4 New play uses dark humour to deal with death Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver de- buts comedy about family dynamics and religion By SCOTT DRAKE the title, Bad Jews, that draws audi- ences into the theatre, but the play itself will have them talking a month later, according to director Jay Brazeau. The play by Joshua Harmon is set to make its Vancouver premiere at the Norman Rothstein Theatre on Nov. 12. The story revolves around three Jew- ish cousins who meet up after their grandfather’s death, only to battle it out over faith and family, in the unique humour of family relationships. “There are some very moving and very poignant moments in that play in terms of family, faith, culture: things that really make you think and make you feel,” producer of the play Bill All- man said. Though the play deals with heavy themes of spirituality and secularism, it is, according to Brazeau, “a different kind of play.” He expects that it will challenge au- diences and provoke many different reactions. “There will be people, ’'m sure, who will be laughing hysterically on one side of the house and on the other side they are going ‘I can’t believe this is happening.” The play has been staged in New York and London where producer, Bill Allman, first saw the show. While the name was initially what piqued his interest, after watching it he knew immedi- ately that he want- ed to stage the show in Vancou- ver. “T laugh[ed] my- I: might be the provocative nature of BILL ALLMAN Producer of Bad self sick for about Jews 90 minutes,” All- man said about watching the Lon- don production. By the time he made it back to his hotel that same night, Allman had se- cured the rights. He said there was “no hesitation” and had decided on the di- rector and location, “all of it.” Bad Jews runs until Nov. 19. x ROSEMARY NEWTON photo Director and founder of the Vancouver Pops Symphony and Orchestra Tom Kuo conducts a rehearsal in South Vancouver. ‘Pops heading to Los Angeles Local performing group ‘Vancouver Pops’ plays movie soundtracks By ROSEMARY NEWTON ith a Disney playlist on their side, a South Vancouver group of musicians have their eyes set on Hollywood. The Vancouver Pops Symphony and Orchestra recently launched their ‘Hol- lywood in Concert’ tour, which will take them to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles next July. Jaelem Bhate, jazz director and prin- ciple conductor for the Los Angeles performance, said these soundtracks appeal to a ‘classical ear’ but are acces- sible to everyone. So far, the playlist features tracks from Star Wars, Disney’s The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Pirates of the Caribbean. He expects the Star Wars set to bea hit given the December 2015 release of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. “Tt’s a soundtrack that’s so monu- mental and pivotal to how we perceive music in movies,” said Bhate, who is also director of the Vancouver Pops’ 45 Avenue Jazz Band and a principle percussionist. “Every single note in the score has deep meaning.” Rachel Wong, a cello musician in the orchestra and an alto in the choir, said the Star Wars set sounds “epic.” “T love it. Everyone knows what the soundtracks are from [their] child- hood,” Wong said. She’s been with Van- couver Pops for two of their six years. The tour consists of four Vancouver concerts—the first took place in Octo- ber at the Chan Centre for the Perform- ing Arts—before ending in Los Ange- les. Tom Kuo, symphony and choir direc- tor, said two successful performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City led to another trip across the border. “The members decided they loved doing it so much we set our own desti- nation and our own genre with the goal to do an entire production ourselves in a different city,” Kuo said. He noted the New York City performances had been by invitation. He said the final performace in Los Angeles will include music from Broad- way hits, like Mamma Mia! According to Kuo many college-aged students join Vancouver Pops because they can’t find many opportunities to perform after graduating high schools with music courses. Their next performance is a Christ- mas concert with the Vancouver Pops’s piano quartet at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Dec. 18. POPS soundtracks MET. the Extra- Terrestrial Star Trek The Incredibles Forrest Gump Aladdin The Little Mermaid Source: orchestraclub.com Modern playwright earns praise | i JAKE COSTELLO photo Curtains for Roy, Bushkowsky’s debut novel, will be adapted into a screenplay. Award-nominated Langa- ra College English instruc- tor launches new theatre project on Granville Island By JAKE COSTELLO ith a debut novel out, two pro- Wives in Vancouver, and one play being produced across the globe—in Lithuania, no less—it’s been a good year for Langara College in- structor Aaron Bushkowsky. Bushkowsky, whose latest play Dressing for a Wedding opens this week at Performance Works on Gran- ville Island, has been teaching writing with Langara’s English and Studio 58 programs for 15 years. “He’s a_ living-breathing-thriving playwright, and our students are lucky to be able to interact with someone like that,” Tess MacMillan, English depart- ment chair at Langara College said. Having someone on staff working as much as Bushkowsky can inspire stu- dents to follow a career path they oth- erwise might not have considered, MacMillan said. Bushkowsky said that part of why he teaches is to help get young people working in theatre. In fact, he discov- ered the assistant sound designer for Dressing for a Wedding, Tanika Charles, in a film writing class at Lan- gara. “She did this soundscape for a little film that they had produced in my class, and it was so good I said ‘you’ve got to work in the- atre,” Bush- |§ kowsky said. Kathleen Oliver, English instructor at Langara, said she first met Bush- = kowsky in a writ- KATHLEEN OLIVER ers group in the gnglish instruc- late ’90s. tor at Langara “Aaron is really College good at creating interesting charac- ters and putting them into situations that are just slightly off-kilter,” she said. Eccentric characters finding them- selves in complicated situations are at the heart of his debut novel, Curtains for Roy (which was nominated for the Stephen Leacock humour award) and his latest play Dressing for a Wedding. Both are dark comedies that have their roots in Bushkowsky’s own real-life ex- periences. “Tve been married three times. That’s three weddings. So I took the best, and the worst of all those wed- dings,” he said. “It’s easier to write about things that have really happened, and lie about it a little bit, because there’s an element of truth to it.” Right now theatre is a growing field in a “golden era” according to Bush- kowsky, whose play Strangers Among Us is currently being produced by the National Youth Theatre company in Lithuania. “Everybody thought we were going to be cocooning, because of our cell phones and iPads and all that, but the very opposite happened. People want to get away from that. They want inter- action—they want theatre,” he said.