PuSh International Performing Arts Festival 2020 (revised December 19)

t h e at r e

dance

multimedia music

JAN 21 — FEB 9, 2020 P U S H F E S T I VA L . C A

CHAN CENTRE PRESENTS FEB 29 We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. MAR 8 Dianne Reeves: Beleza Brazil APR 4 La Santa Cecilia APR 18 Kalabanté: Afrique en Cirque BEYOND WORDS MAR 26 Ridge

Each year, it is an honour to present works of beauty, commitment and power to audiences. Accompanying this honour is a strong sense of responsibility, and it is in this spirit that we acknowledge that PuSh unfolds each year on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. We recognize their sovereignty as well as the privilege we have of holding our Festival on these lands.

WE SHALL OVERCOME FEATURING DAMIEN SNEED

LA SANTA CECILIA

PuSh staff and board members would like to welcome you to our Festival.

BRENDAN McLEOD RIDGE

chancentre.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2020VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCEFESTIVAL

Government Welcome Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Monday Nights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Festival Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

CUTLASS SPRING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

PuSh Welcome Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Footnote Number 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES

The Democratic Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Little Volcano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Idealverein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

MARCH 6 –28

Club PuSh: Bring Your Own Record / Listening Party (Closing Night Pre-Party) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Club PuSh: Things I Shouldn’t Tell You / Portrait of my DNA (Closing Night Party) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

SKYBORN: A Land Reclamation Odyssey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 BERLIN: THE LAST CABARET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

INSERT

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Festival Schedule

Club PuSh: Ikigai Machine / Opening Weekend Party . . . . . 19

Venue List & Map

Gardens Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Tell Me What I Can Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

PUSH ASSEMBLY

She, Mami Wata & the Pussy WitchHunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Critical Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

The Fever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Scholars-in-Residence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

FRONTERA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Workshops + Ancillary Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Flying white - 飞白 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Industry Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Free Admission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Featuring: Shay Kuebler / Radical System Art · Kokoro Dance · InDANCE Ichigo-Ichieh · Farouche Collective · Olivia Shaffer Justin Many Fingers · Ferenc Fehér · Ralph Escamillan · Modus Operandi

High Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Youth Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Club PuSh: AGIT-POP! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Accessible PuSh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Cuckoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Patrons Circle Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Anywhere But Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Staff, Board, Thank You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

KISMET, things have changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Volunteer Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

What You Won’t Do For Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Passes & Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

A User’s Guide to Authenticity Is a Feeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

November 21, 2019 – March 29, 2020

A month of World-Class Dance Performances, Free Events, Classes & Workshops, and More

Info & Box Office:

VIDF.CA 604.662.4966

Venues include the Roundhouse, Vancouver Playhouse, KW Studios and Woodward’s Atrium

PLAYING WITH FIRE Shay Kuebler / Radical System Art photo by David Cooper

Ceramics of the Extraordinary

ON SA L E N OW ! TI C KETS F O R $35

WELCOME

Student/senior/artist pricing also available

As Premier of the Province of British Columbia, I’m pleased to welcome everyone attending the 2020 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

This powerful three-week showcase continues to draw international audiences and visionary performers with its promise of creative rejuvenation. The 16th annual festival unites acclaimed artists from across Canada, Norway, USA, South Korea, Australia, the UK and beyond to combine their diverse disciplines and genres into one original, boundary breaking season of dance, music, theatre and multimedia events.

Hon. John Horgan PREMIER, PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

The people of our province thrive on cultural expression, and I want to thank all of the staff, volunteers and supporters whose inspiration, hard work and dedication has brought us this remarkable world-class attraction. By lending your skill, talent, and commitment, you brighten the lives of ever-growing audiences year after year.

May the 2020 festival be the most vibrant and captivating yet. Enjoy the shows!

On behalf of Premier John Horgan and the Government of British Columbia, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

As one of Vancouver’s signature events, PuSh features visionary, cutting-edge and innovative work that inspires audiences and ignites industry activity. This year’s festival will feature artists from as far away as Norway and South Korea as well as local artists. PuSh helps raise the global profile of our arts and culture sector and draws thousands of people from near and far. That’s why we’re proud to support the festival through the BC Arts Council and the Tourism Events Program.

Our government believes that arts and culture make life better for people and lead to healthier, more inclusive communities. We’ve made record investments in the BC Arts Council so that we can continue to see this sector flourish across the province.

INHERITANCE:

A CHOOSE-YOUR-ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE Written and performed by Daniel Arnold, Darrell Dennis, and Medina Hahn A Co-Production with Alley Theatre, in community partnership with the Aboriginal Friendship Centre

Three characters race to claim a property.

You—the audience—decide how it unfolds.

LIGHTS

Hon. Lisa Beare MINISTER OF TOURISM, ARTS AND CULTURE

I wish you an enjoyable and exciting festival!

By Adam Grant Warren In Association with Firehall Arts Centre On behalf of the citizens of Vancouver and my colleagues on Vancouver City Council, it’s a pleasure to extend my best wishes to everyone attending the 2020 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

A humorous and heartfelt story of a tight-knit family adapting to profound life changes.

ANNEX THEATRE

FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE

FEBRUARY 28 – MARCH 15, 2020

MAY 28 – JUNE 7, 2020 Mayor Kennedy Stewart

TOUCHSTONE THEATRE

PuSh is entering an exciting time of change with new leadership, and I know the festival will continue to grow with ground-breaking work. Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers and sponsors for their commitment and support.

43 YEARS OF ESSENTIAL CANADIAN PLAYS TOUCHSTONETHEATRE.COM

The PuSh Festival is unique among our region’s festivals. Curated, multidisciplinary, international—the Festival stands alone in its commitment to bring acclaimed work from different disciplines under the umbrella of a single festival. PuSh is a community leader and catalyst, fostering connections between audiences and artists, while providing dialogue and exchange between communities. Premieres by local artists are presented alongside shows that have garnered national and international acclaim. We are very proud of our enlightened art community and we welcome all the performers from across Canada and around the world. It is an honour to have you in Vancouver.

I want to congratulate the organizers, performers and audiences that will be attending the Festival. Last year, PuSh marked its 15th anniversary with more than 150 performances and events, including 41 sold out shows, with artists from 13 countries.

This year, I hope Vancouverites and visitors experience engaging, enriching and adventurous contemporary works of art during the festival.

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PARTNERS Support and contributions from our corporate, government funding, local business, and presentation partners, make it possible for us to bring the boundary-pushing programming that defines PuSh to Vancouver each year.

PREMIER BROADCAST PARTNER

PREMIER PARTNERS

PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS PRESENTING PARTNERS

BEHIND THE SCENES

Black

GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

Christie Lites

FOREIGN AGENCIES

British Council

Gearforce

Center Stage Korea

Granville Island Cultural Society

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea

Helijet

Korea Arts Management Service

John Fluevog Shoes

CMYK

McMedia Audiovisual

Pantone

PRESENTATION PARTNERS

DOWNTOWN VENUE PARTNER

WEB PARTNER

WINE PARTNER

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HOTEL PARTNER

SURVEY PARTNER

TELECOM PARTNER

BEER PARTNER

CAR SHARE PARTNER

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WELCOME FROM PUSH

By the time you read this note, I will have rewritten it in my head 50 times over. Change a word here, take that sentence out completely—my mind races as I come up with hundreds of new ways to communicate how grateful I am to call Vancouver my new home. How grateful I am to be in a City with such incredible art and artists. How grateful I am that you have decided to spend the day or evening at a PuSh Festival performance.

Welcome to the 16th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival—my first as Artistic and Executive Director—but not my first as an audience member. I initially encountered the Festival in 2005, where I experienced the work of Theatre Replacement (The Empty Orchestra) and Carmen Aguirre (The Trigger) and NeWorld Theatre (Crime and Punishment), and it was a revelation. The programmers and artists gathered at the Industry Series that year have become important lifelong collaborators.

I have this vivid memory of sitting in a car on Main Street with my dear friend Sarah Stanley on the final night of the Festival.

We were reflecting on the past few days of talks, workshops, performances and agreed that the PuSh Festival was going to have a significant impact on our national performing arts community.

My relationship with Norman Armour, founding Artistic & Executive Director of the PuSh Festival dates back to his time at Rumble Productions.

In 2007, he convened a gathering of like-minded presenters in Montreal to discuss how we could better support the development and touring of new Canadian work. Soon after, we co-launched a program to support the work of emerging artists Anita Rochon & Emelia Symington Fedy (Chop Theatre) and Ravi Jain (Why Not Theatre).

Welcome to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival— the very best time of the year! We as a Board of Directors are grateful that you are choosing to spend your time with us over the next three weeks. Thank you for bringing your energy to our audiences.

2020’s Festival—the 16th—is an important moment for PuSh, now wholly in the hands of a new leadership team helmed by Artistic and Executive Director Franco Boni. Franco is joined by Jason Dubois as Managing Director and Joyce Rosario, newly promoted to Associate Artistic Director, who together bring the memory, experience and passion that will nurture Franco’s vision for the future of the Festival. We are tremendously excited to watch this vision come to life over the coming years, and to supporting him and his team in this growth.

Sometimes it’s all just too much, you know?

For 16 years, I was The Artistic Director of The Theatre Centre in Toronto, where I established programs that placed artists and ideas at the forefront, and nurtured relationships that urged artists, of all disciplines, to interrogate long-held beliefs in their practice. I was inspired by Vancouver artists who formed collectives, created shared artistic leadership models and collaborated in ways I hadn’t seen before in Toronto. The PuSh Festival emerged out of this time and framework, and remains deeply connected to this spirit of independence, community activism and kindness.

Five months ago, I uprooted my life in Toronto to be here, and not surprisingly, I have felt moments of loneliness. But as I write this note, I recognize that the City of Vancouver is an old friend I love and admire. A friend that I have been in relationship with for nearly 15 years.

A friend I discovered through my association with the artists and audiences of The PuSh Festival.

Franco Boni ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

PuSh’s work—to expand the horizons of Vancouver artists and audiences with visionary, genre-bending, multi-disciplined, startling and original work from Canada and around the world—feels more and more critical. As we work as a community and a country to bring humans together at a moment in time that feels very fractured, we are grateful that our audiences follow their values to celebrate with us in theatres all around the city in the dark of winter. Thank you for your investment in our work. Thank you for your patience with us during a long and ultimately rewarding period of transition. We hope this year’s Festival will surprise and delight you as always, and that you will catch glimpses of the future in our work.

When I feel I’ve lost my way in the world, art lights the path: flickering like a distant star in the dark or like all the streetlamps blinking on as dusk falls—or sometimes exploding like a flash bulb.

The stultifying competition for our attention constricts the human capacity for wonder. Where our capacity for distraction outweighs that capacity for wonder, our ability to contemplate and attune to nuance, make space for difference, find joy, is restricted.

Art works can bring us together to wonder in an act of exercising our civic imagination. Our ability to practice and enact what we experience together reminds us of our vast capacity for agency.

Subversion—a simple act of mischief or larger demand for liberation—is an active ingredient of innovation and communication, as well as means to crack open that capacity for wonder. Subversion is a distinct through-line in PuSh’s 2020 program.

Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story and FRONTERA are works created in the wake of the last election cycle. With (most of) Canada being an exception to a global shift toward the far right, these works reflect why we still must be wary of acts of divisiveness. Works that enact unity, like The Democratic Set and The Fever, experiment with models for a better way to live and, in the case of Monday Nights, the way we can play together.

Vulnerability drives our ability to build trust and, ultimately, source beauty and truth. Gardens Speak and Cuckoo show the world as a tender place reeling from trauma—yet search for humane, productive ways to confront darkness. Society yearns for so much healing and in What You Won’t Do For Love, David Suzuki and Tara Cullis posit that love is the answer.

Jacob Wren’s seemingly simple proposition “being yourself in a performance situation,” is most profound in a world where increasingly everything is a performance. Wren offers fun and sly means of togetherness in the three PME-ART works at this year’s edition.

