Neanderthal Arts Festival 2011

My good friends Allyson McGrane, Shane Birley and Jonathon Narvey are all involved in the production of the Neanderthal Arts Festival. Not only do I love them dearly but I’m thrilled with the support they give to some local productions like ITSAZOO whose Robin Hood I fell in love with. I’m also thrilled to see Dave Deveau directing a play too (his My Funny Valentine was electrifying).

AND I’m very happy and proud to announce that I have 2 three-show passes to give away on my blog for a lucky reader of mine. All you need to do is check the lineup (pasted below for your perusal) and tell me which show you’d like to check out the most. I’m in love with just about anything that ITSAZOO puts on, although the rest of the lineup looks rocking too. I will draw a random winner from all entries up until July 19th at 3pm. I have also edited this post to add a Twitter-entry mode so you can earn up to 2 entries (check at the bottom of the post).

What Upintheair Theatre and Left Right Minds announce the line up for Walking Fish 9, part of this year’s Neanderthal Arts Festival.
When The Festival runs July 21 – 31, 2011
WhereThe Cultch, 1895 Venables Street
How Tickets: $20 each or purchase a pass (three-show pass $45 / six-show flex pass $79)
Who Neanderthal Arts Festival and Walking Fish are initiatives of Upintheair Theatre and Left Right Minds. For more information go to the Thal.

I love the tagline of The Neanderthal Arts Festival: “Emerging from the Cave for our second year”

A play about a pregnant brother, a musical about a bigamist, a Dadaist take on contemporary life, a Beckett-like parable about a man building a chair and a verbatim-based theatre journey exploring family communication are all part this year’s line-up for Vancouver’s hippest, summer festival.
Co-producers Left Right Minds and Upintheair Theatre are thrilled to announce the line-up for the second annual Neanderthal Arts Festival which takes place this July at the Cultch. This year’s Mainstage Series will feature four local companies and one national company producing an eclectic range of cutting edge theatre.

The line-up includes:
 Chairs by Sebastien Archibald; ITSAZOO Productions, Vancouver
 Homecoming King by Dave Deveau & James Coomber; Thirty Below Theatre, Vancouver
 The Gas Heart by Quinn Harris and James Foy; Gas Heart Theatre, Vancouver
 Other Side Through You by Cat Main: exit.left productions, Vancouver
 My Pregnant Brother by Johanna Nutter: Freestanding Productions, Montreal
Find out more information on the individual shows below.

This year’s Festival will also feature Walking Fish: Science & Transformation, three new theatre shorts commissioned by the Neanderthal Arts Festival. More information on these shows will be made available shortly by the producers.

Neanderthal Arts Festival is a curated, developmental festival, providing a platform for theatre artists and companies to showcase and try out new and experimental work. Our goal is to encourage work that takes risks, is creative and has a clear artistic vision.

Neanderthal Arts Festival: 2011 Mainstage Line-Up (pasted from the information Thal sent me)

Chairs: ITSAZOO Productions
Playwright: Sebastien Archibald
Director: Chelsea Haberlin
A tribal allegory featuring a unique blend of live action, flash animation and found-sound musicscape. Drawing inspiration from the theatrical existentialism of Samuel Beckett and serving it up for the sardonic, hipster generation, Chairs follows the trials and tribulations of three men as they attempt to build a civilized existence for themselves in a barren wasteland. They enjoy a hilariously uneventful life full of equality and boredom until one man steps forward and does the unthinkable… he builds a giant chair! With his newfound power position he can survey the land, dictate orders, and offer keen insights about the world around them. But how long can he abuse his authority before the seeds of rebellion are sowed? And what untold horrors lay beyond the wasteland?

Homecoming King: Thirty Below Theatre
Book & Lyrics: Dave Deveau
Composer: James Coomber
Director: Mike Mackenzie
What do you do when life is going perfectly? You screw it up. Daniel is a successful businessman. And he’s married to Evelyn. They’re in love. And life continues on, as it has a tendency of doing. But ten years later, when Daniel meets Linda, he has to make a choice. Or does he? Can a man navigate two wives and two lives?
All goes smoothly. Until it doesn’t. Until a bizarre accident brings two women together. Two women who have much more in common than they’d first realized. A musical with twang.

The Gas Heart: Gas Heart Theatre
Director/Co-Creator/Co-Artistic Producer: Quinn Harris
Co-Creator/Co-Artistic Producer: James Foy
How does the Oxford English Dictionary define “bootylicious”? Is Helvetica really a fascist typeface? Can I get an STD from unprotected twittering? Find horribly unscientific answers to these and more imperative questions of our time in a modern adaptation of a classic from the Dada movement. Aptly described by its author as “the greatest three act hoax of the century,” The Gas Heart searches through the skivvies of our society to reveal the senselessness in our world today: politics, pop culture and potato chips in 2011.

Other Side Through You: exit.left productions
Director/Dramaturge/Co-designer: Jamie Nesbitt
Performer/Playwright/Co-designer: Cat Main
Other Side Through You is a charged, theatrical blending of fact and fiction that wrestles with the science and spirit behind communication. Cat Main’s sister has cerebral palsy and “talks” with an alphabet board. With the help of a facilitator who holds her arms Cat’s sister points to letters on the board to spell out what she wants to say. The problem…not everyone believes her sister is the one communicating.
On a quest for the truth Cat talks to world famous sceptics, family members, top researchers & speech pathologists. Using verbatim text from these interviews Other Side Through You takes us on a journey that explodes the personal into the political and immerses the audience in a dialogue on what constitutes real and authentic communication between any individuals.

My Pregnant Brother: Freestanding Productions
Playwright and performer: Johanna Nutter
Director and dramaturg: Jeremy Taylor
In the summer of 2008, Thomas Beatie, “the World’s First Pregnant Man,” gave birth to a baby girl. When the story broke, it went around the world in less than twenty-four hours. The funny thing is, two years before anyone had ever heard of Thomas Beatie, my brother became a pregnant man… and the only one who knew was me. I’m going to tell you that story.

UPDATE: For an additional entry, you can post the following into your Twitter stream (if you post a tweet and comment on the blog, you earn a total of 2 entries).

Told @hummingbird604 & @notextinct the show I want 2 check @ #thal2011 http://is.gd/baPboO for a chance 2 win passes. How about you?

For tickets you can go to thal.ca.

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