“And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.”  The final (non-Fridge) MaraGold show is around the corner.  Ryan Gladstone of Monster theatre will be bringing another of his hysterical plays to The Gallery on Sunday October 26th at 7pm.

It’s very fitting that one of Ryan’s shows would be my last because he’s my favorite.  (Don’t tell Jem though!)  I’ve worked with a lot of great playwrights in my day but Ryan is the only one who can write as well as he does, as often as he does.  The beauty in him though is what makes him special.  Both on and off stage, he makes me happy.  Often he makes me laugh until it hurts.  After the Shakespeare Show a couple weeks ago my cheek muscles ached for hours.

What informative silliness has he brewed up this time? It’s called JESUS CHRIST: The Lost Years.  Ever wonder what Jesus was really up to between the ages 13 and 30?  Or how Jesus reacted when told – “Joseph isn’t your real father!” There are Puppets!  Masks!  Songs!  And a little bit of Sacrilege too.  This Monster show was created and Performed by Bruce Horak (The Canada Show), Katherine Sanders and Ryan. It was directed by Ryan and toured in 2006.  It is being remounted in Vancouver as part of Monster Theatre’s festival, HERE BE MONSTERS: A Carnival of the Arts III.  For more info on their fest go to monstertheatre.com. (Check out the accompanying video game JESUS CHRIST: Zombie Slayer while you’re on their site!)

A big part of promoting a show on a small Island comes from word-of-mouth.  Usually, my mouth.  This time, however I won’t be living here for the weeks preceding the show (I found myself a billet-weird.), so I’m relying on those of you who are already Monster fans to talk it up for him.  Here are a few of reviews too-”Let’s just say that comic acting - in the Fringe, or anywhere else - doesn’t get better than this!” - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine And “In the twisted hands of Monster Theatre the unaccounted-for years of JC yield a wacky not-ready-for-official-gospel narrative packed with Clever songs, Hilarious wordplay and a continuous sense of total bewilderment.  It makes for a Sacrilicious good time!” – Toronto’s EYE Weekly.  And finally, “Nothing short of a Comic Miracle”-National Post

As always tickets are $15 in advance at Phoenix on Bowen and online at www.bowenboxoffice.com

Get out of the deep freeze…come to the Fridge!

            The 6th annual Bowen Island Fridge Theatre Festival is set to run from September 25th to 27th and there are some very interesting dishes marinating.  The  five entrees this year include a mix of comfort food, exciting new delicacies and a children’s menu. For your convenience, both Friday and Saturday night will feature 2 different shows.

            The Fridge’s inaugural performer, long time Fridge favorite Jem Rolls’ only performance will be as emcee for the pub night on Thursday Sept. 25^th at 8pm. He will be offering up some of his timeless favorites as well as some tasty new bits including snippets from his current show, How I Stopped Worrying and Learnt to Love the Mall.  The Montreal Mirror called it “punk-rock beat poetry with a social conscience.” At the pub you’ll also be treated to a short preview of each of the other shows at the Fridge. There is no cover charge and it’s always a fun time.

            Kicking off the Festival this year at the Tir-na-nOg theatre, at 7:30 on Friday the 26th will be “Fringe God” (seriously, that’s his nick-name!) TJ Dawe.  This is TJ’s tenth year touring the fringe circuit and he is undisputedly one of

            Over the years, he’s performed both The Slip Knot and Maxim and Cosmo on Bowen.  This year’s roaring success is Totem Figures. It’s a show about personal mythology; about the idea that we’re all the main character in our own epic adventure. It’s about having one’s own personal

            The Orlando Sentinel said that Totem Figures “puts introspection above TJ’s more familiar brand of solo comedy. He’s a master of making you chortle and at the same time as he makes you think. Totem Figures, unlike any of his earlier shows, has the feel of an exploration – the beginnings of an adventure novel. It’s the best writing the Fringe has to offer.”