Revelation and adventure in works of memoir take us on journeys of local heroic women: through music and maternal love in Veda Hille’s Little Volcano; reverse exile and magic realism in Carmen Aguirre’s Anywhere But Here; and ancestral memory and ritual in Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn: A Land Reclamation Odyssey.

Unifying acts of subversion, innovative adventures and tender spaces for healing: PuSh 2020 offers artful tonic for when our world seems just too much.

Joyce Rosario ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Enjoy #16!

Jessica Bouchard PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD

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OP EN S ET * JAN 2 1-2 3 JAN 2 2 -2 3

2P M- 4 :3 0 P M 1 0 AM- 1 P M

FI LM S CR E E N I NG & ARTIST TAL K * JAN 2 5 7P M

60 mins, no intermission ROUN DHO US E COM MUN ITY ARTS & R ECR EATION CE NTR E

FREE; ADVANCE BOOKING REQUIRED ASL-INTERPRETATION PROVIDED ON JAN 25

EXTRA LIVE (ALWAYS RELAXED)

This is not a performance—it’s a model for the way we could live. In The Democratic Set, members of the local community are invited to help make a movie. The process is one of collaboration, not leadership; egalitarianism, not hierarchy. The “set” of the title is an empty room, built and displayed in The Roundhouse. It can function as a dramatic setting, a virtual soapbox or whatever else the given participant wishes.

Each cast member gets a brief rehearsal for their 15-second video portrait; each portrait is captured in a single take, with the camera moving across the set in the same direction each time. Edited and presented, the successive portrait-shots appear as a continuous movement through the rooms of an imaginary space; that space is one of freedom, constructed from cooperation and fellowship. What emerges is a wonderful paradox: a group vision of individual expression. When the final work premieres for the public, it’s a moment of shared triumph.

THE DEMOCRATIC SET BACK TO BACK THEATRE (AUSTRALIA)

PRESENTED WITH

NEWORLD THEATRE

* Filming sessions on the set are open to the public; no booking is required to observe. Limited slots to participate are available at the venue each day.

SUPPORTED BY

THE BROAD COVE FUND AT VANCITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS & RECREATION CENTRE

* Following the Film Screening there will be a free opening night party.

Details on p19.

COLLAGE: ANNA TREGLOAN

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LITTLE VOLCANO JAN 21-23 AN N E X

8PM

$39 80 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE CONTENT NOTE

Includes flashing lights

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PHOTO: MATT REZNEK

VEDA HILLE WITH THEATRE REPLACEMENT (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

MUSIC ON MAIN

Veda Hille’s new work is a musical memoir, a testament to maternal love, a joyful embrace of nature and much more. The singer, pianist and songwriter takes us through her life using stories, Bach preludes, a selection of her own music and some unique and surprising recordings, redefining autobiography as she goes along.

Over 30 years as an artist, Hille has had her moments of triumph and darkness, and here she pays tribute to the forces that have seen her through; the show includes the stories of her female forebears, and through the ghostly, stubbornly physical medium of vinyl we hear her mother’s voice and the sounds of one of Mother Nature’s most vocal species. Reflective and uplifting in equal measure, Little Volcano is, like all great art, an experiment in self-expression; the beauty of Hille’s effort lies in its bracing honesty, its daring intimacy and its triumphant exaltation of the feminine.

IDEALVEREIN JAN 22-24 8PM WESTER N FRONT

$15 ARTIST TALK JAN 25 3PM

60 mins, no intermission STAIRS CONTENT NOTE

Includes use of scents

PHOTO: LUKE ANDREW WALKER

MIKE BOURSCHEID and JUSTINE CHAMBERS (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

WESTERN FRONT

Six dancers, some very distinctive costumes and a set of unspoken rules; those are the basic elements of this performance, but listing them doesn’t begin to do justice to its humour, sophistication and originality. Idealverein is a game of sorts; it’s played in teams of three, and it involves a mixture of improv and strict rules. There are moments of grace, moments of awkwardness, moments that may elicit a guffaw...

And then there are the costumes, which dominate the stage and dictate much of the action: metal hardware, sausages, boiled eggs, lipstick, fake hair and much more have gone into their making, and they’re clearly the work of an original talent. The players wear large tan aprons and individually tailored footwear that serve to define their movements; these “costume-objects,” as their creator calls them, speak to the show’s fetishistic ritualism—and to its impish sense of fun.

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SEBASTIAN DROSTE IN A STILL FROM THE MOVIE, THE WAY, 1923-1925, BY FRANCIS BRUGUIÈRE. PHOTO: THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES

SKYBORN: A LAND RECLAMATION ODYSSEY

PHOTO OF QUELEMIA SPARROW: EMILY COOPER

SAVAGE PRODUCTION SOCIETY

(CANADA)

BERLIN: THE LAST CABARET

PRESENTED WITH

THE CULTCH

JAN 23-25 7:30PM JAN 25-26 2PM JAN 28-31 7:30PM FEB 1 2PM, 7:30PM H ISTOR IC TH EATR E , TH E CULTCH

from $26 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: JAN 26, 28

90 mins, no intermission ASL-INTERPRETATION ON JAN 28 LIVE DESCRIPTION WITH TOUCH TOUR ON FEB 1, 2PM CONTENT NOTE

Includes use of scents, smoke/haze and flashing lights

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A black hole, hungry ghosts, a Grandmother wolf— Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn is an epic odyssey grounded in Indigenous ancestral knowledge. Guided through the universe on a river made of stars, Sparrow makes a journey by canoe to recover her lost soul from the land of the dead. This adventure is deeply rooted in the cosmology and teachings of her Musqueam heritage. It invites the audience to bear witness to a reclamation of culture, land and self.

Skyborn is imaginatively constructed and fiercely poignant. It introduces never-before-seen Musqueam/ Sto:lo visual storytelling and animation, as well as inter-Indigenous sound and puppetry, but at its heart is the simple, irreducible force of human presence: Sparrow is a natural performer, endowed with grace and magnetism. This work is her gesture of liberation.

CITY OPERA VANCOUVER (CANADA) IN ASSOCIATION WITH SOUND THE ALARM: MUSIC/THEATRE PRESENTED WITH

JAN 23-25 8PM PER FOR MANCE WOR KS

$44.50 95 mins, no intermission CONTENT NOTE

Includes smoke/haze and flashing lights

CITY OPERA VANCOUVER

This political cabaret celebrates the subversive power of art and offers a warning to those who would take freedom for granted.

1934: As Nazism tightens its grip on Germany, a satirical cabaret troupe faces physical danger and a moral crisis. Members have disappeared under suspicious circumstances; the five that remain have to decide whether to bend to intimidation or perform their work uncensored. With death looming in the air, the risks couldn’t be higher—and yet the desperate need for expression is still there…

The Weimar era (1918-1933) was a time of cultural ferment in Germany. Steps were taken toward sexual freedom and progressive reform, and there was a spirit of liberation and innovation in the arts. Much of this was connected to the cabaret scene, and in this show, City Opera Vancouver pays loving homage: with five singers and a band, the group takes us back to a time when liberation came in conflict with fascism.

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OPENING WEEKEND PARTY

OLD STOCK: A REFUGEE LOVE STORY JAN 24-25 7:30PM JAN 26 1:30PM JAN 28-30 7:30PM FR EDER IC WOOD TH EATR E

$39 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: JAN 26

85 mins, no intermission CAPTIONS ON JAN 26 RELAXED PERFORMANCE ON JAN 26 LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE TOUCH TOUR UPON REQUEST CONTENT NOTE

Includes smoke/haze

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PHOTO: FADI ACRA

2B THEATRE COMPANY (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

TOUCHSTONE THEATRE AND UBC THEATRE AND FILM

Wild, witty and wonderfully inventive, this fusion of concert and drama tells the true tale of Chaim and Chaya, Jewish refugees from the pogroms of Romania. They meet in 1908, while awaiting medical inspection in Halifax’s Pier 21 immigration centre; the story moves forward to their lives as a couple in Montreal and backward to the horrors of the Continent.

Our narrator is genre-bending sensation Ben Caplan, who can shift tones like a master and convey the humorous and the heartrending with equal conviction. The music blends Yiddish Klezmer with modern folk stylings, creating a wistful and energetic tone. What unite the moments of tragedy with those of uplift are steadfast conviction and wry intelligence; too compassionate to be cynical and too clever to be sentimental, this is a radically humane work.

IKIGAI MACHINE: A DISABILITYARTS VAUDEVILLE EXPERIENCE JAN 25 8PM ROUN DH OUS E COM MUN ITY ARTS & R ECR E ATION CE NTR E

FREE 120 mins, no intermission ASL-INTERPRETED EXTRA LIVE (ALWAYS RELAXED)

PHOTO: SAM GEHRKE

MYLES DE BASTION/ CYMASPACE

(USA)

Deaf curator, advocate and artist Myles de Bastion is here to rock the building with a dose of music, moving images and light. Working with the CymaSpace production team, de Bastion lays down optical effects in conjunction with beats and melodies; the result is an accessible, inclusive and altogether enthralling experience. DJ Deaf Wish gets the party started right; then comes de Bastion with an immersive visual narrative set to live ambient, hypnotic soundscapes, followed by a return performance from Deaf Wish.

The work of Myles de Bastion encompasses activism, mentorship, music and technological innovation. He works to create spaces and standards that are inclusive of the Deaf community, and to expand the sensory experiences of all audiences. He is the founder of non-profit CymaSpace, and his work has appeared everywhere from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! Show. For DJ Deaf Wish, sign language knows no boundaries, and neither does music. Whether it’s swaying to a waltz, stepping to a marching song or simply throwing down the hammer, this artist loves to inspire the crowd to do more, both on and off the stage.

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GARDENS SPEAK JAN 2 8 - F E B 1 1 2 : 3 0 P M , 2 P M, 6PM , 7 PM, 8 : 3 0 P M , 9 : 3 0PM FE B 2 1 2 : 3 0 P M , 2 P M, 5 :30PM , 6 : 3 0 P M , 8 P M, 9PM ROU N D H OU SE COM M U N I TY A RTS & R EC R E ATI ON CENT R E

$25 45 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE CONTENT NOTE

Includes use of scents

PHOTO: JESSE HUNNIFORD

TANIA EL KHOURY (LEBANON / UK) In today’s Syria, oppression and violence are so far-reaching that even burial and mourning have become subversive acts.

In this immersive sound installation, artist Tania El Khoury pays tribute to that subversion, and to 10 people whose lives have been lost in the regime’s brutal response to dissent. These 10 lie buried in family gardens, as do many others who have been killed in the ongoing conflict: public burial ceremonies expose family members to potential slaughter, and official interment also carries the risk of humiliation, with the bereaved often asked to sign documents absolving the Assad government of responsibility.

In groups of 10, audience members are led to a garden space marked by graves. At each grave, one person will hear a story— the reconstructed history of an individual killed in the conflict.

These narratives lie waiting to be unearthed; exhuming them is an act of discovery, of communion, of rebellion and defiance through art. .........

TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO JA N 2 8 - F EB 2 E X H I B I TI O N O PEN 1 2 P M - 9. 30PM ROU N D HO U SE COM M U N I T Y A RTS & R EC R E AT I O N CENT R E

FREE

Gardens Speak has had 30 showings across 5 continents, and many of them have included a special request, with El Khoury asking her audiences to write letters. Here, she offers a selection of them to be uncovered and read. “Tell me what I can do” is a sentence that recurs throughout the handwritten texts, and those six small words reflect so much: empathy and caring, but also anguish, confusion, even desperation.

SHE, MAMI WATA & THE PUSSY WITCHHUNT JAN 29-FEB 1 8PM PER FOR MANCE WOR KS

$39 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: JAN 28-31

90 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE CONTENT NOTE

SUPPORTED BY

ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS & RECREATION CENTRE

Includes use of scents, smoke/ haze and flashing lights

SHOWTIMES UPDATED ON DEC. 13, 2019

PHOTO: JAKKUB FULIN

THE FRANK THEATRE

(CANADA)

d’bi young anitafrika takes on gender, sexuality, divinity and more in this erotic solo piece. Whether playing a church pastor, a pole dancer or a child in a schoolyard, d’bi positively glows with fervour; the spirit of protest runs strong through the multiple characters, shifting timelines and changing settings of the narrative. Telling the story of four friends and their lives in present-day Jamaica, the artist paints a picture of lust, love and the forces that would seek to deny them.

