Pi Theatre

Archive for January, 2011

Pi Theatre, along with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is proud to have brought Vancouver Radoslaw Rychcik and the Stefan Zeromski Theatre of Poland’s production of In the Solitude of Cotton Fields.

It was a great few days as the company hit town fresh from their Seattle debut at On the Boards. The show was extremely well received here in Vancouver.

We’d like to thank the Polish consulate for hosting the opening night reception.

We’d also like to shout out to the entire Cotton Fields company, including the Natural Born Chillers who played their first North American solo gig at Performance Works after the closing night show on Saturday.

Best of luck on your next stop - Santiago de Chile!  

Last night Club Five Sixty was packed for the joint launch of the 2011 PuSh Festival and Vancouver’s 125th birthday celebrations. Attendees were treated to performances by Vancouver Complaints Choir and other community groups; before speakers including Mayor Gregor Robertson, PuSh Festival Board President Max Wyman and Executive Director Norman Armour took to the stage. The Mayor announced a number of City initiatives and funding streams for Vancouver’s quasquicentennial - more details online at www.celebratevancouver125.ca; and Norman Armour talked about PuSh 2011’s themes of “cityness” and place.

Attendees were then given the chance to hop on a Vancouver Trolley bus to Gastown to check out a preview of PuSh Show La Marea, before heading back to Club Five Sixty to check out an array of performances and entertainments including Afro Cuban jazz from Zapato Negro, flamenco dancers, a contortionist, free photobooths, and local indie rock band The Zolas. The Lounge adjacent to the main room was the venue for two intriguing and entertaining performances: Theatre Replacement’s Weetube saw performers acting out scenes using only comments posted on popular Youtube videos as dialogue; while participants in The Chop Theatre’s Last Dance Tango Salon were invited to share a dance with a performer while hearing music and their words spoken privately via headphones.

Throughout the evening, images and videos projections on the walls gave exciting glimpses of the many and varied shows taking place during this year’s festival, including In The Solitude of Cotton Fields, presented by Pi Theatre, PuSh and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, which opens tomorrow at Performance Works.

Pi Theatre held its 26th AGM on January 13th. The meeting was well attended by Pi members and friends of the company. We heard some exciting information about the year gone by, including the announcement of the elimination of the company’s deficit!

Pi would like to welcome this year’s board members and thank outgoing board president Shawn Bouchard for his extreme dedication. Because of his strong leadership, along with the hard work of the rest of the board, Pi is energized and ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead.