(photo by Emily Cooper)
Jewish community member Richard Newman, top right, makes his Theatre Under the Stars debut, playing Grandpa Joe in Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, which alternates nights with Legally Blonde until Aug. 16 at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. He is pictured here with, left to right: Bernardo Arana (Grandpa George), Twyla Raffé-Devine (Grandma Georgina), Imelda Gaborno (Mrs. Bucket) and Sophie O’Brien (Grandma Josephine). For tickets to either TUTS show, visit tuts.ca.
People from many cultures show love via food and, of course, Jews are no exception. And what a palate our culture has, since we have lived in so many places. Two children’s books from Collective Book Studio, one new and one from recent years, highlight the flavourful diversity of Jewish culture, while teaching other valuable lessons.
Coming out this August, Tali and the Timeless Time by Mira Z. Amiras, with illustrations by Chantelle and Burgen Thorne, shares the love of a granddaughter for her grandmother, and vice versa. Every Friday, Tali helps her nona get ready for Shabbat. Nona gives hugs, tells stories, still tries to get Tali to nap, even though she’s older now. When Nona dozes off, Tali explores in the backyard, cleans up the small fountain there, feeds the goldfish. When Nona awakes, it’s time to cook.
“We bake!” says Tali. “Today, it’s bourekas, yummy for eating. Nona makes them with filo (which it turns out is cheating). She says her nona let her ’cause it doesn’t need kneading.”
The week before, the pair made stuffed grape leaves – yaprakas, dolma or dolmades. Nona’s favourite dish is huevos (eggs) cooked in tomatoes with feta and arroz (rice).
While Tali’s grandmother might get Tali’s name wrong, or forget a word or two, she has these recipes ingrained in her.
“I’m having big thoughts,” says Tali, “but Nona’s not listening – she’s singing ‘chakchouka,’ it’s sometimes called, not just huevos, in the Holy Land, Tunisia and the land of the pharaohs. In Mexico, it’s a lot like huevos rancheros….” But Nona loses focus, she starts dancing with “her zills and her fans.” Tali finishes making dinner, the pair eat together, then dance some more.
In another role reversal, Tali tucks Nona into bed for the night, not sure she should leave her alone. Luckily, Tali and her family live nearby.
It’s a lovely book, “timeless time” being a beautiful description of a day spent with a loved one, doing this and that, in no particular order, sharing stories, mixing up past with present, making memories that will adapt over time.
Family and food are also at the heart of 1, 2, 3 Nosh with Me, written by Micah and Joshua Siva, and illustrated by Sviatoslav Franko, which was published a couple of years ago. In it, the dog Buckwheat shows us the yummy food the family eats, starting with the “One golden challah, to celebrate Shabbat…” We work our way up to “Ten crispy latkes, served by candlelight.” In between, we have matzah balls, matzot, kugel, knishes, apples for a sweet new year, sufganiyot, bagels and hamantashen. (It’s not clear why the Hanukkah treats are separated, but that’s a quibble.)
Tali covers a few Sephardi staples and Buckwheat has the Ashkenazi favourites down. Between the two books, the breadth of world Jewry, as seen through just some of its traditional foods, is impressive.
Writer Deborah Wilde is more public now about the Jewish elements in her novels, which have always had a Jewish sensibility. (photo from Deborah Wilde)
East Vancouver author Deborah Wilde has been a writer since childhood, when she filled countless notebooks with her stories. Born and raised in Greater Vancouver, she also spent some years in Kitimat; hers was the only Jewish family in town. She read Isaac Bashevis Singer and watched Neil Simon movies. It was an upbringing she describes as being “rich in tradition.”
Wilde started her writing career in TV and film. “I loved it. I got to be in writers’ rooms, it was a real privilege,” she said. However, she added, screenwriters are “part of a machine: you’re hired to work on other people’s stories. I wanted to tell my stories.” These stories, as it turns out, are ones with strong Jewish representation and tough, sassy female protagonists.
With the movie industry being in what she describes as “a terrible state,” Wilde took the leap into young adult fiction. In writing the Nava Katz series, she was pleased to find that many of her screenwriting skills were transferable to this new genre. “Dialogue is my happy place,” she laughed. “I had a great time doing it.”