She Mami Wata is anchored in the writing and performing of its multi-talented star, but it’s also powered by music: to the side of the action is DJ Softieshan, dropping beats and loops that propel the story and add spice to an already sizzling drama. This is a performance that reflects the heat of the tropical sun, of frustrated passions, of the need for fulfillment that drives us all. It is, nevertheless, a highly specific work: queer, diasporic and feminine, and all the more beautiful for it.

DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST DEAF & HARD OF HEARING FRIENDLY

20

21

PHOTO: WALEED SHAH

THE FEVER 600 HIGHWAYMEN (USA)

How much can we trust other people? How do we form our conceptions of them? What does it take for us to work together? The Fever takes issues like these and makes them the stuff of riveting theatre. It all begins with the character of Marianne, who has just held a party; from there, the performance builds into a study of community, caring and mutual reliance. Along the way, limits will be tested and bonds will form.

JAN JAN JAN FEB FEB

29 3 0 3 1 1 2

7P M 6P M 1 1 AM, 6P M, 9P M 6P M, 9P M 1 2P M

ANNEX

$39

In these times of cultural fragmentation and heavy discord, art about the ways we work with—and against—each other has a special relevance, a special value. Don’t expect anything didactic from this piece, however; it doesn’t so much promote unity as enact it on the spot. That’s about as much as can be said without spoiling the many surprises in store…

70 mins, no intermission

22

23

PHOTO: ADRIAN MORILLO

FRONTERA ANIMALS OF DISTINCTION (CANADA)

FLY PAN AM (CANADA)

UNITED VISUAL ARTISTS (UK)

This powerhouse multimedia performance unites post-rock masters Fly Pan Am with choreographer Dana Gingras and her Animals of Distinction dance company. The remounted version of The Holy Body Tattoo’s monumental played PuSh 2016, and if you saw it, you surely remember its spectacular fusion of sound and motion; here, again, are live music and dance in the service of metaphor. The guiding ideas are borders and surveillance: how do they define us, and when do we dare challenge them?

JAN 3 0

8PM

QUE E N E L IZAB E TH TH E ATR E

from $39. Eligible on the PuSh Pass with $30 surcharge.

70 mins, no intermission WITH LIVE DESCRIPTION DEAF & HARD OF HEARING FRIENDLY, INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE RELAXED VIEWING SPACES AVAILABLE CONTENT NOTE

Includes strobe-like effects

24

The scenography, by United Visual Artists, is stark and suggestive; space is defined by light alone. Amid pulsing flashes and towering vertical rays, ten human figures dance— at times alone, at times with each other, at times against each other. Their wild gestures are a response to the propulsive music, to the commands of the lighting and to things less easy to define; it’s a large-scale struggle between impulse and design. The shafts of illumination are as beautiful as they are imposing; at times, they imprison the dancers like bars, but they cannot defeat human vitality. FRONTERA is a work of awe and resistance in equal measure—an adventure for the eyes, the ears and the mind.

SUPPORTED BY

CDM2 LIGHTWORKS

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–

FLYING WHITE - 飞白

PHOTO: EMILY COOPER

WEN WEI DANCE AND TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE AND WEN WEI DANCE

JAN 31 FEB 1 FEB 2

7:30PM 7:30PM 2PM

F E I A N D M I LTO N W ONG E X P E R I M ENTA L TH E ATR E , S F U ’S G OL D COR P CENT R E FOR TH E ARTS

$36 100 mins, with intermission DEAF & HARD OF HEARING FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE

This dynamic, intercultural performance features six dancers from Wen Wei Dance, as well as 12 musicians brought together from Turning Point Ensemble and Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra. The title refers to a rare form of Chinese calligraphy in which the brush touches the paper in long, light strokes, evoking grace and delicacy but also powerful velocity. The creators are inspired by this aesthetic, and by the basic, animating forces of nature; these are brought to life onstage as the performers play off each other, exploring the dynamics of East and West, black and white, music and motion.

There’s an intense physicality to this piece, made all the more palpable by the use of ink, paper, silk and other materials. A pleasure for the eyes and the ears, Flying white – 飞白 hits a trifecta of gorgeous visual design, thrilling kinetics and captivating music. The performance is an education in the possibilities of art; it seduces the senses and proceeds to retrain them.

FREE ADMISSION JAN 31 FEB 1 FEB 2

8 :30PM 8 :30PM 4PM

S COTIAB AN K DANCE CE NTR E

$39 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 1

60 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE ASL-INTERPRETATION ON FEB 2 RELAXED PERFORMANCE: FEB 1

URSULA MARTINEZ

(UK)

Uncouth, uncensored and… undressed? Ursula Martinez gets personal, political and philosophical in this soul-baring solo performance. Call it a monologue with a meta twist: though it’s honest and unsparing, Free Admission comes with a commentary on its own limits, and on the politics of spectacle. As Martinez holds forth on the paradoxes of life, the absurdity of contemporary living and her own intimate feelings, she builds a wall between herself and the audience—a brick wall, to be exact.

Piece by piece, Martinez erects this barrier even as her show gets more and more personal; the relationship between the visual and the verbal becomes complicated in fascinating ways. What happens when the wall is complete? Let’s leave room for some surprises… Free Admission is a funny, foul-mouthed send-up of digital-age self-promotion. The humour is biting but ultimately forgiving, even celebratory. Martinez offers that rarest of things: satire without misanthropy.

SUPPORTED BY

SUPPORTED BY

SFU WOODWARD’S CULTURAL PROGRAMS

26

27

HIGH WATER

PHOTO: ASH TANASIYCHUK

MACROMATTER (CANADA)

AGIT-POP!

PRESENTED WITH

FEB FEB FEB TH E

1-2 1 1AM, 4PM 3-4 10AM, 12 :30PM 5 6PM N EST

from $15.50 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 2, 4PM

52 mins, no intermission VISUAL PERFORMANCE INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE

CONTENT NOTE

Includes flashing lights

28

VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL

In this playful, resourceful performance, one solitary soul uses consumer products to build entire worlds inside a fish tank, working on the spot against a rising horizon of water. Rockets, cityscapes, satellites and more are created from the interaction of aqua and everyday objects; audiences may never look at clothespins, CDs or turkey basters the same way again. The tank works as an H2O hourglass: as it steadily, inexorably fills, spectators witness an abundance of transformation and destruction, much of which has an eerily familiar feel to it...

FEB 1 8PM CENTRAL STUDIOS

$25 80 mins, no intermission STAIRS

PHOTO: JUSTIN MILLER

PEARLE HARBOUR (CANADA) Drag innovator Pearle Harbour comes for the kill with this tragicomic cabaret concert. Featuring reenactments, renditions, stories, tirades and more, Agit-Pop! is a mixtape of bangers fashioned from years of live performance at clubs, theatres, karaoke bars and drag shows across the nation. Taking on political malaise and eco-catastrophe, Pearle tosses a maraschino cherry bomb at the system; beneath the camp surface lies a dark, subversive core, and this diva is provocative in the best bouffon tradition. Expect to be enthralled, to be challenged and to be part of the fun.

Small in scale but vast in its implications, High Water is a testament to human creativity as well as a shrewd commentary on its dangers.

Comedic, suspenseful and beautifully executed, it’s a work that asks for our concentration and rewards it amply—the colour, the choreography and the sheer poetry are a thrill for children and adults alike.

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CUCKOO FEB 3-5 8PM WATER FRONT TH EATR E

$39 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 4

60 mins, no intermission.

In English and Korean ENGLISH SURTITLES FOR KOREAN ONLY CAPTIONS (ALL SOUND & TEXT) ON FEB 5

PHOTO: RADOVAN DRANGA

JAHA KOO (SOUTH KOREA / BELGIUM) Jaha Koo folds 20 years of South Korean history into this bittersweet narrative. An economic disaster and its ripple effects are conveyed in an onstage performance by the artist and some very special companions: a group of talking rice cookers. Re-programmed to speak, these devices serve as a token of Jaha’s alienation and a metaphor for the most absurd, most comical aspects of the recent past.

Cuckoo is a dialogue, a confessional, even a documentary of sorts.

Jaha sits with his electronic friends, and together they discuss the catastrophic market crash of 1997 and subsequent national phenomena, including unemployment, depression and suicide among the youth. The subject matter is dark, but there’s rich comedy in the wry observations, the personal revelations and, of course, the basic concept itself. This is an account of deep malaise in which the storyteller(s!) demonstrate enough wit and creativity to suggest that there is, against the odds, hope for the future.

Black

SUPPORTED BY

CMYK

30

Pantone

ANYWHERE BUT HERE

ELECTRIC COMPANY THEATRE (CANADA) IN ASSOCIATION WITH VANCOUVER CIVIC THEATRES AND PTC

FEB 4-8 FEB 8 FEB 1 1-14 FEB 15 VANCOUVER

7:30PM 2PM 7:30PM 2PM PLAYHOUSE

from $20. Feb 10-15 not available on the PuSh Pass POST-SHOW TALKBACKS: FEB 7, 12 (12PM), 13 PRE-SHOW CONVERSATIONS: FEB 6, 11, 14

190 mins, with intermission LIVE DESCRIPTION ON FEB 8, 2PM PRE-SHOW TOUCH TOUR ON FEB 8, 1PM CONTENT NOTE

Includes use of smoke/haze and flashing lights

PRESENTED WITH

ELECTRIC COMPANY THEATRE

From North to South, a family reverses the refugee’s path in this darkly humorous vision of exile. The action is set in 1979, along the border between the US and Mexico. There, a father and his two daughters drive in a chrome convertible. They’re returning to Chile from Canada, and as they travel, visions of the past and future surround them. Their encounters with people crossing—and guarding—the border range from the poignant to the comical to the fantastical, and the audience is privileged to their internal journeys as individuals as well as their external journey as a family unit.

Inventively staged, inflected by magic realism and boasting stunts, a terrific musical score and two rap tracks by Shad Kabango, Anywhere but Here pulls out all the stops in its portrayal of a Latinx family and its hopes, fears and fantasies.

It’s a feverish commentary on the power of the state and the condition of statelessness, and as such it carries a special resonance today.

31

PuSh-in-development PASSHOLDER EXCLUSIVE

KISMET, THINGS HAVE CHANGED FEB 4-8 7:30PM FEB 8 2PM H ISTOR IC TH EATR E , TH E C U LTCH

from $26 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 5

80 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE

32

PHOTO: CODY CLYBURN

THE CHOP (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

WHAT YOU WON’T DO FOR LOVE

THE CULTCH

“What do you believe in?” Ten years ago, four artists in their late 20s travelled across Canada asking that question. Their 100 respondents ranged in age from one to 100, and the answers became part of an acclaimed touring show. Now the artists are back at it, only this time with a different query for the surviving interviewees: “How do you cope?” In this live performance, they present the responses, portray their cross-country trek and share their own stories of change over the decade.

Using projection, audio recordings and a continually transforming set, the quartet takes the audience through births and deaths, victories and defeats, sudden reversals and slow conversions.

What emerges is a moving depiction of aging, as well as a rich human mosaic—glittering with insights, anecdotes and relatable detail. Growing outward from one blunt question, KISMET attains a remarkable breadth, and never for a moment does it sacrifice intimacy in doing so.

WHY NOT THEATRE (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

ANVIL CENTRE

FEB 4 8PM ANVI L CENTR E

Available to PuSh passholders and Anvil Centre subscribers only. Limited to 2 tickets per PuSh Pass.

45-60 mins (approx), no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE THEATRE

They’ve researched, they’ve taught, they’ve publicized, they’ve protested... but above all, they’ve loved—each other and the planet. Drs. David Suzuki and Tara Cullis are activists and life partners, and on this special evening, they take the opportunity to share with us a lifetime of stories. This workshop presentation is a casual, conversational piece of theatre, powered by the warmth and affability of the couple, but it carries with it a message of the utmost importance.

