Blue Dragon roars into Vancouver
Michael Stevenson, SFU President, 778.782.4641, stevensn@sfu.ca
Martin Gotfrit, SFU Contemporary Arts, (o) 778.782.3766 (c) 604.614.7518, gotfrit@sfu.ca
Julie Ovenell-Carter/Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, PAMR, 778.782.3210, joc@sfu.ca or jamieson@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, with Théâtre la Seizième, today announced that Robert Lepage’s theatrical masterpiece, The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu, will headline the school’s inaugural cultural program in February 2010.
After more than 30 years at the Burnaby campus, SFU Contemporary Arts will relocate to its new downtown home at 149 West Hastings—part of the Woodward’s redevelopment project—in January 2010.
To celebrate the opening, SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward’s will present three outstanding theatrical productions that exemplify the school’s innovative and multi-disciplinary creative focus:
- The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu (February 2010): Robert Lepage concludes the brilliant Dragon’s Trilogy that launched his meteoric theatrical career 25 years ago. The internationally acclaimed multimedia artist and recent Governor General’s award recipient returns with a rich and intimate portrayal of his haunting alter-ego, Pierre Lamontagne, a lost artist who deliberately erases all vestiges of his Occidental past to become someone else. While his search embraces the visual mythology of Orientalism, his restless spirit confronts his past and future in a modern China where progress, ethics and relationships are at odds. Additional community partners include Sunset Inn & Suites and Wordsworth Media.
- SPINE (March 12-21, 2010): SFU proudly presents the world premiere of SPINE, a new creation by University of Alberta Lee Playwright-In-Residence Kevin Kerr and SFU alumnus James Sanders, the creative team behind Realwheels' smash hit action-adventure-comedy Skydive. While traveling the universe of avatars, inhabiting online realities and identities, a man discovers the intriguing possibility of reinventing his physical body through a blend of ambitious, cutting-edge technologies and ethically questionable experiments. It’s a thrilling hunt for the body that will best define us, in a world where the virtual can be more real than the real itself. This Realwheels/University of Alberta co-production was commissioned by the University of Alberta Department of Drama and will feature the UofA BFA Acting class (2010).
- Machinal (April 7-17, 2010): SFU Contemporary Arts theatre professor Steven Hill directs the 1928 Broadway hit Machinal, a modern age tragedy of isolation turned to murder. Based on the true story of Ruth Snyder, Machinal follows an unremarkable stenographer, Helen Jones, who is caught in the mechanics of a repetitive, lifeless identity. Only when fate offers her a glimpse of intimacy, triggering deep passion for living, does she realize how deeply trapped she is.
“We are particularly grateful to the Province of British Columbia, SFU’s partners in the artistic community and the many private donors who share our commitment to this exciting project,” says SFU President Michael Stevenson.
“SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward’s will add seven much-needed performance and exhibit spaces to Vancouver’s rich cultural mix, and promises to be a magnet for arts enthusiasts from across Canada and around the world.”
Adds Martin Gotfrit, director of SFU Contemporary Arts: “The inaugural line-up for the Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre exemplifies the uniquely collaborative artistic process and presentation that is the hallmark of our school.”
“We’re excited to co-present Robert Lepage’s latest theatrical masterpiece The Blue Dragon/ Le Dragon Bleu with Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts as part of Cultural Olympiad 2010,” said Burke Taylor, vice president, culture and celebrations for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “This intimate black-box theatre is the perfect venue for the audience to experience Lepage’s captivating story and brilliant theatricality.”
Visit http://www.sfuwoodwards.ca/ for ticket reservations, early-bird discount packages, student bonuses and information regarding the president’s opening night gala on Feb. 5, 2010.
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Backgrounder:
In late 2007, the B.C. government announced funding of $50.3 million to enable Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts to move into a new home on the former Woodward’s department store site in the 100-block of West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver.
- SFU Contemporary Arts has a 30-year track record as a national training school for interdisciplinary arts and offers undergraduate degree programs in Art and Culture Studies, Dance, Film, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts, in addition to a Master of Fine Arts degree. Currently, there are more than 1,500 students in the school.
- The school’s presence helped create housing market confidence: the residential component of the Woodward’s development sold out in a single day.
- The school presents more than 100 events each year, and the new site is designed to welcome more than 5,000 arts enthusiasts to music, film, theatre, dance and visual arts events throughout a year.
- The community will have opportunities to rent space in the new building for a variety of cultural programming.
The 125,000-sq-ft (11,000-sq-m) facility includes:
- The Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, which can accommodate staging configurations ranging from proscenium to arena and can seat up to 450. This space can be subdivided to create a separate 125-seat performance space or to allow rehearsals without interfering with the main-stage space. The full area of the floor will be sprung for dance or physical theatre.
- Two 125-seat studio theatres, one of which is optimized for dance, the other for theatre performance.
- A World Art Performance Studio which will house the school's Indonesian Gamelan orchestra.
- A 350-seat cinema/lecture hall equipped to screen feature films and house large lectures and panel discussions.
- A teaching gallery on the ground floor to accommodate contemporary visual arts exhibitions. There are six moving wall panels that can be arranged as display walls or used to partition the gallery into three parts.
The facility will house most of the teaching and administrative functions of the School for the Contemporary Arts. Other teaching and research facilities include:
- A professional-calibre film soundstage with acoustic isolation for the shooting of interior sequences, a film classroom and two 25-seat screening rooms.
- Three additional dance studios, each slightly different in character and optimized for different dance forms.
- Two additional theatre studios with sprung floors for movement training.
- A principal music teaching studio to complement the World Art Studio as well as smaller studios and practice rooms for teaching and studio work in acoustic and electronic music.
- Two visual art and interdisciplinary studios.
- A two-level multidisciplinary complex incorporating two computer teaching labs and numerous smaller computer-based editing and composing suites for film, video, graphics and design, electro-acoustic music as well as several traditional film editing suites.
This sustainable building has high environmental standards that include:
- Extensive “green roofs” throughout the site.
- Significant recycled content and local sourcing for material selection.
- Using the existing Beatty Steam plant to convert steam to hot water radiant heating.
- A 100-year life expectancy (most buildings now have a 30- to 50-year life expectancy).
About the Cultural Olympiad
The Cultural Olympiad presented by Bell is a series of multi-disciplinary festivals and digital programs showcasing the best in Canadian and international arts and popular culture. Launched in 2008, the program culminates with the 60-day Cultural Olympiad 2010, beginning January 22 and continuing throughout the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, ending March 21, 2010.