Download Playwrights Theatre Centre and Touchstone Theatre première

Playwrights Theatre Centre and Touchstone Theatre première
Peace Play Award-Winner Herr Beckmann’s People as part of
Flying Start
VANCOUVER, BC: Two of Vancouver’s most respected new play organizations are hosting the World
Première of local playwright Sally Stubbs’ new script: Herr Beckmann’s People. Art, war and the politics of
culture collide in this poetic and moving account of a family’s legacy of beauty and brutality. Sally’s play is
the latest installment of Flying Start, a partnership of Playwrights Theatre Centre and Touchstone Theatre,
giving a stage to new professional playwrights, and the final production of Touchstone’s MADE IN BC season.
Herr Beckmann’s People runs June 10-19 at the PTC Studio at Festival House on Granville Island.
The play follows Anna, who, returning to the city she ran from decades ago, forces her family to answer to
tough questions about their past. While her mother plays a private concert, history unravels and she is
confronted with a moral dilemma of her own.
Touchstone and PTC developed Flying Start as a direct response to the lack of opportunities for upcoming
playwrights to get their work on stage. The program offers a year of development support, culminating in a
small-scale but fully professional production, to a promising script by a playwright who has not yet been
professionally produced. The intent is to introduce Vancouver audiences to the freshest voices in local
playwriting, and offer the writer the sterling lessons that only a production can provide.
Sally Stubbs is an award-winning playwright, a teacher-director, and a performer who loves to clown. She
has just completed a graduate degree in writing at the University of Victoria. Her scripts
include Wreckage (Scirocco Drama), Faroland, Centurions, Eyes. Two, She’ll To The Wars, Home
Movies and Spinning You Home, which she has begun to adapt as a novel for young adults. Herr Beckmann’s
People, even prior to its first production, has been selected for a showcase at the 8th International
Women’s Playwriting Conference in Mumbai, India, and is the winner of the third annual Canadian Peace
Play Competition.
The première production of Herr Beckmann’s People is directed by Touchstone’s Artistic Director Katrina
Dunn, with dramaturgy by PTC’s Executive Director Martin Kinch. The cast features some of Vancouver’s
finest actors: Anthony F. Ingram, Bill Marchant, Donna Carroll White and Christine Willes, led by Touchstone
favorite Dawn Petten in the lead role. Designers include Christopher David Gauthier on set, Adrian Muir on
lights, Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh on costumes and Jeff McMahan on sound.
The show opens Friday, June 11 at 8 pm, and runs nightly (except Sunday and Monday nights) through until
June 19. A Free Preview performance, sponsored by RBC Foundation, is on June 10 at 8pm. Saturday
matinees are June 12 and 19 at 2 pm. On Sunday, June 13 the matinee is at 4 pm, followed by a chat with
the Dramaturg and Director. After the 8 pm performance on Tuesday June 15, there will be an audience
talkback with the playwright in attendance. Tickets are $22 for adults and $18 for seniors and students,
except for the June 12 matinee, which is two-for-one (all tickets $11). Tickets are available through Tickets
Tonight or by calling 604-684-2787.
www.touchstonetheatre.com