COMPLETED PRESENTATIONS - 2017
Encounter
Oct 17 – 22, 2017
YORK THEATRE
Navarasa Dance Theater India/USA
Presented with The Cultch
The best physical theatre out of India, Encounter is a story about an Indigenous woman, Dopdi, and her communities’ struggle to uphold the Indigenous life and her defiance against injustice. Encounter, created for the stage by Aparna Sindhoor, S M Raju, and Anil Natyaveda is a tribute to the Indigenous people’s history all around the world.
The draw: Acrobatics and original music in a tribute to Indigenous peoples’ history around the world.
Moving tales from Navarasa troupe…they incorporate modern dance, Indian martial arts, aerial dance, Bollywood’s pop influences – all with an eye for originality” – The Boston Globe
An experience that stunned the audience with its complexity and beauty” – Times of India
It combines a timeless, mythic presentational style with a charged political message that’s strangely contemporary” – Los Angeles Theater
HAPPY PLACE
By Pamela Mala Sinha
Oct 19 – 29, 2017
FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE
BC Premiere
Presented by Touchstone Theatre in association with Ruby Slippers Theatre
Happy Place takes us into the experiences of seven women: inpatients, living together in the most extraordinary circumstances. Though each woman must navigate her own survival in a world that challenges that possibility, they are also the ones who teach one another how to live in a way no therapist ever could.Happy Place is a glimpse into lives filled with courage, compassion, humour and startling surprises; lives which – in many ways – are not so different from our own.
Directed by Roy Surette
Set Design by Pam Johnson
Costume Design by Christine Reimer
Lighting Design by Adrian Muir
Original Music & Sound Design by Dorothy Dittrich
Starring:
Diane Brown
Nicola Cavendish
Sereana Malani
Adele Noronha
Laara Sadiq
Colleen Wheeler
Donna Yamamoto
HONOUR: Confessions of a Mumbai Courtesan
Oct 20 – Nov 4, 2017
Best Prices: Oct 20 - 22
CULTURE LAB
Dipti Mehta
New York - USA
Presented with The Cultch
This solo show is a testament to the humanity and lives of sex workers; a mother’s plea for her daughter’s life and her honour; a story of the struggles of an unlikely family. See Mumbai’s red light district — the eunuch, priest, pimp, mother and daughter who call it home — come to life through the versatile and award-winning performance of Dipti Mehta.
“★★★★★ Beautiful and devastating” — Time Out New York
“Masterful” — India.com
“Memoirs of a Geisha” meets “Slumdog Millionaire” - Dipti Mehta
Dipti is an amazing performer and a rising star in the world of Indian diaspora and Bollywood” — Rohit Chokhani, Artistic Director of Diwali in BC
Anatomy of Violence
Nov 4, 2017
Cineplex Odeon International Village
Co-presented with Vancouver Asian Film Festival
Deepa Mehta’s film examines one of the country’s most internationally notorious crimes: the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus. In collaboration with theatre director Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, Mehta worked improvisationally with her actors to envisage possible sociological and psychological backgrounds and pasts for both the perpetrators and the victim—highlighting a patriarchal culture, cycle of abuse, and an economic system skewed against the disadvantaged. Film screening followed by panel discussion, “Sparking Celluloid: Filmmaking for Social Change”, comprised of local filmmakers, artists, and social justice workers.
The violence expressed by a perpetrator in a single moment can alter another human being's life forever.
This film gives you a glimpse into the imagined lives of six brutal rapists and examines the complicity of a society that breeds such individuals.
No one becomes who they are in Isolation.
What Makes a monster? - Deepa Mehta
No one's born a rapist - Deepa Mehta
DIWALI @ EVERGREEN
Nov 5, 2017
EVERGREEN CULTURAL CENTRE
In collaboration with the TriCity India Heritage Network
As part of the VARIETY SERIES at the Evergreen Cultural Centre, Diwali in BC is proud to bring the Diwali celebrations to Coquitlam. This South Asian, cabaret-style evening features classical, Bollywood, and contemporary dance as well as classical live music performances. Curated by Diwali in BC artistic director Rohit Chokhani. Special thanks to David Mann and Nina Buddhdev.
I am thrilled to return to coquitlam for my second year curating diwali celebrations. Given our vision to expand the diwali celebration provincially it is very important for our team to continue to engage and
celebrate with our community in the tricities which includes coquitlam - Rohit Chokhani