The cast of Calendar Girls. Photo by David Cooper.

Have you seen the film Calendar Girls? Do you think an audience will expect a great deal of similarity between the film and the play? As the director, how will you differentiate the play from the film?
A: I have seen the film and I loved it. The two mediums are so different and the script for the play takes that into consideration. For example, there are far fewer locations in the play than there are in the film, which cuts down on transitions. And the play features monologues for each of the characters. In film you can always do a close-up to get a sense of a character’s private feelings. You can’t do close-ups in theatre, so the script has created other opportunities for the audience to get to know the women.

Q: How do you negotiate between the tragic undertones of the play and its many lighter moments?
A: Plays that require this balance are always challenging, and I’ve found that rehearsing for the truth rather than for laughs keeps the play grounded in real people and honest reactions to situations. Once we’re in previews the audience helps tell us what’s funny by their responses. At that stage in the process we’re ready for that information; in fact we need it to help us finish shaping the play.

Q: Our society can treat aging women in a dismissive way. Does Calendar Girls present an opportunity to question this view?
A: Absolutely. There’s a great line in the play where the women are likened to flowers where “the last phase is always the most glorious.” There’s no question that what the women accomplish publicly and overcome in their private lives really speaks to the strength that comes with age and experience. What’s really beautiful is their bravery, their willingness to shake up their lives and take risks, and the rewards that come back to them, and others in their lives.

Wendy Noel and Anna Galvin. Photo by David Cooper.

Q: The original West End production of Calendar Girls was directed by a man, despite the play centring on women and their relationships. Does being female afford you a different understanding of the play?
A: Being a woman directing this play I come to it with some firsthand experiences of how women can behave in groups, and certain anxieties about physical beauty and aging, the balance of home and career. But the story is universal and the script’s challenges are going to be answered by directors, no matter their gender, by the influences of their personal taste and style and experience.

Q: How do you go about casting six women who will come together as an ensemble to convey the chumminess of the script?
A: Casting is the most important choice you make as a director. So finding actors that have the right temperament and qualities of the characters is critical. But once you’re in rehearsals chumminess isn’t hard to cultivate. Especially when it’s clear to everyone that a good onstage rapport is necessary, then everyone, in their own way, works toward a level of comfort and trust in the rehearsal room that will manifest onstage.

The cast (and set). Photo by David Cooper.

Staging the nude scenes discreetly will take some sleight of hand; how will you direct these?
Carefully!

Rachel Ditor is the Literary Manager at the Arts Club, where she runs the Silver Commissions Project, ReACT, and acts as dramaturg on new plays written for the company. Ditor attended McGill University for her undergraduate degree, and moved on to the University of British Columbia (UBC) for an MFA, with a specialization in directing. She managed the performing arts school at the Jewish Community Centre, and has stayed on at UBC as an adjunct professor, where she teaches a dramaturgy class. Recent dramaturgy credits at the Arts Club include Tear the Curtain!, Don Quixote, Mom’s the Word: Remixed, Paradise Garden, and It’s a Wonderful Life. In 2010, Rachel was the resident faculty dramaturg at the Banff Centre’s Playwrights Colony and is currently a member of the board of directors of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Also a freelance director, her most recent credits are The Philanderer (Arts Club) and The Merchant of Venice (Bard on the Beach).

The cast of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata. Photo by David Cooper.

We’re very excited to announce a one-week holdover of our and the PuSh Festival’s production of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata!

The brainchild of Veda Hille and the CBC’s Bill Richardson, this hilarious and heartfelt song cycle has been playing to packed houses and standing ovations since it premiered last week. Our Artistic Managing Director Bill Millerd says, “The team of Bill, Veda, and director Amiel Gladstone has created a wondrous work, interpreted by a dynamic cast, that is generating great buzz.” The show will now run until Saturday, February 18, 2012, at the Revue Stage.

Get your tickets for the show The Straight calls, “Simply terrific…See Craigslist Cantata in its first run and be part of Vancouver theatre history.” Tickets for these added performances are on sale now and can be purchased by calling the Arts Club Box Office at 604.687.1644 or visiting www.artsclub.com

Think California is all about theme parks and Hollywood starlets? We’re going to make you think again about our neighbours to the south. Californians know how to live the good life, with a temperate climate and lush landscapes, amazing wines and creative cuisine, all with the backdrop of pristine nature and the Pacific coastline.

