STATIONARY: A RECESSION-ERA MUSICAL

July 19 – July 29th, 2012

“The baby boom is just an echo now, ain’t it all a drag?”

Under the fluorescent lights of real life, obligations and social niceties loom large.  But in the world of day-dreams, all things are possible. STATIONARY: a recession-era musical explores the lives of 8 young people at a moment when big dreams meet reality checks. “The baby boom is just an echo now,” and STATIONARY gives voice to the generation left behind.  Saddled with crippling student loan debts, high cost of living and a recession-era economy, our young characters are just trying to get by in a “yoga and sushi-swilling succubus of a city.”  They’ve stepped out, bachelors degree in hand, to find out not everyone can be a winner.

Set in a corporate office, the narrative flips between dialogue and vivid musical sequences in which our talented singer-actors also double as musicians.  Using a delightful array of musical instruments to play a score ranging in influence from Bach to Dr Dre, our young heroes sing of dreams gone by and the melancholic disappointment of adulthood.  But as the clock races towards 5 o’clock, they realize that “tomorrow is my best friend” and regardless of circumstance, the power for change and happiness rests within us all.  Real life is disappointing.  Singing about it definitely takes the edge off.

July 19 to July 29 2012 at the Cultch, as part of the Neanderthal Arts Festival.  Written by Christine Quintana, music by Mishelle Cuttler with rap lyrics by Brian Cochrane.  Directed by Laura McLean.  Performed by Meaghan Chenosky, Brian Cochrane, Mishelle Cuttler, Alexander Keurvorst, Claire Hesselgrave and Christine Quintana with Evan Lamberton and Arlen Kristian Tom.

 

FLOP!

March 21st – April 1st, 2012

“For a moment, we’re suspended in infinite possibility.  In this darkness, this silence, anything can happen.  I love this part.  Well, normally I do.”

For theatre director Jimmy Labbe, the success of his first show is life and death.  When he’s forced to oversee a production so horrible it cannot be saved, Jimmy Labbe watches his dreams hopelessly FLOP!.   Mortified, he manages to escape to his brother’s small-town home, only to find himself destined to FLOP! again in his worst nightmare: directing Romeo & Juliet at a high school.  Struggling to find redemption, he begins to learn what it truly means to be successful, and more importantly, what it truly means to FLOP!

March 21st to April 1st, 2012, at Studio 1398.  Written and performed by Anton Lipovetsky.  Directed by Anton Lipovetsky and Kayla Dunbar.  Musical accompaniment by Mishelle Cuttler.

OH MY GOD

September 8 – 18th, 2011

“”You can’t pee in church. That’s like the eleventh commandment.”

Being a church acolyte isn’t easy, but neither is being a teenager.  Issy and Becky used to be best friends, and now they’ve grown apart over the years.  Now they’re 14 year old acolytes, and they’re about to get reacquainted when they get locked in a chapel before the procession.  Sweet Becky just wants to “acolyte” as best she can.  Tough girl Issy just wants to “get the f” out of the chapel so she can pee.  Oh My God is a comedy about faith, friendship, and a communion chalice.

PARKED: AN INDIE ROCK MUSICAL FOR NOVELTY INSTRUMENTS
June 8-25, 2011

“He’s in distribution, and I work in incoming/Each day I feel my panic grow: What is my life becoming?”

Nine companies presented original 10 minute pieces created exclusively for Bridge Mix 2011, a site-specific installation that took place in the Metro Parkade in the heart of Vancouver’s business district.  Bridge Mix 2011 was produced by ITSAZOO Productions and Enlightenment Theatre. Delinquent Theatre presented Parked: An Indie Rock Musical with Novelty Instruments. Parked: An Indie Rock Musical with Novelty Instruments is a whimsical and wistful look into the day-dreams of strangers.  Featuring the work of 7 emerging theatre artists and musicans, Parked explores the humor of our inner lives, and how real life can disappoint as we settle for second best.  Some things are better said with a ukulele.

Music by Mishelle Cuttler, Lyrics by Christine Quintana, Rap by Brian Cochrane.  Performed by Meaghan Chenosky, Ira Cooper, Brian Cochrane, Alexander Keurvorst, Britt MacLeod, and Christine Quintana

OUR TIME
February 17-20th, 2011

“You never really hear your own heartbeat, and I think I know why. It’s the morning of June twenty-third and I’m lying in bed listening to myself die.”

High school isn’t the end of the world – it just feels like it. Graduation arrives in a cacophony of caps and gowns, university applications, false hopes and broken dreams. Our Time joins a girl waiting to cross the stage at her graduation ceremony as she sifts through her fragmented, vivid memories of the moments and people who brought her to where she stands. Is it the end of her world, or the beginning of the rest of her life?

Featuring a video camera with live projections, Our Time is a funny and poignant solo show featuring Pippa Mackie (Progressive Polygamists, Annie, Spring Awakening). Written by Christine Quintana, Our Time was originally developed under the guidance of Shawn MacDonald as part of the Ignite Youth Week Festival at the Cultch. Our Time was originally performed in May of 2010 at the Vancity Culture Lab as part of the 2010 Ignite Youth Festival at the Cultch. Our Time is directed by Brendan Albano and performed by Pippa Mackie, with stage management by Hersie-Nina Init.

SPRING AWAKENING

July 21 to August 1 2009

“You’d think the whole world revolves around penis and vagina!”

SUMMER 2009: New production company Delinquent Theatre presents Franz Wedekind’s Spring Awakening at the Havana Theatre. Directed by Laura McLean and Christine Quintana, Jonathan Franzen’s lively translation of the German classic subtitled ‘A Children’s Tragedy’ follows a group of young teenagers coming of age despite their repressed and religious upbringings.  Firstperformed in 1906, Spring Awakening was labeled as obscene, offensive and radical – 100 years later the story was remade and sexed up for the 2006 Broadway musical adaptation. Now, in an age where abstinence-only education is proposed as the antidote for an over-sexed youth culture, Wedekind’s original work is timelier than ever.  At once sad, disturbing, and touchingly funny, Spring Awakening sees sex, violence, puberty and great expectations through the dreamyeyes of youth.  Even now, Wedekind’s work continues to prove that even when hidden in the deepest of places, the stirrings of spring awakenings will always find their way to the surface.

Directed by Laura McLean and Christine Quintana.  Featuring Eric Biskupski, Odessa Cadieux-Rey, Veronica Campbell, Chris Cook, David Kaye, Alexander Keurvorst, Pippa Mackie, Matt Reznek, Tessa Skara, Naomi Vogt, Anna Wallace-Deering, and Tich Wilson.

DOG SEES GOD

July 16-19th, 2008 at the Havana

‘This conversation is a major downer, amigo. Dead dogs, missing sisters, burning blankets. Let’s talk about something happy.’

‘Like what?’

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead views the wasteland of adolescence through the lens of an iconic cast of characters, whose comic-strip childhoods receive a dose of reality in the form of age. Faced with the loss of his pet beagle, CB is a ‘handsome, however currently sullen’ teenager searching for a sense of self in the midst of his binge drinking, self-destructive, rebellious peers. Equal parts witty, outrageous and devastating, Dog Sees God takes a familiar gang of friends into modern adolescence to create a story as surprising as it is true to life.

Directed by Laura McLean with Stage Management by Jen Backeberg.

Dog Sees God stars Nikohl Boosheri, Odessa Cadieux-Rey, Matt Clarke, Alexander Keurvorst, Ryan Mooney, Christine Quintana, Lucas Schroeder and Amanda Williamson.

Music by Karina Pry, Lighting Design by Graham Ockley, additional Technical Design by Liam Kupser.