The bonds of family, the excitement and frustrations of advocacy, the motivating force of love itself: these and more are explored onstage, all in the interest of energizing the audience. The question Suzuki and Cullis put forth is whether or not we can love the planet the way we love those closest to us—friends, partners, family. Here are two generous, committed people who fell in love with each other and with Earth. Can we learn from their example?

33

HOW TO

This is your PuSh pull-out schedule and venue map.

That’s right, pull it right out of this program guide and use it to mark up your show picks and plan your schedule.

A USER’S GUIDE TO AUTHENTICITY IS A FEELING FEB 5 8PM FEB 6 6PM WESTER N FRONT

$15 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 5-6

95 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY, INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE EXTRA LIVE (ALWAYS RELAXED) STAIRS

PHOTO: LEONTIEN ALLEMEERSCH

PME-ART

(CANADA)

After 20 years with PME-ART, co-artistic director Jacob Wren felt he should mark the occasion with something special—so he wrote a book. In keeping with the collective’s practice, Authenticity Is a Feeling blurs the lines between several genres: personal memoir, official history, manifesto… In the end, Wren and his co-conspirators decided to turn this book about performance into a performance itself. Thus we have this User’s Guide—an artist’s talk of sorts, but one that tilts toward the unconventional end of the spectrum.

Wren speaks to the audience, displays photos, plays music, dances and even disrobes; the goal is to entertain, to inform, to make a case for the relevance and value of performance art as a mode of resistance—as something that can make a difference in this troubled world.

We’ve made searching on our website super fast!

Visit pushfestival.ca and start typing an artist name, venue, or show title.

Find more information, watch trailers, buy passes, and book tickets!

Save up to 25% off single ticket prices and enjoy convenience and flexibility!

PuSh Passes are the best and simplest way to experience the PuSh Festival!

PuSh Passes are often sold out in advance of the Festival, so purchase yours early to avoid disappointment. Pass details on pg. 64 and online at pushfestival.ca

Share your show picks and schedule with your friends! #LIVEPUSH

SUPPORTED BY

WESTERN FRONT

34

1

TUE

THE DEMOCRATIC SET (12) 9 LITTLE VOLCANO (14) 1 IDEALVEREIN (15) 16

WED

THU

FRI

22

23

2PM4:30PM X

10AM-1PM 2PM4:30PM X

10AM-1PM 2PM4:30PM X

8PM

8PM

8PM

8PM

8PM

8PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

2PM/ 7:30PM

8PM

8PM

8PM

SKYBORN: A LAND RECLAMATION ODYSSEY (16) 4 BERLIN: THE LAST CABARET (17) 7 OLD STOCK: A REFUGEE LOVE STORY (18) 5

24

SAT

21

25

SUN

26

MON

27

TUE

28

WED

29

THU

30

FRI

31

SAT

01

SUN

02

MON

03

TUE

04

WED

05

THU

06

FRI

07

SAT

08

7PM ZR ^

7:30PM

7:30PM

2PM *

7:30PM *^

7:30PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

2PM%/ 7:30PM

X

OPEN SET

Z

FILM SCREENING

* POST SHOW TALKBACK ^ ASL

1:30PM *CR

% VOCAL EYE 7:30PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

8PM

OPENING WEEKEND PARTY (19) 9

^R

12:30PM / 12:30PM / 12:30PM / 12:30PM / 12:30PM / 2PM / 6PM / 2PM / 6PM / 2PM / 6PM / 2PM / 6PM / 2PM / 6PM / 7PM / 7PM / 7PM / 7PM / 7PM / 8:30PM / 8:30PM / 8:30PM / 8:30PM / 8:30PM / 9:30PM 9:30PM 9:30PM 9:30PM 9:30PM

GARDENS SPEAK (20) 9

12PM9:30PM

12PM9:30PM

12PM9:30PM

12PM9:30PM

SHE, MAMI WATA & THE PUSSY WITCHHUNT (21) 7

8PM *

8PM *

8PM *

8PM *

THE FEVER (22) 1

7PM

6PM

11AM/ 6PM/9PM

6PM/ 9PM

12PM

FLYING WHITE - 飞白 (26) 13

7:30PM

7:30PM

2PM

FREE ADMISSION (27) 12

8:30PM

8:30PM *R 11AM/ 4PM

11AM/ 4PM *

C

CAPTIONS

R

RELAXED PERFORMANCE

(#) PAGE NUMBER # VENUE (ON MAP)

12:30PM/ 2PM / 5:30PM / 6:30PM / 8PM /9PM

12PM9:30PM

TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO (20) 9

THIS SCHEDULE WAS UPDATED ON DEC. 13, 2019

12PM9:30PM

8PM %

FRONTERA (24) 10

4PM ^

10AM/ 12:30PM

10AM/ 12:30PM

6PM

8PM

8PM *

8PM

KISMET, THINGS HAVE CHANGED (32) 4

7:30PM

7:30PM *

7:30PM

7:30PM

2PM/ 7:30PM

ANYWHERE BUT HERE (31) 14

7:30PM

7:30PM

7:30PM

7:30PM *

2PM%/ 7:30PM

8PM *R

6PM *R

HIGH WATER (28) 6 AGIT-POP! (29) 3

8PM

CUCKOO (30) 15

WHAT YOU WON’T DO FOR LOVE (33) 2

C

8PM

A USER’S GUIDE TO AUTHENTICITY IS A FEELING (34) 16 MONDAY NIGHTS (35) 2

8PM

8PM

2PM/ 8PM

CUTLASS SPRING (36) 12

8PM

8PM *

8PM

FOOTNOTE NUMBER 12 (37) 7

8PM

6PM *

6PM

THE DJ WHO GAVE TOO MUCH INFORMATION (38) 16

2PM

7PM R

BRING YOUR OWN RECORD/ LISTENING PARTY (38) 3

7PM

THINGS I SHOULDN’T TELL YOU / PORTRAIT OF MY DNA (39) 3

8PM

R

CLOSING PARTY (39) 3

10PM 2:30PM4PM

CRITICAL IDEAS SERIES (46) 13 WORKSHOPS & ANCILLARY EVENTS (47) various venues

SUN

09

1PM4PM

1PM4PM

1PM4PM

10:30AM12:30PM

2:30PM4PM 1PM4PM

12PM5PM

1PM4PM

12PM5PM

12PM5PM

1:30PM4:30PM

MORNING WELCOME & KEYNOTE MANIFESTO (48) 13

11:30AM1PM 10:30AM12:30PM 2PM4:30PM

ARTIST WALKS (49) TBC PITCH SESSION (49) 1

10AM12PM

PUSHOFF MIXER (49) 11

5PM6PM 11AM1PM

FIELD NOTES (49) 11

11AM2PM

INDUSTRY BRUNCH (49) TBC PUSH PERFORMANCE

CLUB PUSH

PUSH ASSEMBLY

WORKSHOPS

INDUSTRY SERIES

ANNEX

777 Columbia Street

823 Seymour Street

New Westminster

856 Seymour Street

(not shown)

Central Studios

1895 Venables Street

Anvil Centre

The Cultch

Historic Theatre

University of Britsh Columbia

6354 Crescent Road

(not shown)

1398 Cartwright Street

Frederic Wood Theatre

The Nest

1218 Cartwright Street

750 Hamilton Street

181 Roundhouse Mews PA

CI

FI

630 Hamilton Street

600 Campbell Avenue

677 Davie Street

149 W. Hastings Street

600 Hamilton Street

1412 Cartwright Street

303 East 8th Avenue

Performance Works

The Post at 750

Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Russian Hall

Scotiabank Dance Centre

Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema and World Art Centre

SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Vancouver Playhouse

Waterfront Theatre

Western Front

C

MONDAY NIGHTS

PHOTO: TAKU KUMABA

6TH MAN COLLECTIVE AND THE THEATRE CENTRE (CANADA) PRESENTED WITH

FEB 6-8 8PM FEB 8-9 2PM ANVI L CENTR E

$39 EAST 8TH

140 mins, no intermission CONTENT NOTE

Includes flashing lights CAMPBELL

4

ANVIL CENTRE

Who you are on the court reveals who you are off the court; in this basketball-theatre mash-up, we invite you to lace up your sneakers and get in the game! Every Monday night for over a decade, five men came together to play basketball. Friendships were formed, bonds were strengthened; they shared each other’s victories and losses, triumphs and heartbreaks. The game became a refuge and they left it all on the court.

Born from those games, Monday Nights is an interactive basketball/ theatre experience where those same men explore how a simple game can help us understand ourselves and connect to community.

You’re invited to join them on the court, learn some skills and experience the power of the game firsthand. No matter your age, skill level or passion about basketball, get off the bench and get in the game.

The ball’s in your court!

35

CUTLASS SPRING

PHOTO: JOCELYN MICHEL

DANA MICHEL

(CANADA)

PRESENTED WITH

THE DANCE CENTRE

FEB 6-8 8PM SCOTIABAN K DANCE CENTR E

$37 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 7

60 mins, no intermission DEAF & HARD OF HEARING FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE

36

Dana Michel gives us all she can in this subversive, achingly personal show. Using physical choreography, vocal contortions and some truly outré symbolism, she enacts a psychological excavation onstage.

Her goal is to investigate herself as a performer, a daughter, a mother and many other things—including and especially as a sexual being.

The mise-en-scène is minimal, and the use of costumes, props and sound effects is unconventional to say the least. Crawling, writhing and crying out before us, Michel seeks to reinvent the idea of communication for herself; there’s much in the performance that is deeply private, but the sexual assertion, the expression of anguish and the defiant feminism are clear as day. Audiences are free to laugh, to gawk, to be scared, to empathize; the work is open to a generous range of interpretations and responses. All that’s required is curiosity, courage and a sense of adventure; they will be amply rewarded.

FOOTNOTE NUMBER 12 FEB 6 8PM FEB 7-8 6PM PER FOR MANCE WOR KS

$39 POST-SHOW TALKBACK: FEB 7

70 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE CONTENT NOTE

Audience members who use reading glasses are advised to bring them to this performance

PHOTO: MATT REZNEK

SPREAFICO ECKLY AND THEATRE REPLACEMENT

(NORWAY / CANADA)

A deep dive into the politics of language and the dynamics of privilege, Footnote Number 12 turns the act of reading into riveting theatre. You could call it a subversive piece of literary criticism; it takes a celebrated essay by the late David Foster Wallace and breaks it down in a series of seriocomic monologues, each of them playfully modulated by sound artist Nancy Tam. Our speaker is James Long, but we do not always hear his voice; as he paraphrases, quotes and critiques “Roger Federer as Religious Experience,” we get a series of sonic curveballs that highlight gender, race and perspective in funny and provocative ways.

Don’t expect to be a passive audience member: there will be reading from distributed texts, a group song and more in the name of showmanship but also empowerment. Deconstruction has rarely been this mischievous, this innovative, this fun.

37

PHOTO: CODY CLYBURN

THE DJ WHO GAVE TOO MUCH INFORMATION FEB 7 7PM WESTER N FRONT

$15 180 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE EXTRA LIVE (ALWAYS RELAXED) STAIRS

PHOTO: DAVID JACQUES

PME-ART

(CANADA)

One turntable and dozens of records, each one with a story behind it. That’s the simple premise of PME-ART’s party performance; it’s all about the ways in which music helps to organize our memories, beliefs and perceptions. Romantic triumphs and catastrophes, moments of political awakening, tearful valedictions… so many events in our lives are tied to a particular tune.

At this event, audiences can listen, reflect, reminisce; they can have a drink at the bar; they can enter and leave as they please. The artists are keeping it casual— all the better to loosen up the mind. Some songs will get a laugh, some may provoke a tear or two; as for the stories, they run the gamut from entertaining anecdotes to accounts of epiphany.

SUPPORTED BY

WESTERN FRONT

THINGS I SHOULDN’T TELL YOU

.........

