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"The Basketball Game" is a graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada animated short of the same name – intended for audiences aged 12 years and up. It's a poignant tale of the power of community as a means to rise above hatred and bigotry. In the end, as is recognized by the kids playing the basketball game, we're all in this together.

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Tag: Victoria Fringe

Bema mounts Wells’ Mazel Tov, John Lennon

Bema mounts Wells’ Mazel Tov, John Lennon

Nicholas Guerriero as John Lennon, left, and Perry Burton as his Jewish lawyer, Leon Wildes, in Bema Productions’ rendition of Mazel Tov, John Lennon by David Wells, which had a virtual run at the Victoria Fringe Festival this year (photo from Bema Productions). Based on the true story of the Nixon administration’s attempt to deport John Lennon because of his political activism against the war in Vietnam, it is a fascinating play about a lesser-known aspect of American history. The years-long case ultimately led to various changes in the country’s immigration laws.

“I was so happy to be back in live rehearsal after a year-and-a-half, and had tears in my eyes at the first rehearsal,” director Zelda Dean told the Independent.  “Of course, we all wore masks until near the end.  This is the 142nd show I have directed in my long career and the first time that I couldn’t see the expression on the actors’ faces while we were working together.  Of course, their masks came off at the last few rehearsals and at the filming of the show [by Jason King] and, by then, everyone was fully vaccinated.  A new experience and I was delighted to learn much and develop new techniques.  I am always grateful to learn from the many skilled artists I am privileged to work with.”

Format ImagePosted on September 10, 2021September 9, 2021Author Cynthia RamsayCategories Performing ArtsTags Bema Productions, David Wells, John Lennon, Leon Wildes, Victoria Fringe, Zelda Dean
Housing, high-tech, musicals and more – this week in the community

Housing, high-tech, musicals and more – this week in the community

Tikva welcomes residents: The Storeys Complex in Richmond. (photo from facebook.com/tikvahousing)

We are taught from an early age that giving, repairing the world and being kind are the tenets of living a Jewish life. In our community we don’t have to look very far to find people who fit this description. One of the latest projects that has come to fruition is the Diamond Residences in the Storeys complex in Richmond. Thanks to the generosity of the Diamond Foundation, Tikva Housing Society now owns 18 (chai!) units that are being rented at below-market rates to people in the community for whom stable, safe housing was unpredictable and unaffordable, at best.

Tikva Housing partnered with four nonprofit societies and the City of Richmond to build these and other apartments. Tikva worked hand in hand with community agencies such as the Jewish Family Service Agency to place tenants in need in these units, as well as with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and B.C. Housing. Most of the tenants will have moved into their units by the end of this month.

The Diamond Residences will house six singles and, of those, five are seniors. Also, 12 families and a total of 22 children will be living there. One 83-year-old woman cried when she was told she would be moving into a studio unit, as she has not had a place to live for years and was sleeping on someone’s couch. A single Israeli mother with two children is moving into a three-bedroom unit; her kids have never had their own rooms. Another single mother with three children has been sharing a two-bedroom place and has not had her own room in two years. One family has moved to Greater Vancouver from out of town and can now attend Shabbat services, be close to their family and the Jewish community. There are many more such stories.

 – Courtesy of Tikva Housing Society

* * *

Simon Fraser University recognized four distinguished alumni on Sept. 13 at Four Seasons Hotel. Among them was Gary Cristall, co-creator of the Vancouver Folk Festival.

The annual awards, presented by SFU and the Alumni Association, recognize those whose accomplishments and contributions reflect the university’s mandate of engaging the world. An advocate for the arts and human rights, Cristall has been a cultural groundbreaker, having co-founded the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in 1978. In an industry plagued with an unscrupulous reputation, Cristall has been instrumental in fighting for the rights of artists to be treated professionally and with respect while also defending their rights to fair performance fees and copyright ownership.

