Upstage - Vigil

Hello!

Welcome back to the Belfry and our new production of Morris Panych’s play, Vigil.

We’re thrilled to see Anton Lipovetsky (I Think I’m Fallin’ – The Songs of Joni Mitchell) and Nicola Lipman (Shirley Valentine, Let Me Call You Sweetheart) returning to our stage.

Vigil is directed by former Belfry Artistic Director Glynis Leyshon.

As always, we look forward to seeing you at the theatre.

COVER IMAGE: COSTUME RENDERING BY KEN MACDONALD

Land Acknowledgement

The Belfry Theatre is on the land of the People, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. The people have been keepers of this land for millennia and we offer our respect and gratitude for our presence on this territory.

is produced four times per year and can be found at branches of the Greater Victoria Public Library, the Belfry and online at issuu.com/belfrytheatre. If you would like a digital copy please drop us a line at hello@belfry.bc.ca.

B4 Play

SATURDAY,

(In-person + Online)

NOVEMBER 12 AT 11 AM

BMO Studio Theatre, 1291 Gladstone Avenue

Free Event. Our live talk show hosted by CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigie and featuring artists from the upcoming show, along with experts from the community, has been designed to provide insight into each Mainstage production.

Panelists include Anton Lipovetsky (Kemp), Nicola Lipman (Grace), and Cheryl Chalifour (Executive Director, Parkwood Place).

Each event is held the Saturday before Opening, is free to attend and is live streamed on Facebook and is available as a podcast on our website.

To reserve your free tickets, please call our Box Office at 250-385-6815.

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BELFRY THEATRE 1291 GLADSTONE AVENUE VICTORIA, BC V8T 1G5

WWW.BELFRY.BC.CA

Vigil is generously supported by

Upstage is supported by

Tickets 250-385-6815 / tickets.belfry.bc.ca

Anita Rochon and Gregor Craigie

Photo by Don Craig

Interview:

Morris Panych

THEATRE IN VANCOUVER. Since that time, he has written over twenty plays and adapted half a dozen others. He has twice won the Governor General Literary Award for Drama, is the recipient of five of Toronto’s Dora Awards, and has won so many Jessie Awards that the Vancouver theatre community joke about changing their name to the Morrie Awards. Morris has directed close to one hundred plays, in addition to film, music video, and opera—including at Pacific Opera’s Macbeth, The Barber of Seville and Flight. His acclaimed film of The Overcoat won an honourable mention at the Prix Italia.

Who would direct the coolest production of one of your plays? The coolest person would be the person who loved and understood my work and wanted an audience to love and understand it in the same way.

What scares you? What can’t you write about? I am scared to write non-comedic material because I fear it will come across as melodramatic. But I have to try. I am scared of success and failure in equal measure, but what scares me the most is writing that’s irrelevant.

What do you want to write about that you haven’t yet?

Sin. What it is. I don’t know, but when I figure it out, I want to write about it. And love; I would like to write a love story—it would be sad, I think, and a little bit funny…I guess Vigil is a kind of love story.

How do you deal with praise? With criticism?

I take both too seriously. A crazy woman came up to me at the corner of Queen and Parliament and said ‘you; you’re ugly.’ For a long time after I thought, what did she mean? Am I really ugly? Is she telling me something nobody else will? Does she have some special insight into my soul? Or is she just crazy? Criticism sticks. I’m pretty sure she was insane but there is a small part of me, still, that is carrying around this feeling that I might be just a little bit ugly.

Where do you write? Pen or keyboard?

I hate to admit it, but I have almost no penmanship left. I lack the coordination even to write my own name. I believe that writing will move more and more to the keyboard. Committing to pen and paper is very different than committing to computer, which is not so much a commitment as a first date. I can change my writing on a computer, and nobody has to ever know just how shitty it was.

