Lois Anderson, Lucy McNulty, and Gina Leon under the direction of Charles Siegel, are bringing to life a story of a reclusive mother and her ten year old daughter – living in a run-down trailer on land condemned for highway expansion. Using the stage to communicate in new and adventurous ways, Pulitzer prize nominee Lisa D’Amour explores the complexities of our fluid identities as we move from childhood into adulthood and on to parenting.
"One’s ‘identity’ is a complex, fragile, fluid mix of our parents, our past, and our dreams. These are things we are all aware of, though we don’t consciously think about them very often. Using the stage to communicate in new and creative ways, Lisa D’Amour leads us to be more aware of these complex parts of ourselves we carry with us all the time and make us who we are." - Charles Siegel, Director.
"One’s ‘identity’ is a complex, fragile, fluid mix of our parents, our past, and our dreams. These are things we are all aware of, though we don’t consciously think about them very often. Using the stage to communicate in new and creative ways, Lisa D’Amour leads us to be more aware of these complex parts of ourselves we carry with us all the time and make us who we are." - Charles Siegel, Director.
ANNA BELLA EEMA
A Ghost Story for Three Bodies with Three Voices
Text by Lisa D'Amour
Music by Chris Sidorfsky
Directed by Charles Siegel
with Lois Anderson, Lucy McNulty, & Gina Leon
Lighting Design: Samaya Aldaker and Mahshid Maleki
Music Director: Tessa Trach
Set and Costume Design: Cecilia Vadala
Sound Design: Joelysa Pankanea
Stage Manager: Susan Currie
‘Something is coming. It’s either the interstate or the end of the world' - Anna Bella Eema.
MARCH 5- 15, 2020
Week 1
Preview: Thursday, March 5, 8pm
Opening: Friday, March 6, 8pm
Saturday, March 7, 8pm
Matinees: Saturday, March 7, 2pm
Sunday, March 8, 2pm
Week 2
Wednesday, March 11, 8pm
Thursday, March 12, 8pm
Friday, March 13, 8pm
Saturday, March 14, 8pm
Matinees: Saturday, March 14, 2pm
Sunday, March 15, 2pm
THE CULTCH
Vancity Culture Lab
1895 Venables St,
Vancouver, BC
V5L 2H6
TICKETS available for purchase at https://thecultch.com/tickets/
GENERAL ADMISSION $30
STUDENTS $15
EQUITY MEMBERS $25
SENIORS $25
Exciting New Flexible Pricing for Tickets
In keeping with our goal of finding new ways of offering special theater to Vancouver, we will have Flexible Pricing for tickets for four of our performances.
March 5, March 8, March 11, & March 12
At those performances the Cultch Box Office Service Charge of $3.15 is all that will be charged before the performance. After the show, there will be an opportunity for audience members to pay what they wish.
If your budget is tight, or you thought the show stunk, you are welcome to pay less, even a lot less.
If your budget is not tight, or you think we were wonderful, you are welcome to pay us more, even a lot more.
It is all up to you.
*This is a Canadian Actors' Equity Association Production under the Artists' Collective Policy.
PLAYWRIGHT
LISA D'AMOUR is a playwright and inter-disciplinary artist and one half of the OBIE-Award winning performance duo PearlDamour. Her plays have produced by theaters across the country,including Manhattan theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater on Broadway, Playwrights’ Horizons, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, Clubbed Thumb, (all in NYC), Children’s Theater Company (Minneapolis), The Wilma Theater (Philadelphia) and Woolly Mammoth Theater (Washington D.C.).
Lisa’s play Detroit premiered at Steppenwolf in 2010, directed by ensemble member Austin Pendleton; Mr. Pendleton also directed the second production at the Royal National Theater with a British cast. Detroit was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn prize. PearlDamour is known for creating interdisciplinary, often site-specific works which range from the intimate to large scale. Recent work includes How to Build a Forest, an 8-hour performance installation created with visual artist Shawn Hall (The Kitchen, New York, 2011, currently touring) and MILTON, a performance created from visits and interviews in 5 U.S. cities named Milton. Lisa is the recipient of the 2008 Alpert Award for the Arts in theater, the 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award and is a recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. She is a former Jerome Fellow and Core Alum of the Playwrights’ Center and an alumna of New Dramatists. |
DIRECTORCHARLES SIEGEL, B.A. (Brandeis), M.F.A (Yale) taught acting and directing for 25 years in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC and was the first person to be Chair of the Theatre Program. As a professional actor, he has appeared in over 50 TV shows and films. On stage he has acted on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in regional theatres across the United States and Canada – playing roles ranging from King Lear and Uncle Vanya to Cyrano and Falstaff. He has directed over thirty productions of plays – including the world premieres of Canadian plays in Vancouver, New York, and London. He wrote "The Reputation of Lady Mary", a play based on the writings of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He has directing readings of it in London, New York, and LA, and Vancouver. Most recently he played Bob and was part of the committee directing "The Realistic Joneses" in the Culture Lab Theater. He continues to work professionally as an actor, director, playwright and teacher.