BRING YOUR OWN RECORD/ LISTENING PARTY

Audience members who especially love the song/story format of The DJ Who Gave Too Much Information are invited to the Bring Your Own Record/Listening Party the following day; it’s a chance to get in on the fun. Choose a record and story of your own, and bring them on down to share.

PORTRAIT OF MY DNA FEB 8 8PM CENTRAL STUDIOS

$25 FEB 8 7PM CENTRAL STUDIOS

FREE 90 mins, no intermission LOW VISION FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION AVAILABLE EXTRA LIVE (ALWAYS RELAXED) STAIRS

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FOLLOWED BY FREE CLOSING NIGHT PARTY AT 10PM STAIRS

PHOTO: SHAWN KIM

CRYSTAL PRECIOUS (CANADA) This cabaret extravaganza throws new tracks from local dancer, diva and rapper Crystal Precious in with striptease, standup, musical parody and stories from a life lived on the burlesque circuit. Visually, it’s a fantasy mash-up of various retro styles, and the sonic backdrop ranges from two-step to trip hop. Beats come courtesy of local favourites such as Darren Woodhead and Self Evident; guest dancers include Subscura and House of La Douche. Sexy, scandalous and soulful as hell, this is self-revelation put across with finesse—a performance in the finest hip hop tradition.

HOUSE OF LA DOUCHE (CANADA) Look at us: conflicted, constricted, still suffering under the yoke of sexually repressive mores. Here comes House of La Douche to the rescue, with drag, dance and the subversive power of the spoken word in their arsenal. This crew has a mandate to entertain, to arouse and—above all, and for the love of humanity—to liberate. To that end, they bring their stories, their bodies and their all-out diva-vibe fabulousness to the audience; the result is a diverse display of sexuality and an artistic sensibility based on the notion that eros should fly free. Expect wild waacking, vogue lessons, verbal virtuosity, sexy strutting and an overarching spirit of uplift.

39

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ROSEDALE ON ROBSON SUITE HOTEL

838 Hamilton St, Vancouver • 1.800.661.8870 The Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel provides comfort and convenience in the heart of the sports and entertainment district of downtown Vancouver.

As the official PuSh Hotel Partner the Rosedale On Robson Suite Hotel is offering exclusive PuSh Festival rates from $129 per night* from Jan 15 to Feb15, 2020.

Book online with the promo code “PUSH” or call and ask for the “Friends of PuSh Festival” rate.

THE LISTEL HOTEL

1300 Robson St, Vancouver • 1.800.663.5491 The Listel Hotel is a cultural tourist’s dream, as well as a leader in environmental responsibility. Dubbed as Vancouver’s most “art-full” and sustainable hotel, Listel is centrally located in downtown Vancouver offering 129 beautifully appointed boutique rooms and suites.

GLOBAL DANCE CONNECTIONS SERIES

Photo: Hillel Kogan/Maria Grazia Lenzini

OUT INNERSPACE DANCE THEATRE (VancouVer) Dec 11-14 DANA MICHEL (Montreal) Feb 6-8 BILL COLEMAN (toronto) Mar 12-14 HILLEL KOGAN (Israel) apr 23-25

As a Hospitality Partner the Listel Hotel is proud to offer exclusive Push Festival rates starting from $139 per night* for Jan 19 to Feb 11, 2020.

Book online with the promo code “PUSH” or call and ask for the “PUSH” rate.

thedancecentre.ca HOLIDAY INN HOTEL & SUITES MeDIa sponsor

BRIAN POSTALIAN'S MFA PROJECT: NEW SOCIETIES | PHOTO: SEBASTIEN GALINA

1110 Howe St, Vancouver • 1.800.663.9151 The Holiday Inn & Suites Vancouver Downtown puts the best of Vancouver at your doorstep. From Davie to Yaletown to Robson to Gastown, you’re steps away from the city’s favourite attractions, restaurants and shops.

As a Hospitality Partner the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites is proud to offer exclusive Push Festival rates starting from $119 per night* for Jan 21 to Feb 9, 2020.

Book online with the promo code “P20” or call and directly quote the “P20” group code.

*

HOSPITALITY PARTNERS

BOOK AN EVO SCHOOL FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE PERFORMANCE | T HE AT R E P R O D UCT I O N & D E SI GN | VI SU A L A RT | A R T , P E R FO R M A N C E & C I N E M A S T U D I E S | M A | M FA WWW.SFU.CA/SCA

All rates are based on availability, and subject to taxes and fees. Check out the full details online at pushfestival.ca/about-the-festival/out-of-town-visitors/

Banff Centre is inspiration gone wild.

Program 2 Mar 4 5 6 7

Explore artist residencies, workshops, and practicum programs in dance, music, opera, and theatre.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:

Medhi Walerski Romeo + Juliet

Program 3 May 7 8 9 Ohad Naharin Hora Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar Bill Platinum season sPonsor

Banff Centre performance of Kidd Pivot’s Revisor, 2019. Dancers David Raymond, Rena Narumi, Tiffany Tregarthen, and Ella Rothschild. Photo by Donald Lee.

Apply today. banffcentre.ca

Subscribe Now Save up to 15% balletbc.com

ART FOR ALL SEATING

Media sponsors

Support for Ballet BC haS Been generouSly provided By

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #92, 1981 (detail), chromogenic print, Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures, New York

Ballet BC daNCer KirSteN WiCKluNd. Photo By MiChael SloBodiaN.

OCT 26, 2019 – MAR 8, 2020

GET TICKETS AT VANARTGALLERY.BC.CA

Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery

Major Support provided by

Cathy Zuo

Supporting sponsor

Additional sponsor

Generously supported by

Additional support from

Artworkers Retirement Society

Sheahan and Gerald McGavin

ASSEMBLY The PuSh Assembly is where we gather to share ideas and perspectives around the performing arts. An open invitation to arts aficionados and industry insiders, the PuSh Assembly aims to foster community by stimulating dialogue among audiences and artists alike.

Events listed are up-to-date as of program guide publication (Nov 2019). Please visit www.pushfestival.ca/ assembly for latest updates and late additions such as artist talks and pop-up social events.

CRITICAL IDEAS PRESENTED WITH

SFU’S INSTITUTE FOR PERFORMANCE STUDIES

SUPPORTED BY

SFU FACULTY OF COMMUNICATIONS, ART AND TECHNOLOGY & SFU WOODWARD’S CULTURAL PROGRAMS

FREE • No registration required Critical Ideas is a partnership between PuSh and SFU’s Institute for Performance Studies. Coordinated by IPS Director Peter Dickinson and PuSh Associate Artistic Director Joyce Rosario, the series brings together artists, critics, scholars and audiences to discuss formal, social and ideological issues affecting performance practice and reception today. Panels are free and open to the public. Now entering its fifth year, the 2020 edition of Critical Ideas has been guest-curated by PuSh Scholars-in-Residence Dylan Robinson and Keren Zaiontz.

Peter Dickinson is Professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, where he also serves as Director of the Institute for Performance Studies. His most recent book, My Vancouver Dance History: Story, Movement, Community, will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2020.

ON DEMOCRACY ‘On Democracy’ features award-winning artist Alex Bulmer and scholar Keren Zaiontz in conversation about Back to Back Theatre’s The Democratic Set. They will discuss how disabled artists are cripping — and democratizing — the stage through bold enactments that refuse to be peripheral to contemporary performance. Bulmer and Zaiontz will also ask what these unapologetic crip performances hold for democracy-at-large. For disabled artists, principles such as freedom of movement and freedom of assembly are not lofty notions, but the stuff of resistance. Bulmer will draw upon her groundbreaking body of work to show how, as a disabled artist, her very movement in public is often a political act.

JA N 24 2 :3 0 P M-4P M DJAVA D MOWAFAGH IAN WOR LD ART CEN TR E AT SF U ’S GOLDCOR P CEN TR E FOR TH E ARTS

ON GATHERING ‘On Gathering’ brings together choreographer/director Emily Johnson (Yup’ik), writer/artist Camille Georgeson-Usher (Coast Salish/Sahtu Dene/Scottish), choreographer/curator Satu Herrala, and Dylan Robinson (Stó:lō) to discuss artistic forms of gathering and assembly in public space. Our discussion will give particular attention to the exclusionary and inclusionary politics of gathering together upon Indigenous lands where we are uninvited guests.

JA N 31 2 :3 0 P M-4P M DJAVA D MOWAFAGH IAN WOR LD ART CEN TR E AT SF U ’S GOLDCOR P CEN TR E FOR TH E ARTS

ON COMMITMENT ‘On Commitment’ will provide space for a range of artists involved in PuSh 2020 to reflect on the implications of aesthetic, bodily, and durational commitment across different productions.

How do artists offer particular forms of “commitment” through their work? How do our commitments to witnessing art and performance intersect with political commitment?

WORKSHOPS + ANCILLARY EVENTS

PHOTO: KEG DE SOUZA

THE FUTURE IS FLOATING: CURRENTS AND WAVES FALSE CREEK FORESHORE SESSIONS

CAN WE IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT PUNISHMENT THINKING ABOUT LOVE AND JUSTICE

WITH OTHER SIGHTS FOR ARTISTS’ PROJECTS

WITH KAI CHENG THOM

Long-time PuSh collaborator Other Sights for Artists’ Projects will present a program of sound, performance, discussion and exchange that will link False Creek with Sydney Harbour in Australia. False Creek Foreshore Sessions (FCFS) will explore these two locales and their parallel, yet distinct, histories of settlement, colonization, migration, economy and climate change.

Informed by the fluid-structure of the tides, this series connects currents and waves radio programming to a week of public events happening around the creek including talks, walks, listening sessions, workshops and more. Visit the project site for more details.

Writer, performance artist, and community healer Kai Cheng Thom facilitates a workshop focusing on transformative justice within the queer community. Thom’s fourth book, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World, was published by Arsenal Pulp Press in Fall 2019. The workshop is open to all and is held in parallel to SUM Gallery & Queer Arts Festival’s visual art exhibit “Yellow Peril; The Celestial Elements” curated by Love Intersections (Jen Sungshine, Jay Cabalu, Kendell Yan, David Ng).

JAN 2 2 -2 6 1 P M- 4 P M MULTI P LE V E NUE S AROUN D TH E FALS E CR E E K FOR ES HO R E

F E B 2 1 :3 0 P M- 4 :3 0 P M S UM GAL L E RY

$0 - $15 • No one turned away for lack of funds Registration + exhibition details: www.sumgallery.ca

FREE • Advance registration required Event times and details: www.currentsandwaves.ca/falsecreek

F EB 7 10 :3 0 AM-12 P M DJAVA D MOWAFAGH IAN CI N EMA AT SF U ’S GOLDCOR P CEN TR E FOR TH E ARTS PHOTO: BENOÎT LACHAMBRE

SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE As PuSh’s inaugural Scholars-in-Residence, we look forward to engaging with festival audiences through the Critical Ideas Series. We plan to bring artists involved in PuSh’s 2020 program with invited Indigenous and disabled artists and curators to ask foundational questions about how performance can intervene in an age of crisis. The panels will range in scope and consider how disabled artists are using the stage to insist on differently embodied democracies, how Indigenous artists are reclaiming the public sphere to insist on resurgent forms of gathering, and what these and many other practices might hold for new types of aesthetic and political forms of commitment. Additionally, over the coming year, we look forward to working with guest artists to sustain these discussions around democracy, gathering, and commitment through residencies that focus on mobilities in public space and in Vancouver/Lhq’a:lets in particular. — DYLAN ROBINSON + KEREN ZAIONTZ 46

NO FIXED POSITIONS Dylan Robinson is a xwélméxw (Stó:lō) artist and writer, as well as an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts at Queen’s University. His current work involves devising art actions that re-connect Indigenous songs with communities who were prohibited by law to sing them as part of Canada’s Indian Act from 1882-1951. Robinson is curator of the Ka’tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts, and co-curator of the internationally touring exhibition Soundings that features artscores by Indigenous artists.