            For possibly the best ever double-bill, TJ will be followed, the same night, at 9:15pm by Ryan Gladstone of Monster Theatre. This year, Monster Theatre takes an irreverent and farcical look at the Bard in their new show THE SHAKESPEARE SHOW Or; How an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World.  This fun and exciting show is based on the greatest theatrical academic debate of all time; who wrote ‘Shakespeare’s” plays?  Ryan and his co-star Tara Goertzen use puppets, songs, the plague and rhyming couplets to offer what Toronto’s SEE Magazine reviewer called  “the most deft piece of Physical Comedy I’ve ever seen, it is as subtle as it is funny, and as literate as it is energetic and frantic!” *****

            Anyone who has seen Ryan’s other shows here (The Canada Show, Confessions of a Class Clown, or Napoleon’s Secret Diary) knows how terrifically and innovatively he presents stories from mythology and history. He feels that it is the artist’s duty to re-tell these stories and to make them relevant in the present.  Best of all, he’s remarkably talented and his shows are a guaranteed good time!  Although all of Ryan’s shows are pretty child friendly (he says “if the kids get it, it’s not my fault!), this year he will be performing one of his Monster Mini Masterpieces on Saturday the 27^th at 2pm.  These shows regularly tour BC schools offering short adaptations of classics of literature to help get kids excited about reading. Using puppetry, masks, improv, original songs, physical comedy, satire and good old-fashioned storytelling, they expose young audiences to classics from around the World!  The adaptations he’s chosen for the Fridge are: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.

            Saturday nights double bill offers up 2 solo shows by women.  Last year, Cara Yeates performed Bye Bye Bombay to a sold out and appreciative Bowen audience.   This year on Saturday the 27th at 7:30 pm she will present her new show titled Some Reckless Abandon. It is an account of wild restlessness and longing for love.  Despite her wailing mother, a scheming Cowboy and the hundred lies required to get her there, Madeline, the protagonist, is determined to ditch her prairie hometown, so she spitefully signs up for Teenage Jesus Summer Camp in Honduras. Surprisingly, Teenage Jesus Camp proves suffocating. 

             Cara has collaborated with playwright Leah Bailey who is the winner of the ATP’s 24 Hour Playwriting Competition and a finalist for the 2007 CBC Literary Awards. Her short stories have appeared in many publications and she is a regular spoken word contributor on public radio. 

            Following Cara, at 9pm, will be someone new to Bowen, new to the Fringe, new to the country and even new to the

★★★★★”

            Tickets can be purchase online at www.bowenboxoffice.com or in person at

They’re so cool, they’re hot!

     September 20th marks the opening of the 1st annual Gibson’s Fridge Theatre Festival and the 6th annual Bowen Island Fridge Theatre Festival. In its inaugural year, Gibson’s will be treated to 3 shows at The Heritage Preservation Theatre, all of which have been gigantic hits on the Canadian Fringe Festival tour this summer. (Details about the Bowen Fridge can be found later in this article.)

            For the past 4 years, MaraGold Theatre Productions, based on

            Jem will be the opening act of the Gibson’s Fridge Theatre Festival.  He will perform at 7:30 on Saturday September 20th at the Heritage Theatre.  Following Jem, the same night, at 9pm, theatre-goers will be treated to Monster Theatre’s irreverent and farcical look at the Bard in THE SHAKESPEARE SHOW Or; How an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World. 

            Monster Theatre’s founder, Ryan Gladstone has been touring the circuit for 8 straight years and he is widely accepted as the premiere physical theatre artist on the tour.  Ryan sums up his philosophy succinctly. He says: “I believe the same stories have been told throughout human evolution and that it is the artist’s duty to re-tell these stories to make them relevant for their time and place.” A graduate of the

            The Shakespeare Show is a fun and exciting show based on the greatest theatrical academic debate of all time; who wrote ‘Shakespeare’s” plays?  Ryan and his co-star Tara Goertzen use puppets, songs, the plague and rhyming couplets to offer what Toronto’s SEE Magazine called  “the most deft piece of Physical Comedy I’ve ever seen, it is as Subtle as it is Funny, and as Literate as it is Energetic and Frantic!” *****

            Although all of Ryan’s shows are pretty child friendly, (he says “if the kids get it, it’s not my fault!”)  this year he will also be performing one of his Monster Mini Masterpieces to close the festival.   For several years, these shows have been touring BC schools offering short adaptations of classics of literature to help get kids excited about reading! Using puppetry, masks, improv, original songs, physical comedy, satire and good old-fashioned storytelling, they expose young audiences to classics from around the World!  The adaptations that will be presented are: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving. After years of trying to book one of these highly sought after plays he will finally be presenting it on the coast at 2pm on September 21st. Check out www.monstertheatre.com for more info.