The Arts Club will pay tribute to the award-winning new world wines of Sonoma and the Napa Valley at the California Wine Fair,  our annual spring fundraiser series.

In addition to the California Wine Fair ballroom tasting on April 18, two unique dinners have been planned to show off the diversity of the region,  hosted at two award-winning Vancouver dining hotspots.

Due to an overwhelming response the first dinner, California Dreaming at West Restaurant with Vintage Corks is  already sold out! But you’re in luck, tickets to the Food, Wine, Adventure dinner are still available. The dinner takes place at Q4 Ristorante and will feature a wine list exclusively from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery served with an Italian inspired menu by Executive Chef Subraaz Abdulla.

Coppola purchased his first vineyard and property in 1975 using the proceeds from The Godfather in Rutherford in the Napa Valley. In 2005, he purchased the Chateau Souverain winery and renamed it the Francis Ford Coppola Winery. It’s  near Geyserville and includes a restaurant and exhibit of memorabilia from his films.

Winemaker Lise Asimont has worked at the Coppola winery since 2006 and will be in attendance at the dinner to impart her extensive knowledge about the winery, the vinter techniques they use, and maybe drop in the odd story about the director of The Godfather trilogy himself. The dinner is on Monday April 30 and tickets are $185 per person, call 604.687.5315 ext. 248 to book.

There is still time to order your early bird tickets for the California Wine Fair Ballroom Tastings. Single tickets are $65, available until January 31^st, 2012. Or get a group together – discounted $60 tickets are available for bookings of six or more. Buy Tickets

The California Wine Fair including the Vintage Corks West Dinner and Francis Ford Coppola Winery Dinner at Q4 Ristorante are Arts Club fundraising events

Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata

Date: 2012-01-25, 3:02PM PST
Reply to: sale-actc-6046871644@craigslist.org

Product Features
• 3 female performers
• 3 male performers
• one baby grand, one drum kit, one sax, one flute
• more laughs than a barrel of monkeys
• the fifth collaboration between the PuSh Festival and the Arts Club 

PLUS – tons of appreciative and entertained audience members!

See photos of the awesome post-show opening party below.

Show creators Veda Hille and Bill Richardson

Despite being expert Craigslist surfers, neither Veda nor Bill have ever bought or sold anything on Craigslist.

Dmitry Chepovetsky (performer), John Webber (Lighting Designer) with his wife Christiane Wilhemlson, Amiel Gladstone (Director)

Dmitry has never bought anything on Craigslist either, but he does have 784 unconfirmed friends on Facebook. John and Christiane sold a queen sized mattress frame on Craigslist—with a catch! You had to take the old, heavy futon mattress that went with it. Amiel likes to turn wallpaper he finds on Craigslist into art.

Performers Bree Greig and J. Cameron Barnett

Bree uses Craigslist to sublet her home while Cameron buys cheap Ikea dressers, decorates them, then sells them on Craigslist for more than he bought them for.

Performers Barry Mirochnick and Selina Martin with friend Ford Pier

Barry found the drum kit used in the show on Craigslist! Selena has also sublet her apartment, and Ford found a job on Craigslist.

Amiel Gladstone and Kathleen Oliver

Amiel has found 2 couches on Craigslist and Kathleen has purchased lots of things for her son, like a baby swing, and a baby gym!

This is Hannah

Hannah had her bike stolen and went to Craigslist to post a notice. Two hours later a Craigslist vigilante sent her a posting for a bike that was for sale and it was hers! She contacted the police and helped them set up a sting operation to catch the thieves and retrieve her bike. Well, most of it.

Happy opening to the amazing company!

Calendar Girls set maquette by Drew Facey

The key for Rachel and myself when we approached the Calendar Girls set design was striking a balance between the sometimes gloomy and conservative setting of a church hall in Knapely, England, and the liberating excitement of the women coming together to create this calendar.

It was very important for us to be able to shift effortlessly between the confines of the hall, the open space of John’s hill, and the more abstract in between spaces in the play. This is why I’ve created the outline of the hall without closing in the walls. When the lighting shifts we will be able to focus more on the sky, and the lines of the church will disappear into silhouette.