Keren Zaiontz is an Assistant Professor and Queen’s National Scholar at Queen’s University where she teaches in the Department of Film and Media and the Cultural Studies Program. Keren writes about how artists navigate the spatial politics of global north cities at the site of performing arts festivals and mega-events. She is author of Theatre & Festivals (Palgrave Macmillan).

WITH DANA MICHEL (CUTLASS SPRING)

SHAKESPEARE’S EM

(THAT IS A FIXED POSITION BUT IT IS ONE FIXED POSITION TO HAVE LESS FIXED POSITIONS)

Pi Theatre is inviting the PuSh community to observe and contribute to the professional art-making process. Pi is working on a new adaptation of Othello based on the point of view of the character of Emilia. It’s a deconstruction of the play looking at notions of post-truth psychosis, internet echo chambers, and inequitable gender-based power dynamics. Come to observe, respond and contribute.

We will ____ on being present, on sharpening listening, on awakening our voices, on speaking and looking through our bodies, on softening our focus. Over the next many minutes, we will engage in activities devised to instigate ____ which MAY or MAY NOT have incidence on your live-art creation practice. Let’s not look for specific shit, yeah? Anyway, please sign this “get lost or get lost contract” if you’d like to join along for this prescribed moment in time.

JAN 29-31 12PM-5PM AN VI L CENTR E

F E B 5 1 1 :3 0 AM- 1 P M S COTIAB AN K DANCE CE NTR E

WITH PI THEATRE

FREE • No registration required Program details: www.pitheatre.com/emilia

$15 - $30 • Performance background recommended Registration: www.thedancecentre.ca/artist-workshops/ 47

PHOTO: SARAH RACE

PRE-INDUSTRY SERIES EVENT

INDUSTRY SERIES

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

There is a growing call for more skilled arts agents and producers in Canada. Given the need expressed by artists and the interest from funders to tour work, how will we invest in the next generation of agents and creative producers who can strategically build national and international relationships, and share that knowledge within the sector?

The PuSh Festival Industry Series is geared to performing arts industry professionals and practitioners: artists, producers or presenters; emerging, mid-career or established.

Industry Series delegates gather together in relaxed settings to share ideas, perspectives and best practices through performances, showcases, discussions and ongoing networking opportunities. Each year, we host over 150 delegates, including visiting Canadian and international presenters, artists and other industry leaders.

PuSh Industry Pass or Industry Series Access is required to attend as a delegate.

INDUSTRY PASS

$249

(Industry Series Access + Six-Show Pass) INDUSTRY SERIES ACCESS ONLY SUPPORTED BY

Black

$75

JA N 29 1P M-3 P M WO R LD ART CEN TR E AT S FU’S GOLDCOR P CENT R E FOR TH E ARTS

ARTIST WALKS

(AKA SPEED SLOW DATING) Local Vancouver artists take groups of 1-3 delegates on a guided tour of their favourite places in the Greater Vancouver area.

Artist walks will begin at the lunch location and end at Granville Island Brewery.

FEB 5 2 : 0 0 P M- 4 :3 0 P M VAR IOUS LOCATIONS

Delegates start the day together with refreshments and words of welcome from hosts and dignitaries. Followed by keynote manifesto commissioned by PuSh from a guest artist (TBD).

man·i·fes·to n

A public written declaration of principles, policies, and objectives.

Artistic manifestos can be a call to arms, a statement of principles, or a line drawn in the sand. They can be a provocation and a challenge to existing tastes and aesthetics, an analysis of landmark productions, a spotlight on seminal points in time or simply a confirmation of emerging trends, values and practices.

F E B 6 5P M- 6P M R US S IAN H AL L

RSVP required (open to Industry Series delegates only)

FREE • RSVP required (open to all)

MORNING WELCOME + KEYNOTE MANIFESTO

PUSH OFF MIXER PushOFF, produced by Theatre Replacement in partnership with Company 605, is an independent, curated platform of tour-ready projects and works in development by Canadian artists, taking place Feb 6 and 7. Join producers and artists for an informal mixer. Full PushOFF details at theatrereplacement.org/pushoff.

FIELD NOTES INDUSTRY SOCIAL Gather around the table over food and drinks, debrief on the day’s event and walks before heading out for evening performances.

FEB 5 5P M GRAN VI LL E IS L AN D B R E W E RY

PITCH SESSION Pre-selected applicants give an 8-minute pitch of their new and upcoming projects to an audience of producers, artistic directors, festival curators, presenters and programmers.

FEB 6 AN N E X

1 0 AM- 1 2P M

Field Notes is an Industry Series platform for sharing current trends, inspirations and notes from the field; a space for lively conversation and collegial debate. Choose from concurrent ‘world café’ style discussions. Snacks and refreshments provided.

F E B 8 1 1 AM- 1 P M R US S IAN H AL L

INDUSTRY BRUNCH On the last day of the Festival, join fellow PuSh Industry Series delegates and participants for a farewell brunch. Light brunch buffet provided.

F E B 9 1 1 AM- 2P M TH E P OST AT 750

F EB 5 10 :3 0 AM-12 :3 0 P M DJAVA D MOWAFAGH IAN CI N EMA AT SF U ’S GOLDCOR P CEN TR E FOR TH E ARTS CMYK

48

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IGNITE YOUR CREATIVITY WITH A ONE-YEAR BACHELOR OF PERFORMING ARTS DEGREE Open to those who have a diploma, certificate or an established professional practice in the arts. Grow and refine your creative vision in a collaborative, transdisciplinary environment.

One year. Full-time. January start. Apply now.

PHOTO: TIM MATHESON

CAPILANOU.CA/BPA

bpa@capilanou.ca | 604 984 4911

YOUTH PROGRAM

TAKE ACTION: SHAPE THE FUTURE OF PUSH’S YOUTH PROGRAM!

The PuSh Youth Program connects the Festival experience to the next generation of audiences, artists and practitioners. From visionary, genre-bending and multi-disciplinary programming by artists from across Canada and around the world to behind-the-scenes access, we introduce new communities to the artistic sensibility and world-view of visiting Canadian and international artists.

YOUTH TICKETS (AGES 16-24) We recognize affordability as the primary barrier preventing young audiences from attending performances, so we are proud to present PuSh’s Youth Tickets. We welcome new fans and hope the PuSh Festival experience will inspire a new generation of lifelong arts supporters.

YOUTH FOUR-SHOW PASS

$

20

Dive into shows with your Youth Four-Show Pass which allows you to book into four performances of your choice for only $20! Book online to guarantee yourself a ticket to your top picks, or take a risk on something new.

There’s never been a better—or cheaper—way to sample the PuSh Festival!

Terms and conditions apply, see p. 64

For 2020, we invite young professionals, emerging artists, and former Youth Program participants to help us re-envision PuSh’s suite of youth programs, and shape the next steps of the Festival’s future. We also want to connect with other youth programs around Vancouver and the Lower Mainland—both within and outside of performing arts—to inform this process. To this end, we will host gatherings leading up to and during the Festival. Please join us!

Visit pushfestival.ca/youth for details, or contact youth@pushfestival.ca

PUSH YOUTH PROGRAM: A SHORT HISTORY The current iteration of PuSh’s Youth Program was launched in 2014 and has included the PuSh Passport (now Youth Tickets), Youth Academy (a ‘book club’ but for performing arts), Youth Volunteers and Young Ambassadors.

PuSh has an outstanding group of alumni Youth Coordinators, each leaders in their fields of practice: Dave Deveau (2014 & 2015), Emily Neumann (2016), Hong Kong Exile (2017) and Natalie Tin Yin Gan (2018 - present). The precursor to the Youth Program was the Young Ambassadors, instigated by former Associate Curator Dani Fecko in 2010 as a bridging program to integrate the next generation of young arts professionals into the Festival.

That next generation is YOU. If you were inspired by your PuSh Youth Program experience and want to make it even better for next year’s audience, let’s connect.

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app.weshowup.io PAY WHAT IT’S WORTH

April 16–19, 2020 Vancouver Convention Centre

COLE

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AMBARCHI

(AUSTRALIA)

C RYS

(WINNIPEG)

Art Vancouver International Art Fair

RESERVE YOUR TICKET NOW

Art Vancouver is the largest international art fair in Western Canada, connecting 100 galleries and artists from Canada and around the world with over 10,000 attendees.

Apply now to exhibit in the 2020 fair.

ARTVANCOUVER.NET

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Sponsored by

@york

BOUNDLESS OPTIONS FOR CREATIVITY ACTING • DIRECTING • DESIGN • PRODUCTION • PERFORMANCE CREATION DEVISED THEATRE • DRAMATURGY • PLAYWRITING THEATRE.AMPD.YORKU.CA @YORKUAMPD

Metro Arts Xperience Metro Vancouver’s online arts & culture event guide Find great performances, inspiring exhibitions & explore new neighbourhoods.

www.maxguide.org SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS FOR A LIVABLE REGION

Proud to support PuSh Festival.

ACCESSIBLE

PHOTO: GABRIEL MARTINS

RELAXED PERFORMANCES We are working together with PuSh. It’s just one way we are helping to open doors for a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow.

Providing transformative performing arts experiences to as broad an audience as possible is a core value of the PuSh Festival. We seek to reduce or eliminate physical, social and financial barriers so that everyone has a chance to experience live performance. Visit pushfestival.ca/access for up-to-date information.

To make arrangements or to discuss your specific access needs, please contact Accessible PuSh Coordinator Anika Vervecken at access@pushfestival.ca.

td.com/thereadycommitment ® The TD logo and other TD trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

M05234 (1019)

DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING PATRONS At certain performances, professional interpreters provide live American Sign Language Interpretation. For non-performance events, ASL-interpretation can be requested.

Other shows have a performance where Open Captions are used.

For these decisions we worked with our Deaf consultant, Aastrid Evensen, who also helped designate certain shows as Deaf Friendly [DHH] and we often work with the artists to create an introduction providing more context.

All information about these shows is also available in Vlogs in ASL on our website.

PATRONS WHO ARE BLIND OR HAVE LOW SIGHT Live audio description by VocalEye is available at select performances. This specialized service describes the visual elements of a live show in real-time. Often these are preceded by a touch tour where low sight patrons get to explore the stage and touch certain set pieces and or costumes.

Some shows have been designated as low sight friendly; this work was done with our low sight consultant Deb Fong. She also consulted with artists on creating introductions for those shows.

We also provide sighted guides for reaching venues. Available for all performances.

Select performances are adapted to welcome patrons who might benefit from a more relaxed theatre environment, including—but not limited to—people on the autism spectrum, with sensory and communication disorders, or learning disabilities. There is a relaxed attitude towards noise and movement made by the audience, and adaptations are made to light and sound effects.

Some shows are always relaxed, in that case, we call them Extra Live.

These shows will all have visual stories for both the show and the venue on our website: pushfestival.ca/access.

SUPPORT PERSONS / VOLUNTEERS

Support persons who accompany patrons requiring assistance to attend a show receive a complimentary ticket. The PuSh Festival participates in Easter Seals Canada’s Access2 program and partners with VocalEye and Canucks Autism Network.

Need support but don’t have a support person? Specially trained PuSh volunteers are available to assist patrons to attend shows, meeting you at nearby public transit stops, guiding you to and from venues and supporting you at the shows.

ACCESSIBILITY VENUE AUDITS Detailed audits are conducted for all Festival venues, providing technical specifications about a range of accessibility considerations.

Note: some venues have heritage designation and are only accessible via long staircases. This is the case for Central Studios and Western Front.

COMMUNITY TICKETING & INDIGENOUS TICKETING The PuSh Festival works with partner social services organizations and community groups to distribute complimentary or reduced-price tickets to marginalized populations who may experience barriers to attend the Festival. We work with our partners to ensure these patrons are fully supported.

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World-class exhibitions meet stunning panoramic views.