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THE PLAYTen-year-old Anna Bella and her hermetic mother Irene live in a ratty trailer on the edge of town. When their trailer park is slated for demolition because of interstate highway expansion, Irene refuses to leave. In this moment of crisis, Anna Bella creates a new girl out of the mud behind their trailer home. This mud-girl helps Anna Bella and Irene channel the supernatural and face the life they must live in the world outside their trailer home. A richly imagined tale of a fierce mother/daughter bond, spoken and sung by three women - Playscripts
Produced by New Georges, NYC (2003), Blue Theater/Physical Plant, Austin, TX (2001), Ten Thousand Things, Minneapolis, Gas and Electric Arts, Philadelphia, PA (2005), Crowded Fire, San Francisco, CA (2006) Winner, Best New Play, Austin Critics’ Table (2002). “Its beauty and depth are almost beyond language other than its own…” -- Wayne Allen Brenner, The Austin Chronicle “A skillfully stylized…wise comment on identity, the violence and inevitability of separation, and the value of both adaptation and detailed self-awareness.” – The New York Times. |
CAST
LOIS ANDERSON Lois has worked extensively with regional and independent theatre companies both nationally and internationally as an actor, director and devisor. She has received multiple Jessie Awards, as well as ensemble Jessie Awards for co-creation, and most recently The Critics Choice Innovation Award for Lysistrata at Bard on the Beach. Original work includes international tours of Cirque Poule, Flying Blind and multiple original productions with The Leaky Heaven Circus. Selected acting roles include: Vivien (Wit), Mother Courage, Shirley Valentine, Salome, as well as Kate, Rosalind, Viola, Goneril, Helena, Mistress Overdone, Paulina for Bard on the Beach. She spent an acting season at The National Arts Center – which included The Winter Queen in Alice Through the Looking Glass. She received a Betty Mitchell Award for the role of Sonia in Sonia, Vanya, Masha and Spike at ATP, Calgary, an Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical, Fun Home, Arts Club Theatre.
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THE CREATIVE TEAM
CECILIA VADALA (Set/ Costume Design)
was born and raised in Italy, Cecilia’s academic and professional background is articulate and diverse. Through her BA in Philosophy she developed her critical thinking and analytic eye, while with her Diploma in Art History she further pursued her interest for the visual arts, and more specifically for the contemporary practices and aesthetics. Pursuing her MFA in Theatre Design and Production, Cecilia is focusing on scenic design. With a strong interest in the notions of space and storytelling, her goal is to bring her practice to a variety of venues interacting with different artistic disciplines. Cecilia has recently worked as scenic designer on Timothy Findley’s The Wars directed by Lois Anderson, and as scenic and costume designer on Kayak directed by Sloan Thompson. Other credits: Hosanna (Scenic Designer, 2019) The White Liars (Scenic Designer, 2019), Sunrise Valley (Film, Production Designer, 2019) Silent Night (Scenic Design and Projection Assistant, 2018). For more information visit: ceciliavadala.com |
SAMAYA ALDAKER &
MAHSHID MALEKI (Lighting Design): are both alumni of the Theatre Production and Design program at the University of British Columbia. Their shared credits are Ascension 2018 (Lighting Design, Simon Fraser University), One Act Double Feature (Lighting Design, University of British Columbia) and Hosanna (Lighting Design, UBC). Both designers have personal projects including a series of projects that utilize lighting and projection and one installation piece each. Samaya Aldaker's projects are, Tango de Roxanne, Lindsey Stirling’s Dragon Age Vis a Vis Lights, Judgement by Anubis: Redemption as well as doing costume coordination for Festival di Commedia 2018, UBC. Mahshid Maleki's projects are The Creep and The Reader, Parody of Death, The Foodies, Glass in Trouble, Friendship. Samaya Aldakers installation piece is called Extra- Intra- Subsequently and Mahshid Maleki's piece is called 3 Stages of life. |
TESSA TRACH (Music Director) Tessa is a performer, sound designer and vegan extraordinaire #veganfortessa. Recent credits: John Darling in Bad Hat’s Theatre’s Peter Pan (Carousel Theatre); Amelie (West Moon Theatre – Ovation! Nominee); Kathy in Singin’ in the Rain (Royal City Musical Theatre – Ovation! Nominee); Rock of Ages (Renegade Arts Company); A Christmas Carol (Carter-Ryan Productions); Grease, All Shook Up (Chemainus Theatre Festival) and From Broadway with Love (Circle Bright). After this, she is sound designing Love/Sick at Pacific Theatre and will be playing Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly! at Theatre Under the Stars. Tessa is a graduate of Studio 58.
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JOELYSA PANKANEA (Sound Design)
Joelysa Pankanea is a multi-award-winning composer and musical director. Her music has been critically acclaimed and embraced by audiences in Canada for over 20 years. Her prolific body of work, whether for the stage, screen or the concert hall, has given her one of the most unique and compelling musical voices in Canada. In addition to her composing work, she is the founder of SoundBite Audio Branding Inc, specializing in audio marketing for local businesses. Joelysa’s most recent work was composer/ musical director for the Electric Company Theatre’s world premiere of Carmen Aguirre’s Anywhere But Here. Next, her work will showcase on the stage of the Stanley Theatre for the Arts Club’s production of Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave.For more information see: joelysa.wordpress.com/ |
SUSAN D. CURRIE (Stage Manager):
Susan is a BC / Ontario based stage manager working in the industry for...a few years. This is her first production with Sol Theatre Collective. Select productions: Strange White Men; Body Awareness; The Bonds of Interest; The Light in the Piazza; The 39 Steps; Lion in Winter; Dancing at Lughnasa; How I Learned to Drive; Anne of Green Gables; Footloose; Angels in America-Millennium Approaches; Angels in America-Perestroika; Hamlet; King Lear; Coriolanus; The Foreigner; Million Dollar Quartet; The Nether; The Ecstasy of Rita Joe; Midsummer Night’s Dream; Mary’s Wedding; Beggar’s Opera; Mozart & Salieri; Anne of Green Gables; Footloose; Big; Happy Place; Refuge;... to name a few. |