History – Page 7 – Firehall Arts Centre

God and the Indian: Thomas Hauff

Posted: Apr 28 2015

For our cross-nation partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts, we’re bringing Toronto and Vancouver audiences Drew Hayden Taylor’s God and The Indian, in Toronto’s Aki Studio May 2 – 17, 2015. Following the Toronto premiere, the production returns to the Firehall where it runs May 20 – 30, 2015.

In Taylor’s two-hander, directed by Renae Morriseau, Toronto-based actor Thomas Hauff takes on the role of Assistant Bishop George King. King is caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of Johnny (played by Lisa C. Ravensbergen), a Cree woman who follows him after recognizing King from her childhood in a residential school.

He’s confronted by someone who believes something about himself that he’s doesn’t believe to be true…

Thomas Hauff has worked professionally as an actor for most of his life, appearing on stages across Canada and in film, television and commercials. He previously performed in Weesageechak Begins to Dance workshops for Yvette Nolan’s Annie Mae’s Movement and Stretching Hide by Dale Lakevold.

In preparing for his role in God and The Indian, Hauff found himself excited by the doubt presented in the script. “[Assistant Bishop King] is a man who is caught in a difficult situation. He’s confronted by someone who believes something about himself that he’s doesn’t believe to be true and he has to convince her otherwise.”

Though the last of the residential schools closed in 1996, Taylor’s God and The Indian brings attention to the issues still affecting Indigenous people in Canada today. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada indicates there are still an estimated 80,000 former students who are living and dealing with the impact of a childhood spent in an institution that sought to eliminate Indigenous culture.

“Anything that starts the conversation about this situation and the effects on people of the residential schools is great.”

The rehearsal process has been illuminating for Hauff. “It’s been exciting and challenging to explore with everyone. Lisa and Renae both bring a perspective that I don’t have,” he says. “It’s really interesting to sit back and listen to them discuss their ideas of the show. I’m learning from the experience.”

And that is exactly what Hauff hopes audiences will get from the show. “I hope they ask questions. Anything that starts the conversation about this situation and the effects on people of the residential schools is great.”

Audiences looking to have a discussion about the issues addressed in the play are invited to stay after the Thursday May 21 + 28, 8pm performances for artist talkbacks. God and The Indian runs in Toronto May 2 – 17, and moves to Vancouver May 20 – 30, 2015. Click here for more information on the run at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto and read their blog (where this post originally appeared).

Reviewers love PROUD

Posted: Mar 09 2015

Andrew Wheeler & Emmelia Gordon in the 2014 production of PROUD, image Pink Monkey Studios.

As a new federal election nears, we are delighted to bring last season’s runaway hit, PROUD, back for another term due to popular demand. This witty and intelligent satire had audiences rolling in the aisles and critics chuckling over their notebooks at Andrew Wheeler’s hilariously deadpan Prime Minister and Emmelia Gordon’s sassy MP. It was even featured on the cover of the Georgia Straight! To give you a sense of what’s in store, here’s what people have been saying about this hit comedy.

REVIEWS

“Comic gold… brimming with gags … it’s a real pleasure to be able to laugh at Canadian politics in the theatre.” – Colin Thomas, Georgia Straight

Andrew Wheeler “nails the PM’s deadpan demeanour and shows his comedic chops in Healey’s particularly funny speech about the things he secretly doesn’t care about.” – Vancouver Presents
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“clever & funny… buried in all the Rick Mercer-style lampooning, there’s some truth… A WINNER” –
Jo Ledingham / Vancouver Courier
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‘A big part of the fun is watching Andrew Wheeler channel the character referred to only as “the Prime Minister,”’ – Jerry Wasserman, The Province
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“fierce and funny” – VancityBuzz
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“Stephen Harper = Comedy magic? Who knew!?” – Fun Fun Vancouver
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“Emmelia Gordon is wickedly funny” – Beyond YVR
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“Mr. Wheeler owns the role of Prime Minister. ” Vancouverscape

PROUD runs April 7 – 25 at the Firehall Arts Centre, with a half price preview April 7, 8pm. Click here for more information.

Two Women, Two Crossings

Posted: Feb 23 2015

Donna Spencer on The Village and ribcage: this wide passage

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Two women come to Canada as immigrants. They come from different parts of the world and at different times in Canadian history – one from the 18th century and one the present day. They face challenges of survival, isolation and loneliness and yet, with determination they move forward.

village small — Tina Milo in The Village, image Una Skandro

Two women recognize the value of these stories and create theatre/performance works. Inventive, passionate and, yes, with determination Tina Milo’s The Village and Heather Hermant’s ribcage: this wide passage were developed and brought to the stage. When I heard about these two pieces celebrating the strengths of two very different immigrant women I was intrigued and wanted to share the spirit and vision of the works with Firehall audiences.

