It’s been a few years in the making, and we couldn’t be more excited for the opening of this quirky gem. The previews are off to an amazing start and we’re thrilled to be partnered with PuSh Festival to bring this show to Vancouver audiences. Below, director Amiel Gladstone discusses the show and why he thinks it has got what you want.
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.
