Breathe
Breathe: A new audio-visual installation in Development by Anju Singh and Sammy Chien.
Co-produced with Chimerik 似不像.
Did I Just Say That?
Dare to Dream aria from Did I Just Say That?, featuring mezzo soprano Emma Parkinson, soprano Sodam Lee, and pianist Perri Lo. Music video produced by re:Naissance Opera.
Read moreL-R: Soprano Eva Tavares as Cecilia, and Canadian-Asian Mezzo-Soprano Emma Parkinson as Gabriella in
Did I Just Say That?
In the Shadow of the Mountains
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.
Read moreCultureBrew.Art
CULTUREBREW.ART IS OPEN!
ARE YOU AN INDIGENOUS OR RACIALIZED ARTIST? CultureBrew.Art (CBA) welcomes creators, writers, performers, directors, filmmakers, composers, choreographers, and design/technical/production professionals who work in the performing, literary, and media arts, and who self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour). Join now to set up your artist profile by adding your artistic disciplines, marketable skills, portfolio items (audio, video, and images), and other information that will ensure that organizations and freelance producers (Engagers) can easily find you for opportunities, gigs, and other work. Once you’ve published your profile, you can browse the profiles of other BIPOC artists, and connect with them through our private and secure internal messaging system! Membership is only $25/year, with bursaries available upon request to those facing financial barriers.
You can also find opportunities, whether calls for artists, job positions, funding and award notices, and professional development listings, including CBA’s own free Chat & Chew series, a facilitated online BIPOC-only space that focuses on a different topic each month!
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR BIPOC ARTISTS? With hundreds of BIPOC artist profiles in CBA, and more Indigenous and racialized artists creating new profiles from across Canada, our very affordable subscription rates accommodate individuals and companies of all sizes, with a 15% discount for non-profits. So whether you’re an arts & culture organization, festival, school or post-secondary institution looking for guest artists or faculty, community or social service agency wanting artists to work with refugees, newcomers, or queer or non-binary youth of colour, advertising or government agency, media outlet or independent producer, a monthly or annual subscription provides access to robust database search capabilities, the ability to post unlimited opportunity listings on our site, and direct messaging to artists of interest.
If you’re not ready to subscribe, you can still post opportunities for a $25 fee per posting.
SIGN UP NOW!
ABOUT CULTUREBREW.ART
CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that promotes and fosters intersectional interculturalism throughout the literary, performing, and media arts sectors – and beyond! Its central feature is a national searchable database of Indigenous and racialized artists, to which theatres, dance and opera companies, film/TV casting directors, indie directors/producers, schools and post-secondary training programs, social service agencies, ad agencies, media outlets, and governmental agencies may access as subscribers.
A powerful tool for building a more inclusive arts sector that more authentically reflects Canada by promoting Indigenous and racialized artists, CBA aims to increase hiring opportunities for BIPOC artists, and foster intercultural connection, community, and artistic collaboration. CBA is searchable by gender, racial/ethnic heritage – Indigenous, African, East Asian, Latinx, South Asian, SWANA (SouthWest Asia/North Africa), mixed ethnic heritage – artistic disciplines, location, keyword, and other fields.
Based on input from accessibility testers as well as artist and engager feedback, we are constantly making improvements and updates to CultureBrew.Art to increase user-friendliness and accessibility, and improve ease of navigation.
Key members of our team include Co-Director & Creative Lead, Valerie Sing Turner, and Co-Director & Technical Lead, Anju Singh.
It's been said that farmers don't grow crops; they create the essential conditions for crops to grow. CBA will be a vital tool to break systemic divides, disrupt institutionalized structures, and create conditions under which BIPOC artists – and by extension, the wider Canadian arts ecology – can thrive. We are therefore grateful for support from:
