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Improv

Artist Interviews Langley Local Artists Performing Art Theatre
Scott Campbell Talks About the Magic of Langley’s Very Very Improv

by PatioNathalie April 30, 2024

April 30, 2024

If you’ve ever been to an improv show, you know you’ll leave with a sore face and abs from an evening of belly laughs—and…

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february, 2025

13jun(jun 13)10:00 am30mar(mar 30)5:00 pmTo Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965(june 13) 10:00 am - (march 30) 5:00 pm PST 6393 N.W. Marine DriveEvent Type:Art EventAdmission Type:Free,Ticketed

27sep(sep 27)10:00 am17feb(feb 17)5:00 pmShelley Niro: 500 Year Itch(september 27) 10:00 am - (february 17) 5:00 pm 750 Hornby StreetEvent Type:Art EventAdmission Type:Ticketed

Event Details

The Vancouver Art Gallery is pleased to announce the much-anticipated presentation of Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, a monumental retrospective that surveys the 40-year career of celebrated Bay of Quinte Mohawk artist Shelley Niro. Organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and with curatorial support from the National Gallery of Canada, this extraordinary exhibition showcases the full breadth of Niro’s prolific career from her unique perspective as a Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman, bringing together works across painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media and film.

“We are honoured to be able to share this remarkable retrospective of Shelley Niro’s career with Vancouver,” says Anthony Kiendl, CEO & Executive Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “Niro has been fundamental in shaping the discourse around Indigenous representation, culture and ways of being.”

From the 1980s to the present, Niro has created art that reflects contemporary life and builds upon Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) philosophies, deep understandings of history and a woman-centred worldview. Accessible, humorous and peppered with references to popular culture, this sharp-witted survey delves into the timeless cultural knowledge and generational histories of the artist’s Six Nations Kanyen’kehá:ka community to make art that provides purpose, hope and healing.

“The Art Gallery of Hamilton is thrilled to be sharing this important project,” says Shelley Falconer, President and CEO of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. “We are confident that Shelley Niro’s incredibly poignant works will resonate deeply with Vancouver audiences. The artist’s talk will be an excellent chance to hear from the artist herself, along with the audio guide located throughout the exhibition.”

Spanning almost four decades and over seventy works—from painting to beading—the exhibition is organized into themes that Niro often returns to: Matriarchy, Past is Present, Actors and Family Relations. Each provides vantage points from which she probes ideas central to her experience and identity as a Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) woman. Niro’s persistent vision is to empower Indigenous women and girls, advocating for self-representation and sovereignty. Her highly empathetic approach moves viewers to understand the issues at hand through her visually impactful and politically powerful manner. She uses parody, feminism and spirituality to examine identity and, in turn, brings political power to the realm of the personal.

The exhibition title refers to the film The Seven Year Itch, released in 1955, the year after Niro was born. The film, starring Marilyn Monroe, portrays a marriage unravelling and refers to the concept of relationships waning after seven years. Niro explores this idea, suggesting that the relationship between colonizers and Indigenous peoples has always been uncomfortable, and there remains an itch. Niro created a self-portrait titled The Seven Year Itch in 1992, in which she imitates the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate with her dress blowing up.

“I remember seeing Shelley’s first solo show back in 1992 and slowly realizing, standing before Mohawks in Beehives, that I was witnessing a paradigm shift in contemporary Indigenous art,” says Richard Hill, Smith Jarislowsky Senior Curator of Canadian Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery. “It was fundamentally a change in how Indigenous identity was publicly presented. I had experienced a good deal of humour in Indigenous communities, but I hadn’t seen an artist treat identity as a space of riotous and inventive role-playing like Shelley did. It was liberating, opening a space for a rich, complex and often hilarious view of contemporary Indigenous experience. Any stereotype that got in her way was not so much overthrown as deftly pierced by laughter and left to deflate under the weight of its own absurdity.”

Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch runs from September 27, 2024, until February 17, 2025. The exhibition is accompanied by a glittering publication designed by Barr Gilmore, available for purchase in the Gallery Store. This publication features contributions from esteemed authors and curators, including Lori Beavis, Sally Frater, Adrianna Greci Green, Bryce Kanbara, Madeline Lennon, Nancy Mithlo and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie.

The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Hamilton with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and with curatorial support from the National Gallery of Canada. Curated by Melissa Bennett, AGH Senior Curator of Contemporary Art; Greg Hill, Independent Curator, formerly Audain Senior Curator, Indigenous Art, National Gallery of Canada; and David Penney, formerly Associate Director of Museum scholarship, Exhibitions, and Public Engagement at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. The Vancouver Art Gallery presentation is coordinated by Richard Hill, Smith Jarislowsky Senior Curator of Canadian Art.

Time

September 27 (Friday) 10:00 am - February 17 (Monday) 5:00 pm

Location

Vancouver Art Gallery

750 Hornby Street

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28sep(sep 28)8:00 pm21jun(jun 21)10:00 pmVery Very Improv(september 28) 8:00 pm - (june 21) 10:00 pm PST #102 - 20230 64 AvenueEvent Type:Performing ArtsAdmission Type:Ticketed

Event Details

Every month, the talented cast of loveable improvisers from across the Lower Mainland takes to the stage at The Bez Arts Hub in Langley for a very fun evening full of comedy improv games, scenes, and surprises.

The Georgia Straight calls Very Very Improv “city-quality comedy talent in the ‘burbs”, and audiences agree. “Very Very Improv is a blast every single time! Each show I’ve attended has been a hoot!” Join the fun! You’ll laugh lots.

Very Very Improv is a new, professional improv theatre company based in the Fraser Valley that has brought together some of the top improv performers from across the lower mainland.

Members of the cast have trained and performed with Vancouver Theatresports, The Panic Squad, Funny Brothers Improv, Tightrope Improv, Trinity Western University, University of the Fraser Valley, Canadian Improv Games and more.

Door & Bar at 7:15pm
All parking spots available after 5pm

Feature image: Jonathan McEwan

Saturday, September 28th at 8pm
Friday, October 25th at 8pm
Saturday, November 30th at 6pm & 8pm
Friday, December 27th at 8pm
Saturday, December 28th at 8pm
Saturday, January 25th at 8pm
Saturday, February 15th at 8pm
Saturday, March 29th at 8pm
Saturday, April 19th at 8pm
Saturday, May 31st at 8pm
Saturday, June 21st at 8pm

Time

September 28 (Saturday) 8:00 pm - June 21 (Saturday) 10:00 pm PST

Location

Bez Arts Hub

#102 - 20230 64 Avenue

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03nov(nov 3)10:00 am16mar(mar 16)5:00 pmFirelei Báez(november 3) 10:00 am - (march 16) 5:00 pm 750 Hornby StreetEvent Type:Art EventAdmission Type:Ticketed

Event Details

Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, this exhibition is the first mid-career survey of the richly layered work of Firelei Báez.

One of the most exciting painters of her generation, Báez delves into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin. Over the past twenty years, she has made work that explores the multilayered explorations of the legacy of colonial histories and the African diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond. She draws on the disciplines of anthropology, geography, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality in her paintings, drawings and installations. Her exuberant paintings feature finely wrought, complex and layered uses of pattern, decoration and saturated colour, often overlaid on maps made during colonial rule in the Americas. Báez’s investment in the medium of painting and its capacity for storytelling and mythmaking informs all her work, including her sculptural installations, which bring this quality into three dimensions.

This exhibition offers audiences a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of Báez’s complex and profoundly moving body of work, cementing her as one of the most important artists of the early 21st century.

