Update: July 26, 2024
Join us for a staged reading of the latest draft of Valerie’s script, following an extensive development workshop with a full company of actors, designers, and cultural consultants in residence at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre.
Sunday, July 28, 2024
4:30pm PT
Staged Reading + Talkback
Livestreamed + In-Person: no admission charge
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
950 41st Avenue West
Jewish Community Centre, Vancouver
RSVP NOW!
Headlined by a fabulous and entirely BIPOC cast – David Geary, Donna Yamamoto*, Justin Neal, Kim Villagante, Lissa Neptuno*, Ray Koh, Ronin Wong*, Sarah Kelley*, Sunny (Daydream) Chen*, Yumi Ogawa* – the presentation may (or may not?!) also include a few design elements coming out of our about-to-begin Design Jam explorations with Anju Singh (composer/sound design), Cande Andrade (projection design), and Chengyan Boon (set/lighting design).
We invite you to come and witness a unique phase of our creative and collaborative process, and take advantage of the opportunity to pose questions to the playwright and other members of the company during the post-show talk-back. Our thanks to Ray Thunderchild* for his contributions as actor to the first few days of our workshop process!
Valerie Sing Turner* - Playwright/Director
April Starr Land* - Stage Manager
Jessica Schacht - Dramaturg
Paige Louter - Producer
Daryl Cloran - Directing Mentor
Xwechtaal (Dennis Joseph) - Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Elder/Cultural Consultant
Catherine Clement - Community Historian (Chinese Canadians during WWII)
Sherri Kajiwara - Director | Curator, Nikkei National Museum
Maiko Behr - Japanese Cultural Consultant
We are beyond grateful to Jessica Mann Gutteridge and Holly Karpuik, who have been unparalleled hosts during our residency at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre; and to Janice Beley for taking such good care of us during the text workshopping sessions at SFU Woodward's. We also want to thank the Canada Council and BC Arts Council, without whose funding support this workshop would not have been possible, as well as acknowledge Théâtre la Seizième for providing some gear and materials.
Synopsis: It’s 1988. A family gathers to discuss what to do about Esther, a Chinese-Canadian WWII veteran, as they can no longer ignore her growing dementia. She keeps talking to Victor, her beloved brother, whose death she blames on the Japanese when he served in the Pacific arena during World War II. Her husband George, an Indigenous WWII veteran, was Victor’s best friend; they had all joined up full of dreams and adventure. Their son, Gary, arrives with his white wife and their daughter Lucy. Things are already tense when estranged eldest daughter Nancy shows up with husband Ken and their two daughters – who have never met Esther and George because Ken is Japanese-Canadian and Esther refuses to acknowledge his existence. But the real fireworks begin when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announces his plan to apologize to the Japanese Canadians who were interned during WWII. In the Shadow of the Mountains ponders the true meaning of reconciliation when the weight of Canadian history threatens to tear us apart.
* The participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).
The livestream screening has been produced with the co-operation of the Union of B.C. Performers.
2022 Staged Reading: Advance Theatre Festival
Back row: June Fukumura, Angela Chu, Lauren Preissl, Sharon Crandall, Odessa Shuquaya
Front row: Donna Soares, Jordan Waunch, Ray Koh, Evan Adams, Raugi Yu
In the Shadow of the Mountains was curated as part of Ruby Slippers Theatre's 2022 Advance Theatre Festival at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (Burnaby, BC) on February 8th for a Studio Theatre and livestreamed reading.
Directed by Valerie Sing Turner, with dramaturgy by Debi Wong, the stage directions were read by Chris Gatchalian, who also moderated the post-show talkback. The audience was complimentary about the performances of the talented cast of 10 Indigenous and East Asian actors, and were even more impressed upon learning that the cast had only started rehearsals that morning!
With pandemic restrictions starting to ease, we are hoping to attract producing partners to support a longer and more robust workshop process that such a large ensemble piece requires, before moving on to a full production.
2019 Development Workshop + Staged Reading
Back row standing, L-R: Dennis Joseph, Jessica Schacht, Jessie Liang, Ronin Wong, Sharon Crandall, Jordan Waunch, Grace Le, Ray Thunderchild | Front row L-R: Shayna Virginillo, Valerie Sing Turner, Annabel Kershaw, Chris Lam, Lauren Preissl
Thursday, November 7, 2019 – 7:00pm
Produced by Visceral Visions
Presented by the Heart of the City Festival & Chinese Cultural Centre Museum + Archives
555 Columbia Street, Vancouver, BC
A company of 10 actors brought to life the latest script written by Artistic Producer Valerie Sing Turner, in collaboration with Dennis Joseph, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Cultural Consultant and composer, dramaturg Jessica Schacht, and producer Shanae Sodhi.
The 2019 development workshop + staged reading were made possible with funding from City of Vancouver and BC Arts Council, and support from SFU Woodward's.
2017 Development Workshop + Staged Reading
L-R: Diana Bang, Amanda Sum, Ronin Wong, Laara Ong, Mason Temple, Donna Wong-Juliani, Jay Brazeau, Valerie Sing Turner, Chelsea Rose Tucker, Jessica Heafey, John Cook.
A big thank-you to everyone who contributed to making our way-too-short development workshop plus the public reading on December 10, 2017, a success! In addition to our fabulous cast, we want to acknowledge dramaturg Lisa C. Ravensbergen; Squamish Nation cultural consultant Latash Nahanee; public reading co-presenter Granville Island Cultural Society; funders BC Arts Council and City of Vancouver; as well as intrepid supporters Sarah Garton Stanley, National Arts Centre (English Theatre), Tompkins Wozny LLP, Starbucks, and SFU Woodward's. Audience members commented on the power of the piece, which exposed disturbing pieces of BC history through the use of poetic language and the personal experiences of one family. The development process has given Valerie lots of ideas and inspiration for the next draft, so stay tuned!
National Arts Centre, English Theatre Collaboration - Visceral Visions
National Arts Centre, English Theatre 2016/17 Artist in Residence - Valerie Sing Turner
John Moffat + Larry Lillo Prize 2017 - Valerie Sing Turner
Visceral Visions gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Granville Island Cultural Society, National Arts Centre, City of Vancouver, and the BC Arts Council to this project.
October 24, 2015: WWII veteran and family friend, Victor Wong, with Valerie Sing Turner at the Chinese Canadian Military Museum's 70 Years Gala marking the end of World War II. Photographer credit: Doug Bing