We also wanted there to be a sense of the women’s world being somehow charming and beautiful, which is why I chose to create a massive, curved painted sky backdrop. This provides a whimsical note and reinforces the stylized hall. Within the figurative look of the set, all of the furniture choices are very real, with a beautiful antique wood piano, vintage chairs, even an antique coat-tree to create some contrast and focus the design towards the actors using the space.

Drew Facey ~ Set Designer Drew is a three-time Jessie Award winning designer and seven time nominee. Recently Drew designed the sets and costumes for True Love Lies (Touchstone), Hansel & Gretel (Vancouver Opera), and sets for 1984 (Virtual Stage), Much Ado About Nothing, Antony & Cleopatra (Bard on the Beach), The Sound of Music, Steel Magnolias, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Annie (Gateway). Since graduating from Studio 58 four years ago, he’s designed over 60 shows. He also trained as a visual artist at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Concordia University, and apprenticed privately as a glass sculptor in Montreal. Visit www.drewfacey.com for more info.

The cast of Calendar Girls. Photo by David Cooper.

When middle-aged Annie Clarke (Wendy Noel) loses her husband to cancer,
her best friend Chris (Anna Galvin) suggests a—ahem—cheeky new way to raise money for research. But their fellow Women’s Institute members balk at baring—well, almost baring—it all! Gradually, though, these prim tea-and-crumpets ladies “of a certain age” come around and learn to delight in their newfound pluckiness and status as international
sensations.

Since the surprise success of their first calendar in 2000, the real-life Yorkshire “Calendar Girls” have produced nine more calendars, raising over £3 million to help beat blood cancers and inspiring the smash hit film and stage production.

The original Calendar Girls

The 2003 film starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters became the number one grossing film in the UK upon its release and is among the top fifty highest-grossing British films in history. In 2009, Tim Firth significantly adapted his screenplay for the stage, fleshing out the stories of the secondary characters. The stage production experienced over 100 sell-out weeks across the country and is one of the most successful productions to tour the UK.

Calendar Girls runs from January 26 to February 26 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Click here for tickets!

Outstanding Professional Production
Hairspray
Next to Normal

The cast of Hairspray. Photo by Emily Cooper.

Outstanding Director
Bob Frazer/Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Blood Brothers
Bill Millerd, Next to Normal

Outstanding Music Director
Bruce Kellett and Ken Cormier, Next to Normal

Outstanding Choreography
Valerie Easton, Hairspray

Outstanding Set Design
Ted Roberts, Hairspray

Outstanding Costume Design
Alison Green, Hairspray

The cast of Next to Normal. Photo by David Cooper.

Outstanding Lighting Design
Marsha Sibthorpe, Next to Normal

Outstanding Lead Performance-Female
Terra C. MacLeod, Blood Brothers
Caitriona Murphy, Next to Normal
Jennie Neumann, Hairspray

Outstanding Lead Performance-Male
Warren Kimmel, Next to Normal
Shane Snow, Blood Brothers
Andy Toth, Hairspray

Outstanding Supporting Performance-Female
Lauren Bowler, Blood Brothers
Alana Hibbert, Hairspray

Outstanding Supporting Performance-Male
J. Cameron Barnett, Hairspray
Eric Morin, Next to Normal

The cast of Blood Brothers. Photo by David Cooper.

“Composer Hille and librettist Richardson have encapsulated exactly how it feels to be alive during an era in which face time with loved ones is being replaced by blogging, tweeting, and perusing the online classified ads,” says the Straight‘s Alex Varty. Make sure to read the article here!

Also check out the The Telegraph‘s compilation of their picks for 20 most bizarre Craigstlist ads. There are at least a couple of those ads featured in Craigslist Cantata, but you’ll have to see the show to find out which ones…

The adaption by co-creators Peter Anderson and Colin Heath explores the comical and philosophical world of Don Quixote (Peter Anderson), a retired country gentleman, who has become obsessed with ancient books of knighthood and chivalry. Inspired by his readings, he sets out on a quest to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked, alongside his faithful and naive squire, Sancho Panza (Michel Perron), to whom he has promised wealth and power. Preceded by their reputations everywhere they go, they eventually find themselves asking: who’s mad in a world gone mad?

Check out the trailer below and then see if the show will be coming to a city near you!