Five (more) reasons to check out at this year’s Chutzpah! Festival

MM Contemporary Dance performing Gershwin Suite. Photo: Tiziano Ghidorsi

The Chutzpah! Festival is a celebration of Jewish dance, theatre, comedy, music and more. We’ve already written about the festival’s 19th-year headliner Sandra Bernhard, but here are five more reasons to check out the annual event (Oct. 24-Nov 24).

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Five (more) reasons to check out at this year’s Chutzpah! Festival

What’s happening in Vancouver theatre in October

What theatrical gifts is the fall season giving us? Opening shows include a Pulitzer Prize-winning play presented by the Arts Club, an acclaimed one-man show about solvent abuse, and even something for the kids. See below for more info about plays ongoing and opening in October. (Updated Oct. 11)

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What’s happening in Vancouver theatre in October

What’s happening in Vancouver theatre in September (updated)

Cast of The Shipment, coming later in September to the Firehall Arts Centre. Jens Kristian Balle photo.

Well of course there’s the Vancouver Fringe Festival. From Sept. 5-15, the multi-limbed monster will be gobbling up most of the oxygen in the local theatre scene. There is however lots of other productions happening, especially towards the end of the month. Read on. (Note: this post has been updated Sept. 4 2019)

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What’s happening in Vancouver theatre in September (updated)

(Some of) what’s coming to this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival

Lovecat Theatre co-founder Bronwyn Henderson stars in The Russian Play.

Even non-theatre-goers gets behind the annual play marathon the Vancouver Fringe Festival. This year’s 10-day event takes place from Sept. 5-15 and, as always, features a variety of different styles and topics (though some themes do emerge). Plays take place mostly on Granville Island along with a few East Vancouver locations. And, as always, the selections are un-juried, un-censored and drawn from a hat or chosen on a first-come, first-served basis.

Along with over 100 shows, the festival presents a bar (at Ocean Art Works on Granville Island), which is all-ages and open evenings and weekend afternoons.

Tickets for shows are $15 and on sale now, with half-price tickets offered for select performances. Below, we’ve highlighted a mere handful of plays (note: these are not recommendations, but merely sneak peeks based on which companies and performers were enterprising enough to send in materials to the author of this post).

See below for more about this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival.

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(Some of) what’s coming to this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival

Last chance to see Mamma Mia!, Born Yesterday, and Bard on the Beach

Leah Beaudry, along with creators Laura Carly Miller and Sydney Doberstein, star in Deep Into Darkness, a new, immersive theatre experience inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. Photo-Phoebe Miu.

A 150-minute original immersive theatre production inspired by Edgar Allan Poe is the only new theatre production we could find for this month. August is truly the dog-days of theatre; most of what’s up are holdovers from earlier in the season, as local companies prepare for their next season.

So the next weeks represent the last chance to see productions of Mamma Mia!, Born Yesterday (the play that was the source for the 1950 movie starring Judy Holliday), and Bard on the Beach’s annual Shakespeare shows. Stay tuned for more excitement from the Vancouver theatre scene as we inch towards the fall.

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Last chance to see Mamma Mia!, Born Yesterday, and Bard on the Beach

What’s happening in Vancouver theatre this July

Cast members from TUTS’ productions of Mamma Mia! and Disney’s Newsies. Lindsay Elliott photo.

If you’re a fan of classic comedies, you’ll probably want to check out Ensemble Theatre’s production of Born Yesterday. Originally written for Broadway by Garson Kanin, the hit play became a hit 1950 movie starring Judy Holliday and William Holden and directed by George Cukor.

Other offerings this summer include the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, presented outdoors as part of Theatre Under the Stars’ summer program, and plenty of Shakespeare.

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What’s happening in Vancouver theatre this July

Ghost sightings, YouTube dance sensations and more at this year’s rEvolver Festival

Fake Ghost

Held in and around the East Vancouver theatre hub The Cultch, the 12-day rEvolver Festival includes a mock ghost tour, a male dancer recreating girls’ dance routines from YouTube, and a comedy about being watched.

All told, the seventh annual edition of the annual festival features nine main stage production, three site-specific experiences and three companion events. It runs from Wed., May 22 to Sun., June 2. Find out more below.

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Ghost sightings, YouTube dance sensations and more at this year’s rEvolver Festival