            Tickets are available at Gaia’s Fair Trade (Gibson’s Landing), Hallmark Cards (Sunnycrest Mall), MELOmania (

            As for the Bowen line up, opening the Fridge this year at the Tir-na-nOg theatre, at 7:30 on Friday the 26th will be “Fringe God” (seriously, that’s his nick-name!) TJ Dawe.  This year’s roaring success is Totem Figures. It’s a show about personal mythology; about the idea that we’re all the main character in our own epic adventure. It’s about having one’s own personal

            Following TJ, at 9:15pm will be Monster Theatre’s THE SHAKESPEARE SHOW Or; How an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World.  The next day, Ryan Gladstone will also present his Monster Mini Masterpieces at 2 pm.

            Saturday nights double bill offers up 2 solo shows by women.  Last year, Cara Yeates performed Bye Bye Bombay to a sold out and appreciative audience at Tir-na-nOg.  She is returning this year on Saturday the 27th at 7:30 pm, with a new show (a world premiere) titled Some Reckless Abandon. Determined to ditch her prairie hometown, she spitefully signs up for Teenage Jesus Summer Camp in

            Following Cara, at 9pm, will be Elison Zasko’s The Sputniks. It is about a Jewish family of Soviet intelligentsia who escape the Iron Curtain. Bound to homeless travel, they play chess, eat soup, and bravely carry their tragedies deep inside their suitcases.

The Hour Magazine in

            Tickets for Bowen’s shows can also be purchase online at www.bowenboxoffice.com or in person at

Get out of the deep freeze…come to the Fridge!

            There’s no cover, there’s no commitment, but there’s lots of talent. On Thursday September 25^th the Bowen Island Pub will be hosting the Pub-previews. This is a pre-fest.event that all the Fringe Festivals do right before they open. Of course, we do not have a fringe festival here and The Bowen Island FRIDGE Theatre Festival is in no way associated with the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals.  This year, Jem Rolls will be taking on the roll of emcee.  He’ll offer a few of his own masterpieces between the other performer’s previews.  It’s free and the show starts at 8pm.

            Opening the Fridge this year at the Tir-na-nOg theatre, at 7:30 on Friday the 26th will be “Fringe God” (seriously, that’s his nick-name!) TJ Dawe.  (The Slip Knot, Maxim and Cosmo.) This year’s roaring success is Totem Figures. It’s a show about personal mythology; about the idea that we’re all the main character in our own epic adventure. TJ exemplifies it with his own mythology by using the people, both real and fictional, who inspire him.  There’s George Carlin, guitar master John Fahey, poet Charles Bukowski, Bilbo Baggins, Luke Skywalker and the rabbits of Watership Down.

            Following TJ, at 9:15pm on Friday, will be Monster Theatre’s THE SHAKESPEARE SHOW Or; How an illiterate son of a Glover became the Greatest Playwright in the World.  Ryan Gladstone’s shows (The Canada Show, Confessions of a Class Clown, Napoleon’s Secret Diary.) are always sure to make you bust a gut and this one is garnering incredible review! It’s an “all ages” show…he says “If the kids get it, it’s not my fault! The next day, Ryan will present another show. Monster Mini Masterpieces will begin at 2 pm.  It’s recommended for kids 3 and up and includes adaptations of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.

