Gateway Theatre is closing out its 2021-2022 season with the BC premiere of In Wonderland—an imaginative and contemporary retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. With only three actors, Sarah Roa, Natascha Girgis (Nine Dragons, 2019), and Graham Percy, they fantastically portray all the story’s iconic characters and transform right before the eyes of the audience.
In Wonderland. Sarah Roa, Graham Percy and Natascha Girgis. By Ben Laird.
When: April 7-16, 2022 at 7:30pm except Sundays & Mondays
Pay What You Will Preview: Thursday, April 7 at 7:30pm
Matinees: Saturday April 9, Sunday April 10, Wednesday April 13 at 2:00pm
Tickets: From$29, available online now or call the box office at (604) 270-1812. Suitable for all ages, recommended for ages 6+.
Theatre magic will be fully realized onstage through projections, extraordinary scenic elements, lighting illusions and shadows, costumes, and puppetry, which all play a vital role in the storytelling. Audiences will step into adazzling world of imagination, absurdity, and abstraction, which will transfix them throughout a wild, and sometimes outrageous world of Wonderland.
Commissioned by Alberta Theatre Projects, playwright Anna Cummer was inspired to create In Wonderland after reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with her children. Carroll’s fantastical, whimsical world was a welcome escape for them. Cummer presented her vision of the story as a variety show with everything from clown acts to musical numbers, complete with slap-stick and poetry. Each scene becomes a fast-paced vignette tied together by the aesthetics and performance style of Vaudeville, sure to entertain and delight both children and adults.
“We follow a young girl navigating the topsy-turvy world of social interactions and skirting the edges of adulthood,” says Cummer who wrote In Wonderland as a coming-of-age story. This angle makes the tale more timeless and relevant.
“Carroll’s novels have not faded in the slightest by time,” says director Haysam Kadri. “Alice’s adventures will continue to intrigue us for countless years to come, and the story fittingly taps into the disorienting feelings of pandemic living: the bizarre dreams, the confusion around time, appetite for escape, and perpetual anxiety. There’s no better parallel in time to tell this story.”
Gateway Theatre will be offering a Pay-What-You-Will performance to provide access to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity to attend. As tickets are limited, Gateway Theatre will be reaching out to specific communities that may benefit from this initiative before opening it up to the general public.
Taking into account patrons’ varying comfort levels, Gateway Theatre has decided to keep all performances of In Wonderland with reduced audience capacity to accommodate physically distanced seats. Gateway Theatre will be adhering to the most current health and safety guidelines established by the Province of BC, including checking proof of vaccination upon entry. The health and safety of all patrons, artists, instructors, students, volunteers, and staff is Gateway Theatre’s top priority.
It’s always exciting when I get to use my cherry blossom and magnolia bloom photos for my weekend event features! It’s such a lovely time of year in the city and on top of all the natural beauty, there is a great lineup of entertainment and activities. Friday is the final day of Spring Break at Burnaby Village Museum (sponsored by Miss604) and you’ll find more things to do in Vancouver this weekend listed below. Have a great one!
Bosley’s by Pet Valu New Westminster welcomes The Don’t You Want Me Project (“DYWM”), a social impact photography project that showcases the beauty and resilience of LGBTQ+ people, and the transformative impact their rescue dogs have on them.
Dont You Want Me Project – Photo Submitted
Don’t You Want Me Project Comes to New Westminster
Where: Bosley’s by Pet Valu (114-1015 Columbia St, New Westminster)
When: Daily March 28 to April 7, 2022 (9:00am to 9:00pm, 6:00pm on Sundays)
Co-founder Jack Jackson will be on site at the store on March 31st for Trans Day of Visibility, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.
Admission: Free, although those who wish can make a donation online to support the project
Founded in 2019 by Jack Jackson and Deb Klein, the DYWM Project captures the transformation that happens when marginalized and often misunderstood individuals receive unconditional love and support. The exhibit includes six towers of compelling images and personal narratives of LGBTQ+ people and the impact their rescue dogs have had on them.
“Like rescue dogs, queer and trans people need love, purpose, family and to not live in fear,” says Jackson. “I am delighted to have the opportunity to travel across Canada with Don’t You Want Me; I look forward to chatting with visitors about the project and what happens when love is taken away, whether it’s by discrimination, isolation or ignorance and how people thrive when love is given back.”
