Theatre at UBC Blog

Over at The Guardian’s Theatre blog, actor and writer Molly Flatt posts a short piece on British theatres and their accompanying bars:

The bar has always been at the heart of a theatre. Not so long ago, it was most likely to be a humble, unlovely little corner where you would anaesthetise the pain of the third act with a watery ale, or hang around in the hope of getting a sweaty handshake from a track-suited off-duty thesp. It may have been a functional, haphazardly stocked meeting place, but the company was lively, local and usually worth a hangover.

Our own unlovely little corner of the Frederic Wood remains dry most of the time (liquor-licensing on campus is not for the faint of heart!) but it definitely makes intermissions and after-show discussion a little warmer if there is a glass of wine to be had. What do you like to see in a bar at a theatre? Let us know in the comments what your favourite theatre bar is either in Vancouver or beyond.

Patrons attending our current production of Medea (opening tonight at the Telus Studio Theatre in the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts!) will be able to enjoy a well-stocked bar as the Chan Centre runs their libation-dispensing operation year round. So come to the Chan and enjoy a drink before the show.See you there and cheers!

Tweet, post or get out of the way – social media is here to stay. To bring yourself up to date with the best of the Vancouver internet media, who are hooked into culture, fashion, politics and, well every li’l thing, check out Rebecca Bollwitts “Best of 604” Awards. Ms. Bollwitt, better known as “Miss604” is a rising internet entrepreneur and social media specialist.

The design for Billy Bishop Goes to War , which opened last night at the Telus Studio Theatre, was influenced by a number of inspirations. These included the sculpture of American artist Lee Bontecou, airfield architecture from the First World War, aerial photographs taken during actual reconnaissance and the idea of found objects in a space transforming into something theatrical. The elements give us a sense of period, bringing us back in time and into the world of Bishop. The palette is muted and earthy, incorporating the feeling of natural materials. It is derived from examples of Bontecou’s work, which contains an interesting juxtaposition of hard and soft materials combined with paint.

The show lends itself to intimacy, given its single character, Billy Bishop, and a musician to support him. Because of this we have chosen a thrust layout for the Telus Studio Theatre, wrapping the audience on three sides. There is a hint of an old hangar, with a sculptural element at the end of the space and a few prop elements scattered throughout. By simple suggestion the audience is transported to various locations; a simple prop such as a rug invokes a parlour, backlighting the sculpture as a window gives the vastness of a hangar, giving the actor height for the telling of a flying story takes us into the air. Towards the end of the piece, the simple, seemingly non-descript objects transform into something unexpected in a bit of theatrical magic. Come see Billy Bishop to discover the surprise.~ Kevin McAllister

it’s not enough to email, Facebook, twitter, log into Java Life or even Second Life, nope. just about everybody is blogging these days.  i need a whole new vocabulary. today’s word is:

“SPLOG”

A splog is a fake blog generated by a machine with the purpose of generating higher search engine rankings for one or more web sites/pages. machine generated content can even leave comments on legitimate blogs with links to the splog. I just read that over 70% of blogs (and over 75% of overall posts) on Google’s blog host “Blogger” are splogs. but did i get that factoid from a cleverly disguised splog?? Good grief. For more blogging whys and wherefores check out Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008