Touchstone Theatre welcomes audiences back to live theatre with Lights by Adam Grant Warren, its first production since the 2020 COVID shutdown, and the thematic flagship for their forthcoming season “Let There Be Lights” which heralds a brave return to the stage after a challenging eighteen months.

Touchstone Theatre Presents Lights

• When: December 2 (Preview), December 3 (Opening) – December 12, 2021
• Where: Firehall Arts Centre (280 E Cordova St, Vancouver)
• Tickets: Available online now
  • All patrons must wear masks, including at their seats. Patrons should come prepared with both a valid government issued photo I.D. AND their BC vaccine card ready to show staff for admittance to the theatre.

Directed by Touchstone Theatre’s Artistic Director Roy Surette and set against the backdrop of a pandemic Christmas, Lights follows the story of Evan Chaulk (Adam Grant Warren), a schoolteacher and wheelchair user who returns to his family home in Newfoundland for Christmas to discover his mother Nancy (Susinn McFarlen), a strong-willed retired teacher is adapting to life with Alzheimer’s Disease. Unsettling, daring, and funny – Lights is a portrait of a tight-night family facing profound life changes and discovering what remains when a lifetime of memories begins to fade away. 

As Touchstone Theatre’s first of three World Premieres this season, the three-time pandemic postponed production is more than ready to meet its audience: 

“We are delighted to finally stage Adam’s gorgeous and powerful new play,” says Roy Surette, Touchstone Artistic Director. “Though set during a Christmas visit home to Newfoundland, it’s not your typical holiday fare. It’s a rich and intimate look at family dynamics, adapting to change, and finding strength in unusual places.”

Lights was developed through Touchstone’s Flying Start Program, an incubator supporting the next generation of theatre artists through the commissioning of new Canadian works by early career playwrights. Along with dramaturgical support, the program culminates in a full-scale production as part of Touchstone’s Mainstage series. Flying Start is supported by RBC Emerging Artists program and is produced In Association with Firehall Arts Centre.

Lights features Jessie award-winning Adam Grant Warren (Kill Me Now, Touchstone Theatre), Susinn McFarlen (The Taming of the Shew, Bard on the Beach), and Leslie Dos Remedios (Thanks for Giving, Arts Club Theatre). 

Win Tickets

I have a pair of tickets to give away to see Lights live at the Firehall Arts Centre, here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Copy/paste the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Thursday, November 25 ,2021. UPDATE the winner is Lori!

In Vancouver, rain is more than just a verb and a noun. It’s a mood and a season. Some days are so wet you think you’ll never see sun again. You can’t fight it, so try to enjoy it – and the best way to do that is from behind a window.

And for over 50 years, Vancouver’s Blue Horizon Hotel has had some of the city’s best windows for watching the world below – and any weather incoming. The 30-floor Blue Horizon Hotel has dominated Vancouver’s West End skyline at 1255 Robson Street since 1967.

The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (“JCC”) is bringing back the Chanukah: Market in person! The parking area at the JCC will transform into a bustling and festive marketplace for all to enjoy.

JCC Chanukah Market

“Another name for Chanukah is the Festival of Lights and we would like to bring light into the community as we come together in person.“

• When: Sunday, November 28, 2021 from 11:00am to 5:00pm 
• Where: In the JCC Parking lot, with heated tents available (950 W 41st Ave, Vancouver)
• Admission: Free with Donation to the Jewish Food Bank. Proof of Vaccination required for ages 12 & over.

Under large heated tents, market visitors can shop at arts and crafts vendors, peruse amazing affordable art, seek out that perfect gift, enjoy live, all-ages entertainment, participate in fun family activities — or just stroll, soak up the friendly ambiance and enjoy a yummy nosh from one of the food vendors on site. The day’s festivities culminate in the lighting of the first candle on the menorah at sundown. 

The day promises a rich feast of music and performance, including the brilliantly eclectic music of Tzimmes, singer/guitarist Anders Nerman, children’s entertainer, Monika Schwartzmann, The Vancouver Jewish Folk Choir and the Klesbians plus bands, singers, dancers, and many fun surprises!