She knew that she had to have Jewish protagonists. “I was an avid reader as a kid but I only saw myself in Holocaust stories,” she explained. “Where was the Jewish girl falling down the rabbit hole or going through the cupboard into Narnia?”
In Wilde’s books, we meet a Jewish mom from Mumbai, and the love interest in her current series is a Mizrahi Jew. Diversity even within the Jewish community is vital, she said. “I want smart Jewish women who have adventures, who are the object of desire.”
Having embarked on her career in fiction, Wilde has reached her initial goal of publishing five books in three years. It took a lot of stamina and she learned that being an independent (or “indie”) young adult author was “not sustainable.” Setting her sights on an adult audience, she took inspiration from her “love of old Hollywood – it was the banter. And I’d always read romances,” she said, “so I wanted to include that as well.”
Wilde settled on first-person, urban fantasy. A relatively new but extremely popular genre, urban fantasy tales are set in the world we live in but with magical and supernatural elements. Ordinary or “mundane” activities are constantly disrupted by these troublemaking nasties, sometimes with deadly consequences.
And that is where we meet Jewish heroine Ashira Cohen, private investigator. Walking down a Vancouver street, Cohen comes across a “grimy convenience store selling long-distance phone cards and bongs.” A Vancouver scene we probably recognize, but she might also run into a bodyguard who’s been possessed by a demon or a delinquent teen with a talent for vanishing into thin air. Cohen is fast-talking, feisty and funny, but she’s also “someone you’d want to run into at Café 41,” said Wilde.
Meanwhile, Cohen’s finances are in a state, her love life is stagnant and she’s extraordinarily (and creatively) accident prone. The character is unsentimental, caustic and cynically bored. An interview with a young adult client gave her, she says, “all the details about their nauseatingly cute courtship and very little useful information.”
Wilde’s novels bring a big helping of zany chaos, a nod to the screwball comedies of the 1940s, staple viewing in the author’s childhood home. But, while the books conform to established genres – such as the “chosen one” trope, the terribly attractive and just as infuriating nemesis – they’re also full of little winks at the reader: neurotic elders, Jewish idioms, references to Jewish traditions.
Wilde’s talent lies in her ability to layer elements of regular life – like an eye-rolling teen whose statements sound like questions, or the intrusive badgering of Ash’s mother at a moment when tensions are already running high – over the frenzied dangers of the world inhabited by Cohen. The result is fiction that is absurd, surreal and peppered with rapid-fire dialogue reminiscent of the classic film His Girl Friday.
There is also a serious undercurrent. The author seasons her prose with references to history. For example, one of the magical characters, Meryem, is a Turkish magic refugee who has fled the “purges.”
Jewish representation is very important to Wilde. “There is so little fiction and television with strong, tough Jewish characters,” she said. The Jezebel narrative isn’t a Jewish story but, explained Wilde, “it has a Jewish sensibility – because that’s my own. It’s authentic to my experience.”
There has always been a Jewish flavour to Wilde’s writing, but it was more subtle; it could be found in the humour. “Readers would find the Jewish stuff eventually,” she said. “But now I’m talking about it in my ads, or even in certain interviews. I’m more public about it now.”
This is one of the aspects that makes Wilde’s work original. While Greek, Celtic, Roman and Norse tales have been all the rage for years, Jezebel’s Jewish folklore and mythology make it stand out. “I won’t write it if I don’t have something original to say,” said Wilde. And that’s where we find a magical organization called Nefesh, or, in Hebrew, “soul” or “life.”
Wilde is both a prolific writer and a businessperson. Talking about the switch to indie authorship, she describes it as “exhausting and a huge learning curve.” She is now both an author and her own publishing house. She has learned about search engine optimization, how to print and distribute books, the advantages of the different platforms and the wizardry required to publish ebooks online. But, despite all the technology that runs behind the scenes, Wilde finds that “word of mouth is still the best form of advertising – many people comment on my ads with things like, I just bought this book because of all the comments, so it had better be as funny as you all said!”
But she’s not alone in her work: her team now includes her husband (who designed the back end of her online store), an editor, cover designers and a slew of peers on whom she has depended for critical (but kind) feedback, moral support, professional insight and companionship.
