Hi folks! Hopefully, there are still people coming to this site to keep up with ITP and it’s members. And, even though there hasn’t much news to update on here, it doesn’t mean that it’s been quiet on this side of the keyboard! There are things a-rumbling here soon, and lots of stuff happening, so stay tuned!!!

However, I wanted to take a little break from work and from setting things up for next year to express some feelings.

I had just heard that after tomorrow night’s closing performance of Catalyst Theatre‘s Hunchback, The Vancouver Playhouse, one of Vancouver’s “Big Three” theatre companies (the other two being the Arts Club Theatre Company and Bard on the Beach), Vancouver’s own “Regional Theatre Company” for the past 49 years, is going to shut it’s doors forever, due to debt. They won’t even be able to finish their season with the acclaimed Tony Award winning show, God Of Carnage.

This is not only a huge blow to the theatre scene here in Vancouver, it’s a huge blow to theatre in Canada. I don’t know for sure, but I bet my left nut that one of the reasons that the Playhouse ended up in debt is greatly in part of the government cuts to the arts, both provincially and federally. When your government funding gets cut by over 50% over the last several years, and the cost of everything else on a steep rise, it’s no surprise that the Playhouse was forced to make this decision.

Max Reimer came in as the new Artistic Managing Director a few years ago and started his first season as AMD with a bang that included a production of The Drowsy Chaperone (featuring the illustrious Jay Brazeau) that ended up with a run at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Frost Nixon; both phenomenally produced and performed shows. Since then, under his guidance, the Vancouver Playhouse has pumped out one great show after another including: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (featuring Andrew Wheeler and Josh Epstein), The Fantastiks (featuring Steve Maddock, Bree Grieg, Colin Sheen and the incomparable Jeff Hyslop), a monumental production of Death of a Salesman, and two of this season’s biggest hits, La Cage aux Folles (featuring ITP friends Vincent Tong and Greg Armstrong Morris) and Hunchback (with ITP friends Andrew Cohen and Robert Markus). Thank you Max for doing everything you could to keep the Vancouver Playhouse alive and thriving. We really appreciate the work you’ve done. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for Titanic: A New Musical at TUTS this summer. Ever better if I end up getting a chance to work with your talent.

I remember when I had my first Playhouse experience. It was the talk of the school. The Playhouse used to have a high school program where BC High School students would pay $60/season, and we would be admitted to see a matinee dress rehearsal performance of whatever was playing at the Playhouse. It was an annual thing, and I think every school only had so many tickets allotted per school. At our school, we even had a waiting list. Sure, some of the kids did it cause it meant we got to leave school early. But most of the kids in my school were genuinely interested in seeing the shows.

After two years on the waiting list, in the fall of 1997, I finally had the chance to go. My first theatre experience was Playhouse‘s 2 Pianos, 4 Hands with Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt. Back in high school, I was primarily a musician, so this show spoke to me. But while I enjoyed the music tremendously, I was intrigued by the storytelling aspect of the show. What sold my heart to the stage though, was Morris Panych’s The Overcoat. It was the complete opposite of 2 Piano, 4 Hands. 2P4H was a musical storytelling, where the stories were spoken, but was anchored by the wonderful music those two men played with their fingers on the ivories. The Overcoat had no spoken text. There was music accompanying the piece, but it was all movement and staging and the little nuances that one would not normally notice if there was speech. But as different as they were, both of those shows gave me the same intrigue that ended up drawing me towards theatre. After that, I saw awesome performances of each show: A Perfect Ganesh, Atlantis, George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile. I can still see the images of each show, engraved into my mind. Roman Danylo saying “Fuck!” in A Perfect Ganesh. The absurdity of seeing Einstein talking about relativity in Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Me asking about the significance of “foreshadowing” during the talkback session after The Overcoat. I think I still have all the programs too. It was easily the highlight of my year. Not only getting a chance to see shows, but to see *professional* shows before the rest of the city got to see it. I thank the Playhouse and it’s high school program for impregnating me with the larvae of a theatre bug that has now blossomed into what you saw in February with Intimate Theatre Productions and our production of I Love You Because.

* * *

Here’s the scary part for me: If this is happening to one of the “Big Three”, what does that mean for the small theatre companies like ITP?

I mean, I should be a little content that now there are some companies available to donate to us small companies to keep us going, but I’m not. I’m far from it.

With the Playhouse gone, that’s one less company to promote artistic culture in this city, one less BIG company to promote theatre to the masses and in turn, driving them towards ITP, RCMT, TUTS, FCP, Footlight, Metro, Pacific Theatre and any other smaller theatre company out there. It kinda irks me that some people in this city are willing to pay $250 for a single Canucks game ticket, a minimum $60 plus service charge to see Brittany Spears (not to mention the $50+ in merchandise) and $1000 to buy a handbag with an LV monogram, but they can’t be bothered to pay $30 to go see artists performing their hearts out LIVE for an audience. Not only is it live, but they are TALENTED and LOCAL (or at least Canadian)!!!

People of Vancouver, I cannot urge you enough to support the local theatre companies that are still around and still afloat. The reality of it all is, if even the Playhouse couldn’t keep up, what does that spell out for us?

Aaron

That being said – two cast members from I Love You Because (Aaron Lau and Erin Palm) are currently rehearsing for Ghost Light Projects‘ upcoming production of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, at the PAL Studio Theatre, March 22nd – April 1st, 2012

Only 10 performances, so you’d better get over to Brown Paper Tickets and get your tickets now!!! Only $25 (and make sure to remind them that Aaron sent ya!) Or, alternatively, you can contact me and I could meet up to sell you some tickets as well!

