Sold out opening night for Stroke of Luck at Vancouver Fringe Festival!

"you’ll want to make a point of following along with master storyteller Jacques Lalonde as the well-loved Vancouver actor recounts his journey from near basket case to almost full recovery in Stroke of Luck."                    Larry Ghini Vancouverscapes

After a smashing preview show as part of Railtown Cultural Eclective’s  Trier Series, the indomitable Jacques Lalonde's one-man STROKE OF LUCK  opened to sold out house last night at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Havana Theatre.

On July 1, 2013, Jacques Lalonde had a stroke that left him without the use of his right arm and right side of his face. STROKE OF LUCK uses Jacques' renowned storytelling skills to give us an inside look at how the brain works and the difficult road to recovery.

Hilarious and poignant, STROKE OF LUCK gives us hope, inspires us to see the beauty of life in new ways, and will help develop your Christopher Walken impersonation. Will Jacques be able to use his right hand again?  Will he ever be able to sing?  What can he now do with his left hand that he couldn't do before? Go see Stroke of Luck and all will be revealed with the charm and wit Jacques is famous for in his storytelling!

 
STROKE OF LUCK - Havana Theatre, 1212 Commercial Drive
SHOW TIMES

Saturday September 6,   9:45 PM

Sunday September 7,  2:45 PM

Tuesday September 9, 9:30 PM

Thursday September 11,  6:00 PM

Saturday September 13,  6:15 PM

Sunday September 14,  1:00 PM

Ticket are $14 and available at www.vancouverfringe.com 

Jacques is Back Big Time in Stroke of Luck

Get ready to watch Jacques Lalonde triumph over adversity in his new one-man show Stroke of Luck August 20 at  the Orpheum Annex.  This is the last performance in our summer season of the Trier Series.

Here's a link to a great preview by Mark Leirin Young in the Vancouver Sun:

Jacques Lalonde just keeps laughing

Tickets are $20/15 students/seniors/arts workers and on sale now at www.northerntickets.com

Jacques Lalonde's Stroke of Luck a Stroke of Genius

The indomitable Jacques Lalonde, previews his one-man show STROKE OF LUCK at Railtown Cultural Eclective’s  Trier Series,  August 20 at the Orpheum Annex, before it goes Fringe in September.

On July 1, 2013, Jacques Lalonde had a stroke that left him without the use of his right arm and right side of his face. STROKE OF LUCK uses Jacques' renowned storytelling skills to give us an inside look at how the brain works and the difficult road to recovery.  We learn about the value of reaching out to friends, staying positive and see some of the crazy exercises one has to do to get back to "normal."

Hilarious and poignant, STROKE OF LUCK gives us hope, inspires us to see the beauty of life in new ways, and will help develop your Christopher Walken impersonation. Will Jacques be able to use his right hand again?  Will he ever be able to sing?  What can he now do with his left hand that he couldn't do before? All will be revealed with the charm and wit Jacques is famous for in his storytelling.

Jacques has performed for over one million people at almost every major festival in BC including the Vancouver International Storytelling, Children’s, Dragonboat and Comedy Festivals, Vancouver and Surrey First Night, The Festival of Dreams, Prince Rupert Comedy Festival, and Surrey Children's Festival.     He is the only recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vancouver International Fringe Festival and has been in over 20 Best of The Fringe and holdovers including A Closer Walk With Jean Chretien, How I learned to Drive, The Kenny Rodgers Experience, and A Short History of My Life as a Bear. He also was the host for LIVE CITY VANCOUVER at the 2010 Olympic Games.   

This is the last show of the summer season in the Railtown Cultural Eclective Trier Series which showcases artists and works that engage audiences in issues that affect us all. Ticket are available at www.northerntickets.com. For  more information on Stroke of Luck email info@railtownce.ca or call 604-836-9443 or visit www.railtownce.ca

Gender Bender Shakespeare

25 Canadian Shakespearean Gender Benders from yesterday's Cross-Gender Shakespeare Workshop taught by Lisa Wolpe - Spirit was In The Room! #awesomecanadianactors 

The workshop was followed by a BBQ lunch provided by the Terry Fox Theatre - many, many thanks to Rick Rinder Theatre Manager for providing the venue for this workshop and lunch.

 Afterwards participants were treated to an Open Rehearsal of  Classic Chic Productions' The Winter's Tale coming up July 26 to August 9th at the PAL Studio Theatre. We are chuffed to be working together with these amazing women!

