welcome

JANUARY 2025 | VOLUME 247

 

JAN 13-26

Winter 2025 Season Kickoff

The winter season kicks off in earnest with shows from the Firehall, United Players, the Arts Club, Metro Theatre and the PuSh Festival. I’m thrilled to be in the cast of one of the most fascinating and challenging plays of the new year, Florian Zeller’s The Height of the Storm, produced by United Players at Jericho Arts Centre. This is the same playwright/screenwriter who wrote (and won an Oscar for) The Father, the movie for which Anthony Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Like that movie, this play tackles difficult material in complicated ways. I’m excited. And terrified.

See our On Now page for everything running through late January. Be sure to look for the BUY TICKETS buttons. And plot your theatregoing into late February with the offerings on our Coming Soon page.

Theatre lovers, theatre students, theatre historians and casual readers are invited to browse our ARCHIVES pages. Read 1000+ reviews of what you may have seen or missed over the past two decades of Vancouver-area theatre.

Important Note: The BUY TICKETS Button on our PREVIEW and REVIEW pages is strictly a convenience for theatregoers. Click on the button and get direct access to the company’s box office for that show. Vancouverplays gets no cut or commission from your ticket purchase. 100% of the money goes directly to the theatre company.

Sad news: director Bobby Garcia died on Dec. 17. Bobby was best known locally for his work with the Arts Club, directing Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol and Million Dollar Quartet. Originally from the Philippines, he did his MFA in Directing at UBC and eventually made Vancouver his home. But he was well known across Asia as a producer and director of over 50 plays and musicals, including many international premieres. He did a series of concerts and TV specials for Lea Salonga, and worked with Cameron Mcintosh on Miss Saigon. Bobby was only 55. You can see him on a video posted by the Arts Club at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV1wGApiAVY.

Ruby Slippers Theatre in assoc. w/the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Playwrights Guild of Canada presents The Advance Theatre Festival: Advancing the Radically inclusive Stage. Staged readings of new works written and directed by female-identifying and gender-nonconforming artists who also identify as IBPOC. Jan. 27-31 at Shadbolt Centre, Burnaby, 7:30 pm. $15/show. Info, show listings and tickets at https://www.rubyslippers.ca/current-season/advance-theatre-festival-2025/

Richmond’s Gateway Theatre presents Silk Road Music: A Lunar New Year’s Celebration. Celebrate the lunar new year with this family-friendly show combining acoustic music and songs from Asian and non-Asian traditions. Feb. 1, 2 pm. $25. https://www.gatewaytheatre.com/events/2025-lny/

Ruby Slippers Theatre invites applications from female-identifying and gender non-conforming IBPOC playwrights and directors for its 2026 Advance Theatre Festival. Application deadline May 15, 2025. Details and guidelines at https://www.rubyslippers.ca/call-for-submissions.

The Yukon Digital Theatre Collective presents new audio plays and short films telling contemporary stories from Indigenous and Northern creators. Watch and/or listen at https://yukondigitaltheatrecollective.com/.

Theatre Replacement’s Panto Land &PantoTown summer camps are open for registration. Info and registration HERE.
GOTTA SING! GOTTA DANCE! intensive musical theatre summer camp is open for registration at https://jccgv.com/program-category/gotta-sing-gotta-dance/.

The Improv Centre is offering classes in improv at all levels. Info HERE.

Richmond’s Gateway Theatre Academy is offering acting and musical theatre classes for kids ages 6-7. https://gatewaytheatre.com/academy

Enjoy,

Jerry