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Festival Reviews

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The York Theatre: in danger

Posted December 12, 2008 - 1:14am by Andrew Templeton

York Theatre on Commercial Drive operated at the Raj Cinema for ten years before closing its doors
Heather Redfern, Executive Director of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, has sent out an urgent plea to members of the performing arts community about the fate of the York Theatre on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Redfern is requesting that people turn up at City Hall on December 18 to show their support to save this historic theatre. The full text of the letter is posted below.

Built in 1913, and originally known as the Alcazar, the York seats 500 and is an important part of Vancouver’s theatre history. For 54 years, it was the home the Vancouver Little Theatre, starting in 1923. As the Vancouver Arts and Culture Forum website describes it, “during much of that time Vancouver Little Theatre was virtually the only live theatre seen in the city. Many well known performers received their first opportunity and experience in The Little Theatre.”

The York Theatre: saved!

Posted December 21, 2008 - 3:57pm by Andrew Templeton

York Theatre looking forward to better (and less pink) days.In a promising sign of their commitment to arts and culture, Vancouver’s newly minted City Council unanimously passed a motion on 18 December that should ensure the future of the historic York Theatre on Commercial Drive on the city’s eastside.

Slated for destruction as early as January 15, the nearly century-old theatre is currently owned by EDG Homes, who purchased the property in August 2007. According to the Province newspaper, at the time of the purchase, EDG had been assured by city staff that the theatre was of no historical significance or interest. EDG wishes to tear down the building in order to clear space for a townhouse development.

Vancouver developer Bruno Wall has stepped forward with a $12 million commitment to purchase and restore the 500 seat theatre. According to the Province, Wall has also offered to hand ownership to the city — in exchange for development rights equivalent to a 20-storey building, to be built on an as-yet undetermined city site. According to Tom Durrie of the Save the York Theatre Society, it is Wall’s intention that the restored facility be run by the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. In an e-mail announcement, Durrie described this arrangement as a guarantee of sound operation of the venue and that rental agreements will be affordable to local arts group.

Risk: the youth of today

Posted December 9, 2008 - 12:43pm by Guest Writer

Risky Business: Amber Funk Barton, Cameron McKinlay, Josh Martin, Shay Kuebler; Photo: Chris Randle
By Jill Goldberg

Having moved to Vancouver from Montréal only one year ago, I consider myself to be a relative newcomer to the Vancouver dance scene. Before I arrived here, I’d heard of and seen companies and dancers including The Holy Body Tattoo, Wen Wei Wang, Kokoro, EDAM and Crystal Pite perform. But, I hadn’t heard the buzz surrounding Amber Funk Barton before landing on the West Coast, so I was excited and curious to see Risk, which debuted at The Firehall Arts Centre on December 3. I’d seen Funk Barton perform once before at B.C. Buds at the same venue, so I anticipated a very athletic and fast-paced show. And on these counts the show delivered. However, while the show was high on energy and provided an excellent forum for the exuberance of the five twenty-something interpreters, I felt that its reliance on imitation or mimicry of daily life actually detracted from the show’s gravity and restricted the performers’ range of emotional expression as they worked to convey the themes being handled by Risk.

Coming to the Right Place: PuSh Festival 2009

Posted November 23, 2008 - 3:42pm by Alexander Ferguson

Leina, Elena, Anouska and Keita appearing in That Night Follows Day at PuSh ’09: photo: Tim MathesonFor some reason, the last thing I expected to see at the sneak preview for PuSh ’09 was a live performance. So when I entered the Vancity Theatre and saw seven children (ages 8-14) standing before the big screen staring at me, I didn’t know what to make of it. Were they somehow related to the video that was about to be shown? I was aware that Vancouver’s Theatre Replacement would be presenting a show with children in it at the upcoming festival, so I assumed their presence had something to do with that.

For several minutes I sat in the audience watching the children. The children watched us. Then they opened their mouths and spoke in unison:

You feed us.
You dress us.
You choose clothes for us.
You wash us.
You bathe us.
You clean our teeth.
You sing to us.
You watch us when we are sleeping.

You tell us that once the world was full of dinosaurs.
That whales may soon be extinct.
That some snakes are poisonous.
That water and electricity are not good together.

You teach us that in the world there are bad men.
That monsters are not real.
That words are only words.
That the shadows are nothing to be frightened of.

Civic Election Countdown #2: creativity needs housing.

Posted November 14, 2008 - 10:41am by Alexander Ferguson

Vancouver: city of cultureThis is part two of Plank’s civic election series.

What’s a “Creative City”? Civic leaders in Vancouver and around the world have taken up the cry. Creativity, they say, now drives the urban economy. Not factory work, not farming, not logging. So you’ve got to have a city that’s friendly to creative types. You’ve got to have a robust “Creative Class.” Who exactly are the new agents of prosperity? Are you one of them?

A few years ago Richard Florida, an urban development theorist, put forward the idea that a city requires a concentration of high-tech workers, artists, musicians and lesbians and gays (among other professional and sexual-orientation categories) in order to achieve urban renewal and economic growth. These people are the innovators, the idea people, the content providers; they spawn new micro and macro industries and they make cities attractive places to live.

Florida’s theory, while spawning a best selling book, quickly ran afoul of other theorists. Ann Markusen, a heavyweight American scholar and consultant, argues that Florida’s “creative class” is an overburdened category: it includes, for example, claims adjusters, food-service managers, and tax collectors (routine occupations), but leaves out home-care workers, repair technicians, and petty criminals (‘occupations’ that require a high degree of inventiveness).