Anita Rochon directs the show, and Veda Hille is composer and musical director. Jewish community member Mishelle Cuttler, as assistant musical director, alternates nights with Hille at the keyboard.

East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast is an ode to community. In this iteration, it highlights two decades-old local businesses, Fujiya Japanese Foods and Mr. Mattress, which are located across the street from each other, at Venables Street and Clark Drive. A highlight of opening night was meeting several folks from Mr. Mattress, a long-time advertiser in the Jewish Independent.

The panto runs until Jan. 7 in-person and on-demand online Dec. 18-Jan. 7. For tickets, visit thecultch.com/event/east-van-panto.

Music from the New Wilderness at the Cultch

This February, the Cultch, in partnership with Western Front New Music, is presenting a unique show, Music from the New Wilderness, curated by D.B. Boyko. This original performance incorporates archival wax cylinder recordings from the Okanagan, recent field recordings from the Broughton Archipelago, new musical and voice compositions and much more.

One of the six primary participants is electro-acoustic composer from Montreal Adam Basanta.

“Music from the New Wilderness is a concert … which aims to explore the meaning of wilderness in contemporary culture,” Basanta told the Independent. “What does wilderness mean in a world of increased connectivity? What is the function of the wilderness? How has the wilderness changed, not only ecologically but also in terms of human inhabitants and their communities, or in terms of their economies?”

photo - Montreal's Adam Basanta — Montreal’s Adam Basanta. *(photo from Adam Basanta)*

The intertwining of music and wilderness generated new acoustic esthetics, and Basanta was drawn by the unlikely synthesis. In previous installations, he has blended two other waves of recognition: light and sound. “I started experimenting with combinations of light and sound in 2010, while studying for my master’s degree at Concordia University,” he explained. “I am really interested in ways in which light and sound can be combined, and the ways in which both elements influence our perception of objects and space.”

Despite the frequent fusion of video and audio in his compositions, music is the lens through which he experiences the world. “Even if it involves light without sound, music is the sensibility through which I conceive of material (sounding or otherwise) in time. Of course, a lot of my work falls outside of music and into the visual or media arts, but the guiding outlook emerges from a musical perspective.”

Basanta rarely performs, and considers himself predominantly a composer. “When I do perform and improvise, I usually use a laptop and custom software which I create,” he said. “I am interested in ways in which the laptop can be used as an instrument, as it is such a versatile and powerful tool and yet lacks a certain performative capacity that all musical instruments have. This tension between a possibility and limitations interests me and guides most of my work with technology.”

With a predilection for expanding his acoustic frontiers, Basanta was excited to work on the new piece for Music from the New Wilderness. He explained: “I will première a new electronic composition where all sounds come out of speakers (13 speakers to be exact); there is no performer on the stage. Entitled ‘When You’re Looking for Something, All You Can Find is Yourself,’ the work is a product of collaboration with the acoustic ecologist and researcher Jennifer Schine.” Basanta called their mutual piece “cinema for the ears.”

Unlike Basanta, Schine is not a composer. She is an ethnographic researcher and a sound artist. Explaining what the latter term means, Schine told the Independent, “Saying that I’m a ‘sound artist’ is a way to explain that I work with sound and think about listening.… Listening is a way to receive other peoples’ stories and witness the changing environment, soundscape and cultural landscape around us. The idea to witness is commonly thought of as a visual sense, but there are other ways to witness and receive information.”

Her collaborative work with Basanta has its roots in a research project that she began several years ago.

photo - Acoustic ecologist and researcher Jennifer Schine — Acoustic ecologist and researcher Jennifer Schine. *(photo from Jennifer Schine)*

“In 2009, I volunteered at the Salmon Coast Field Station on the Broughton Archipelago, a group of islands along the coast of B.C.,” she explained. “Once a thriving fishing and logging community, this part of the world is now a fading echo of Canada’s early, labor-intensive resource extraction industries. During that time, I met Billy Proctor. He has spent a lifetime studying, living and listening to the rhythms of the coast…. My ethnographic work has involved documentation of Billy’s private museum, the Billy Proctor Museum, where I have been audio recording antique and disappearing sounds relating to Canada’s settler history. These recordings also include Billy’s stories and how his artifacts reflect the history and ecology of the area.”

Her next step was to find a way to share the unique audio chronicles she created with the public, and that’s how her association with Basanta connects to her research.

“Music from the New Wilderness isn’t just about creating music,” she said. “As citizens of British Columbia and the world at large, we are affected by the industrial extraction happening in the forests and oceans of the Broughton and beyond. We are part of this seismic shift in the way we use and connect to our wilderness areas. And so, in this moment of environmental threats, we must begin to realize that the Broughton Archipelago is important because it stands as an example of how to live on this coast. And Billy is important because he is a link into this way of life.”

Schine described her role in the show as “lead researcher, dramaturge and recordist. This composition was inspired by my ethnographic work in the Broughton Archipelago and was really made possible because of the long-standing working relationships I had made with the community and with Billy. This past summer, I took Adam to the Broughton for two weeks and brought him to places that I already knew were acoustically interesting. We were able to record the soundscape and get personable recordings.… As part of our collaboration, in September I went to Montreal, where Adam is based, and worked in his world, the sound studio.”

Schine also created a solo piece for the show, a sound installation called “Conversations with Billy Proctor.” She said: “During intermission, audience members can sit down and hear more stories from Billy Proctor. I hope to provide more of a context of the Broughton Archipelago and Billy’s life story.”

Music from the New Wilderness – winner of the 2014 Rio Tinto Alcan Award for music – runs Feb. 11-15. For more information and tickets, visit thecultch.com/events/music-new-wilderness.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].