TOP: MARGARET BARTON AND ALAN WILLIAMS IN VIGIL (1995)

BY MORRIS PANYCH / PHOTO BY BRUCE STOTESBURY / SET & COSTUME

DESIGNER - KEN MACDONALD / LIGHTING DESIGNER - MARSHA

SIBTHORPE / SOUND DESIGNER – IAN RYE

ABOVE LEFT: MORRIS PANYCH PHOTO BY JOY VON TIEDEMANN

MORRIS GRADUATED FROM CREATIVE WRITING AT UBC IN 1977 AND HAD HIS FIRST PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION IN 1982 WITH LAST CALL FOR TAMAHNOUS

Interview conducted by MK Piatkowski for BC Bookworld, 2011

I don’t have to take responsibility for what I write nearly as much as when I used to have to use white out. When I was first in Creative

Writing at UBC, we copied our scripts on gestetner machines, which were like a kind of printing press. There were a lot more steps, so I thought more carefully about what I was writing.

What would you like academics to write about your work in 50 years?

I would like them to say, these academics, that I existed. The worst fate for an artist is to have not been heard; that’s my idea of eternal damnation.

What inspires you?

To say what inspires me, sort of implies that I’m inspired, which I’m often not. But I am often moved, particularly by acts of kindness; even somebody opening a door for me and smiling can bring me to tears, of late. I feel pretty emotional when somebody displays

Why I Chose This Play

I love Morris Panych’s writing. He has what is probably the most idiosyncratic voice in Canadian theatre. Morris writes plays that put his unique view of the world on stage. To experience his plays is to know and appreciate Morris—a misanthrope with a heart of gold.

Vigil—probably the most widely produced of Morris’s plays—began life here at the Belfry, and I felt it was time to revive and celebrate it. It’s 27 years later, and Vigil has new reverberations. Though there’s not a cell phone or computer in this world that Morris has drawn, one could easily believe that he’s examining the isolation they have created, and the lack of—and need for—genuine human contact.

And, frankly, it was simply time to invite Morris back—the most produced playwright on our stage—together with Ken MacDonald, recreating his iconic set from that very first production. They are both superstars of Canadian theatre and, in many ways they—like this play—got their start at the Belfry—!

Michael Shamata, Artistic Director

their humanity, even in passing. The thing that most deeply moves me is music; say, for instance, Prokofiev’s cello concerto. To think how somebody could be such a genius to construct and interweave those harmonies, and to do it with such apparent ease and wit, but more than that how this man has reached out a hundred years and somehow known what was in my heart. How his music speaks to me; that is moving. For art to reverberate through space in wonderful, but through time is awe-inspiring.

MK Piatkowski was the artistic director of one big umbrella at the time of this interview. obu is now a personal and corporate transformation company, with MK using her theatre experience as a corporate trainer and life coach. She still occasionally directs, mostly working with storytellers.

Cast & Creatives

Evan Frayne KEMP STANDBY

Anton Lipovetsky KEMP

Nicola Lipman GRACE

Luc Prairie LIGHTING DESIGNER

Glynis Leyshon DIRECTOR

Ken MacDonald SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Becca Jorgensen ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Tobin Stokes SOUND DESIGNER

Dianne Goodman STAGE MANAGER

Holly Winter ASSISTANT SOUND DESIGNER

Diana Budiachenko DIRECTING INTERN

Emily Trepanier ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER

Belfry Librarian

The wonderful librarians at the Greater Victoria Public Library have compiled a list of books and videos to help you get even more out of our production of Vigil.

B4PLAY (In-person + Online)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12 AT 11 AM

BMO Studio, Free Event

Our live talk show hosted by CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigie and featuring artists from the upcoming show, along with experts from the community, have been designed to provide insight into each Mainstage production.

Panelists include Anton Lipovetsky (Kemp), Nicola Lipman (Grace), and Cheryl Chalifour (Executive Director, Parkwood Place).

Each event is held the Saturday before Opening, is free to attend and is live streamed on Facebook and is available as a podcast on our website.

To reserve your free tickets, please call our Box Office at 250-385-6815.

BELFRY @UVIC

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 FROM 12:45 - 1:45 PM

Chief Dan George Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Building, University of Victoria

In conversation with Glynis Leyshon, Director of Morris Panych’s Vigil. No registration required. Open to the public.