I am completely floored at the response to this show, as well as for the tickets selling out so quickly! As a performer, there’s nothing better than performing to a sold out audience, and even more so when they’re all taking in and appreciating what we’re giving out. I’d like to thank every single one of you for coming out to see the show, and telling your friends to see the show, and then coming out again yourselves. Without your support and appreciation, shows and companies like ours will go unnoticed, and won’t have the ability to keep producing quality performance for all to see.

If you want, there may still be a chance to get in to see the show through the wait list. Sometimes, people who book tickets can’t come at the last minute, or they forget that they have tickets, and if you show up around 7:30pm, and ask to be added to the wait list, you might be able to pick up those tickets that never get picked up, so who knows?

But to those who already have tickets, we look forward to performing for you. To those who already saw the show and told friends, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To those who weren’t able to make it out for the first season, look for us next year at Studio 1398 again (and now you know to buy your tickets in advance! lol).

However, just because you didn’t get a chance to see our show this week, doesn’t mean that there isn’t quality theatre happening in Vancouver!!! Let me share with you the shows that are currently running in town!!!

At the PAL Theatre on Georgia & Cardero in the heart of the West End, Hey, Look! It’s A Co-op! presents The Marvelous Wonderettes. The Marvelous Wonderettes offers a trip down memory lane where the audience is transported back to Springfield High School’s 1958 Super Senior Prom. It is here we meet the Wonderettes; four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts! Sporting memorable hairdos and personalities to match, the Wonderettes harmonize on 50’s and 60’s standards such as; “Mr. Sandman,” “Lollipop,” “It’s My Party” and over 20 other classic hits. So get hip to a whole new sound, put on your best threads and lose the squares. The Marvelous Wonderettes is sure to be a big bash!

It features four wonderful friends of Intimate Theatre Productions: Meghan Anderssen, Diana Kaarina, Lalainia Lindbjerg & Jennie Neuman – All four of which I’ve performed alongside of! (lucky me!) They run until this sunday night, and their tickets are available at Tickets Tonight.

At the Anza Club (3 W. 8th Avenue), Concrete Vertigo Productions presents The Lost Girls Of Neverland, a burlesque revue. After the success of 2010′s Ruby Red Burlesque, Cameron Fatkin has done it again, this time using Neverland as the backdrop. Set during Mardi Gras, this contemporary musical comedy is guided by modern pop music, dynamic dance numbers and fabulous costumes. The story follows the trials and tribulations of The Lost Girls, a dance troupe working at New Orleans’ hottest Gentlemen’s club, Neverland. The beautiful and innocent Wendy Darling is thrust into the spotlight encountering sex, love and the jealous and vain Tinkerbell. Meanwhile, across town at the Mermaid Lagoon, Madame Hook plots her revenge against her arch enemy Mistress Pan whom she has held a grudge against for years.

The show features more friends of ITP including: Sable Strub as
Wendy, Rosie Simon as Pan, Cesar Erba as Mistress Hook, Jacqueline Breakwell as Tink, as well as Allison Fligg, Mike Kovac, Ranae Miller, Erin Walker, Javia Selina & Nilsen Tiefenbach. Running until March 3rd, their tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.

And then finally at Metro Theatre in South Vancouver, Fighting Chance Productions presents The Mystery of Edwin Drood. FCP describes it as a mixture of Charles Dickens and Choose Your Own Adventure. This wildly warm-hearted theatrical experience kicks off when the Music Hall Royale (a hilariously loony Victorian musical troupe) “puts on” its flamboyant rendition of an unfinished Dickens mystery. The story itself deals with John Jasper, a Jekyll-and-Hyde choirmaster who is quite madly in love with his music student, the fair Miss Rosa Bud. Now, Miss Bud is, in turn, engaged to Jasper’s nephew, young Edwin Drood. Our title character disappears mysteriously one stormy Christmas Eve-but has Edwin Drood been murdered? And if so, then whodunnit? The giddy playfullness of this play-within-a-play draws the audience toward one of DROOD’S most talked-about features, which allows the audience to vote on the solution as prelude to the most unusual and hilarious finale!

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is also packed with ITP friends, including Director Ryan Mooney, Musical Director Vashti Fairbairn, Choreographer Dawn Ewen, and cast members Alex McMorran, Jennifer Doan, Emma Rendell, Mike Wild, Linda Sum, James Walker & Gordon Bruce. Also running until March 3rd, their tickets are available at Tickets Tonight

And THAT’S what’s going on this week in the land of Vancouver Musical Theatre.

Aaron

We have reached a milestone for ITP. Mind you, everything a brand new musical theatre company does in it’s first season is a milestone, but still…We’re happy to be in this position!

There are only FIFTEEN (15) SEVEN (7) tickets remaining for the closing week run of I Love You Because, presented by Intimate Theatre Productions over on Granville Island and the beautiful Studio 1398. After the Groupon deal sold out at 11 o’clock this morning, there are 6 2 tickets left for Thursday night, 7 5 tickets left for Friday night and only a mere 2 tickets remaining for Saturday’s Closing Night performance IS NOW SOLD OUT!!!

So if there’s anytime you need to make an immediate decision to come see a show, make it this time, and allow us to perform our final four shows to sold out audiences!

Tickets as always, available at Brown Paper Tickets and we will treat a full house tonight with a perfect performance!!! Enjoy!!!

Aaron

Webmaster’s note: As I was typing this update…the two tickets for Saturday had just been sold. Thank you to whomever you are. -Aaron