On stage in September and October

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Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Get ready Vancouver! The new theatre season is about to begin. Here's what's playing on Vancouver stages in September and October including shows with LGBTQ content.

Are we missing a show? Send us the details and we'll get you listed! Do you have an LGBTQ! connection - let us know as we'd love to do a preview!


	Master Class Arts Club Granville Island Stage 27 September - 27 October 2012 Inspired by the legendary Maria Callas, this Tony Award–winning play opens in a master class at Juilliard, where the world’s greatest soprano is more interested in teaching life lessons than opera. The tempestuous yet vulnerable diva muses on her past—her transformation from stocky to sleek, triumphs at La Scala, feuds with rival singers, and a doomed affair with billionaire Aristotle Onassis. Not only a tribute to the star, Master Class is also a statement on the nature of art and the sacrifices we make for it. Visit http://artsclub.com for tickets and information.

	Little Shop of Horrors 9 - 27 October 2012 Jericho Arts Centre A down-and out skid row floral assistant becomes an overnight sensation when he discovers an exotic plant with a mysterious craving for fresh blood. Soon “Audrey II” grows into an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore who offers him fame and fortune in exchange for feeding its growing appetite, finally revealing itself to be an alien creature poised for global domination! Visit http://www.jerichoartscentre.com for tickets and information.

	Sylvia 11 - 27 October 2012 Richmond Gateway Theatre Greg is having an affair and his wife Kate can’t compete. Her husband has already moved the “other woman” into their apartment, a floozy named Sylvia. In this romantic comedy-with-a twist, Sylvia is a stray, street-smart Labradoodle who becomes a major bone of contention between husband and wife. A hilarious examination of marriage, people who think their pets are human, and a couple managing midlife. Visit http://www.gatewaytheatre.com for tickets and information.

	The Unplugging Arts Club Revue Stage 11 October - 3 November 2012 Two women seek shelter in a freezing, desolate landscape of post-apocalyptic Canada. They must rely solely on each other for survival. To their surprise, they begin to thrive, reviving the skills for living off the land that were taught to them by their elders. But their hard-won peace is interrupted by the sudden arrival of a charismatic young man, whose very presence threatens their existence. Visit http://www.artsclub.com for tickets and information.

	Pants on Fire 11 October - 17 November 2012 The Improv Centre, Granville Island Pants On Fire combines all the best parts of a talk show, a tabloid, and short-form improv comedy. Each night, a special guest takes the stage to tell tall tales. Whether they’re true or false... who knows? Along with the help of a suspicious show host and the lie detecting senses of the audience, the VTSL ensemble will sleuth their way to the truth and see if our special guest can swear to a goddess, or has a nose like Pinocchio. Visit http://www.vtsl.com for tickets and information.

	The Zombie Syndrome 13 - 31 October 2012 Through the Streets of Downtown Vancouver The Zombie Syndrome takes its audience on a high-stakes mission to save the world from a deadly zombie invasion. The highly interactive theatrical scavenger-hunt features technical elements requiring each audience group to use their smartphones to navigate through the show and find clues leading to a renegade scientist's secret mobile laboratory. Visit http://www.thevirtualstage.org for tickets and information.

	Initiation Trilogy 15 - 28 October 2012 Granville Island An experiential and physical journey that blends the quality of a mini-festival with the sense of a private performance. Walk through three short theatrical installations inspired by provocative poetry collections which explore themes of feminism, sexuality, and identity. Visit http://www.electriccompanytheatre.com for tickets and information.

	A Streetcar Named Desire Spectral Theatre 10 - 20 October 2012 Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two, A Streetcar Named Desire, is the story of Blanche DuBois, a fragile and neurotic woman on a desperate prowl for someplace in the world to call her own. Visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com for tickets and information.

	The Sorrow of Young Werther Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC 17 - 20 October 2012 Theatre at UBC brings an exciting and thoroughly modern re-visioning of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s classic Romantic novel to the stage. The first great ‘confessional’ novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) is loosely autobiographical and draws on Goethe’s own unrequited love for a married woman. His sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist brought immediate success to the story and made Goethe one of the world’s first literary stars. Visit http://www.theatre.ubc.ca for tickets and information.

