LUCKY NUMBER 13 (My hot picks for Vancouver Fringe Festival 2018)
Vancouver Fringe Festival is back on. Fringe, in my opinion, is an amazing platform for artists from different background, abilities, and experiences to experiment with unique ideas. It is at the Fringe that I launched my Career in theatre and it is at the Fringe I still continue to experiment with new ideas, concepts, and projects. It is at the Fringe where I think many new careers, voices and perspectives are expressed. And like every year picking the shows to watch is quite a task in itself. For me picking the shows to watch is a matter of personal tastes and perspectives.
As I scrolled through the program pages, I decided to come up with my own list of top picks for Fringe shows that looked interesting to me. I was aiming for picking 10 but then I landed up with 13. I wondered about the number 13. Number 13 is considered unlucky in most cultures but in India and certain parts of Asia - it is considered lucky. I consider it lucky but for me like most things - It is a matter of perspectives. And so I would like to call my List - Lucky Number 13.
It highlights:
Artists that I admire Omari Newton, David Bloom, Davey Calderon, Natalie Tin Yin Gan, Loretta Seto, Donna Yamamoto, Stephanie Wong, Mindy Parfitt, Anais West, Leanna Brodie and Jan Derbyshire
Companies I believe in Neworld Theatre, New(to)Town Collective, Frolicking Divas, VACT, Ruby Slippers Theatre, PTC
Programs that I like to Champion: Dramatic Works Series, Fringe New Play Prize, and Advance Theatre program - New Yorks by Diverse Women.
Topics that I find interesting and bold choices: Scientology, illegal Relationship, Palestinian Poets, Speed dating, Sperm Donors, Penis whispers, Elders, dying language, pregnancy and existential angst.
And of course - Shows and artists I know nothing about but that grabbed my attention in the program guide.
Hope you strongly like or dislike my picks! There is no room for the in-between. Be on the fringe, Be on the Edge, Be Bold with Lucky 13.
And if you are not on this list then it's not meant to exclude anyone. It's just a list. There are plenty of awesome shows out there.
I have my blind spots and break a leg friend! Enjoy!
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BLACKBIRD
Kestrel Solutions (Collective)
Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: David Harrower
Fifteen years ago Una and Ray had an illegal relationship. They haven’t seen each other since. Now she’s found him. What does she want? Blackbird is intensely intimate: the audience is in the room with the characters, or spies on video.
Director: Omari Newton
Designer: Stephanie Wong
Live Video: Jordan Lloyd Watkins
Performers: Stephanie Elgersma and David Bloom.
BIG QUEER FILIPINO KARAOKE NIGHT
Produced by Tender Container, Associate Producers Neworld Theatre and New(to)Town Collective
Vancouver, Canada
Playwright: Davey Calderon
newtotowncollective.com
Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! is a Clown-Drag-Karaoke Extravaganza, serving up Filipino-Canadian identity shenanigans, queer insights, family epiphanies, and soul gratifying karaoke! Inspired by Davey Calderon’s visit to his family’s ancestral land, the Philippines, this show is an interactive celebration of the intersections found in oneself.
PLEASE NOTE:This venue is 19+
Underrepresented artist: Written and performed by Davey Calderon (a queer POC who is of Filipino descent), directed Chris Lam (a queer Asian cis man whose ethnic background is Chinese), dramaturged by Dominique Wakeland (a Black gender fluid darling), and produced by Katie Sly (a white bisexual trans boi).
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SQUEEZE MY CANS
Squeeze My Cans
Studio City, USA
Playwright: Cathy Schenkelberg
squeezemycans.com
Told with masterful fluidity and hilarious jabs, this one woman show takes you on a roller coaster ride down the “rabbit hole” that is Scientology. Just under two decades and a million dollars, in 75 minutes Schenkelberg takes you on her journey as a 20-something looking for her place and purpose in the world. Hilarious, heartbreaking and redemptive.
Tampa Bay Times’ #2 of top 10 Tampa Bay shows of 2017
“Lets you experience for yourself how Scientology devours money ... and lives.” —Chicago Reader
“Heart-pumping and electrifying.” —Edge Media Network
“This implausible journey is very well-written and superbly performed with brilliantly executed back and forth dialogue.” —Buzz Center Stage
LIP SERVICE
Pulsive Party
Vancouver, Canada
Playwrights: Ashley Whitehead & Natalie Tin Yin Gan
ashleywhitehead.ca/tagged/pulsiveparty
Will you come? Maybe-a-labia.
They’re pink! They’re passionate! They’re practically perfect in every play. Through saucy song and aggressive choreography, this hilarious duo dives into cheeky vulva personas in search of acceptance of themselves and of each other.
The performance on September 7 is half-price!