            Saturday night’s double bill offers 2 solo shows by women. Cara Yeates, (of Bye Bye Bombay) is returning this year on Saturday the 27th at 7:30 pm, with a new show titled Some Reckless Abandon. Determined to ditch her prairie hometown, she spitefully signs up for Teenage Jesus Summer Camp in

            Following Cara, at 9pm, will be Elison Zasko’s The Sputniks. It is about a Jewish family of Soviet intelligentsia who escape the Iron Curtain. The Hour Magazine in

            Tickets for Bowen’s shows can also be purchase online at www.bowenboxoffice.com or in person at

Feeling the squeeze

Touring a play across the country can be a hard and lonely slog, even for ‘a godlike figure’ on the Fringe circuit, Marsha Lederman writes

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MARSHA LEDERMAN

From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail

September 3, 2008 at 3:28 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — The Fringe Festival wasn’t high on T.J. Dawe’s career radar when he was studying to become an actor at the University of Victoria in the 1990s. But when the self-described infrequently cast theatre student landed a part in a Fringe production of the Daniel MacIvor play Never Swim Alone in 1994, he headed off on a tour that would not only change his life, but would also have a significant impact on the Canadian Fringe scene.

Dawe, 34, has become a Fringe Festival mainstay - having written, directed and/or starred in more than 20 Fringe productions over the past decade. This season alone, he has six different shows appearing at various festivals across the country. His shows create buzz, win raves and sell out.

But his return to the Vancouver Fringe in his hometown this week marks the end of an era. Dawe has decided to slow down his Fringe-ing and concentrate on other artistic endeavours.

Walking away from the Fringe is not easy for someone who has become a Fringe celebrity (if that’s not too much of an oxymoron). But Dawe does it knowing that he has been the new guy on the scene before, and managed to excel.

Enlarge ImageRecalling his first Fringe tour in 1994, T.J. Dawe says he made ‘about 4 cents an hour.’ (Arnold Lim for The Globe and Mail)

Not that it happened immediately. That first Fringe tour in 1994 was a tough slog and it took the four-person cast and crew to the very end of the season to pay off their production debt. They walked away, after the entire summer, with about $400 each.

“That averages out to about four cents an hour,” Dawe said last week from the Victoria Fringe Festival. “But at the same time, I discovered the cities of the Fringe circuit and [that] these adventuring artists were doing their own things their own way.”

Dawe, whose only ambition initially had been to act, began writing his own one-person plays, and in 1998 took Tired Clichés - about the culture shock recent university graduates experience as they enter the real world - onto the Fringe circuit.

“I had unrealistic expectations that it was going to be a fabulous success and I was going to be a big star and the world would bow down to my feet,” he says. “It didn’t end up being like that.”

Not by a long shot. In the middle of the tour, Dawe, ill with mononucleosis, emptied his bank account and flew home to Vancouver, crashing on his parents’ couch. After about two weeks, he felt well enough to resume the tour in Kelowna. Two shows in, as he was about to go on, his stage manager informed him that there was a grand total of six people in the audience.

“My initial thought was, … ‘What am I doing here? What’s the point?’ But of course I went out and did the show because those six people deserved to see the show,” Dawe says.

“And I remember this point, about halfway through, where it suddenly occurred to me that I was enjoying myself immensely and that the show was coming across and was working even though there were only six people there.

“And I just realized that that moment was more than worth everything I’d done to get there and everything I’d have to do to get back [on track] … and the next year those six people would be back and they’d probably bring friends.”

In fact, Dawe didn’t have to wait a whole year to fill the seats. Two stops later, in Vancouver - two shows in once again - he arrived at the venue to find a lineup down the block. He assumed, at first, that it was for the show preceding his. Then he looked at his watch and realized the hordes were there to see him.

The juxtaposition of those two experiences - but in particular the feeling he had playing to the audience of six - has stayed with him over the past decade.

“I was often playing to less than 10 people, but the show always felt good. And that’s what buoyed me up through the poverty and the struggle.”

Dawe now makes a “good living” from his Fringe activities. His biggest theatrical success as playwright/star to date is The Slip-Knot - an autobiographical one-man show about juggling three menial jobs (dumpster delivery person, drugstore stock boy, lost-parcel tracker).

Like several of his Fringe endeavours, the play has graduated into a beyond-the-Fringe run. And in a twist that could be described as poetic, the success of The Slip-Knot allowed Dawe to quit all of his positions and live day-job-free.