Time

November 3 (Sunday) 10:00 am - March 16 (Sunday) 5:00 pm

Location

Vancouver Art Gallery

750 Hornby Street

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09janAll Day09febSomeone Like You(All Day) Event Type:Performing ArtsAdmission Type:Ticketed

Event Details

Get ready for a millennial take on Cyrano de Bergerac as the Arts Club Theatre Company presents Someone Like You, on tour across the Lower Mainland from January 9 to February 9, 2025.

This charming new comedy dives into 21st-century Vancouver with mistaken identities, millennial manifestos, dating apps, and the quest for self-love in this Arts Club Silver Commission written by Christine Quintana.

Best friends Isabelle (Steffanie Davis), verbose and open-hearted, and Kirsten (Ivy Charles), vulnerable and loyal, have been through thick and thin since university. When Isabelle takes her “wingman” duties for Kirsten’s rebound romance with Harjit (Praneet Akilla) a bit too far, feelings and friendships are fraught with complications.

Playwright Christine Quintana said, “Audiences can expect a very fun night at the theatre! The core of Someone Like You is a female friendship—something so foundational to so many people’s lives, but so rarely represented authentically on stage. All the joy of your favourite vintage rom-coms but without the fatphobia, racism, and homophobia that come with the period. Our creative team has filled the stage with fashion and iconography from East Van and recognizable characters from our daily lives.”

The Arts Club Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Ashlie Corcoran, added, “Right from the first time I met Chrstine, I knew I wanted to offer her a Silver Commission and had just the adaptation that I felt she’d bring an interesting perspective to. For me, it was having Christine create a modern adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac set in Vancouver. We are thrilled to present this funny, fierce, political, and theatrical play on tour across the Lower Mainland.”

Time

January 9 (Thursday) - February 9 (Sunday)

Location

Multiple Locations across Metro Vancouver

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06febAll Day16Grandma. Gangsta. Guerrilla.(All Day) Event Type:Performing ArtsAdmission Type:Ticketed

Event Details

Join us for this hilarious and heartwarming tale that is not a traumatizing story about war crimes, dementia, or getting old. On the contrary, Grandma. Gangsta . Guerrilla. is a sprint down memory lane of a butt-kickin’, bar-spittin’, tough grandma who escapes the care home to be with her family. When our favourite Filipino grandma Lola Basyang goes missing, it’s up to her grandchildren Nika and Jun-jun to bring her back to safety. Using their Lola’s unfinished memoir, they find clues to her whereabouts, her full-of-beans origin story and the historical turmoil of their motherland. Reminiscent of their immigration stories, they reflect on what it means to maintain family ties in a Western society.

Quote from Playwright Abi Padilla

This project started as a 15 minute solo show graduation requirement when I was in the

acting program of Studio 58. Little did I know that this swaggy, scrappy, silly piece would evolve into a heartfelt, hilarious and historical play that tackles the multi-faceted struggles and triumphs of surviving a war, migration, family values and love for our elderly. The creation process of this play means a lot to me for it helped me reflect on the sacrifices of my ancestors to be where I am today, while not letting their historical trauma define me.

Both my grandmothers, who have inspired me to write this, were children during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines in the 1940s. They have been fortunate enough to survive and thrive after that period but many young girls like them have been taken to be “comfort women”. To this day, the surviving comfort women of the Philippines are still seeking justice that may never come. I am also acknowledging the contributions of the female guerrillas like Commander Liwayway who fought for my motherland’s freedom. I recognize that as monumental and theatrical as these experiences are, there is beauty in the mundanity of being a grandmother, sister or a person who has their own dreams.

Take in the everyday laughter, the juicy gossip, the hot soup, and remember the most precious moments you have with your family.

Venues: Presentation House Theatre (North Vancouver), Shadbolt Centre for the Arts (Burnaby)

Showtimes:

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts: Feb. 6-8 at 7:30pm and Feb 8 matinee at 2pm

Presentation House Theatre: Feb 13-16 at 7:30pm and Feb. 15 matinee at 2pm