Cristall served as acting head of the music section of the Canada Council for the Arts and was the founding president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the first union at the Canada Council. Today, Cristall continues to serve as a prominent mentor and educator, assisting artists in building their careers and guiding communities in enhancing dynamic cultural interactions that enrich and benefit a healthy, democratic society.

* * *

After a grueling 33 hours of programming, DragonFruit – Benjamin Segall, Jacy Mark, Viniel Kumar and Pritpal Chauhan – completed StoryTree and demonstrated it live to a panel of judges at Hack the North, an international student hackathon held at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, which this year took place Sept. 15-17.

Canada’s biggest hackathon, Hack the North was founded and is organized by Techyon, a student-run nonprofit organization, in partnership with Waterloo Engineering. The event brings together 1,000 students from top universities across 22 countries in the world. Students collaborate and create impactful new hardware projects or mobile and web applications of their own design for a weekend at the University of Waterloo, all expenses paid.

DragonFruit’s StoryTree was one of the 14 projects chosen out of the more than 250 demonstrated at Hack the North. StoryTree is an online workspace for aspiring authors to collaborate on books together. All you have to do is write a paragraph or a chapter, or even just a sentence, and, as more and more people add or branch off from a story, that story you’ve always wanted to write becomes a reality.

DragonFruit will be continuing the project and are looking for alpha testers for January 2018. If anyone is interested in being a part of this project or for more information on it, contact them via facebook.com/dragonfruitcode or dragonfruitcode.com.

* * *

photo - Swinging Sylvia rehearsals: Advah Soudack and Sky Kao create a whirlwind of action in rehearsal of the second one-act play that comprises Two Views from the Sylvia
Swinging Sylvia rehearsals: Advah Soudack and Sky Kao create a whirlwind of action in rehearsal of the second one-act play that comprises Two Views from the Sylvia. (photo by Sue Cohene)

 Rehearsals have started for Two Views from the Sylvia, a new musical theatre production by Kol Halev Performance Society. This original production – which will be at Waterfront Theatre Nov. 8-12 – tells the story of the iconic Sylvia Hotel and its historic connection to the local Jewish community and the city of Vancouver.

Two Views from the Sylvia comprises two one-act plays.

The first play, Sylvia’s Hotel, is set in Vancouver in 1912. It brings to life the origin of the Sylvia Hotel, named for Sylvia Goldstein (Ablowitz) and the story of the Goldstein family who built it. Young Sylvia Goldstein and the legendary Joe Fortes, the beloved English Bay lifeguard, develop a bond that helps Sylvia realize her dreams.

In the second play, The Hotel Sylvia, the story continues as we meet the characters whose lives and loves became interwoven with the story of the Sylvia over her 100-year history. It includes vignettes revealed to the production’s researchers by Huguette, the front desk clerk who worked at the Sylvia for 35 years.

Jewish community members play key roles in both plays. In the lead roles are Advah Soudack (as Sylvia) and Adam Abrams (as Abraham Goldstein); Anna-Mae Wiesenthal and Joyce Gordon are cast in important supporting roles. Behind the scenes are Sue Cohene (producer) and Heather Martin (associate producer), as well as Gordon (assistant producer) and Abrams (graphic designer and webmaster) and Gwen Epstein (production team). Marcy Babins and Michael Schwartz collaborate in their roles at the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, which has created an historical photo display to accompany the production.

Two Views from the Sylvia is a project of Kol Halev in partnership with the B.C. Arts Council, Government of British Columbia, City of Vancouver, Granville Island Cultural Society, CMHC Granville Island and the JMABC. For information and tickets ($28), visit sylviamusical.com.

– Courtesy of Kol Halev

 * * *

Bema Productions’ Victoria Fringe Festival play Horowitz and Mrs. Washington was a great success. All seven performances at Bema’s Black Box Theatre at Congregation Emanu-El were sold out and the production company’s work was once again as one of the best dramas in the Victoria Fringe.

photo - Bema Productions’ Victoria Fringe Festival play Horowitz and Mrs. Washington was a great success
Bema Productions’ Victoria Fringe Festival play Horowitz and Mrs. Washington was a great success.  (photo from Bema)

Mrs. Washington is hired to nurse Sam Horowitz, who’s been mugged and had a stroke. She’s a determined tyrant and he’s a bigoted Jewish widower. The two must find a mutually beneficial relationship when his daughter tries to make him leave his home. The play by Henry Denker reflects the attitudes of the 1970s and illuminates the power to be found in ordinary lives.