The Polygon Gallery Located next to Lonsdale Quay 101 Carrie Cates Court, North Vancouver Open 10 am – 5 pm, closed Mondays Admission is always by donation, courtesy of

thepolygon.ca

THE ROSEDALE ON ROBSON SUITE HOTEL

GRA18-015_Push Festival Ad_2018 October October 10, 2018

5.875" x 5.085"

Granville Island

CMYK

PUSH Magazine

N/A

GRA18-015 C

Lyse Lemieux: No Fixed Abode JAN 11 – APR 25, 2020 SFU Gallery

Helen Cho: Space Silence

JAN 16 - MAR 14, 2020 Audain Gallery

Evan Lee: Fugazi

Until APR 26, 2020 Teck Gallery

AU DAIN G ALL ERY SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts 149 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC, V6B 1H4

SFU G ALL ERY SFU Burnaby Campus Academic Quadrangle 3004 8888 University Drive Burnaby BC, V5A 1S6

T ECK G ALL ERY SFU Harbour Centre 515 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC, V6B 5K3

sfugalleries.ca IMAGE Lyse Lemieux, Odradek Bundles (detail). Photo: Scott Massey.

M

lblackburn@stbernadine.com Y

Official 2020 PuSh Festival Hotel Partner Outstanding Location. Easy Access.

The Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel provides comfort and convenience in the heart of the sports and entertainment district of downtown Vancouver.

K

Friends of PuSh Rate:

$

129 per night

One-Bedroom Deluxe Suite (either 1 king or 2 double beds), including continental buffet breakfast on our 2nd floor.

To take advantage of this special offer, book online using the promo code “PUSH” or call the Rosedale directly at 1-800-6618870 and ask for the “Friends of PuSh Festival” rate.

Offer valid from Jan. 15 - Feb. 15, 2020.

838 Hamilton Street @ Robson • Vancouver • BC • Canada • V6B 6A2

Reservations are subject to space availability.

Local: 604 689 8033 • Toll Free: 1 800 661 8870

Rate is based on single or double occupancy and is subject to applicable taxes.

W W W. R O S E DA L E O N R O B S O N . C O M

J O I N T H E PAT R O N S C I R C L E

.............

This list represents donors from September 1, 2018 to October 30, 2019. If we missed your name because of our print deadline, please know we appreciate you! .............

Donors who have given for at least 10 consecutive years Donors who have given for at least 5 consecutive years

CEM

ENT .

Donors who give on a monthly basis

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WI

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THANK YOU PATRONS CIRCLE DONORS

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Battye • Gisela Beckmann • Douglas Bellamy • Hannah Bellamy • Linda Belton • Judith Bosire • Veronique Boulanger • Donna-Lynn Brailsford-Rosa • Melina Buckley • Katharine Carol • Yun-Jou Chang • Garry Chmara • Judith Coffin • Lynn Copeland • Josh Coward • Simon & Kathleen Cowell • Anne Crawford • Charmaine de Silva • Lucie Desrochers • Janina Deveau • Gloria & Bob Dickinson • Maria Dobrinskaya • Frances Dobrzanski • Bea Donald • Chris Doray • Roxanne Duncan • Kathy Evans • Alex Ferguson • Jean Gardner • Dr. Karen Gelmon • Carole & Martin Gerson • Tony Giacinti • Anne Giardini • Kara Gibbs & Michael McGuire • Edward & Marianne Gibson • Karen Gilmore & Rob Van Nus • Georgeann Glover • Regina & Dr. Eugene Gorodetsky • Linda Gorrie • Dr. Evelyn J. Harden • Heather Hoiness • Rosemary Hopkinson • Lynette Hunter • JM Hurst • Heather Hyde • Selwyn Jacob • Liesl Jauk • Duncan & Seona Johnston • DD Kugler • Luce Lafontaine • Mila Lane • David Lee • Risa Levine • Jocelyn & Fiona Macdougall • Blair MacLean • Genny MacLean • Laurel March • Melody Mason • Anne Mathisen • Stephanie Mayor • Laura McAlear • Dr. Paula Meyler • Kevin Mitchell • Miriam Moses • Jen Moses • Murray Paterson Marketing Group • Ardis Nelson • Carol Newson • Morgan & Jasmine Nicholsfigueiredo • Ellie O’Day • Anne Olsen • Paula Palyga • Bobbi Parker • Iain Pennington • Brenda Peterson • Andrew Petter & Maureen Maloney • Sylvia Roberts • Gregor Robertson • Joyce Rosario • Linda Rosas • Mary Schendlinger • Neil Scott • Kathryn Shaw • Cecil Sigal • Jim Smith • Karen Smith • Dana & Joel Solomon • Linda Solomon • Kristin Stockley • Andrew Storrs • Bonnie Sun • Roy Surette • Sean Verhallen • Christianne Wilhelmson & John Webber • Stephen Williams

PH

OT

O:

M

AT T

• Roberta Lando Beiser • Franco Boni • Jane Brindley & Ross Paul • Margaret Dickson • Peter Dickinson & Richard Cavell • Punit Dhillon • Jason Dubois & Clayton Baraniuk • Frank Durnford • Mark Gatha & Kemo Schedlosky • Prem Gill • Harry Gray • Michael Heeney & Hilary Meredith • Jane Heyman & Lionel Johnston • Elsie Jang & Audrey Jang Fund, held at Vancouver Foundation • Jennifer Johnstone • Judy Lindsay • Lightburn Family Fund, held at the Vancouver Foundation • Susan Loadman & Kent Gallie • Harvey Loen & Lois Binder • Paula Martin • Ross McMillan • Susan Mendelson • Glenn Mori • Carol Newell • Rodger So • Peter ter Weeme • Value Property Group • Janet Webber • Paul & Joan Whitney

TL

CURATOR ($1,000-$2,499) Norman Armour

SUPPORTER ($150-$499) Sally Adamson • Evan & Ingrid Alderson • Ms. Rosario Ancer • Jim Anhorn • Robert Armour • Trevor & Kathy

from Sherri Silverman • Deena Chochinov from Jim Smith • Deena Chochinov from Sarah White • Hannah Bellamy from Hilda Shilliday • Indominatable Claire from Sally Stubbs • Lynda Morris from David Kerr • Marcus Youssef from Alex Feldman • Mira Oreck from Howard Karby • Mira Oreck & Stepan Vdovine from Risa Levine • Norman Armour from Jane Brindley • Norman Amour from Ian Martin • Peter Dickinson & Richard Cavell from Gloria & Bob Dickinson • Peter Dickinson & Richard Cavell from Pamela Dickinson • Peter Loeffler from Lynn Mockler • Roxanne Duncan from Roy Surette • Tim Porteous from Bea Donald • Tory Ross from David Ross • Canadian Artists Katrina Dunn, Kim Renders & Mitzi Hauser from Vincent Murphy

LIT

• Deena Chochinov & Eric Posen • David Cousins • Tory Ross & Keith Martin Gordey • Susan & Bruce Stout • Fei Wong • Max Wyman, OC

OM

Leanne Averbach

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PRODUCER ($2,500-$4,999)

GIFTS IN HONOUR Deena Chochinov from Joel Berman • Deena Chochinov from Jessica Bouchard • Deena Chochinov from Marla Levy • Deena Chochinov from Mira Oreck • Deena Chochinov from Marcela Manes • Deena Chochinov from Michael Millman • Deena Chochinov from Heidi Seimdan • Deena Chochinov

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Nik Badminton • Anndraya Luui • The McGrane – Pearson Endowment Fund, held at the Vancouver Foundation • R & J Stern Family Foundation • Transcendence Foundation

GIFTS IN MEMORY Alice Graham from Jean Gardner • James Pollard from Robert Gardinder • Jackie Crossland from Miriam Moses • Lola MacLaughlin from Tony Giacinti • Pepper Malone from Bea Jablonska • Teresa Moore from Sarah Moore

EK

SUSTAINING ($5,000-$14,999)

FRIEND ($20-$149) • Dale Allison • Elizabeth Abel • Todd Al • Michelle Alin Roya Amirsoleymani • Bruce Bailey • Tammy Bannister • Joyce Bauer • Brenda Benham • Erica Bernardi • Joel Berman • Sue Biely • Joel Bronstein • Borja Brown • Naomi Campbell • Tim Carlson • Don & Donna Celle • Jasmine Chen • Jane Cherry • Jacqueline Day • Geoffrey Deacon • Pamela Dickinson • Mary Doherty • Eugene Dy • Earnest Ice Cream • Luba & Tyrone Ebert • Nicole Ebert • Alex Feldman • Kathleen Flaherty • Jane Flick & Robert Heidbreder • Maia Fota-Gibb • Lily Fong • Jean Fowler • Shayna Goldberg • Harini & Sathish Gopalakrishnan • Yoni Gordis & Robbie Chesick • Melissa Guillergan • Sean Guist • Amy Gyoba • Anna Hagan • John Hagen • David Hamilton • liisa hannus • • Roger Stephen Heatley • Evelyn Hecht • Jackie Hoffart Holdstock • Jane Hope • Bea Jablonska • Barbara Jackson • Harris Jason • Georgia Johnson • Kristen Johnson • Jessie Johnston • Marianne Johnstone • Vivian Kan • Sara Karby • Howard & Rosalind Karby • Kenneth Klonsky • R Kort • Amy Kubanek • Cheryl L • Trey Le • Brenda Leadlay • Louise Leclair • Ken Lee • MarieFrance Leroi • Casey Leung • Marla Levy • Edna Leyland • Milton Lim • Merle Lister • James Long • Brenda Longfellow • Kyle Loven • Leanne Lunghamer • Chantal Lyons-Stevenson • Maureen MacDonald • Bonnie MacKenzie • Marni MacLeod • Kenji Maeda • David Main • Arturo & Marcela Manes • Lydia Marston-Blaauw • Ian Martin • John Mason • Tim Matheson • Ann McDonell • Judy McFarlane • Bruce McPherson • Linda McTurk • Geoff Meggs & Jan O’Brien • Harvey Meller • Lisa Mennell • Michael Millman • Ms. Lynn Mockler • Sarah Moore • Florence Mui • Kathleen Mullen • Vincent Murphy • Laura Nanni • Robert Naud • Emily Neumann • Kala O Riordain • Candace O’Connor & Alan Simmonds • Wendy Oberlander • Carol & Peter Oreck • Nora Osborne • Andrea Ottem • David Parkes • David Pay & Brian Laberge • Suzanne Reeves • David Rehorick • Catherine Ross & David Ewart • David Ross • Alexandra Rudis • Jarin Schexnider • Ms. Bénédicte Schoepflin • Heidi Seidman • Amy Severson • Hilda Shilliday • Shamim Shivji • Todd Sieling • Sherri Silverman • Margaret Sorrel • Mike Stack • Peter Stenberg • Lynda Stokes • Sally Stubbs • Judith Tait • Heidi Taylor • Martha Teate • Liisa Tella • Nicci Theroux • Anona Thorne • Camilla Tibbs • Ronald Tidball • Jodie Tonita • Court Touwslager • Colleen Van Hooft • Anika Vervecken • Meg Walker • Sarah White • Peter Wilds • Mary Catherine Williams • Andrew Wong • Janelle Wong-Moon • Jessica Wood • Norman Yeung • Mirna Zagar

• Lorna Brown • Dana Cromie & Greg Brown • Mo Dhaliwal • Chris Dobrzanski • Marie-Claire Dy • Robert Gardiner • Cheryl Geisler & Mark Stein • Kathy & Stan Hamilton • Margo Harper • Sue Harvey & Burke Taylor • Paul Hecht & Sarah Elkins • Christopher Hunt • Tevia Jeffries • Alessandro Juliani • David Kerr • Sudha Krishna • Peter Ladner • Kathleen MacDonald • Susan MacLaurin • Laura Moore • Susin Nielsin & Goran Fernlund • Mira Oreck • Rod Pearce • Cory Philley • Danielle • Barb Whiteman • Eric Pichie • Lainé Slater Wilson • Gillian Wood

ZN

.............

ADVOCATE ($500-$999) Jessica & Shawn Bouchard

RE

Join an extraordinary group of donors by making a donation to the PuSh Festival. To donate today, or learn more about how your donations help PuSh, visit pushfestival.ca/donate.

