A young New Westminster performer is taking to the stage in a new production at the Orpheum Annex.
Twelve-year-old Izabel Pearce plays The Girl in Reality Curve Theatre’s production of The Pillowman, onstage Sept. 27 to Oct. 26. The play by Martin McDonagh centres on a writer in a totalitarian state who is being interrogated about his gruesome short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. It stars Bob Frazer, Anthony F. Ingram, Paul Piaskowski and Paul Anthony.
“It’s such a great opportunity to work with such amazingly talented cast and crew,” Izabel said in an email. “I get the opportunity to expand my talents and work on stage as well as set. The experience will be magical.”
Izabel is no stranger to the world of performing. She started acting shortly after she moved to New West from the U.K. at age eight. Her first role was playing Blake Lively’s daughter in the movie The Age of Adaline; last year, she finished filming the movie Parallel, which will be out next year. She has also appeared in several independent and short films and has several nominations and an ensemble win in the local Joey Awards.
She’s also a trained dancer – she’s currently enrolled in the Pacific Dance Arts half-day ballet program and is a member of the professional hip-hop team OTW Crew.
With all that, she also manages to find time for school; she studies with Hume Park Home Learners in New West.
If you’d like to catch her onstage in The Pillowman, there’s a $5 preview night on Sept. 27, and opening night is Thursday, Sept. 28. The Annex is at 823 Seymour St.
Check out www.realitycurve.com for all the information and tickets.
POWER AND PRIVILEGE
A New Westminster actor is onstage in the Canadian premiere of the British play Posh.
Posh, by playwright Laura Wade, takes the audience behind the scenes of a meeting of The Riot Club, an elite and secret dinner society made up of 10 of the “brightest, boldest and best” students at Oxford in present-day England. New West’s Cole Howard appears in their ranks as Toby.
Needless to say, the play doesn’t present a particularly flattering view of the privileged and powerful – and director Allyson Fournier is excited to be part of this staging by Fighting Chance Productions.
“Posh is fantastically written, wickedly funny, and gut-wrenchingly shocking,” she says in a press release. “I’m delighted to bring this piece to North America in our current climate; it’s never been so poignant and timely as it is now.”
Posh is onstage at the PAL Theatre (581 Cardero St., Vancouver) until Sept. 29. Evening shows run Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with one Sunday matinee on Sept. 24 at 2 p.m.
Tickets start at $15. See www.fightingchanceproductions.ca.
ART AT AMELIA
Art lovers, be sure to drop by the Amelia Douglas Gallery to check out the latest exhibition.
Inhabited Lives opens tonight (Sept. 14) and runs until Oct. 21 at the gallery, featuring the human and animal portraiture of Shannon Harvey.
“The title Inhabited Lives reflects my desire to look deeply into our everyday experiences, to discover within them profound moments of reflection, insight and beauty,” the artist says in a write-up about the exhibition. “This body of work addresses themes around our relationship to place, to each other, and to the natural world on which we depend.”
The Amelia Douglas Gallery is on the fourth floor north at Douglas College, 700 Royal Ave. It’s open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed Sunday).
An opening reception is set for Thursday, Sept. 14 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., with live music and refreshments. An artist’s talk will be held on Saturday, Sept. 16 at 3:30 p.m. in the gallery.
Check out www.tinyurl.com/AmeliaDouglasNW for details.
POETS LAUNCH NEW BOOK
A local poet is launching a new collection of poetry with a special event in New West on Sept. 28.
Celeste Snowber, a member of the Royal City Literary Arts Society and an associate professor at Simon Fraser University, teamed up with Charlottetown poet Sean Wiebe on Blue Waiting – exploring many issues facing the coasts from both a male and female perspective.
Snowber will hold a launch gathering on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Old Crow Coffee, 655 Front St. – with special guest bassist Jodi Proznick.
See www.acornpresscanada.com for more on the book.
MONDAY MOVIES
Film fans, rejoice: Last Mondays at the Movies is back.
The Arts Council of New Westminster’s movie series kicks off for the season on Monday, Sept. 25 with a Screening of Ritesh Batra’s The Sense of an Ending. The movie, based on the 2011 Booker Prize-winning novel by Julian Barnes, stars Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling.
Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. screening. Tickets are $9 general admission, or $8 for seniors and students, or you can buy a season’s pass for the 2017/18 movie season for $65 ($60 for students and seniors).
Buy tickets in advance through www.ticketsnw.ca or pay cash at the door.
See www.artscouncilnewwest.org/movies for all the details.
ARTS AT ONE
Music lovers need look no farther than Douglas College to find a wonderful lineup of concerts – and the best part of it all is, they’re free.
The Arts at One concert series has returned for the fall, and audiences can enjoy free concerts every Thursday at 1 p.m. in the college’s Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre.
The fall lineup features a wide range of instrumental and vocal music.
On Sept. 21, it’s a concert by Douglas College music alumni. On Sept. 28, you can enjoy Trio Café, with music by Holbrooke, Ewazen and Brahms featuring Jenny Essers on violin, Brian G’froerer on French Horn and Martha Brickman on piano.
Soprano Lambroula Pappas and pianist Matthew Ma team up for Sixty Minutes Around the World on Oct. 5, while Oct. 12 will feature Aram Bajakian’s Kef, with Armenian dance music combining traditional and Western influences – featuring Bajakian on guitars, Josh Zubot on violin and James Meger on bass.
The Vince Mai Quintet appears on Oct. 19, with Mai on trumpet and flugelhorn, Miles Black on piano, Miles Hill on acoustic bass, Daryl Jahnke on guitar and Dave Robbins on drums.
On Oct. 26, it’s Echoes from the East, featuring Sunny Matharu on table and Sharnjeet Singh Mand on sitar.
The theatre is on the fourth floor north at the college’s campus at 700 Royal Ave. See www.douglascollege.ca/artsevents for the full schedule.
OPERA SEASON BECKONS
New Westminster residents will be part of the spectacle when Vancouver Opera opens its 2017/18 season.
The season opens with Puccini’s Turandot, running Oct. 13 to 21 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
New Westminster singers Kevin Armstrong (tenor) and Jeanine Fynn (mezzo-soprano) are part of the chorus for the occasion, and Phillip Crewe is in the orchestra, on timpani.
Turandot stars American soprano Amber Wagner, Argentine tenor Marcelo Puente, and French-Canadian bass Alain Coulombe. The production has been created by the Quebecois director-designer duo of Renaud Doucet and André Barbe.
It’s on Friday, Oct. 13, Thursday, Oct. 19 and Saturday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 15.
See www.vancouveropera.ca for details and tickets.
Do you have an item for Lively City? Send arts and entertainment ideas to Julie, [email protected], or find her on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