“The electric performance of the actors enabled the audience to visit uninhibitedly the issues of racism, stroke recovery and aging in place,” reads the review “Bravo Bema!” on Emanu-El’s website.

“For the most part,” said the review, “the actors were provided with a very humorous script that relied on stereotyping but went beyond it for its punchlines. The audience was asked to stretch their imaginations – who would have considered invoking Michelangelo to explain why the naming of a grandson ‘Douglas’ instead of ‘David’ was inappropriate? There were a few moments when the pace flagged but very few.”

While the play “revealed little about the face of contemporary racism,” the “potential disempowering of aging adults by their loving offspring is an issue of contemporary concern.”

The Bema production was directed by Zelda Dean and Angela Henry and was performed by David Macpherson, Rosemary Jeffery, Christine Upright, Alf Small, Cole Deo and Graham Croft.

– Courtesy of Bema Productions

 * * *

photo - Miki Mochkin teaches a class on baking challah
Miki Mochkin teaches a class on baking challah. (photo by Shula Klinger)

Chabad North Shore hosted a challah bake at Mia Claman’s store in West Vancouver on the night of Sept. 6. Miki Mochkin taught a class on baking challah to local women. While the bread was rising, she explained the significance of each ingredient for Jewish women. From the sweetness of the honey to the harshness of the salt, every element serves to remind the baker of its symbolic role in our lives as women and mothers.

– Courtesy of Shula Klinger

* * *

photo - Panelists at Congregation Beth Israel discuss the topic Our Leaders: Are They Above the Law?
Panelists at Congregation Beth Israel discuss the topic Our Leaders: Are They Above the Law? (photo by Cynthia Ramsay)

In the photo, left to right, are Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, King David High School head of school Russ Klein, Vancouver Catholic Diocese Archbishop Michael Miller, Vancouver Police Chief Constable Adam Palmer, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein and MLA Andrew Wilkinson. On Saturday night, Sept. 16, at the synagogue, this panel of speakers took on the topic Our Leaders: Are They Above the Law? Infeld framed the contemporary discussion around a talmudic discussion regarding an important rabbi in a community, rumours surrounding his conduct and whether the rabbi should be excommunicated. The panelists took this starting point to talk about their own professions, present-day accountability standards and various other issues.

– Courtesy of Cynthia Ramsay

 

 

Format ImagePosted on September 29, 2017September 28, 2017Author Community members/organizationsCategories LocalTags affordability, Bema Productions, Benjamin Segall, Beth Israel, Chabad, Emanu-El, Gary Cristall, Hack the North, Jonathan Infeld, Kol Halev, Miki Mochkin, musicals, SFU, Simon Fraser University, StoryTree, Sylvia Hotel, technology, Tikva Housing, Victoria Fringe
At home anywhere in world

At home anywhere in world

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 does, he forges his own path; he is not one for conforming to the rules. Even his professional definition is sprouting in all directions. He is an actor and a playwright, an educator and a world traveler, a poet and a filmmaker. In the few years since he graduated from the University of British Columbia theatre program, he has worked with children at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, taught English in China, worked as an actor in the Czech Republic, produced films and written plays.

“I have been writing for a long time, poems and short stories,” he said in an interview with the Jewish Independent. “I never tried to publish anything. If you do, everyone could see who you are.

“Then, after university, I worked as an actor for the Nelson Historical Theatre Society. In 2007, we produced a play about Charlie Chaplin, and there was a gap in the play. The director asked me if I could write a scene for it, and I agreed. It was produced and well received.”

