Pi Theatre

Archive for September, 2011

What does Vancouver look like to you? What do you think of when you think of our city? Is it the mountains, sea and rain that define us?

Is it the people? The communities?

What do you like best about living in Vancouver? What do you like least? Do you have a quintessential Vancouver moment?

You can submit your Vision of Vancouver online, or this weekend, come share your Vision in person. On October 1st, Pi will be taking part in Culture Days. Stop by our rehearsal space at 1411 Cartwright Street from 9:30 am - noon and draw, write, photograph or tell us about your Vision of Vancouver. Your work will be displayed at performances of Visions of Vancouver in October and on this website. Everyone who participates will be entered in a draw for two tickets to opening night (October 6th). For more information email visionsofvancouver@pitheatre.com.

You’ve already met three members of our wonderful Visions of Vancouver team. We’d like to introduce you to the rest of the cast, two more writers and our amazing Stage Manager.

Michele Riml - Writer

This award-winning Canadian playwright is known for her deft touch for honest dialogue and characters. Her plays have been produced across Canada and in the US including the Globe Theatre, The Grand, the Arts Club Theatre, the Belfry and The Hayworth Theatre (Los Angeles). Other plays include Miss Teen, Under The Influence, RAGE (winner of the 2005 Sydney Risk prize for Outstanding Original Play) and the acclaimed Poster Boys, which premiered at the Arts Club Theatre in 2008. Michele was nominated in 2008 for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize.

Michael St. John Smith - Writer

Michael St. John Smith is a writer and actor who has written several plays and screenplays, including most recently, an adaptation of Ivan Coyote’s novel Bow Grip for Telefilm and Red Cedar Films. He is delighted to be collaborating on a writing project with his beautiful wife, Michele, for the first time.

Carmen Aguirre - Performer

Carmen is a Vancouver-based theatre artist who has worked extensively in North and South America. She has written or co-written eighteen plays, including The Refugee Hotel (2010 Dora Mavor Moore  nominee for Best New Play), The Trigger (2005 Innovation in Theatre Jessie nominee), and Chile Con Carne. She is currently playwright-in-residence at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre, where she is developing The Tina Modotti Project, and her one-woman show Blue Box will receive its world premiere at The Vancouver East Cultural Centre in May 2012. She has sixty film, television, and stage acting credits, including a lead role in Showcase’s original series Endgame, just nominated for a Gemini in the Best Dramatic Series category. Carmen was recently awarded The Union of B.C. Performers’ Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award. Her book, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter has received rave reviews in Canada, and is being published in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Finland. Carmen is also an instructor in the acting department at Vancouver Film School. She is a graduate of Studio 58.

Patrick Keating - Performer

A graduate of Simon Fraser University, Patrick has been working in Vancouver within the small theatre community as an actor for the past twenty years. Some of the companies he has worked with include The Firehall, Headlines, Mortal Coil, Rumble, Touchstone, Urban Crawl and Main Street Theatre where he is proud to be an associate artist. The past two seasons Patrick has been nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award. This is his first production with Pi Theatre and he is humbled to be included in the company of such brilliant theatre artists.

Jethelo Espaldon Cabilete - Stage Manager

A graduate of Theatre Humber’s technical and production program, with an extensive repertoire in stage management and backstage technical work. Credits in theatre, concert, and corporate productions include lighting and stage set-up. Eleven years of experience working with notable directors such as Del Surjik, Roy Surrette, Stephen Drover, John Wright, Ellie King and Anthony F. Ingram. Productions: Playland (Pacific Theatre), Skydive (Realwheels Society), John & Beatrice (Pi Theatre/Persephone Theatre Co-production), doGs (Theatre Terrific), The Eighth Land (Pi Theatre), and Tuesdays & Sundays (Dualminds). Special thanks to Keith for his love and support. For my Mother…

Visions of Vancouver has come with an interesting and exciting set of challenges for our design team. Our set designer had to create a space that would work for each of the four vastly different scripts being performed each night. To keep things moving quickly, and to suit the stripped down look Director Richard Wolfe envisioned, the set pieces had to be minimal, but effective enough to transport the audience to the various settings of the scripts. We also wanted to ensure that the set worked with the performance venue, which is essentially a tv studio. Jergus Oprsal has created a visually arresting design for each of the scripts. Here’s a sneak peek.

