If you are looking for things to do this long weekend, we invite you to check out First Pick Handmade at the Heritage Hall this Sunday. This amazing market will host 33 local designers that create a variety of handmade items from fashion to skin care to cosmetics. Some of the designers on hand include Jessica Redditt Design, Irit Sorokin, Bukoro Bag Co., What’s Her Face, After Times Art, Asiri Cosmetics, Mossy Mind Herbs to name a few. Whether you are looking for something for your home, for yourself, or a gift, there will be lots to choose from. Be sure to stop by and check out all the amazing talent. First Pick Handmade happens Sunday, March 31st from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Admission is $3.00 at the door.
You are invited to unleash your inner artist with the Sunshine Team Paint Nite Vancouver. They will be hosting a 2 hour sip and paint party at East Van Brewing Co. 1675 Venables Street on Sunday, January 21, 2024. You will be provided all the supplies along with instructions and guidance. You will, of course, get to take your masterpiece home with you. Tickets are $39 and available through Eventbrite.
The Firehall, along with The McGrane-Pearson Endowment Fund, presents Ann Mortifee’s Reflections on Crooked Walking from Saturday, December 2 to Sunday, December 24, 2023.
Produced by the Firehall Arts Centre and directed by Donna Spencer, Ann Mortifee’s Reflections on Crooked Walking is a JUNO Award-nominated family musical that tells the tale of four people who find themselves the only ones left awake surrounded by sleeping townspeople. Their journey in search of a cure for the mysterious sleeping sickness leads them down a surprising path of deeper self-awareness. Tickets from $30 and available online at Firehall Arts Centre.
The Firehall Arts Centre is playing host to a guest presentation of The Judge’s Daughter October 24 – 29, 2023. The production tackles questioning the actions of our BC Supreme Court Judges. There are two ways the verdict could go and the final scene hinges on the judgment of you, the audience.
The play takes place in the Whistler ski cabins of brilliant lawyer, Judge Kelly Saint Patrick and her lawyer husband James Brown. Young love blooms for their daughter, Erin, and her activist boyfriend. When a sudden death occurs, it raises the morality of jailing anti-pipeline protesters, family relationships and professional reputations are threatened. It’s time for judgment and the audience is the jury. Tickets are now available online and range between $30 – $50. To purchase tickets, visit the Firehall Arts Centre.
Eastside Arts Societywill be hosting a fun summer art-making event CREATE! Arts Festivalon July 22nd and July 23rd. This 2 day festival will take place in Strathcona Park on Saturday, July 22nd and in various locations on the East Side on Sunday, July 23, 2023.
You are invited to explore, learn, and create art at a wide variety of visual and performing arts workshops taught by more than 15 local artists. Adults and youth are invited to learn about watercolour painting, needle felting, indigo dying, pottery, glass fusing, photography, ukulele, Salish singing, storytelling, and much more. General admission is also available for the CREATE! Art Zone, which will feature public participation art, art demos, Festival Art Shop, food trucks, beer + wine, and so much more. In addition to a variety of art workshops, demonstrations, and public participation art installations, they are introducing a Festival Art Shop which will feature a curated selection of arts and crafts made by local artists. There will lots to see and do over the course of the 2 day arts festival. For more information on all the events happening, visit www.createartsfestival.ca.
The Britannia Plaza Market returns this summer. This is an outdoor market that takes place just outside of the Britannia Community Centre. The market runs every Wednesday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm from June 28th to October 4th. You are invited to stop by and check out some local producers, artists and makers which will showcase a variety of items each week including fresh produce, homemade treats, artisanal goods and much more.
If you are interested in being a vendor, you are invited to reach out to the organizers at artbritannia@gmail.com.
The Eastside Arts Society is hosting their 8th Annual Art! Bike! Beer! Crawl on Saturday, July 22nd. This is a biking tour, or walking tour if you prefer, to a variety of great East Van breweries. For the price of a ticket, you will tour 3 of 8 participating breweries, see some great art, receive a tasting flight or pint at 4 stops, plus receive food. You will also have the opportunity to win prizes as well as access to the Create! Arts Festival Art Zone which will be taking place in Strathcona Park on the same day. Tickets are $60 plus GST. To purchase your ticket, visit Eventbrite.
Are you looking to take in some of the beautiful murals and street art in Vancouver? If yes, you may wish to check out the Strathcona Street Art And Mural Tours that start April 29th. This is a 90 minute walking tour of the East End of Vancouver that features local art work along with some history and great stories. Vancouver DeTours is hosting the tours that start at 812 Cordova Street at 11:00 am. The tour is free to book, but payment is based on tipping with a suggested amount being $25. The request is that you pay what you feel the tour was worth. If you can’t make the tour April 29th, not to worry, they will be running the tours monthly throughout the summer. To book a tour, visit Eventbrite.
It’s very easy to see why Fado was such a big hit at the Firehall in 2019 and why they decided to bring it back as part of getting into the swing of things with live theatre again.
This play attempts to blend an ambitious number of themes into a typical runtime of 90 minutes or so and not only succeeds but makes it look easy.
I went in not knowing much about it besides that I like Fado music even if I don’t listen to it very often. I expected to be impressed with Fado as a musical and a story of artistic ambition and development, and that’s 100% true. We get not just one but 3 incredibly talented singers showing us how an entire country could be in love with “the saddest music in the world” and the way it turns pain into beauty.
We get an appealing and sympathetic main character who wants to learn to sing Fado with true Portuguese passion even if she was born in Canada and some people think that makes her too happy and too lucky to pull it off. We get a cantankerous yet charming mentor figure. We get singing that shows strong yet unrealized potential – which is quite something to pull off when a lot of the audience isn’t very familiar with what the fullest expression of the form would sound like.
At the same time, we also get an interesting examination of Portugal’s 20th Century history and politics as seen from contrasting points of view – with a couple of questions that you may have never considered before such as, “can a song be fascist?” We get a conversation about whether emigrants can ever really leave the home country behind and whether they can ever really return to it, as well as what the imagined homeland means to the second generation. We get two love stories with some surprising twists and turns. And Fado fits all of this in with a script that feels like natural conversation, never forcing large chunks of backstory or introspection into anyone’s lines.
Performances are very strong across the board but for me the standout is Natércia Napoleao’s Luisa, the main character’s mother. She seems at first meeting like she’s going to be an Old-World Mum cliché, a bit of comic relief that we return to occasionally, wielding her precious iron to make everything fancy. However, she quickly blossoms into a complex character, although not always a likable one. She’s a woman who actively resists being stereotyped and complicates the narrative or speaks volumes by simply walking away when others try to dismiss her too easily.
If I have any quibbles it would be that the play introduces a gay character whose story feels like it doesn’t quite have time enough to breathe or resolve properly. That said the character and his storyline are every bit as strong as the rest of this tale in the moments he does get – and it’s possible that too neat a resolution would be a dishonest way of presenting what it’s like to be gay in a very Catholic country.
Looking for something fun and different to do for Valentine’s Day this year? Check out this Make A Glass Heart workshop being offered by Terminal City Glass on February 11th? In this workshop, two people will work with a professional glass artist to make a colourful glass heart-shaped paperweight that will be a keepsake for years to come. No experience is required, but you must be a least 16 years of age. There are a number of time slots throughout the day, but note each time slot has a limit of 4 spaces. To register or for more information, visit Terminal City Glass Co-Op.
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