“I live in a pretty privileged position. How many Canadian playwrights make a living off of it without teaching? I’m probably part of a very short list.”

More recently, Dawe scored a big hit with Dishpig, a collaboration with fellow Vancouverite Greg Landucci. The one-man show stars Landucci as a dishwasher struggling with life at the bottom of the hospitality industry totem pole. The play has been hugely popular - selling out show after show last year.

Landucci, a substitute teacher and a first-time Fringe participant with Dishpig, knows that hooking up with Dawe (with whom he has a mutual friend) was the luckiest of breaks.

“I don’t think I really appreciated T.J. and his power on the Fringe before I actually went to Winnipeg for my first Fringe and realized that in fact he was somewhat of a godlike figure,” Landucci, 34, said last week from the Edmonton Fringe.

“Eventually I took it a little bit for granted, I think. I thought, ‘Wow this Fringe life is pretty simple; you just work with T.J. Dawe.’ ”

Not wanting to rest on their laurels, Dawe and Landucci collaborated on a new show for this season.

Mr. Fox examines the life of a rock radio station mascot - specifically the mascot for CFOX in Vancouver, a position Landucci once held.

This time, Landucci took the lead in writing the show (he also stars) and Dawe, as director, acted as dramaturge - cutting a 70,000-word script that contained, Landucci admits, “a lot of crap” and shaping it into a workable piece of theatre.

“I’ve learned pretty much everything I know about writing from T.J.,” he says.

Mr. Fox has not been the unqualified hit that Dishpig was, but it’s another important step in Landucci’s Fringe career, which he plans to pursue from a new home base in Toronto.

For Dawe, though, it’s time to leave the nest - at least partly. The Fringe has become familiar and comfortable ground and he believes that in order to continue to grow as an artist, he needs to move on.

He has a number of non-Fringe projects in the works - some stemming from his current show Totem Figures (an autobiographical exploration of the artistic and non-artistic influences that shape a person).

He might make an appearance at the Fringe next year, but not for a full tour. It’s time for something else.

“When I looked at who all my heroes were … they were all people who left the known smaller world and went out into the big unknown world.” He adds: “Even if it terrified them.”

The Vancouver International Fringe Festival kicks off tonight and runs through Sept. 14 (Pick of the Fringe Sept. 18-21); vancouverfringe.com.

          Once again, Gail Lotenberg has succeeded in building bridges between dance and the public. Gail wondered what would happen when six dancers and six ecologists explored the concerns and passions of behavioral ecology through the medium of dance?  The result of her explorations is a new show called Somatic Scientific .  It’s a highly innovative double-bill performance that premieres at 8pm on May 2 & 3 at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver. (The show does end in time to catch the last ferry back.)
         

          First up is a piece entitled Reef or Madness by BUTOH-a-GO-GO, which depicts ecosystem complexity through the Japanese dance art of Butoh. Two exquisite dancers, who have performed their own creations as far away as the Moscow Ballet’s Festival of Contemporary Dance with their own creations, delve into realms microscopic and cosmic in Reefer Madness, to lead the audience into a rich, imagistic world.
   

          Symbiotic, Gail’s piece is second on the program.  It features dancers and scientists performing side by side as they seek to pool their resources, discover their humanity and promote change for coral reefs.  Gail’s boundless curiosity and a refined intellect help her to make a strong impact through dance that leaves you thinking about the material long after the curtain has closed. These are some of the attributes that led to recent national attention for her Breakfast Dances—a show that Maragold Productions presented on the rock only one month ago.
           

          Somatic Scientific is a major, new creative project bringing together two fantastic dance companies and a group of world-renowned scientists to explore the meeting place between “the two solitudes” of arts and science. In commenting on the project, the scientists explain that they rediscovered through this collaboration that like the professional dancers they are artists of a sort. They learned that well-conceived research is a thing of beauty, and elegantly performed studies open the heart to the splendors of nature that surround and inspire them. They’ve shared with the dancers the pain, the emotion and the tears evoked by what we are doing to our planet. The show proves how Scientists can be as inspiring as dancers when they recognize and celebrate their passion to preserve, conserve, and protect the environment.