Wilde sells her books directly to readers. She explained that, when you buy from Amazon, “you’re actually leasing the book.” Instead, she said, “When you buy digitally from an author, you actually own the book – it’s yours, not just a link you have access to while you have that device.”
Past and present intersect with Wilde’s writing. Most of her grandfather’s family was killed in the Warsaw Ghetto. Of those who survived, she said, “They ended up in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany. My mom was born prematurely in that camp, delivered by a former Nazi doctor.” So, stories about how Jews once lived in Russia, which invaded Poland in 1939 and fully occupied it at the end of the Second World War, “that was my childhood.”
Having been raised by her grandparents, Wilde said, “I know there is absolutely an aspect of me working through this generational trauma, baggage, but, at the same time, there’s also me working through the patriarchal aspect of Judaism.”
Shula Klinger is an author and journalist living in North Vancouver.
“‘You’re dead, Weiss!’ Declan shouted. He turned back to his friends. ‘This is our chance. Let’s get him!’”
And so the chase after sixth-grader Matthew Weiss begins, led by bully classmate Declan Bollard, with Declan’s three followers right behind. It leads to an adventure all the kids might have been happy to forego, but also a lesson in humanity that they all needed, even the bullied Matthew, who discovers not only his self-worth, but that people who seem to have everything going for them probably don’t.
Michael Seidelman’s latest novel for readers around Matthew and Declan’s age – called Imaginary Heroes – is propelled by fear and anger but resolved by putting those feelings to constructive use, refusing to be defined by others, trusting in ourselves and braving the day, whatever challenges we face.
Like the character of Matthew, Seidelman has Tourette’s Syndrome and was bullied growing up because of it, which makes his descriptions of Matthew’s feelings so realistic that readers’ hearts will break a little.
Most kids ignore Matthew’s involuntary actions and sounds, a few laugh, but Declan menaces, with Booker, Booker’s twin sister Sam, and Cricket as an audience. After a particularly nasty incident at lunch, where, thanks only to Booker’s intervention, Declan steals Matthew’s dessert instead of beating him up, Seidelman writes:
“The bell rang, and Matthew did his best to hold back his tears until the lunchroom was empty. Then he let it all out. Every day, he had to deal with those jerks, and this wasn’t even one of the worst days. At least Declan hadn’t hurt him physically this time. So far, at least.”
Arriving just in time for class nonetheless, the teacher berates Matthew for not getting there earlier. The adults – teachers and other kids’ parents – are little help to Matthew, just as they were to Seidelman as he was bullied growing up.
“Though many teachers and school administrators were of little to no help with the bullying I endured, there were a few who stood up for me, and those individuals have not been forgotten,” writes Seidelman in the acknowledgements. “And again, I must thank my parents and family; without their support, I truly don’t know where I would be today.”
The character of Matthew also has a supportive, loving family. And he has two imaginary friends, who not only help get him through the school days, but really step up when he, Declan, Booker, Sam and Cricket find themselves in a literal hole, with no apparent way out. The journey that ensues is a danger-filled adventure during which all the kids find out more about themselves and one another, and what bravery and humanity entail not only in life-threatening moments, but also in life in general.
To purchase an electronic or hard copy of Imaginary Heroes, or Seidelman’s Garden of Syn trilogy, visit michaelseidelman.com.
Roxsane Tanner’s watercolours are on exhibit at the Steveston Museum and Post Office (painted here by Tanner) this month.
“Steveston is such a beautiful place,” artist Roxsane Tanner told the Independent. Her first solo show of watercolours features quaint houses of the village, where she has lived and worked for many years. The exhibit opened at the Steveston Museum and Post Office on June 1 and will be on display for the month.
Born in Holland soon after the Second World War, Tanner came to Canada with her family in 1951.
“My father was in the resistance, and my mother was in hiding during the war. They were both Jewish and wouldn’t have survived otherwise,” she said.
Her older sister was born during the German occupation, and her mother had to hide her baby with a local family. “My sister was 3 years old when my mom came for her after the war, to take her back. That was the first time she saw her mother.”
After the family came to Canada, her parents moved a lot. “They were very entrepreneurial,” said Tanner. “We lived in many small towns in Ontario and Quebec. Sometimes, my parents had several businesses open at the same time in the same town: a pet shop, a fabric shop, some others. They always worked hard. When I was 19, my parents and I moved to Vancouver. In the beginning, we lived in a trailer, the same one we drove here from across Canada.”