Lisa performs her one-woman show for our Trier Series this Wednesday July 16 at 8pm at the Orpheum Annex. Cast members from The Winter's Tale will be entertaining us from 7pm onward in the lobby and theatre  - a little swordplay perhaps!  Arrive early!!

Get your tickets now as they are going fast at: www.northerntickets.comhttp://northerntickets.com/events/a-cross-gender-experience-shakespeare-and-the-alchemy-of-gender/

Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender

“Wolpe is one of the great stage actors of our generation, who breathes life into Shakespeare’s words as though they were dredged from her own soul.”    

SHAKESPEARE IN LA

“Wolpe confirms that she is simply one of the best interpreters of the Bard out there! “   Talking Broadway

Railtown Cultural Eclective brings visionary theatre artist Lisa Wolpe’s new solo show Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender to their Trier Series, July 16 at the Orpheum Annex,offering a unique celebration of the enchanting power of cross-gender Shakespeare.

Wolpe is an actress, director, teacher, producer and artistic director and founder of the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company (LAWSC), an award-winning all-female, multi-cultural theater company.

In Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender, she both performs and contextualizes her experience of interpreting some of the many Shakespearian roles she has played – including Hamlet, Iago, Richard 111 and many others, while exploring her own life story from childhood to maturity. Her work speaks towards liberation from the “gender box” of expectations, and offers a unique and powerful perspective of courage, resilience and hope against her family’s troubled background of war, sickness, suicide and despair.

Wolpe has played more of the Bard’s male roles than any woman in history, always to superlative reviews. She recently received the Lee Melville Award for Outstanding Contribution to the LA Theater Community and was awarded the Key to Harlem and a Congressional Certificate of Merit for her work with the Harlem Shakespeare Festival in 2013.

She has taught and directed Shakespeare, all levels of acting, as well as directing courses for many theater companies and universities, including the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, USC, Cal Poly Pomona, Emerson College, Wellesley College, Boston University and MIT, and has lectured widely on cross-gender Shakespeare. She will be offering a cross-gender acting workshop on July 12 at the Terry Fox Theatre in Port Coquitlam. Click here for full details. 

Shakespeare & the Alchemy of Gender

July 16 Orpheum Annex, 823 Seymour Street 

8pm Doors 7pm Tickets $20/$15 Students, Seniors & Arts Workers Tickets are available at www.northerntickets.com.  For more information email info@railtonce.ca or call 604-836-9943

Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender

JEFF YOUNGER'S DEVIL LOOPS - Wednesday, June 18, Orpheum Annex

Jeff Younger is a 6-string master who has learned the most extreme techniques of the guitar and developed some of his own.     

The Halifax Jazz Festival

photo credit Wendy D

We are so excited to bring innovative guitarist/composer Jeff Younger to our Trier Performance Series, Orpheum Annex, Wednesday, June 18 at 8pm. The concert celebrates the release of Devil Loops volume 2, some of his most intense and riveting explorations in improvised music.

Jeff is just wrapping up a month long European tour that included Amsterdam, Berlin and Mannheim, and performances with some of Europe's finest improvisers, including Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Achim Kaufmann and Raoul Van der Weide. Joining him at the Orpheum Annex are some of Vancouver's best, including JP Carter and Dylan Van Der Schyff. We'll be posting more information soon about dancers and videographers that will also be part of this multimedia collaboration.

Directly after the Devil Loops release concert, Jeff will be featured in The Vancouver International Jazz Festival’s opening weekend Tonal Interactive Media Experiment, and wrap things up as the only non-international clinician during the festival’s closing weekend.

Devil Loops are completely improvised pieces for solo electric guitar, utilizing electronics and a wide array of extended techniques. Jeff brings a composer's mind and an improviser's fingers to the process, not thinking about the piece until he sits down to play the first note. The result is unplanned and untethered sonic expressions of beauty, darkness, fire and humour. Teeming with musical language and rhythmic complexity one minute or fuelled by primal and abstract expressionism the next, the audience is both witness and participant in the unpredictable unfolding of the moment.

Railtown Cultural Eclective’s Trier Series provides a showcase for the myriad talents of Vancouver emerging and established artists. The support of City of Vancouver Theatre Rental Grant Program makes it possible to present the series at Vancouver’s new performance venue the Orpheum Annex.

The concert, June 18, starts at 8pm at the Orpheum Annex, 823 Seymour Street. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are $20 which includes CD/ $15 general admission and available at www.northerntickets.com soon. For more information email info@railtownce.ca or call 604-836-9943.

more information on Jeff Younger can be found at jeffyounger.net

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.younger.125