A brand new theatre festival is coming October 5, 6, and 7 when Western Gold Theatre presents the inaugural Have a Senior Moment Festival, at the PAL Studio Theatre. From the rooftop studio in Vancouver’s West End, the festival will premiere, three new plays by local playwrights – all senior artists whose plays will be read by some of the city’s finest actors.
Western Gold Theatre put out a call for submissions, and with the assistance of an adjudicator, who did a blind review of the submissions, three plays were chosen. Each playwright received a four-hour workshop of their play with professional actors, a public reading at PAL Studio Theatre, and a digital recording of the event.
Western Gold’s Artistic Director, Tanja Dixon-Warren, says: “I wanted to turn the notion of ‘have a senior moment’ on its head! I wanted to change the perception of seniors ‘having a moment’ while simultaneously giving senior artists ‘a moment.’ I wanted to encourage the voices of senior artists who, with so much life experience, are daring to be bold and are writing from their hearts! I wanted to offer a platform for those who wish to take a leap and try something out! My hope is the Have a Senior Moment Festival will discover new things for us all and morph into an annual festival celebrating the WGT motto: Creativity has no Expiry Date!”
The Have a Senior Moment Festival includes:
READING #1
Fortunate Sons
by Jay Brazeau
Thursday, October 5, 7:30 pm
Hysterical, heartbreaking, mysterious, and frightening – like a roller coaster you want to jump off of, but the longer you stay the longer you’ll want to ride! The ride follows four generations of fathers and sons and takes you from 1937 to beyond. It’s like a puzzle without a picture you throw up in the air and each act you watch is about putting the pieces together. It’s definitely worth the ride!
READING #2
They’re Naked, They’re Ugly and They Owe us Money
by Susinn McFarlen
Friday, October 6, 7:30 pm
This feminist comedy about a theatre company forced to rehearse in a decrepit biker clubhouse when the last rehearsal space in town closes takes us on a magical journey that is a love letter to an art form that is struggling but refuses to die. It’s funny, it’s angry, it’s theatre!
READING #3
The Monarch
by Michael Vairo
Saturday, Oct 7 at 7:30 pm
In a dingy old boxing club in the basement of a rundown hotel in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an old boxer and his one-time prodigy search for meaning in their lives and contemplate what could have been. Facing old age, eviction, and a slow slide into dementia, one man decides that it is not too late to sing his song in life and, with the help of his daughter, chooses to follow his dream.
The first Have a Senior Moment Festival runs Thursday October 5 to Saturday October 7 at PAL Studio Theatre, 581 Cardero Street. Readings at 7:30pm each night, more information and tickets at westerngoldtheatre.org