Tanner inherited her parents’ work ethic and their courage to try new things. “After high school, I wanted to study nursing, but soon after I started classes, I hurt my knees and had to come home – I couldn’t walk.”
After she healed, she became a dental assistant and worked as one for several years. “Until I met my first husband,” she recalled with a smile. “He was a wallpaper hanger. I fell in love with the man, married him, and joined his business. We worked together for several decades.”
Even after her first husband’s untimely death from cancer, she continued their business on her own. Many houses in Richmond and Vancouver feature wallpaper installed by Roxsane Tanner. By now, she has been a wallpaper hanger for more than 50 years. “But I’m slowing down,” she said. “I’m not accepting many new clients, not anymore.”
Now, she is becoming more and more absorbed in various artistic endeavours. Art was always on the periphery of her life. “I always dabbled,” she said. “Then, about 15 years ago, my second husband, Fred, and I visited Italy. He was a high school counselor before he retired; we were chaperoning a group of kids on that trip. I saw some beautiful jewelry local artisans sold on the street. I liked it, but it was too expensive. I thought maybe I could make something like that, and Fred encouraged me. When we returned home, I enrolled in a course on silversmithing and started making my own jewelry. Fred built a silversmithing studio for me in our backyard.”
She took more classes in different techniques, many of them on YouTube. “I can spend hours watching educational videos on YouTube,” she said. “There is always something new. Thousands of talented artists offer classes there. The good thing about YouTube: once you subscribe, you can watch the same lesson several times, until you really get it.”
She sells her jewelry – earrings, bracelets and necklaces – in a local Steveston shop. Occasionally, she offers her own classes in jewelry-making, to children and adults. What started as a hobby from a casual observation in Florence ended up becoming a small business, as many of Tanner’s hobbies tend to do: sewing, for example.
“My mother taught me to sew, knit and crochet,” she said. And, wanting to pass the skills on to others, she started, out of her home, to teach children how to sew. “We buy special kits and make hats and scarves for the homeless,” she said.
But that was not enough for her. Her creativity needed another outlet. About the same time as she embarked on jewelry-making, she also started painting in watercolours. “I took classes, of course, some on YouTube, others at the local Phoenix Art Workshop here in Steveston. At first, I painted landscapes, but I didn’t like it. A few years later, I went to Malta on a trip with the Phoenix Studio – they have amazing houses there, and I was inspired. The next year, we traveled to Mexico. I admired their historical buildings, but we also have amazing houses here, in Steveston. There are many heritage places here. I wanted to paint them.”
When she returned from Mexico, she noticed a blue house in Steveston she liked and took a photo of it. “I painted it from my photo. It was my first, and my friends kept bugging me: you need to show your painting to the owner. So, I went and knocked on his door. I never met him before that day, and he was somewhat gruff at first. He asked me if I would sell it to him, and I agreed. That’s how it started.”
Tanner has built another small business on that foundation. “I paint houses that are for sale. Realtors around Steveston commission my paintings as gifts for the new homeowners. People also come to me and ask me to paint their houses, or their children’s houses, as gifts. Sometimes, I paint from my own photographs. Other times, the clients bring their photos and order a painting from that image.”
Besides personal homes, she paints heritage places around Steveston. The old community centre, a coffee shop, a church turned into a thrift store, the pier, with its picturesque boats, and the tiny post office – the same one where some of her work is now on display.
The exhibition includes Tanner’s original watercolour paintings plus postcards and mugs with her artwork. Some of the paintings sport charming, quirky houses found only in the artist’s imagination. “I go online and search for heritage homes around the world. If I like one, I use it as my inspiration, but I don’t copy the photos. I want my painted houses light and whimsical, like a fairy tale. Maybe a bit crooked, but reflecting the essence of the house, its soul and personality. Even the real houses I paint are not exact copies of the photos. I don’t use a ruler to make the straight lines. I use my watercolours to remind people of the fun and joy their homes bring them.”