For kids and families there will be mini golf and bouncy inflatables, and hands-on art-making specially designed and delivered by the JCC Early Childhood Department. 

Shop more than 20 vendors offering jewelry and other creative, useful and decorative items. Glass Sipper, Mink Chocolates, Simchalligraphy, Retrophiliac, L + S Crafts, and many more will be on site.In addition, an eleven-member arts and crafts group is presenting an exhibition and sale offering items such as Giclée prints, ceramics, wood work, glass design, photographs, textiles and more. 

There will be plenty of food options as well, like Coffee Bike Vancouver, Meet2Eat, BurgerHolic and more along with special Chanukah treats, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (jelly donuts).

For more information, follow the JCC on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Following the Atmospheric River which brought torrential rains with subsequent mudslides and floods that have cut the Lower Mainland off from the rest of Canada by road and rail, there is a potentially catastrophic situation playing out in Abbotsford tonight.

7:30pm Tuesday, November 16, 2021:
The City of Abbotsford issued an immediate and urgent notice to all residents that did not evacuate the Sumas Prairie earlier today to evacuate immediately.

DanceHouse, in partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, presents the Vancouver premiere of Red Sky Performance’s highly kinetic contemporary dance work Trace, on stage November 24 to 27 at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

Red Sky Performance’s Trace

• When: November 24 to 27 at 8:00pm and November 27, 2021 at 2:00pm
• Where: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W Hastings, Vancouver)
• Tickets: From $25, available online now or call (604) 801-6225

Under the direction of Executive and Artistic Director Sandra Laronde, Trace is inspired by the ancestral celestial legends of the Anishinaabe people, which hold within them an Indigenous worldview of the interconnectedness of all creation. Closing out a six-week, 15-city tour across Canada and the U.S., Trace features a live percussive score infused with Indigenous motifs from composer Eliot Britton and athletically-charged choreography by Red Sky Performance Associate Artist Jera Wolfe.

Trace made its world premiere in Toronto at Canadian Stage in November 2018, followed by its international premiere at the iconic Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the US in 2019.

The work is Red Sky Performance’s ode to the origin stories of the Anishinaabe people and the mythological figure of Geezhigo-Quae (Sky Woman), who fell to earth, bringing with her the beginnings of life. Lauded by The Globe and Mail for its “physically demanding sequences that rely on the dancers’ swiftness and vigour,” Trace is the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in 2019, for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Sound Design & Composition.

Featuring a backdrop of graphic projections designed by Marcella Grimaux, tracing humanity’s existence from single atom to expansive cosmos, the work offers a glimpse into an Indigenous perspective of the origin of humanity as well as its future evolution. An inventive, acrobatic work choreographed by Wolfe, a renowned Toronto-based choreographer and dancer of Métis heritage, for an ensemble of six dancers, Trace underscores Red Sky Performance’s athleticism and versatility. The work swiftly moves from fast-paced, synchronized choreography and athletic throws to slow, graceful lines and meditative movement.

Trace features an original, percussive score composed by Britton, a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and an inventive composer who integrates electronic, audiovisual, and instrumental elements into his body of work and, performed live by three musicians, interspersed with the recorded throat-singing vocals of Orla Barlow-Tukaki and Nelson Tagoona and the dancers’ own rhythmic breathing. 

Red Sky Performance is one of Canada’s leading contemporary Indigenous performance companies, led by Artistic Director Sandra Laronde of the Teme-Augama Anishinaabe (People of the Deep Water). With a mission to create inspiring experiences of contemporary Indigenous arts and culture that transform society, Red Sky Performance is in its 21st year of creating and producing original, interdisciplinary works of dance, theatre, music, and media.

Win Tickets

I have a pair of tickets to give away, for the closing night performance on November 27th at 8:00pm. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Copy/paste the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, November 23, 2021. Update: The winner is mary ann!