A THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012 EDITOR CARLY WIGNES DAVID COOPER photo From left: Jason Clift, Tim Carlson, Katey Hoffman, Jennica Grienke, Daniel Doheny, Carol Macdonald and Cheyenne Mabberley of Studio 58 pose in character for a photograph. Have a laugh at Studio 58 Langara theatre program’s 4Play festival returns for the ninth time By MICHELLE GAMAGE tudio 58’s one-act festival re- turns to Langara for its ninth round of showcasing theatre tal- ent. With the intent to entertain using humour and surrealism, 4Play:New Work by Excited Writers includes four plays: You Are Ina Play, A View With a Room, Sacred and Profane, and The Surrealists. Each are new works writ- ten by Studio 58 students that will be running at the end of the month. “We've been working on the scripts for over a year,’ said Aaron Bush- kowsky, a Langara instructor helping create 4Play. “It was a lot of fun to see what [the writers] came up with when writing for one theme - surrealist art.” You Are In a Play is about a narrator and two women’s realization they are trapped within a play. The play ex- plores philosophical questions about reality said director Tamara McCarthy. “It doesn’t solve anything but in- stead opens a can of worms for discus- sion.” “But you can also just watch for en- tertainment,” she said. “TYou can] have a laugh and choose not to think and just enjoy yourself.” Moving away from philosophy, A View With a Room is about a family struggling with the reality of Alzheim- er’s disease. The play deals with the serious mat- ter of a woman losing her mind, but au- dience members were still laughing out loud during a rehearsal. “It’s not kitchen-sink-realism,” said director Richard Wolfe. “Characters address the audience directly.” Keeping pace with the surreal theme of the festival, The Surrealists packs five stories by different playwrights into a single act under the roof of a modern art gallery. “Tt’s about the beauty and the magic of surrealist art, and the connection be- tween the two,” said director Alex Laz- aridis Ferguson. The first characters to emerge on stage are physical embodiments of sur- realist logic. The play then moves from the surreal to the real, concluding with a simple obsessed painter. Sacred and Profane, directed by Rob- in Richardson, is an offbeat comedy featuring marriage, breakups and im- mortals. The four plays are separated into two programs that play on alternating nights. Program-A features You Are In a Play and A View With a Room, opening Thursday, March 22. Program-B fea- tures Sacred and Profane and The Sur- realists opening this Saturday. Free student nights are on Wednes- day, March 21 for program-A, and Fri- day, March 23 for program-B at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and can be booked through the Studio 58 box office by call- ing 604-323-5227. The performances will be running March 21- April 1 at varying times at Langara’s Studio 58. 66 We’ve been working on the scripts for over a year. It was alot of fun to see what [the writ- ers] came up with. AARON BUSH- KOWSKY ix From prayers to parties 1 Born in Scotland in about 390 A.D. 2 Kidnapped by pirates in south Wales and sold into slavery in Ireland when he was 16 3 Imprisoned for six years until he escaped and went to France where he joined a monastery 4 Patrick has never been canonized by the Catholic Church. When the first list of saints was established, he was already on it. Source: Online Vancouver celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with musical events every day of the week By DANA BOWEN ical of St. Patrick’s Day are a tradition that has been adopted by cultures around the world. In Vancouver, the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 18 marks the end of a weeklong festival called CelticFest. The festival includes award- winning pipe and drum bands, Irish music groups, Scottish and Irish dancers, acrobats and even stilt walkers. “Eighty per cent of the music and cultural events over the Te parades and parties typ- four days are free to the public with various opportunities for families and children to partici- pate,” said Ian McAteer, one of the organizers of CelticFest. A series of events are sched- uled to continue until this Sun- day, featuring both Celtic and North American musicians. Ross Powell, the festival’s pro- gram director, said he thinksw From Texas to Tipperary is one of the best events. It features a blues artist performing Celtic music. “We like to change it up ev- ery year, but it’s important to keep tradition alive,” Powell said. He added that the week is organized differently every year, and this year the focus will be all on music. Though most modern St. Pat- rick’s Day celebrations include wearing green and drinking beer, that wasn’t always the case. According to some Irish folk tales, drinking and even wearing green was condemned because if was considered un- lucky. Some thought the colour would irritate the fairies who would retaliate by sneaking into people’s houses and steal- ing their children. St. Patrick’s Day is in fact a religious holiday in some places and it was not until the 1970s that the pubs in Ireland were even allowed to be open on March 17. “Tt’s only in the past couple of decades that Ireland has adopt- ed the American style celebra- tion,” said Langara history teacher, Niall Christie. The day is meant to celebrate St. Pat- rick, who is credited with bring- ing Christianity to Ireland in the fourth century. PARADE tam. on March 18; Begins at the corner of Howe St. and Drake St. FROM TEXAS TO TIPPERARY 7 p.m. tonight at Stadium Club at the Edgewater Casino BAGPIPE WORKSHOP ta.m. on March 17 at Tom Lee Music (929 Granville St.) GOOD FOR GRAPES 3:30 p.m. on March 18 at Celtic Village (Granville St. and Georgia St.) THE WHISKEY DICKS 10:30 a.m. on March 17 at Ceili's Irish Pub (670 Smithe St.) lranian New Year Is fun for all Iranians and others cel- ebrate Nowruz as a chance to spend time with family By CARA MCKENNA nounced no-rooz), is a spring holiday widely celebrated not just by Per- sians, but by many cultures and in many different parts of the world. Whether you’re Iranian or not, you may want to partake in some of the cel- ebratory new year traditions including buying new clothes and spring clean- ing. Mehrshad Barzegar cherishes the tradition and happy day. “Within Iranian history we’ve invad- ed many countries [and] we’ve been invaded back many times,” he said. “They’ve imposed their tradition on our society ... but one thing has never died and that is Nowruz.” Barzegar, who moved to Canada from Tehran, Iran almost 40 years ago, said Nowruz is the one thing that never changes for him and his family despite the many social, agricultural and archi- tectural changes he has witnessed in the world. Nowruz means “new day” and oc- curs every year on the vernal equinox, when the sun is aligned with the equa- tor. It is usually on March 21st such as it is this year. Depending on the tilt of the earth’s axis, it sometimes occurs a day before or after. Barzegar says that the most impor- tant part of the holiday is spending time with his family. “The oldest of the family expects oth- ers to come and pay their respect,” he said. “We don’t have the celebration as a religious kind of event, we have it be- cause of the season, the people and the happiness.” His wife Deborah agreed and said she “really enjoys the day,” despite the fact that she is not Persian. The white fish that is served is a par- ticular favorite of hers. It is part of a traditional meal that also includes her- bed rice, omelets and noodles mixed with rice. Much preperation is put into the new year festivities, and many families spend the weeks before preparing. They decorate ceremonial tables with a centrepiece including seven ob- jects: garlic, an apple, berries, vinegar, sprouts, dried lotus and Persian wheat berry pudding. Each object symbolizes different things such as health and love. Other items may also be placed depending on how the individual ees New Year, or Nowruz (pro- chooses to celebrate. One common item is a bowl of water with live gold- fish swimming in it. Once the meal has been prepared, the rest of the day is spent gathering with family and exchanging gifts in WIKIMEDIA COMMONS photo A table is decorated for Nowruz.