New Media

Yup. They asked me back. I’ve been checking out some shows at the Fringe Festival in Vancouver and I have to say, this year’s crop is pretty good. Check ‘em out:

• Short and Sweet: Sad, Funny and Thoughtful
• Since You Left Us: A Story of Dogged Determination and Unconditional Love
• ShLong Form: Improv Fun & Games
• Fruitcake: Crazy Funny
• The Seminar: Choose This Show!

And while I’m recommending stuff, here’s the buzz about a friend’s cool show:

Aficionados
Part of the Vancouver Fringe 2011
Presented by Disturbingly Brilliant

Welcome to a tongue-firmly-in-cheek, highly irreverent romp through the art world. Here nothing is sacred—not script, not tradition, not canvas, not budgets, and certainly not reality. For true aficionados, mere practicality cannot hold back magnificent art! Join our crazy characters as they flail through a journey of self-discovery and mayhem.

I was trying to help put this thing together… really I was… but oh my God. I’m just not sure that it is possible to create a watchable show with this material.

Maryth Gilroy, Fringe artist/reluctant helper

Aficionados will happen during the Vancouver Fringe 2011. Featuring THE ARTIST CURRENTLY KNOWN AS _________, this show will make you laugh, cry and maybe even want to buy some theatre merchandise. Also 100% guaranteed to address current issues such as everyone’s favourite: the HST Debacle.  Aficionados: disturbingly brilliant.

SHOW TIMES:

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 5-6:15 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 16, 9-10:15 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17, 1:45-3 p.m.

All performances at Studio 16 (1555 West 7th Ave)

Tickets information, including prices, available from the Fringe website.

The Vancouver Canucks lose the Stanley Cup game. Right on time, idiots roam the streets looking for fights, burning cars and throwing stuff. Latest word is that a Boston fan’s been badly beaten.

Just took some pix off my TV. What a disgrace. Go home, jerks.

I’ll be checking out the Neanderthal Arts Festival again this week. It’s into it’s second week, so there are new shows to see and much fun to be had. Details:

Neanderthals In Fort Mac and Countries Shaped Like Stars

Neanderthal Arts Festival

The Neanderthal Arts Festival showcases cutting-edge theatre from across Canada and BC. The Festival also includes the Walking Fish Showcase for emerging theatre artists and a range of other initiatives and events.

The action takes place at The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street.

Tickets available through the Cultch website

For more information visit the Neanderthal Arts Festival website

Week 2: July 28 – August 1

Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show by Architect Theatre
Produced by Architect Theatre; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

Every Canadian experiences the benefits of oil, but many know very little about life at its source. Behind every barrel, every economic projection or environmental scandal, there are people. Who are the people at the northern tip of Alberta’s Highway 63? At the heart of the world’s largest energy project, theatre creators from across Canada use a blend of verbatim and improvisation to bring the front lines of the oil sands to Vancouver.

Countries Shaped Like Stars by Emily Pearlman & Nicolas Di Gaetano
Produced by Mi Casa Theatre, Venue: The Cultch Rehearsal Hall

The courtship of Gwendolyn Magnificent and Bartholomew Spectacular is a tale of love best heard through a tin-can telephone. With performer-operated lights, water glasses, whirly winds and a mandolin, they create the sounds and images of a landscape forever altered by regret.

The Hanging Judge by Andrey Summer
Spectral Theatre Society; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

In a cemetery outside 17th Century London, two trolls meet by the discarded corpse of a hanged judge. The mangier troll, Blemish, has brought a bag with him inside which is a bound man. Blemish would like to eat this man, but the other troll – Chantecler – has just returned from France, where Napoleon has ushered in an era of enlightenment. And Chantecler has learned.

Walking Fish Showcase: July 31, August 1
Returning for its eighth season the Walking Fish Showcase, will featuring its strongest line up yet of emerging, young theatre artists. An eclectic evening of adventurous, risk-taking theatre, the line up this year includes:
• Red by Jordan Hall, directed by Renee Iaci;
• SeaofSouls.com by Melanie Wickes, directed by Jeff Gladstone;
• The Assembly Line by Paulo Ries Ribeiro, directed by Nathan Medd
• The Woods at Tender Creek by Lenore Rowntree co-directed by Ella Simon & Evan Frayne
• The Anarchist Banker, devised and created by The Ensemble, co-directors: Nicole DeLauriers & Ryan Swansen, choreography by Edmond Kilpatrick.