His latest play, Sid: The Handsome Bum, a one-woman show about homelessness in Vancouver, was written and first performed in 2014. The play will be part of this year’s Victoria Fringe Festival.

“I wanted to show that homelessness is not general, it’s personal,” Cooper said. “We listen to Sid because she is in a show. Would we listen to her otherwise?… I was privileged growing up, but not everyone is. I talked to homeless people in downtown, wanted to figure out who they are. My mom taught me that there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It’s all ‘us.’ One of the problems homeless people face is that nobody is listening to them. They want to talk, and I listened. There is a community there, like everywhere else. There is beauty there, not just ugliness.”

The play germinated in his head for several years. In 2014, Cooper and two friends, both UBC graduates, Joanna Rannelli and Hilary Fillier, organized a new theatre company – Spec Theatre – to produce the play.

“We wanted this theatre to be for a non-theatre audience. Everybody should be able to enjoy a theatre, but not everybody can afford expensive venues. A theatre could perform anywhere: in a bedroom, in a garden, in non-theatre spaces. Our theatre is accessible to everybody.”

However, theatre is a tough way to generate an income, he acknowledged. “Our theatre is a labor of love. It’s fulfilling. It’s somewhere between a hobby and a profession. I’d say, I have a relationship with theatre, not a career.”

Like Spec Theatre, the play was a collaborative effort.

“We traded ideas,” Cooper explained. “I would receive feedback from Joanna and Hilary and rewrite. In the beginning, I planned it for a male actor, but later that changed. Joanna is playing the title role, which includes five different characters. We hired the director, Kayla Doerksen, and first performed the show in 2014, in the Little Mountain Studio. It’s a small space, 45 seats, but it was sold out most nights.”

This year, Spec is remounting the play for a bigger audience at the Victoria Fringe. “I don’t know anyone there,” Cooper confided. “It’s terrifying. Here, in Vancouver, many friends came to the show, but there, we have to promote.”

They also have to do all the other jobs a play requires besides acting and directing: lighting, stage management, producing and so on. As in any relationship, in Cooper’s relationship with theatre, no job is too small, and collaboration is extremely important.

“I always wanted to collaborate with passionate people on our own projects, not jump into the industry at the entry level and work my way to the top.”

Cooper’s interests are broad, and he doesn’t confine himself to one area of the arts. In the last few years, he also has created several short films, taught English in China, and traveled by bicycle to Mexico and through Europe.

His enthusiasm for cycling is comparatively recent. “It happened around 2010,” he said. “My mom and I talked, and she said that I was smart but not very physical. I wanted to be physical, too, and I thought biking would be right for me. I did some research and joined a group bicycle trip from Amsterdam to Istanbul. But I had to prepare for such a long trip, so I biked from Vancouver to Mexico. It took about two months. I stopped where I wanted, talked to people. It was all about exploration, not the destination.”

His next long bicycle trip will happen in a couple of years – he will be going to Beijing.

“I’m planning parts of the trip now,” he said. “I will bike from Vancouver to Newfoundland, and from there to Argentina. Then, I’ll take a ship to South Africa and, from there, travel north on my bike, through Africa and the Middle East, tentatively Russia, to China. I started a special website and blog for the trip, and I want my readers to suggest where I should go next. It will be an interactive trip.” (His bicycle trip website is pedaleachmile.com.)

Cooper is also planning to stop and work along the way. One of his more definitive plans is to teach English in Saudi Arabia.

“There is a stigma attached to traveling through Africa or Muslim countries,” he said, “and, in part, that’s what my trip is about: removing the stigmas from people, cultures and places. The same about homelessness – I wanted to remove the stigma. They are just people, like everyone else.”

Sid: The Handsome Bum will be performed Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 in Victoria. For more information, visit spectheatre.wordpress.com.

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

Posted on August 21, 2015August 19, 2015Author Olga LivshinCategories Performing ArtsTags cycling, Hilary Fillier, homeless, Ira Cooper, Joanna Rannelli, Kayla Doerksen, Spec Theatre, Victoria Fringe
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