	My Mother's Story: North Vancouver Presentation House Theatre 17 - 28 October 2012 Those eight stories were written by Esther Chase, Sandra Crawford, Janice George, Meghna Haldar, Suzanne Humphreys, Wendy Noel, Suzanne Ristic and Beate Sigriddaughter – all women from North Vancouver. Individually, these stories capture the extraordinary and unique lives of these often ordinary women. Together they tell a universal story of love and joy, perseverance and strength but also of loss, heartbreak and the ache of unfulfilled dreams. Visit http://www.phtheatre.org for tickets and information.

	Debts Roedde House Museum 17 October - 3 November 2012 Inspired by the classic works of Edgar Allen Poe, Debts is a unique blend of site-specific promenade theatre, haunted house, and radio play taking place at the historic Roedde House Museum in Vancouver's Westend. Join five teenagers as they crash a wedding from hell and discover that some Debts can only be paid with their lives. Visit http://www.itsazoo.org for tickets and information.

	She Stoops To Conquer Arts Club Stanley Theatre 18 October - 18 November 2012 Romantic tomfoolery and mistaken identities abound in She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith’s classic comedy of manners. When shy-with-the ladies Charles Marlow sets off to the country to meet his blind date, Kate Hardcastle, a practical joke convinces him that Hardcastle manor is a luxury inn. Treating one’s prospective in-laws as hired help is hardly advisable, but when it appears that Charles is quite a charmer with women of a lesser station, mayhem ensues and love blossoms. Visit http://artsclub.com for tickets and information.

	Cozy Catastrophe The Cultch 22 October - 4 November 2012 Holed up in a warehouse, the survivors must decide whether to spend their final hours praying, fighting back, or just getting to know one another in this unabashed combination of gross-out humour and harried absurdity. Visit http://www.thecultch.com for more information.

	Gold Mountain The Cultch 23 October - 4 November 2012 A collaboration between Montreal’s award-winning Les Deux Mondes and Liverpool’s Unity Theatre, the epic journey from rural China, to war-torn Liverpool, and through the horrors of an Atlantic Convoy, is a story of friendship, addiction and adversity. The work’s telling is an innovative, multimedia spectacle, combining breathtaking imagery, film, and music. Visit http://www.thecultch.com for more information.

	Dracula: The Musical? Chapel Arts Through 3 November 2012 Before Edward and Twilight, there was the Count! Dracula is the original vampire: sexy, mesmerizing, frightening and ... musical? Awkward Stage Productions presents Rick Abbot's version of the classic Bram Stoker tale as a comedy musical with toe tapping tunes and plenty of laughs; it's a bloody funny farce! Visit http://awkwardstageproductions.com for tickets and information.

	The Number 14 25 October - 18 November 2012 Waterfront Theatre The wacky, zany, side-splitting world-renowned show The Number 14 is making its final stop. This is your last chance to catch the bus as The Number 14 kicks off its farewell tour of this ever popular crowd pleaser. Visit http://www.axistheatre.com for more information.

