Never Swim Alone & Community Dinner

This Friday marks the opening a play written by one of my favourite Canadian playwrights, Daniel MacIvor. Never Swim Alone is the story of two childhood buddies engaged in a verbal sparring match refereed by a girl in a blue swimsuit. The play is produced by year-old Hardline Productions, started by Studio 58 graduates Sean Harris Oliver and Raes Calvert. Please go out and support this young company as they staged a truly innovated and brilliant piece about male competition.

Never Swim Alone runs until June 5 at Hardline Studios (68 Water Street). To reserve tickets email tickets[at]hardlineproductions.ca and visit their website.

Community Dinner. Photo credit: Itai Erdal.

I’m super-excited about this one because it involves FOOD.

Next week, four of Vancouver’s most innovative theatre groups (Rumble Productions, Boca Del Lupo, Electric Theatre Company, and Neworld Theatre) along with MOSIAC (a non-profit organization that helps new immigrants settle and integrate into Canadian society) are putting on Community Dinner.

Part cooking show and part dinner party, Community Dinner is the outcome of a unique collaboration between members of Vancouver’s innovative theatre community and newcomers to Canada. Over a three-month period, the newcomers and the theatre artists (two from each company) met and taught each other cherished recipes and created a piece of theatre.

“It’s a collaboration with people who just moved to Vancouver in the last year and it was all about exchanging ideas and stories while using food as an anchor,” says Director Anita Rochon. “Vancouver is incredibly diverse and multicultural and this play reflects that.”

The newcomers include Esta Mun (from Singapore, who arrived in Vancouver four months ago), Angela Huo (from Northwest China, who moved to Vancouver five months ago), Rey Blasco (from the Philippines, who has lived in Canada for six years), Marta Lasso (from Ecuador, who has lived in Vancouver for six months), and Veronica Zhou (from Beijing, who has lived in Vancouver for eight months). Also added to the mix are some of Vancouver’s leading theatre artists, including Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kevin Kerr, comedian Charles Demers, director James Fagan Tait, and the Vancouver Playhouse’s playwright-in-residence C.E Gatchalian.

Community Dinner runs from June 1-4, 2011 at Progress Lab 1422 (1422 William Street). Tickets are $37 per person (plus service charges) but this includes the show and dinner. They are already sold out but more tickets may be released closer to the date so be sure to check the website for updates.

This feature was written exclusively for Miss604 by actor, writer, and producer, Michelle Kim. Read all posts contributed by Michelle for Miss604.com and follow her on Twitter @miju.