Theatre 2011

As summer fades, we look forward to the beginning of the traditional theatre season in Vancouver.  Here is what is set to play Vancouver stages in September and October 2011, including shows with an LGBTQ! connection.

When George F Walker’s Tough! was written almost twenty years ago for Vancouver’s Green Thumb Theatre it was presented to young adults of the time as something of a cautionary tale.  Presented today as entertainment, this show about teen pregnancy gets a solid treatment in the Twenty Something Theatre production currently on stage at Studio 1398 on Granville Island.

Local queer improv company The Bobbers is looking for new members to join their team.

There is a beautifully transcendent quality to The Only Animal’s Sea of Sands, a site-specific play taking place on the beach at Spanish Banks, which harkens back to the tradition of West Coast storytelling.

If R.E.M. hadn’t recorded their hit “Shiny Happy People” eight years before the premiere of Mamma Mia!, one could probably be forgiven in believing it was written after watching an audience depart a performance of this musical based on the songs of that other acronym-based group, ABBA.

This week Vancouver's indie theatre company Hardline Productions delivers its 2011 season finale with Cativo, an original play created by the company's resident artists.  We caught up with co-writer and one of the stars of the show, local gay actor Gui Fontanezzi, in a q&a to find out more.

I have a confession to make. In the desire for full disclosure before you read this review, you should know I am a recovering Catholic.  With that out of the way, I can now say that Bare, currently on stage at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island, takes risks and delivers.

Is it just us or do others get depressed once Pride is gone for another year?  Once the parade and parties are over, what's a gay to do?  If you’re Fighting Chance Productions, you help the post-Pride blues by putting on a show with a gay theme.  This year the team that gave us The Laramie Project and Rent in previous years presents bare, the musical story of two gay high school students and their struggles at a private Catholic boarding school.

For most of us, the chance we’ll get to see the Tony Award winning revival of Anything Goes that is currently taking Broadway by storm is slim to none.  Fortunately we’ve got our own rousing production under the stars at Malkin Bowl, led by a wonderful performance by Irene Karas who would no doubt give Sutton Foster a run for her money.

Have you ever played one of those murder mystery party games?  You know the ones where each of your guests becomes a character and you have to figure out who the murderer is?  Well, Party This Weekend is just like that. Only there is no murder.  Or perhaps there is, since we only get to see a small part of what’s going on in this new site specific theatre from Scarlet Satin Productions.