You can see more of Tanner’s art at instagram.com/studioplace99.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
Bema Productions’ The Last Yiddish Speaker cast, director and crew: standing, left to right, Tess Nolan, Kevin McKendrick, Andrea Eggenberger, Nolan McConnell-Fidyk and Ian Case; seated, Siobhan Davies, left, and Zelda Dean. The play imagines a world in which the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC, was successful and Christian nationalists have taken over the United States. (photo by Peter Nadler)
Victoria’s Bema Productions is staging the international premiere of Deborah Laufer’s The Last Yiddish Speaker at Congregation Emanu-El’s Black Box Theatre June 18-29.
The drama imagines a dystopian world in which the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in Washington, DC, was successful and Christian nationalists have taken over the United States. In the play, a Jewish father and daughter must be careful and cunning, as any deviation from the norm could be deadly. When an aged Yiddish-speaking woman lands on their doorstep, they must decide whether to take the risk of helping the woman or focus on saving themselves.
Laufer has numerous full-length plays to her credit, as well as dozens of short plays and even musicals (written with composer Daniel Green). Her plays have been produced around the world and she has been recognized with numerous awards.
While The Last Yiddish Speaker focuses on Judaism and the right for Jews to exist, the play could be about any marginalized group, in any country.
“Although the play is set in the USA, the theme is universal: the struggle of good over evil,” Zelda Dean, founder and managing artistic director of Bema, told the Independent. “In this play, Canada is still a safe place for Jews.”
That said, it has a message for Canadian audiences, as well, Dean said. “It is very important that we address social and political issues, particularly with the huge increase in antisemitism in Canada. The play is entertaining, engaging and enlightening. It takes place in 2029, when the fascists have taken over the USA. It is timely and powerful.”
Directed by Kevin McKendrick, The Last Yiddish Speaker features Ian Case, Siobhan Davies, Nolan McConnell-Fidyk and Dean.
McKendrick is an award-winning director, notably being recognized by the Alberta Theatre Projects for significant contributions to theatre in Calgary. Case, a veteran stage actor on Vancouver Island, is also a director and arts advocate. Davies, meanwhile, is a stage and cinematic performer – she will be appearing in the upcoming film Allure, shot in Victoria. McConnell-Fidyk is a local actor who appeared in Survivors, a play aimed at spreading information about the Holocaust to audiences from Grade 6 and up. (See jewishindependent.ca/theatre-that-educates and jewishindependent.ca/survivors-play-brings-tears.)
Before the November 2024 presidential elections, Laufer told Philadelphia public radio station WHYY about her reasons for writing the play, including that she was deeply disturbed by the events of Jan. 6. “I thought, ‘Is this the end? Is our democracy completely ended?’” she said.
“The play reminds us there are times in history when we have the choice to speak out against oppression or choose to remain silent. You get the government you deserve,” McKendrick told the Independent. “How will you respond when faced with outright injustice?”
Tickets for The Last Yiddish Speaker can be purchased at ticketowl.io/lastyiddishspeaker.
Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.
Among the performers at this year’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival are Ard n’ Saul (Ardeshir and Saul Berson), at Tyrant Studios on June 21. (photo by Joshua Berson)
The 40th anniversary edition of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival runs June 20 to July 1. It offers more than 180 events, with 50 free shows at 14 locations around the city.
The festival took its maiden voyage Aug. 19-25, 1985. Billed as the first annual Pacific Jazz and Blues Festival, the event featured 100 musicians from British Columbia, Oregon and Washington state at clubs and venues around the city. It was created – and mostly financed – by John Orysik, Robert Kerr and Ken Pickering, along with Deborah Roitberg, who would become a founding board member. Together, they founded the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, which was born with the intent of providing a 10-day music festival along with a year-long jazz presence.
In this year’s festival, there will be open jazz jams June 20-29, presented at and with Tyrant Studios. Come for the 9:30 p.m. sets ($18 in advance, $20 at door), then stay as the headliners become hosts, sharing the stage with visiting artists and local players alike starting at 11 p.m. (pay-what-you-can). Among the headliners are, on June 21, Ard n’ Saul, who pay homage to the classic two horns and rhythm section tradition – the group is led by alto saxophonist Saul Berson and tenor saxophonist Ardeshir.