          An educated public is needed to convince governments to take the actions necessary to protect this beautiful world in which we live. The world’s coral reefs, like all her ecosystems, are under grave threat from pollution, climate change and over-harvesting of resources. Through this collaboration, and the public performance of the resulting works, Gail hopes to bring this to the attention of a new audience. As one of the ecologists state, “We have learned that scientists only limit ourselves. There is no boundary between art and science, only self-imposed barriers that separate numbers and emotions. They need not be two solitudes. Feel the beat, move the body, celebrate the glory as our two worlds entwine.”

          For tickets call the Kay Meek centre box office at 604-913-3634 or order online through MaraGolds’ www.bowenboxoffice.com For more information about LINK Dance go to their web site at www.linkdance.ca

From 1929 until 1979 Evergreen Hall was the primary meeting place on Bowen.  It was originally the dance hall for the Union Steamships and it’s tradition as a gathering place for dances, plays, Bowfests and craft fairs continued for many decades. Martin Clarke remembers the year that Theatre On The Isle produced A Midsummer’s Night Dream there, and 131 people sat and enjoyed it.  That was 40% of the Islands population back then!  “It was built as a clubhouse and even after the Union Steamships sold it, it was provided to the community for public assembly of all sorts.” Said Liz Fincham who until recently owned the Hall. 

“Historically, Evergreen Hall used to be the centre of Island life” said Dan Parker, who owns The Lodge at The Old Dorm, next door.   Sadly, that won’t be the case next weekend. Despite my best efforts to bring Evergreen Hall back to its roots, the MaraGold Theatre production of Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles Soeurs will not be performed at Evergreen Hall, but at Cates Hill Chapel opening tonight (Friday, April 11th) at 8pm and running tomorrow and Sunday nights as well as at 2:00 on Sunday.  Please note the matinee time change! (Thank you so much Cates Chapel folks for all your speedy help!)

Unfortunately, Chris Buchanan, our by-law officer, had a complaint from a council member about the production.  Lisa Barrett, another council member and actress in the production said “If we don’t have a Community Arts Centre, we, as councilors, need to do all we can to support culture in our community.”  “That’s the reason why people like you (Mara) give up”, said long time Bowen

When Chris receives a complaint he must follow up with an investigation. He discovered that the Hall isn’t zoned in a way that can allow the performances to occur without the renter (me) filling papers and paying fees, or the new owner, the wonderful Maureen Armstrong, paying high fees and putting up signs all at her expense.  You would think that it would have been grand-fathered to have proper zoning a long time ago but when Liz Fincham tried to have it re-designated, it lost by one vote at council. Chris was very generous in allowing Les Belles Soeurs to continue anyway as long as I placed 2 parking attendants directing traffic and one parking cars at the Library.  However, once the ball got rolling on all the crossing of T-s and dotting of I-s, the attendance allowances kept dropping, and finally, with the audience capped at 45, the production would have lost a ton of money and the Hall would have felt half-full, which doesn’t make for a good theatre experience.

Anyway, I wanted to help Maureen reconnect Evergreen Hall to the Arts community but I was too overcome with the bureaucracy of modern regulations. If she decides to invite other events in, it may require extra paperwork and renovations.  These increased costs would have to be incorporated into the rental fees, thus pricing the hall out if reach for most of the Arts community. Evergreen Hall could have been a rare venue on Bowen-one without content restrictions or script approval processes.  Most of Bowens current rentable venues are member-driven and have guidelines in place that comply with their members’ wishes and beliefs.  Although that is perfectly understandable, it does restrict the script choices that I can make.  Oh well, it all comes down to that tired old refrain…”We need a theatre.”    

The ensemble from Les Belles Soeurs shown from back to front: Roberta Hardie, Lisa Barrett, Laurel Bailey, Cathy Gagner, Colleen O’Neil, Tina Neilsen, Judith Maclaren, Rosie Montgomery, Heather Hodson, Georgia Beaty, Jackie Minns, Nina Hughes, Gil Yaron (Director), Mara Brenner, Katalina Bernard and Stephanie Leotopolis. (Absent: Andrea Kauffman.)