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PRECIOUS LITTLE
star star theatre
Richmond, Canada
Playwright: Madeleine George
starstartheatre.com
Three women across three generations play 10 characters in this ensemble play about the connections we form when language fails us. A 42-year-old lesbian linguist gets unsettling news about her pregnancy. When the grad student she’s dating is no comfort, she turns to two unlikely sources: an elderly speaker of a dying language... and a gorilla at the zoo.
“A crisp, fast-moving, tough-minded but often comic play about love, language, memory, culture and commitment.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
RABBIT HOLE
Frolicking Divas
Burnaby, Canada
Playwright: David Lindsay-Abaire
instagram.com/frolickingdivastheatre
Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside-down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize.
“David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that’s not just a departure but a revelation—an intensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion, and searing honesty.” —Variety
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GAMETES (Reading)
Vancouver/Montréal, Canada
Presented as a dramatic reading as part of Advance Theatre Series
Playwright: Rébecca Déraspe (translated by Leanna Brodie)
Director: Leanna Brodie
www.leannabrodie.com/translator/#/gametes/
Acclaimed Québec writer Rébecca Déraspe tackles female friendship, self-fulfillment, and other stuff that shouldn’t be so damn funny, as Anne’s pregnancy threatens her relationship with her lifelong BFF. How do modern young women negotiate love, ambition, and reproduction? What lines can we never cross, even for a friend?
THE ONES WE LEAVE BEHIND (Reading)
Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre
Vancouver, Canada
Presented as a dramatic reading as part of Advance Theatre Series
Playwright: Loretta Seto
Director: Donna Yamamoto
vact.ca
From the writer of the smash hit Dirty Old Woman, comes a new play about the redemptive power of human connection. Abby Chung is tasked to locate next-of-kin for an elderly woman, who died without anyone to claim her. But in the process, Abby is forced to face the mystery of her own life—the truth about the father who walked out on her years ago.
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RUBBLE (Reading)
Toronto, Canada
Presented as a dramatic reading as part of Advance Theatre Series
Playwright: Suvendrini Lena
Director: Mindy Parfitt
Rubble is an exploration of family life under relentless siege in the Gaza Strip inspired by the works of Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.
SPEED DATING FOR SPERM DONORS (Reading)
Sandy Point, Canada
Presented as a dramatic reading as part of Advance Theatre Series
Playwright: Natalie Meisner
Director: Jan Derbyshire
nataliemeisner.com
Girl meets girl. Girl marries girl. They want to have babies… but they need a little help.
Helen calls Nova Scotia home and Paige is from the south of France. After meeting at an airport, they uproot their lives for one another, settle in Calgary, and decide to have a baby together. Thus begins the frustrating, complicated, and straining journey to find a biological father for their coveted future offspring. Speed Dating for Sperm Donors delivers humour, wit, and emotion through high stakes and rich characters that result in a delightfully heartwarming story.
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THE COCKWHISPERER...A LOVE STORY
Colette Kendall
Hamilton, Canada
Playwright: Colette Kendall
colettekendall.com
The story of one woman’s quest to find the love and penis of her dreams. A phallic journey both humorous and dark from three-time Canadian Comedy Award nominated, Colette Kendall, creator of Tippi Seagram’s Happy Hour and Who’s Afraid of Tippi Seagram?
“Get past title, because this show should not be missed.” —Theatre in London
***** “Her storytelling is self-deprecating, honest, painful, and hilarious all over the course of the hour.” —Edmonton Sun
POLY QUEER LOVE BALLAD
Anais West and Sara Vickruck
Vancouver, Canada
Playwrights: Anais West & Sara Vickruck
www.polyqueerloveballad.com
An intimate, edgy new musical, merging slam poetry with catchy pop-folk tunes. Nina, a polyamorous bisexual poet, meets Gabbie, a monogamous lesbian songwriter, at Cafe Deux Soleil. With two microphones, a loop pedal, and array of instruments, they struggle to reconcile their fierce mutual attraction with their opposing perspectives on love.
“Vickruck can belt a song, croon a song, and massage a song into existence—and she can act, too.” —Vancouver Courier (on Love Bomb)
“[Anais West has] got great comic timing and she is fearless about going to dark emotional places.” —the Georgia Straight (on Dry Land)
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SELF-ISH
Classy Little Bitch Productions
Burnaby, Canada
Playwright: Kuan Foo
SELF-ish follows Esther, a 35-year-old Korean-Canadian woman, examining herself in the face of a recent tragedy. Esther wakes up to the familiar tremor of existential angst ripple over her body like a pee shiver and takes us into her family dynamics, her crappy workplace and her present day angst.
**** “Kuan Foo’s script resonates especially for Asian-Canadian audience members. When Esther's tears finally come, Bang has no trouble digging deep, and in the intimate BMO Incubator, it’s hard not to feel those same emotions.” —NOW Magazine