On June 22, 6 p.m., at Zameen Art House, Infidel Jazz presents Asef ($20 in advance, $25 at door). Members of the group – Berson (saxophones), Itamar Erez (guitar), Sam Shoichet (bass) and Liam Macdonald (drums/percussion) – bring to the stage many years of experience playing a variety of music from around the world, including Balkan folk, tango, klezmer, flamenco and bebop.
Also on June 22, at the Georgia Street Stage at 6:30 p.m., Dawn Pemberton and her band – which includes Max Zipursky on keys – play a free concert of music from gospel and R&B, to jazz, funk and soul. Zipursky also plays with Confiture on June 29, 8:30 p.m., at Ocean Artworks ($15 at door). Led by vocalist Tim Fuller, Confiture celebrates 30 years of house music, blending classics with original tracks.
On June 26, Juno-nominee Andrea Superstein plays at Frankie’s Jazz Club, at 8 p.m. ($20-$25), and the Evan Arntzen Quartet, with special guest Lloyd Arntzen, perform a free show on July 1, noon, at Ocean Artworks.
Vancouver-born, New York City-based saxophonist, clarinetist and vocalist Evan Arntzen blends modern jazz influences with deep roots in the genre’s history. The quartet will be joined by Arntzen’s grandfather, Lloyd Arntzen, a legendary clarinetist, saxophonist and vocalist who’s been a pillar of Vancouver’s traditional jazz scene since the 1940s.
For the full festival lineup and tickets, visit coastaljazz.ca.
– Courtesy Coastal Jazz
Temple Sholom Senior Rabbi Dan Moskovitz and kids from the shul at Camp Kalsman. Proceeds from Omer Shaish’s My Broadway Shpiel performance on Aug. 21 go towards Temple Sholom’s campership program. (photo from Temple Sholom)
International singer and actor Omer Shaish brings My Broadway Shpiel to Vancouver on Aug. 21. Attendees can look forward to music from West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Les Misérables and La Cage Aux Folles, as well as original music and some of Shaish’s personal favourites, including popular Hebrew songs. Proceeds from the concert go towards Temple Sholom’s campership program.
Shaish was born and raised in Israel and has performed at Habima National Theatre and Beit Lessin Theatre in Tel Aviv. In 2007, he moved to New York City and graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. With numerous theatre and vocalist credits to his name, Shaish has been touring the world with the classical vocal trio Kol Esperanza, as well as his self-produced show My Broadway Shpiel.
Each year, Temple Sholom, along with its Sisterhood and the Harlene Riback Camp Scholarship, offers a scholarship for up to $150 per child to its member families to help the congregation’s youth attend a Jewish day camp or sleepaway camp. This year, it distributed a total of $15,880 for 74 campers and its goal is to raise even more funds for next year’s campers.
Studies have shown that Jewish camping is key to helping Jewish children explore their Judaism and establish a long-term Jewish connection. Temple Sholom’s campership initiative began in 1975 and has been going strong ever since.
“It is the kehila kedosha, or sacred community, of our Sisterhood that rises to this challenge, among other community responsibilities and occasions. It just so happens that the beautiful concept of kehila kedosha is instilled in our children, our future leaders, at Jewish summer camp,” said Alisa Delisle, a Temple Sholom congregant and the mother of Camp Kalsman song leader Paloma Delisle.
“Jewish summer camp encourages children to discover their Jewish identity while fostering a sense of belonging in a community like no other. For most, this is the first experience to navigate personal care and the world of peers without a parent or guardian’s assistance. As a sacred community, campers learn to take care of one another, cultivate pride in their surroundings and appreciate the power of Shabbat. Through experiential learning, Jewishness at camp is incorporated into everything fun.”
Camp Kalsman and PJ Library also offer summer camp scholarships to the broader Jewish community.
For tickets to My Broadway Shpiel, visit tickettailor.com/events/templesholom/1702794.
– Courtesy Temple Sholom
Arya Yazgan plays young Sophia in Sophia’s Forest, a chamber opera by composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch, which is at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts until June 1. (photo by Anya Chibis)
City Opera Vancouver (COV) presents the Canadian premiere of Sophia’s Forest, a chamber opera by composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch, on stage until June 1 at Studio T at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
Directed by Julie McIsaac, under the baton of COV artistic director Gordon Gerrard, the one-act opera explores various themes through the story of a young girl, Sophia, who flees civil war and settles in a new country.
