Go to Workshop Plays

Mainstage at The Port Theatre:
Friday, July 5^th at 7:30 pm - North Island Zone (Warning: Completely concerned with sex)
Don Juan in Chicago by David Ives, presented by Nanaimo Theatre Group

Don Juan, a rich, handsome and sexually naïve nobleman in Sixteenth century Spain is encouraged by his servant Leporello to find a girlfriend and lead a normal life instead of his incessant searching for the meaning of life. Afraid he won't live long enough to complete his studies, Don cuts a deal with the devil that grants him immortality ... in return he must seduce a different woman every day. Donna Elvira, his one true love, is the first but she vows to sleep with him one more time. Four hundred years later, exhausted by endless sex and still pursued by Elvira, Don Juan and Leporella grapple with the sexual mores of the 20th century aided by Sandy, a woman of wide and wild sexual experience.

Saturday, July 6^th at 7:30 pm - Okanagan Zone (Warning: Course Language / Adult Subject Matter)
Risk Everything by George F. Walker, presented by Asparagus Theatre, (Armstrong)

This is one of six plays in George F. Walker's award-winning Suburban Motel series. All take place in the same motel room on the outskirts of a large urban area. Here we have Carol, selfishly pursuing her passion for gambling and men. Her daughter Denise, an ex-junkie, and her ex-con husband, R.J., are trying hard to live within the boundaries set for them by social services and respectable society so they can get their child back. Mom finds she needs help with her current business deal and not only involves Denise and R.J. in her risky venture, but she manages to seduce the porn director from the room next door to aid her in her time of trouble.

Sunday, July 7^th at 1:00 pm - Fraser Valley Zone
This Above All by Diane Martin, presented by The Smilin' Armadillies (Maple Ridge)

"She is a woman, and a painter, and it is the 1920s. Her gender means her accomplishments are not taken seriously, and she finds herself drawn to a man who represents the very establishment she is railing against: Lawren Harris, member of Canada’s influential and powerful Group of Seven. The problem? He is a man, she is a woman, and they are both stubborn, temperamental artists who find it easier to express themselves through their painting than to say what is really on their minds, face to face, to each other."

-Erin McKay, Langley Advance News

This play was the Full-Length Category winning script in Theatre BC's 12^th Annual (2000) Canadian National Playwriting Competition and was featured at Theatre BC's New Play Festival in Kamloops in April 2001.
"It is exciting to witness a new play in it’s very beginning," commented (Zone Festival) adjudicator Martin Kinch, "it is a true gift, not only to the audience, but to the playwright when a group chooses to do a new play."…this show is rich with Canadiana. It is not only entertaining because of it’s interesting characters, but is educational as it shows a time when a Canadian art movement was having an impact on the world."

Sunday, July 7^th at 8:00 pm - South Island Zone
The Wild Guys by Andrew Wreggitt and Rebecca Shaw, presented by Kaatza Lakeside Players (Lake Cowichan)

When four men set off to find an isolated cabin in the forest on a "wildman" weekend, à la Robert Bly, everything that can go wrong, does! Andy, a men's movement advocate, and Robin, a crystal-gazing New Ager, coax Stewart, an unsuspecting grocer, and Randall, a skeptical, city lawyer, into reluctantly participating in male-bonding ceremonies and communal hugs - The result? Hockey cheers and Neil Young singalongs!

"The Wild Guys pokes gentle fun at the men's movement, self-help groups and human pretensions of all kinds…" - Vancouver Sun. The full-length version premiered at The Arts Club in Vancouver in May 1993.

Monday, July 8^th at 7:30 pm - Greater Vancouver Zone
Psychopathia Sexualis by John Patrick Shanley, presented by White Rock Players

This play is a wicked satire on our perceptions of normality. Arthur, a young painter, is about to marry Lucille, a beautiful Texan. Unfortunately, Arthur has a small problem - he cannot make love without his father's argyle socks. Even worse, his "evil" psychiatrist, Dr. Block, has stolen the crucial hosiery in a last-ditch attempt to cure him of his fetish. In desperation, Arthur turns to his best friend, Howard, who is an expert in the field of psychoanalysis. Or believes himself to be an expert, at least. Dr. Block turns out to be quite a formidable opponent who stands no nonsense from someone like Howard. It then falls to Lucille to retrieve the footwear, guided by Howard's wife Ellie, who is also a force to be reckoned with.

Tuesday, July 9^th at 7:30 pm - Peace River Zone
Seascape by Edward Albee, presented by Stage North Theatre Society (Fort St. John).

As the play opens, we discover Charlie and Nancy relaxing on the beach after a picnic lunch. A long-married couple on the verge of old-age, they begin to discuss their expectations for the future. Just as they have reached what seems like a state of impasse, the extraordinary comes to them in the form of Leslie and Sarah, a pair of human-shaped, talking lizards that climb up onto the dune to explore an unknown world. Dignity, jealousy, arms, legs and breasts are some of the things they share ….. or do they?