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STAFF & BOARD STAFF ARTISTIC AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Franco Boni ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Joyce Rosario MANAGING DIRECTOR

Jason Dubois PRODUCTION MANAGER

David Kerr AUDIENCE SERVICES MANAGER

Janelle Wong-Moon OPERATIONS MANAGER

Leila Toledo

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Steve Chow GUIDE AD SALES

Clevers Media GUIDE COPYWRITER

Mike Archibald DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR

Malena Meneses-Skoda WEBSITE DESIGNER AND DEVELOPER

Denim & Steel DEAF CONSULTANT

Aastrid Evensen LOW SIGHT CONSULTANT

Deborah Fong

COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Carolyn Rohaly DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, PARTNERSHIPS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Nicole Ebert

PRESIDENT

PRODUCER

Jessica Bouchard

Katie Roberts

PAST PRESIDENT

CLUB PUSH PRODUCER AND CURATOR

Mira Oreck

Cameron Mackenzie

VICE PRESIDENT

ACCESSIBLE PUSH COORDINATOR

Peter ter Weeme

Anika Vervecken

SECRETARY

HEAD TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Tory Ross

Jeremy Baxter

TREASURER

BOOKKEEPER

Glenn Mori

Meredith Burney AUDIENCE SERVICES COORDINATOR

Kaen Valoise YOUTH PROGRAM COORDINATOR

Natalie Tin Yin Gan ARTIST SERVICES MANAGER

Melanie Lemaire EVENTS COORDINATOR

Nargis Dhirani

Cicely Belle Blain Judith Bosire Frank Durnford Harry Gray Tevia Jeffries Jennifer Johnstone Sudha Krishna Cory Philley Janet Webber Ross McMillan (ex-officio)

THANK YOU In addition to the special thanks that the staff extends to their loved ones for their unwavering support, the PuSh Festival gratefully acknowledges the following people for their time, energy and advice: Arts Factory; Norman Armour, Hannah Bellamy; Roxanne Duncan; Driving Force; Geodis; Darren Heroux; Jackie Hoffart; Nicki Kahnamoui; Tom Lee Music; Maya Lohcham; Jocelyn Macdougall; Laura Moore; The Post at 750 and liisa hannus; Minna Schendlinger; Jo Shin; Smith Sound; Spektrix; Bonnie Sun. Outgoing Board Members: Deena Chochinov, Prem Gill, Paul Hecht, Paula Martin, Stephanie Mayor

IN MEMORIAM In loving memory, the 2020 PuSh Festival is dedicated to the friends, artists and colleagues whom we have lost this past year: Zachary Chambers-Jeffreys Wayson Choy Fred Herzog Patrick Lane B.C. Lee Allan MacDougall Alex MacGillivray Michael Noon Zippy Pinhead Alex Philippides Ker Wells Phil Western

SUPPORT PuSh FESTIVAL BY SUPPORTING GRANVILLE ISLAND BREWING. PuSh FESTIVAL GOERS ENJOY 25% OFF THEIR MEAL IN OUR TAPROOM.

*DISCOUNT ONLY APPLIES TO FOOD. PLEASE PRESENT THIS AD OR SHOW TICKET TO YOUR SERVER.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Adam Dhalla

PUSH FESTIVAL FOUNDERS

ARTIST HOSPITALITY ASSISTANT

Norman Armour Katrina Dunn

Jenny Lee Craig AUDIENCE SERVICES ASSOCIATE

Davey Calderon VENUE TECHNICAL DIRECTORS

Eduardo Ottoni Robert Wilson PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS

Luc Corbeil Aidan Hammond PUBLICISTS

Murray Paterson Marketing Group

Tired of the same old Holiday Party?

Give Your Clients and Staff a PuSh Looking for the perfect gift to leave your clients and staff impressed, deeply moved and transformed in the post-holiday season… Why not bring them to a PuSh performance?

Contact nicole@pushfestival.ca for more details on group rates 60

GORD GRDINA’S HARAM

February 28, 2020 @ 8 p.m.

The BlueShore at CapU

Juno Award-winning oud player Gord Grdina leads Haram in a formidable pairing with guitar legend Marc Ribot.

GYWNNE DYER

March 4, 2020 @ 8 p.m.

The BlueShore at CapU An independent journalist whose upcoming talk concerns how geoengineering can turn the tide in the battle against climate change.

DELVON LAMARR ORGAN TRIO

March 26, 2020 @ 8 p.m.

Rickshaw Theatre (19+) Richly layered, this Seattle trio’s simmering grooves and fresh take on retro soul are a must-see.

RAHIM ALHAJ TRIO

April 23, 2020 @ 8 p.m.

Presentation House Theatre

TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS:

A virtuoso oud player who uses Iraqi melodies and contemporary stylings to share his experience as a political refugee.

Tickets: 604.990.7810 • capilanou.ca/centre

engaging contemporary art

surrey.ca/artgallery 62

2019-2020

BlueShore Financial CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS CAPILANO UNIVERSITY

PUSH PASSES & TICKETS

FOUR-SHOW & SIX-SHOW PUSH PASSES

HOW TO USE YOUR PASS

PuSh Passes are the best and simplest way to experience the PuSh Festival! Enjoy savings: Save up to 25% off single ticket prices. Enjoy flexibility: Use your Pass to see different shows, or book multiple tickets to the same show so you can bring friends.

Enjoy convenience: Book your shows online any time of day.

• Buy your Four-Show, Six-Show, Youth or Industry Pass at pushfestival.ca.

$119 $ 176

• Book your shows well in advance; tickets allotted for Passholders are limited.

FOUR-SHOW PASS SIX-SHOW PASS

YOUTH PASS If you’re 16 to 24 years old, we’ve got a deal for you! For the price of $20, a Youth Four-Show Pass allows you to book online and guarantees you a seat in the theatre. Quantities limited.

YOUTH FOUR-SHOW PASS

20

$

INDUSTRY SERIES Looking to attend the events of the PuSh Industry Series (p. 48)?

An Industry Pass provides access to all of the Industry Series events and includes a Six-Show Pass. The Industry Series Access provides full access to the PuSh Industry Series, without the Six-Show Pass.

INDUSTRY PASS INDUSTRY SERIES ACCESS ONLY

$

249 $ 75

• You must log in to pushfestival.ca to book your desired shows and get your pass discount.

• If a desired show or performance date is not available, check back online or contact PuSh Festival Audience Services, as availability might change. Or book a different available show and take a PuSh plunge!

• If you need to cancel your bookings, or would like to exchange them for another eligible and available performance, contact PuSh Festival Audience Services, by email or phone, at least 72 hours before showtime. A $2.25 fee per ticket re-booked will apply.

• Certain premium, reserved-seating shows require a surcharge. Even with the surcharge, you still enjoy the best price and flexibility over single tickets!

• For select performances, tickets may be emailed to you in advance; please present your tickets at the venue.

Otherwise, on show night, present valid photo ID at the venue box office in order to pick up your ticket.

• Arrive early to avoid lineups and get your seats (most shows are general admission).

PUSH PASS AND INDUSTRY PASS TERMS & CONDITIONS: Limited quantities.

Passes are non-refundable and non-transferable. Tickets allotted to Passholders for each performance are limited, so book early—at least 72 hours before showtime.

Tickets booked on a Pass can be exchanged for another eligible and available performance with a $2.25 fee per ticket. Passholders must always be present, and show valid photo ID, at the venue box office in order to pick up tickets. Full terms and conditions at pushfestival.ca.

SINGLE TICKETS

HOW TO BUY

If you can’t commit to a PuSh Pass, then single tickets are your best bet! Some shows have very limited capacities, so the earlier you buy, the likelier you are to get exactly what you’re after.

pushfestival.ca

ONLINE

PUSH FESTIVAL AUDIENCES SERVICES

Some shows may be free but still require you to reserve a ticket.

Follow the instructions on the show pages at pushfestival.ca.

604.449.6000

Some single tickets are sold through different partner box office outlets. Our website will direct you to the right place, but you can always contact PuSh Festival Audience Services—from there we’ll redirect you to the right place.

1.866.608.8284

GROUP TICKETS Share the PuSh Festival with your friends or work colleagues!

When you come as a group of 10 or more, save up to 30% off single ticket prices to select shows! To get your party started, email access@pushfestival.ca or visit us at pushfestival.ca. If you have a question about corporate bookings, email nicole@ pushfestival.ca.

TOLL-FREE IN NORTH AMERICA

IN-PERSON

110–750 Hamilton Street, Vancouver Mon–Fri, 12PM–6PM (until Dec 23) Jan 2 & 3, 12PM-6PM Mon–Sat, 12PM–6PM (Jan 6–Feb 8) Closed Dec 24–Jan 1

HAVE QUESTIONS? Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page online, or contact PuSh Festival Audience Services. Helpful hint—email is the fastest way to communicate with us: tickets@pushfestival.ca

ACCESSIBILITY Find out more about the accessibility initiatives of the Accessible PuSh program on page 55. If you have physical accessibility needs such as wheelchair seating, please contact us in advance to arrange at access@pushfestival.ca.

SINGLE TICKET TERMS & CONDITIONS: Tickets are non-refundable and nontransferable. Prices are subject to change. Additional service charges and telephone order fees may apply to the advertised price. Valid photo ID must be presented by the original purchaser at the venue box office in order to pick up tickets. Full terms and conditions at pushfestival.ca.

YOUTH PASS TERMS & CONDITION: Limited quantities. Limit one per person.

Youth Passes are non-refundable and non-transferable. Tickets allotted to Youth Passholders for each performance are very limited, so book early—at least 72 hours before showtime. Select shows are not available to be booked on a Youth Pass. Limit one ticket per show. Passholders must always be present, and show valid proof-of-age photo ID, at the venue box office in order to pick up tickets. Full terms and conditions at pushfestival.ca.

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FEBRUARY 6–15, 2020 · GATEWAY THEATRE

OUR PERFORMANCES ARE ONE OF A KIND, TOO

Coastal Adventure Partner

helijet.com |

helijet | 1.800.665.4354

Nanaimo - Vancouver - Victoria

*Terms and conditions apply

S T R A IG H T E T I H W M EN

By Young

Jean Lee

(The playwright of The Shipment)

AN EXPLOSIVE EVENING OF MALE BONDING Directed by Chelsea

Haberlin & Fay Nass Produced by ITSAZOO Productions

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM

YOU!

Complete the Audience Survey during the PuSh Festival and enter to win a fantastic getaway prize from our partners:

A round trip for A one night stay in a two to Victoria -OR- lakeview studio suite at with Helijet Nita Lake Lodge, with breakfast for two at Aura Restaurant. *

“Hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation.”

—New York Times

MARCH 19–28, 2020 · GATEWAY THEATRE

SKYB č RN Quelemia Sparrow By

ONE WOMAN’S JOURNEY TOWARDS SPIRITUAL RECLAMATION

OUR PERFORMANCES ARE ONE OF A KIND, TOO

Secure your seats—Tickets from $29!

Coastal Adventure Partner

AUDIENCE SURVEY helijet.com | *Terms and conditions apply

helijet | 1.800.665.4354

Directed by Kim Senklip Harvey Produced by Savage Society

Nanaimo - Vancouver - Victoria

* Some restrictions apply: subject to availability. Valid Sunday to Thursday only. Blackout dates June 22-August 31,

GATEWAYTHEATRE.COM   GatewayThtr 604.270.1812

December 15-January 4, all Canadian or US holiday long weekends.

Skyborn: Chrystal Sparrow, Coast Salish Artist & Evelyn Alec, Graphic Design.

Start your career in the entertainment industry with a diploma in Stagecraft and Event Technology Get the hands-on, intensive training you need to succeed in the fast-paced entertainment industry. This two-year program combines academic and practical experience with courses and training in Stage Lighting, Audio Techniques, Set Painting, Set Design, Computer Assisted Drafting, Stage Management, Stagecraft for Film/TV and History of Theatre.

19-256

Apply now, start in January.

Details at douglascollege.ca/set