“In a time when it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by global conflict, Sophia’s Forest invites us to connect to the individual stories behind the headlines,” said Gerrard. “Composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch have created a deeply resonant story – one that speaks to empathy, resilience and the enduring capacity for hope amidst even the darkest circumstances.”
While Sophia’s Forest is not based on a single true story, it draws inspiration from the lived experiences of many who have endured war, loss and displacement. Through the fractured lens of Sophia’s memory, the chamber opera speaks to the human cost of conflict and the strength required to overcome adversity. Its intimate setting and small ensemble help to magnify the emotional intensity, offering audiences a space for reflection and deeper understanding.
The production integrates live performance with projections by Wladimiro Woyno and an array of mechanical sound sculptures, created from bike wheels and wine glasses, that are controlled remotely in real time by the composer Beecher. These sounds and images – accompanied by a live string quartet – conjure memories and dreams from Sophia’s past: the ring of a wine glass becomes a child’s voice; the whirr of a bike wheel evokes fluttering wings.
For its Canadian premiere, Sophia will be performed by soprano Elena Howard-Scott, Anna (Sophia’s mother) by Adanya Dunn and Wes (Anna’s partner) by Luka Kawabata. Young Sophia will be performed by Arya Yazgan and Emma (Sophia’s sister) by Audrey Gao, both members of the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs. The chamber opera will include sound design by Richard Berg with costumes by Alaia Hamer.
Sophia’s Forest is COV’s first project in a multi-year initiative that aims to showcase and explore the stories and experiences of newcomers to Canada, including celebrating artists who contribute to Canada’s cultural diversity. For tickets and information, visit cityoperavancouver.com.
– Courtesy City Opera Vancouver
Tuskrik Fredericks and Rebecca Margolick in to begin with no end, part of Dancing on the Edge, which runs June 12-21. (photo by Alexander Diaz)
Dancing on the Edge (DOTE), a cornerstone of Vancouver’s contemporary dance season, presents a line-up of established and emerging dancemakers at the Firehall Arts Centre and SFU Woodward’s June 12 to 21.
Spotlighting a range of world and Canadian premieres, as well as works in progress, from Canadian and international artists, the festival offers seven mixed programs, as well as three full-length works. Among the Jewish community members and companies contributing their creativity are Rebecca Margolick, Noam Gagnon, Stefan Smulovitz, Action at a Distance, and others.
“In the turmoil of the world, we look to artists for solace, encouragement and inspiration. For this year’s 37th annual DOTE festival, we are thrilled to present a roster of artists whose works offer a balm for the soul – exploring a pendulum of themes, from isolation to connectivity, from being overwhelmed to feeling joy,” said Donna Spencer, DOTE artistic producer.
Some of this year’s most anticipated performances include the world premiere of the full-length work Lurch from Vancouver’s MascallDance, an evaluation of legacy, in partnership with three commissioned choreographers: Justine Chambers, Ame Henderson and Sarah Chase; the world premiere of a short work, Tunnel 9, from Montreal’s Fila 13 Productions, with dancers Claudia Moore and Sean Ling-Allan, who take refuge in a confined space; and the world premiere from Taiwanese-Canadian dance artist Juolin Lee, Soup of Forgetfulness, a solo inspired by Taiwanese folklore about the afterlife and reincarnation.
Edge 1 (June 12, 7 p.m., and June 13, 9 p.m.) features Gagnon’s being and the work-in-progress My Dance is not a Hobby by Newton Moraes Dance Theatre.
Edge 2 (June 12, 9 p.m., and June 13, 7 p.m.) pairs Windshear / If I were 2 by Inverso Productions with to begin with no end by Tushrik Fredericks and Margolick.
Edge 4 (June 17, 7 p.m., and June 19, 9 p.m) features To Fetch a Pail of Water by Jennifer McLeish-Lewis, with music composed by Smulovitz, and Tidal Wave (Excerpt) by SQx Dance Company.
On June 17, at 9 p.m., Action at a Distance and Belle Spirale Dance Projects present TUNING.
For more information and tickets, visit dancingontheedge.org.
– Courtesy Dancing on the Edge