TALKBACK THURSDAY (On Stage + Online / Hybrid)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER

1 FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE

On the third Thursday performance during the run of each show, most (usually all) of the actors return to the stage to answer your questions and provide insight into the play you have just experienced. These Q & A sessions last approximately 20 minutes.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten (2018)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (2017)

Friendship in the Age of Loneliness: An Optimist’s Guide to Connection by Adam Smiley Poswolsky (2021)

In Absentia by Morris Panych (2012)

Loneliness as a Way of Life by Thomas Dumm (2008)

The Accidental Caregiver: The Challenges and Triumphs of Family Caregiving by Kimberly Fraser (2022)

The Dishwashers by Morris Panych (2005)

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen (2017)

Lawrence & Holloman [DVD video] (sirsidynix.net) (2013)

Our round-up of events happening at the theatre over the next four weeks.

WILL POWER Joan Peggs

Belfry Board member Joan Peggs has enjoyed a long relationship with the Belfry Theatre, stretching back to 1976 when the theatre was founded, and she first started as a volunteer.

Joan started in the concession booth, which at the time was in the actual theatre space, at the back of the seating area, where she could watch the performance from right behind the counter. Joan loved the theatre and the social aspects of volunteering and has been a mainstay of the Belfry community ever since.

“It’s brought me a lot of enjoyment and pleasure,” says Joan. “The Belfry has a great presence in Victoria. It started locally and has worked really hard to establish a place for itself in the community and a great reputation across the country.”

As someone who has been coming to the theatre for nearly five decades, Joan is an eager champion for the cause. Along with her volunteer and Board duties, Joan believes in encouraging people to support the Belfry in whatever way they can, including volunteering and financial support.

“I think it’s important to support organizations like this, especially in the arts community, because they’re vital to our community,” says Joan. “Life is all about trying to help people and make the world better for people, that’s how I see it.”

In addition to her volunteer work, Joan makes a substantial annual donation and made a major multi-year pledge to the Belfry’s capital campaign to renovate the lobby in 2017. In honour of this generosity, the Front of House area is named for Joan.

Joan has also taken the step to include the Belfry in her Will, along with other charitable organizations, a decision she is grateful to be in the position to make. The gift in her Will isn’t huge, says Joan, but builds on what she’s currently donating while she’s still able to see it put to good use. She knows that it all counts and that each gift makes a difference.

“You have to decide for yourself what values you have in life, what is of importance to you, what brings you joy,” says Joan. “You hope those things will bring joy to other people and you can help that happen by leaving a gift in your Will. You can enable that organization to carry on.”

More and more Canadians like Joan are making the decision to leave gifts for their favourite charities in their Will. The Belfry is proud to be part of a national campaign called Will Power. The campaign is inspiring Canadians to think differently about giving, and consider a gift to charity in their will, along with making provisions for loved ones left behind.

To learn more about Will Power and how you can leave a gift in your Will, visit the Belfry’s Will Power webpage at: willpower.ca/charities/belfry-theatre-society/

Vigil

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

November 15–December 11, 2022

LIVE STREAMING NOVEMBER 29 TO DECEMBER 4

Tuesdays – Thursdays at 7:30 pm

Wednesday Matinees at 1 pm

(November 23, 30 & December 7)

Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm

Saturday Matinees at 4 pm

Sunday Matinees at 2 pm

Audience Engagement Schedule

B4PLAY · Saturday, November 12 at 11 am

TALKBACK THURSDAY · December 1

How to buy tickets

By telephone

250 385 6815

Please have your credit card ready, as well as the date and time of the performance you wish to attend.

Online

Visit belfry.bc.ca/tickets and buy your tickets online, anytime.

In person

Drop by our Box Office.

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, debit card, cheques, and, of course, cash.

VocalEye – Vigil

Wednesday, December 7

For patrons with low or no vision, we will offer an online VocalEye performance of Vigil.

The virtual lobby opens at 6:30 pm for socializing, the official welcome at 6:45 with an intro to the show and then the show starts at 7:00 pm. Afterwards, we have a Q and A and a prize draw.

During VocalEye performances, trained Audio Describers provide descriptions of the visual elements of the show, allowing people with low vision to enjoy the theatrical experience without missing any of the details. Please contact the Box Office for details.

VOCALEYE TOUCH TOUR FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE OF GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET) BY ANN-MARIE MACDONALD FEATURING ACTRESS DANIELA VLASKALIC (RIGHT). PHOTO BY PETER POKORNY