Following its visit to New Westminster, the DYWM Project will travel to Winnipeg in April, Spryfield, NS in May, and Calgary and St. Catharines, ON in June. In each city, the project will be displayed in a Pet Valu store.
“The Project showcases the unconditional love, compassion and non-judgemental nature that is embodied in dogs, and how the strength and purpose they provide can help members of the LGBTQ+ community heal,” says Karima Jivraj, owner Bosley’s by Pet Valu New Westminster. “We encourage everyone to come in and experience the exhibit.”
During each stop on the national tour Jackson is meeting with new participants and capturing their stories to share through the DYWM project. Anyone who identifies as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, has rescued a dog and has experienced firsthand how their dog changed their life is encouraged to apply to participate.
Comedian Heather McMahan is bringing The Farewell Tour across the United States and Canada in 2022, with a stop in Vancouver on April 1, 2022 and you can win tickets!
Heather McMahan in Vancouver
Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, Heather McMahan’s show scheduled for April 1, 2022 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, BC has been cancelled. Refunds will be given at point of purchase.
If you don’t know who Heather is already, don’t worry you will! Heather recently sold Good Grief, a television show based on her life, to Peacock with Annapurna producing. She can be seen in the upcoming Netflix feature Love Hard, starring Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang and Darren Barnet, and her debut podcast, Absolutely Not with Heather McMahan leapt into the Apple Podcasts top ten on the day of the release.
A beloved standup comedian, Instagram storyteller and the best friend everyone wants, Heather has seen her fandom skyrocket with fans and the industry falling for her voice, her wit and her southern flair. Her audience on the platform has an average rate of engagement 4.4x higher than the average influencer on the platform and her growth has been explosive, doubling her following in just three months.
Heather has co-hosted the fourth hour of Today three times last fall and has an open door to return. She also previously hosted E!’s Daily Pop.
In 2019 she launched her tour, appropriately titled ‘The Farewell Tour,’ which sold out venues from Atlanta to Charleston to Seattle in under a minute with numbers that blew away all involved. She was prepared for another sold out run, but then of course, 2020 happened. Not to be deterred, Heather did two virtual shows last summer and sold more than 32,000 tickets combined. She officially returned to the stage last August, kicking off the back half of “The Farewell Tour” with over 30+ dates in 2021.
Win Tickets
I have a pair of tickets to give away for this fabulous night of comedy! Enter to win below:
A local couple’s NFT collection — which was inspired by their two-year-old daughter — will be the first in Canada to be featured in an original animated children’s series, as part of a new partnership recently announced by TIME Studios.
Vancouver’s the littles NFT Collection partners with TIME Studios
With a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs that live on the Ethereum blockchain,the littles was founded in November 2021 by Vancouver-based Wilson Lee and Cass Chan, featuring animated bears — their daughter’s favourite animal. There are now more than 5,500 holders, with each NFT currently costing a minimum of $1,200.
Following a tremendous reception — having sold out in less than two minutes of the launch, and with more than $40 million in secondary sales since — the collection caught the attention of the Emmy Award-winning studio. With it being only TIME Studio’s fourth NFT-based property, the new series will be based on the littles’ characters as part of the studio’s animated franchise lineup.
“When we were little, our world was so authentic and all we wanted was to have fun, which is why I find the name so encompassing of all the values that we strive to bring back to adults,” said Wilson Lee, founder of the littles. “Web3 has enabled me to share my roots globally, and through the littles to capture and share that long-forgotten sense of awe that children have. We’re excited to continue reaching new audiences and be able to tell stories through NFTs, not just in Vancouver and across Canada but also globally.”
In December 2021, the couple donated $100,000 of the project sales to the BC Children’s Hospital to fund Canada’s first pediatric thalassemia registry. The initiative was inspired by their daughter, who has a variant of thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to create less hemoglobin.
Although the littles is Lee’s first project in the NFT space, he brings a decade of entrepreneurial experience in various industries, including food and beverage, entertainment, and angel investment. He has parlayed his business acumen to the NFT space as a thought-leader, and creator, and will be speaking at the upcoming VeeCon, an NFT conference hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk.
Both Chan, an ex-Fortune 500 professional, and Lee will speak at NFTCon on Thursday, March 24, at 11:05am PST about their experience starting the littles.
In addition to the partnership with TIME Studios, the founders are in the process of creating the first interoperable skins-and-tokens-gaming experience in the Metaverse, set to launch via their web-based game platform, 1Up-Arcade.
