January often feels like the quietest month of all, whether you’re listening to the silence between snowflakes (when we’re lucky enough to get them) or staring at your inbox wondering where all the emails went.
But within the bowels of Vancouver’s performance centers and stages, on cluttered desks and bookshelves, the arts scene is gearing up to get loud very quickly with the onset of a new year.
Here are seven arts-related events that have us counting down the minutes to 2015 for more than just the kiss at midnight.
All That Fall
For more than 50 years, no one has been allowed to stage this entertaining and deeply affecting Irish play about a woman going to meet her husband. At last the creator-imposed ban has been lifted and audiences in London and New York have been treated to the delight of seeing a radio play produced on the stage, and it’s now time for the first Canadian production. Presented by Blackbird Theatre Dec. 30-Jan. 24 at the Cultch.
PostSecret: The Show
Over half a billion visitors, a million anonymous postcards, and six best-selling books – Vancouver artists TJ Dawe, Kahlil Ashanti, and Justin Sudds have teamed up with Frank Warren, creator of one of the most-read blogs in the world, to bring to life the secrets of PostSecret.com. Making its Canadian premiere Jan. 20-Feb. 7 at the Firehall Arts Centre.
PuSh INT’L Performing Arts Festival
At the risk of sounding like Rob Brezsny, what better time to explore the unknown and unfamiliar than the new year? Pick up a PuSh program and read up on highlights like So Blue (dance), Séquence 8 (circus), Bullet Catch (magic), Fish Eyes (dance dramedy), and Tomboy Survival Guide (musical storytelling). Running Jan. 20-Feb. 8, various venues.
Betroffenheit
“A state of shock and bewilderment encompasses you in the wake of a disaster.” Two of Vancouver’s most celebrated companies, Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre, are hosting a workshop presentation of their exciting Toronto 2015 Pan Am co-commission, Betroffenheit. Jan. 28-30 at Progress Lab 1422 (limited tickets go on sale Jan. 12).
Miami City Ballet: Ballenchine
Miami City Ballet comes to Vancouver for the first time, performing three masterworks of George Ballenchine, representing different periods in the contemporary dance pioneer’s career. Presented by Ballet BC Feb. 19-21 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
Raincoast Chronicles 23
Coming to bookstores this March: Veteran magazine editor Peter A. Robson edits this 40th anniversary edition of Harbour Publishing’s classic anthology series Raincoast Chronicles, collecting some of Canada’s most iconic writers’ stories about disasters at sea, sasquatch sightings, and life on the BC coast.
Dubbed “the best musical of this century” by the New York Times, the impending début of nine-time Tony-award winning musical The Book of Mormon (from the creators of South Park) has the whole Lower Mainland buzzing. Presented by Broadway Across Canada April 7-12 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