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In Tina Milo’s The Village, we meet a recent immigrant from Serbia, who has left behind a successful career as an actress to move to Canada. Here, she becomes a young mother stuck at home with few friends and few outlets for her creative expression. She sinks into a depression common among female immigrants who are often left at home alone with family while their husbands go out to work. Lacking contact with the outside world, she struggles to improve her language skills and find a way back to the career she left behind.

ribcage small — Heather Hermant in ribcage: this wide passage, image Tim Matheson

In a very different story, Heather Hermant’s ribcage: this wide passage celebrates the journey of a young Jewish woman, who arrives in Quebec City disguised as a male laborer at a time when women were not allowed to travel alone. Discovered, she is brought before authorities upon her arrival and faces life in a new country, alone and unsupported. When Hermant discovered this story of the first Jewish women to immigrate to Canada, she wanted to honor it and share it.

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As International Women’s Day approaches, we would like to honor and share these hidden stories with you! – Firehall Artistic Producer Donna Spencer

The Village runs Feb 24 – 28 and ribcage: this wide passage runs March 3 – 8.

Celebrate Chinese New Year at the Firehall!

Posted: Feb 16 2015

“Chinese New Year is a celebration, and our piece is a celebration too”, says Wen Wei Wang. “A celebration of who we are, and making something together.” – Vancouver Sun

Join us for the long-awaited Vancouver premiere of Wen Wei’s newest dance work on the cusp of the Lunar New Year (Feb 18 – 21). Made In China is a breathtakingly magical feast for the senses that opens a window to another world. This intensely personal interdisciplinary work is a shared biography of the artists’ experiences working amidst the Cultural Revolution. It is created and performed by Wen Wei Wang, Gao Yanjinzi (Beijing Modern Dance Company); Qiu Xia He (Silk Road Music); and video/sound artist Sammy Chien. Plus the Firehall’s own Donna Spencer has been brought on to Dramaturg the piece. The artists premiered the show at the Banff Centre in late January and while they were there created a fascinating behind the scenes short film.

Made in China by Wen Wei Dance explores cultural colours – Vancouver Sun

Wen Wei Dance’s Made in China digs into Chinese pasts – Georgia Straight

Wen Wei Wang and China’s immigrants of today – VancityBuzz

Made In China by Wen Wei Dance runs Feb 18 – 21 at the Firehall Arts Centre. More info.

Donna Spencer on Vincent Mantsoe

Posted: Feb 04 2015

Welcome Back, Vincent! In honor of Black History month, internationally acclaimed choreographer and performer Vincent Mantsoe returns to the Firehall from February 11^th -14^th . Vincent first performed on the Firehall stage in 2001, with three solo pieces created under the title, Meetlo, which in the Sesotho language means ‘traditions’. This amazing work was Vancouver’s first introduction to the power of his work and audiences loved it. We invited him back in 2005 and once again his work was mesmerizing. His ability to blend global dance forms while connecting to his heritage and honor his past in a manner that suffused the work with potent spiritual power brought audiences to their feet.

We are delighted that Firehall audiences will get the chance to see two solos, NTU// and Skwatta as part of his pan-Canadian tour to Montreal, Toronto, Peterborough and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. NTU// springs from the desire to embody the essence of personhood while Skwatta addresses the squalid hopelessness of life in the informal settings of the camps of South Africa’s townships. Both are animated by Vincent’s connection to the Soweto culture of his childhood and are influenced by lessons taught by his mother and aunt, all ‘sangomas’ or traditional healers.

Vincent, who now lives in France with his wife and two children, is a artist with a unique talent to blend traditional African, contemporary Western, martial and Asian dance forms in his creations of artistic works that resonant in a meaningful way with his audiences.

– Donna Spencer, Artistic Producer, Firehall Arts Centre

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“when Danceworks curator Mimi Beck writes that Vincent Mantsoe … is a dancer of “breathtaking virtuosity,” she’s just stating the facts. He’s incredible.” Mooney on Theatre, Toronto

“Mantsoe’s stage charisma is huge. Though relatively short and solidly built, he can move with gentle, feline grace or explode in a frenzy of flashing feet and combative arms.” – Toronto Star

NTU and Skwatta are on at the Firehall Arts Centre from February 11 – 14. Click here for more info.

Image – Vincent Mantsoe, credit Meinrad Heck.

Pssst… Secrets from the show

Posted: Jan 28 2015

PostSecret: The Show has inspired many audience members to share their secrets. We’ve already gone through 2,000 blank postcards in the Firehall lobby which people have used to share their inner-most thoughts, fears and confessions. Here’s just a few so far.

PostSecret: The Show is on til February 7. If you want to see more audiences secrets from the Vancouver run, check out our Flickr page. You can also see messages left by audience members in our photobooth here.

PostSecret: The Show

Posted: Jan 26 2015

Wow! This show has been an extraordinarily powerful and intensely emotional roller coaster ride filled with laughter and tears so far. Thanks so much to the brave audiences who have shared this experience and their secrets with us so far. Here are some of the messages that audience members who’ve come to the show have shared.

REviews pic — Kahlil Ashanti, Nicolle Nattrass & Ming Hudson in PostSecret: The Show, credit Emily Cooper

Frank - whiteboard — PostSecret creator Frank Warren at opening night

PostSecret: The Show is on now and runs til February 7. Click here for more info and show times. To view more secrets audience members have shared on postcards, click here.