Wednesday, July 10^th at 1:00 pm - Kootenay Zone (Warning: Course Language / Adult Subject Matter)
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by John Patrick Shanley, presented by Footlighters, Creston

Danny and Roberta meet in a deserted Bronx bar, running from their separate demons. Danny may have let his staggering rage kill a man, while Roberta is carrying a horrifying secret that may explode from her chest like something out of Alien. These two condemned souls first prod and poke each other to test the others resilience, then intricately embrace like two deadly-quilled porcupines in an attempt to discover the beautiful in their wretched lives. Lost in this production is the tangible fear that either may haul out and kill the other without warning, especially on Roberta's side, but there's still plenty of tension to go around.

Shanley, who also wrote Monday night's play "Psychopathia Sexualis", is best known for his film, Moonstruck.

Wednesday, July 10^th at 8:00 pm - Skeena Zone
Someday by Drew Hayden Taylor, presented by Skeena River Players, Terrace

The setting of the play is a fictional Ojibway community, but could be any reserve in Canada, where thousands of Native children were removed from their families in what is known among Native people as the "scoop-up" of the 1950s and 1960s. "Someday" is an entertaining, humorous, and spirited play that packs an intense emotional wallop.

Skeena River Players was created in 2000 by a group of First Nations and non-Native people, including Theatre BC Board Members, Marianne Brorup Weston and Alan Weston, to develop Aboriginal Theatre in Northwest BC and to training young people and educating the community at large about the diverse and theatrical First Nations culture.

Thursday, July 11^th at 7:30 pm - North Shore Zone (Warning: Adult Subject Matter)
Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, presented by North Vancouver Community Players

Breaking the Code is a biographical play based on the life of Alan Turing, so-called father of the computer – a brilliant young man who, during the war, helped to break the German submarine Enigma code. The play deals with his personality, his love of mathematics and his homosexuality. The power of the play lies in its ability to compare the beauty and perfection of mathematics, which Turing so admires, with his own human imperfections. Breaking the Code is set on June 7, 1954 in Wilmslow, Cheshire, England and visits years prior. It contains adult subject matter. See web site: www.turing.org.uk/turing.

Friday, July 12^th at 7:30 pm - Central Interior Zone
The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, presented by Prince George Theatre Workshop.

Harold Pinter became universally acknowledged as one of the outstanding playwrights of the 20^th century with his play, The Caretaker, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play in 1960.

An old bum receives shelter in a cluttered room of an abandoned house. He hates foreigners, trusts no one and fears everyone. Aston, the Samaritan, lives in personal and emotional isolation, tinkering with gadgets and dreaming of building a shed out in the yard. Mick, his younger brother, carries on like a man of affairs, inhabiting a dream world that resembles an extrovert's nightmares. Each offers Davies, the bum, the job as caretaker of the premises. This striking drama earned Harold Pinter a place in the front rank of contemporary playwrights. It is a "powerful drama with a climax that tears at the heart." - N.Y. Times

Saturday, July 13^th 5:30 pm - 1:00 am SOLD OUT!!!
Final Night Awards Ceremony and Banquet
Coast Bastion Inn

WORKSHOP PLAYS
Bay Theatres (91 Chapel Street)
Note: All tickets $5.00 at the door on a first come, first served basis (no charge for package registrants)

Three plays have been selected / invited from the Zone Festivals around the province to participate in the Workshop Plays series. Each production is given a first performance "as is", then works with a professional instructor over the next day and a half and before presenting a second performance of the "re-worked" show.

There are two series planned. The first sessions will run Saturday, Sunday and Monday, while the second series is scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Stages are being constructed at the former twin cinemas at the Bay Theatres (thanks to Avalon Cinemas, Woodgrove Centre), so that two shows can be working concurrently. Performance times are 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm on Saturday, Monday, and 3:30 pm Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Saturday, July 6 through Monday, July 8 sessions:

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (Curtain at 1:30 pm Saturday and Monday)
Presented by Rivercity Players of Campbell River (North Island Zone)

This renowned story by one of America's most revered playwrights, revolves around Willy Loman, a failing salesman, who cannot understand how he failed to win success and happiness in his quest for the "American Dream". Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the 1949 Tony for Best Play.

Daughters by John Morgan Evans (Curtain at 3:30 pm Saturday and Monday)
Presented by Peninsula Players of Sidney (South Island Zone)

In this beautifully-written play, four generations of Italian-American women gather in the kitchen of the DiAngelo's Brooklyn home to deal with life, death, and cannelloni, while the dying family patriarch is in the bedrrom listening to Caruso records. Warm and funny, Daughters is one of the best-written family plays of the last few years, with five incredibly rich and clever roles for women.

Tuesday, July 9 through Thursday, July 11 session:

The Affections of May by Norm Foster (Curtain tentatively set for 1:30 pm Tuesday and Thursday)
Presented by Langley Players (Fraser Valley Zone)

This is a romantic comedy about a city woman who, after being deserted by her husband in a small town, finds herself struggling to keep her head above water, while fending off a couple of local men vying for her affections.

...and why not check out the daily street performances at the Harbourfront Plaza...free shows for lunch

Tickets for the Competitive Mainstage Performances will be on sale at the Port Theatre Box Office
Phone 250-754-8550 (credit card sales)
Tickets for the Workshop Plays at The Bay Theatres will be sold at the door
on a first come, first served basis, $5 each.