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We’re very excited about the artistic and production team collaborating to bring you Visions of Vancouver. We’d like to introduce you to some of our fabulous writers, performers and designers.

Adrienne Wong - Writer

Adrienne Wong creates, performs and produces new work for theatre and radio. Recent projects include producing a series of “podplays” - including writing two - for Neworld Theatre. Podplays are part audio guide / part radio drama, with narratives designed to guide listeners on short walks around the city. Other recent highlights include playing “Smee” in Peter Panties (Neworld/Leaky Heaven), creating three site specific, interactive performances for three HIVEs, playing scrabble with the province of BC and facilitating an interactive knitting exchange on North by Northwest (CBC Radio One) and performing in Made in China, a radio play/documentary (CBC/BBC Worldservice). Adrienne is a graduate of SFU and Artistic Producer of Neworld Theatre.

Dennis Foon - Writer

Dennis was co-founder of Vancouver’s acclaimed Green Thumb Theatre and served as Artistic Director for 12 years, where he began writing a body of plays that continue to be produced internationally in numerous languages and for which he has received the British Theatre Award, two Chalmers awards, the Jessie Richardson Career Achievement Award, and the International Arts for Young Audiences Award. In 2007 he was made a lifetime member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada for his “outstanding contribution to Canadian Playwriting and Theatre.” His Play, Kindness, received the 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award. His play, My Acid Trip, was a 2009 Jessie Award finalist. His newest play, Scar Tissue, will be premiering at the Arts Club Theatre in April 2012.

He’s won a Gemini, two WGC Awards, three Leos, and a Robert W. Wagner Award for his screenplays, which include Little Criminals, White Lies, Torso and Terry. He co-wrote Mina Shum’s feature Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, which played at the Toronto, Vancouver, and Sundance Film Festivals. He co-wrote the feature A Shine of Rainbows, which has won prizes at eleven different international film festivals, and won a Leo and received a Genie Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He wrote the screenplay for the feature, Life Above All, Prix Francois Chalais winner at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, 2011 Academy Award Shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film and Leo winner for Best Screenplay. His novel Skud, (Groundwork Books, 2003) received a BC Book Prize, and his sci-fi/fantasy trilogy, The Longlight Legacy, has been published in five languages, with a forthcoming release in Russia.

Jennifer Mawhinney - Performer

Some of Jennifer’s credits include: Macbeth: Nach Shakespeare (Theatre Conspiracy/Gasheart); The Glass Menagerie (Citadel Theatre); Age of Arousal (Arts Club Theatre); Fat Pig (Mitch and Murray); Blackbird (Rumble/Theatre Conspiracy); The Dissemblers (Touchstone/PTC); Of Mice and Men, Orpheus Descending, The Liar, Henry IV- Part One, THe Duchess of Malfi, Brothers Karamozov, Measure for Measure, The Winters Tale (Stratford Festival); Equus (Playhouse); Merlyn, Unity 1918 (W.C.T); Disco Pigs (Pi Theatre). Jennifer’s film and television credits include The Killing, Fringe, Virtuality, Psych, Whistler and Cold Squad. Jennifer is a graduate of both Studio 58 and the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training.

Shaker Paleja

Shaker is excited to be a part of Visions of Vancouver. He’s worked at theatres across Canada such as The Arts Club, Vancouver Playhouse, Alberta Theatre Projects and Globe Theatre. Shaker has a recurring role on the television series Sanctuary. Other recent shows include: Elegy, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Battlestar Galactica. He also is writing his first novel which will hopefully be finished in 2012.

Chris Hind - Sound Designer

Chris has been a professional musician for the past 20 years specializing in Film Music and Sound Design. He gradated from Columbia Academy’s Audio Engineering program in 1999.

Chris has scored 15 films, many of which have been screened in film festivals in Canada, USA and Europe. He has also worked on 20 plays, a videogame, sound designed three feature films and created two radio-plays for CBC Radio.

Chris has composed for and performed in four musical groups in Toronto and Vancouver and has also worked as a professional scriptwriter, “Sound for Film” instructor, director, camera assistant, actor and video artist. Chris and Richard Wolfe have worked together many times in the past with Theatre Conspiracy. This is their second collaboration with Pi Theatre.