Frank Warren in Vancouver for PostSecret

Posted: Jan 19 2015

We are excited to announce that PostSecret creator Frank Warren will be in town for the Canadian premiere of PostSecret: The Show. The New York Times bestselling author recently released his newest book The World of PostSecret and will be signing copies of the book and meeting fans following the show for the following performances:

Tuesday Jan 20, 8pm (Talkback with Frank and PostSecret cast)

Wed Jan 21, 1pm (Talkback with Frank and PostSecret cast, no book signing)

Wed Jan 21, 8pm (Book signing)

Tickets are selling fast for these shows – get yours now to avoid missing out. Click here to read more about the show.

Kayak – An interview with Jordan Hall

Posted: Jan 02 2015

Writer Jordan Hall won the Samuel French Award for Playwrighting with her first play Kayak which is coming up at the Firehall Jan 7 – 17. Jordan gives some insight into what inspired the play and why it is still relevant 3 years later.

Q: What is this play about to you?

A: The stories we tell ourselves, particularly about our responsibility in moments and issues larger than we are. The cost of inaction. The cost of

action. Screwball comedies. Biblical tragedies. Also, S’mores.

Q: What’s your favorite line in Kayak?

A: There’s this little exchange between Peter and Julie when they’re broken up that makes both my writer-beast and secret-screwballcomedy-

fan very happy:

JULIE: How’s prosperity?

PETER: Prosperous? How’s self-righteousness?

JULIE: Justified.

Q: What inspired you to write this play?

A: So many things I was seeing and continue to see about the environmental movement and our personal reactions to it: My frustration with people who understand what’s happening and aren’t doing enough, my frustration with myself for not doing enough, the gap between us and the people fighting for us– how sad and ridiculous and hopeful and tragic and complex and simple it all seemed– and continues to seem.

Q: Which character in the play do you relate to most and why?

A: I think I relate to all of them at different times: I’ve been Julie– desperately agitating and making everyone around me awkward and uncomfortable; I’ve been Annie– exhausted and just wanting to keep my comfort, the life I feel like I work hard to deserve; I’ve been Peter– wanting so much to find a middle ground, a place where we can all move forward together.

Q: As a young person, what draws you to write for live theatre as opposed to novels or film?

A: Well, I write for all three– but I think the charm of theatre is presence. You can do amazing things with the imagination in fiction, and with the medium in film, but it’s hard to deny the power of a person, right in front of you, experiencing something. It’s a kind of communion.

Q: Do you think that the piece is still as relevant, even though it’s been three years since you wrote it?

A: I wish it weren’t still relevant. I love this play very much, but if, as a culture, we made it obsolete? I’d be ecstatic. Right now, we’re making choices about pipelines that could leave us dependent on tar sands oil for decades. The climate we and our children will experience, our future prosperity, depends on us making a shift to renewables, and middle class comfort-wise? Corporate profit-wise? That will suck. But the longer we procrastinate, the worse it’s going to be. We’re already in trouble. There was an article in Rolling Stone by Bill McKibben this July that did a great job of laying out the math: “We’re not just on the brink, we’re over the cliff, hanging on to a branch. Now what are we going to do about that?”

Q: What are you working on now? Is it similar to Kayak in anyway?

A: My current piece is called Traveling Light, and it’s focused on particle physcis and our relationship to the concept of genius, but I think it resonates thematically with Kayak in that it’s still a piece that’s about responsibility: About the people we trust to understand things we don’t, to make breakthroughs we can’t, and what that costs them and us in the process.

Q: This play has two strong female leading characters. Was that a conscious or political choice that you made when writing this story?

A: Absolutely. We’re under-represented in most media and all too frequently restricted to stories that don’t give our psychological lives the scope or subtlety afforded to male perspectives. Where we are right now, politically, makes feminineidentity contested ground: Feminism has become a complicated personal negotiation of values, Patriarchy still rewards certain behaviors, and all this restricts the stories we tell. In the face of that, what is there to do but to be in your own corner? So I write about my experience of being a woman. I write about the way I see us struggling with things that have nothing to do with feminism, and everything to do with feminism. I write how I see us struggling and failing and hoping– and what I really want is for the specificity of that to speak not just to women, but to everyone, in the way that all truly good writing uses the specifics of experience to address what it is to be human. And I am so proud Alley Theatre’s team includes so many insightful, intelligent, funny women in leading roles on stage and off. It’s a little slice of the world I want to live in.

Alley Theatre’s production of KAYAK is running Jan 7 – 17 at the Firehall. Jordan Hall will be participating in a panel discussion about environmental action in BC on Jan 11 following the 3pm show. Click here for more info and tickets.

New Year’s Eve at Chelsea Hotel

Posted: Dec 09 2014

We invite you to join the party at the Chelsea Hotel (aka the Firehall Arts Centre) to ring in 2015 on New Years Eve!

The Firehall is throwing a fabulous bohemian bash, complete with champagne, hors d’oeuvres, & of course lots of Leonard Cohen songs along wit ha sing-along to Cohen favorites at the après-show party! Your ticket includes entry to the Chelsea Hotel show, nibbles & a glass of bubbly at midnight. The perfect party for Cohen fans!
Tickets are limited – $75 per person.

Category: History