CONVERSATIONS WITH MY MOTHER - Oct. 9-25, 2014
First out of the gate from Oct. 9-25 is Conversations With My Mother that the Gateway’s artistic director Jovanni Sy calls, “A director play with tremendous heart.”
It revolves around what happens when your dead mom won’t give up her ghost.
After keeling over in her garden, family matriarch Hyacinth still roams the earth, despite the fact that she is very much dead.
And while Hyacinth tries to give up her ghost, her grown daughters struggle with their own midlife crises: Lily wants to go back to college despite being thrown a curveball, while workaholic Heather tries to schedule time for baby adoption.
Amid the comedy and chaos lurks a distant relative from the Other Side, pushing their buttons and nudging them to make peace with their lives.
A hilarious comedy by Alison Kelly (Mom’s the Word) and Stacey Kaser.
“This is a new play and a world premiere! …I’m really excited to work on this one because it’s a real woman’s story and it’s also a comedy, but it has real emotional depth to it. It’s going to be a great evening in the theatre,” said director Katrina Dunn.
HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY - Nov.12-22, 2014
Part documentary. Part memorial. All heart.That best describes How to Disappear Completely..
“It is magical; one of those shows that you never forget,” said Melanie Yeats, Operations and Client Services Manager. “It’s beautiful, funny and sad. I can’t wait to see it again!”
Gregarious raconteur and lighting designer, Itai Erdal (known as “the storyteller” among his friends) returned to Israel in 2000 after his mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
A film student at the time, Erdal packed up his gear and put full focus on his mom. Performing alongside the video footage he filmed during her last days, Erdal delivers a candid account of her life lessons and an illuminating experience in the theatre.
“ ...a compelling memorial made all the more interesting by the way Erdal takes his technical skills and works them into the narrative,” said the Vancouver Sun’s Peter Birnie.
“A show unlike anything you’ve seen. A unique reflection on art and life,” added Gateway’s artistic director Jovanni Sy.
CRAZY FOR YOU - Dec. 3-31, 2014
Want a toe-tapping good time. Who could ask for anything more?
1930s New York swings to life in this high-octane, tap dancing musical!
Bachelor Bobby Child begrudgingly works at the family bank while he plugs away at his theatre career, but after he’s forced to foreclose on a property in the middle of nowhere, Bobby finds that his love of theatre and the love of his life are waiting for him in the most unlikely of places.
In order to get both, he’ll have to pull a few tricks (and fake moustaches) from his theatrical back pocket!
Between the hijinx and hilarity, you’ll be humming along to famous songs like I Got Rhythm and Nice Work if You Can Get It.
The play won a Tony Award for Best Musical (1992), Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Broadway Musical (1992), Drama Desk Award for Best Musical (1992)
“I am so excited about this show!” said director Barbara Tomasic. “It has everything I love about musical theatre: tap dancing, showgirls, a love story, a farce, and it’s all set to Gershwin music – it’s going to be really fun!”
“A comic, tap-dancing extravaganza set to great Gershwin music. It’s almost like a love letter to the classic MGM and RKO musicals,” said Sy.
VALLEY SONG - Feb. 5-21, 2015
One generation clings to the past while another aches for the future in Valley Song.
In post-apartheid South Africa, in a valley where properties are still owned exclusively by white people, 76-year-old Abraam “Buks” Jonkers continues to till the land he will never own.
But while Buks loyally maintains the prized property of his past, his golden-voiced granddaughter, Veronica, can’t wait to star on Johannesburg stages.
When a potential new property owner arrives, both Buks and Veronica must decide if they will hold tight to their past or take a chance on the future.
A theatrical poem told by two actors, Valley Song brings timeless truths to life through the beautiful South African landscape.
“I saw Athol Fugard perform in this play 20 years ago in Toronto,” says the Gateway’s Sy who is also the play’s director. “It was one of the most memorable theatrical experiences of my life. Fugard is one of my playwriting heroes – an author with an extraordinary gift for storytelling and a ferocious passion for social justice. His writing helped change the course of his country. I can’t wait to share this play with you next February.
“A life-affirming masterpiece from one of the world’s greatest playwrights,” he added.
MISS CALEDONIA - March 4-15, 2015
Lights. Camera. Farm Girl.
It’s 1955 in rural Ontario and Peggy Ann Douglas is hitching her wagon to the pageant circuit in the hope it’ll steer her to the bright lights of a Hollywood movie set.
To tell the tale, Second City performer and Canadian Comedy Award winner Melody A. Johnson plays multiple characters across time and space in this tour-de-force acting feat.
A play packed with baton-twirling, song-belting, and some fantastic fiddler accompaniment by Alison Porter, this solo-show is for anyone who knows what it’s like to dream big and hustle to make it happen.pay money to hear Johnson read the phonebook...she really knows how to deliver the goods,” said The Toronto Star.
“This season I’m looking forward to seeing the brilliant Melody A. Johnson in Miss Caledonia because I can totally relate to a character who has big dreams that border on fantasy, and I appreciate a story that treats that kind of character with sympathy and humour the way this one does,” said Brendan Prost, Box Office Manager
“I would truly “Miss Caledonia takes the crown,” added NOW Magazine.
“Delightful fun. Melody Johnson is one of the most charming performers I’ve ever encountered,” said the Gateway’s Sy.
RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN - April 9-25, 2015
A new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical revue!
Creatively curating the classics are musical theatre prodigies, Patrick Street Productions – delivering the best singing from Vancouver’s brightest stars. These fresh faces and refreshing arrangements are tickling audiences with their exciting perspective on the R&H hits we all know and love.
“Rodgers and Hammerstein are considered the creators of the modern musical theatre. So when people come to the show, they’ll be treated to the best selection of some of the greatest music ever written,” said Peter Jorgensen, the production’s creator and director
“…many of the songs in Out of a Dream offer such an intoxicatingly pure combinations of music and emotion that just typing theuir titles gives me goose bumps: Some Enchanted Evening, Hello Young Lover, You’ll Never Walk Along.” said the Georgia Straight’s Colin Thomas.