Previously in September & October


	Attempts On Her Life Studio 58 27 September - 14 October 2012 How well do you know the people you love? How much do you want to know? Attempts On Her Life is a dark, fascinating play about a woman who we never meet. Who was ‘Annie?’ Told in snippets, through the eyes of the people around her, her story unfolds one piece at a time. Incorporating movement, song and story, this play asks the question: how will our story be told, when we’re not there to tell it? Visit http://www.studio58.ca for tickets and information.
	Clybourne Park 6 September - 7 October 2012 Stanley Theatre In Chicago, 1959, an African-American family moves into a house in Clybourne Park, to the mortification of its all-white residents. Fast-forward 50 years, and now the neighbourhood is predominately black. When young white newlyweds attempt to buy the very same house, will they face the same resistance? Visit http://artsclub.com for tickets and information.
	Don't Call Us, We'll Call You! Presentation House 5 - 6 October 2012 One of the leading musical theatre performers in Canada, Warren Kimmel’s career has been an incredible journey spanning three continents and forty years. Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You! is an eclectic, funny and bitter-sweet musical cabaret that chronicles his career in South Africa, England and Canada. Visit http://phtheatre.org for tickets and information.
	The Duchess: a.k.a. Wallis Simpson Chan Centre, UBC 20 September - 6 October 2012 Wallis Simpson was a plain, brash, sexual woman, who collapsed only when the cocktails ran out - a woman destined to become the Yoko Ono of her time. Through a combination of naturalism and theatrical magic, Canadian playwright Linda Griffiths’ work illuminates a part of history that, despite its widespread coverage in the world press, remains shrouded in mystery. Visit http://www.theatre.ubc.ca/duchess for tickets and information.
	A Beautiful View 26 - 29 September 2012 SFU Woodwards Two women, both camping aficionados, meet while shopping for tents. Their intimate connection informs their choices for the next two decades, culminating in a quiet note of tragicomedy. Visit http://sfuwoodwards.ca for tickets and information.
	White Rabbit, Red Rabbit 19 - 30 September 2012 The Cultch The arresting and allegorical work, which dissects the experience of an entire Iranian generation, is performed by a different, acclaimed Canadian actor each evening. Entering the stage, they are handed a sealed envelope containing script and instructions, with neither actor nor audience knowing what lies ahead. Visit http://thecultch.com for tickets and information.
	A Room With A View 7 - 30 September 2012 Jericho Arts Centre A stirring coming-of-age story which journeys from the crowded streets and cathedrals of Italy to the gardens and drawing rooms of the English countryside. The adventure, romance, societal critique, whimsy and wit of E.M. Forster's 1908 novel are given new life in Roger Parsley and Andy Graham's masterful stage adaptation. Visit http://www.unitedplayers.com for tickets and information.
	Heroes 6 - 30 September 2012 PAL Theatre This smart and saucy work is a tour-de-force for senior theatre artists John Innes, William Samples, and Michael Dobbin as a trio of hilarious, cantankerous WWI veterans who quietly reflect on their long lives and boisterously plot their grand escape from a military retirement home. Visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com for tickets and information.
	Jersey Boys 5 - 23 September 2012 Queen Elizabeth Theatre The story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi. This is the story of how a group of blue-collar boys from the wrong side of the tracks became one of the biggest American pop music sensations of all time. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were thirty. Visit http://www.dancaptickets.com for tickets and information.
	Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival Vanier Park Through 22 September 2012 Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival celebrates its 23rd season with The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth in the main stage tent and The Merry Wives of Windsor and King John on the Studio Stage. Visit http://www.bardonthebeach.org for exact schedule and showtimes.
	Vancouver International Fringe Festival 6 - 16 September 2012 Granville Island & Other Locations The Vancouver International Fringe Festival is BC’s largest theatre festival and North America’s most international Fringe Fest. This year’s Fringe Festival will feature over 754 performances by 97 groups over 11 days, and is expected to attract over 30,000 attendees. Visit http://www.vancouverfringe.com for tickets and information.
	Out On A Limb 6 - 8 September 2012 Strathcona Park Fifty youth and elders, in collaboration with six artists, have crafted stories about growing up, growing older, and coming of age, and these stories will be projected on trees in a public park. Visit http://www.theonlyanimal.com for more information.
	Altar Boyz Revue Stage, Granville Island Through 1 September 2012 The Altar Boyz are back in town and they’re better than ever! Intent on saving souls and raising spirits with their ability to “drop the funk” in freaky five-part harmony, Altar Boyz is a delicious send-up of boy bands, full of sharp parody, sinfully spectacular dancing, and infectious energy. With lyrics like “Girl, you make me wanna wait” and “Jesus called me on my cell phone,” this irreverent musical comedy will wash your soul clean with laughter. Visit http://www.artsclub.com for tickets and information.