Special Pay-What-You-Can performance Tuesday, November 18.

Reserve tickets online at www.ticketstonight.ca, or phone 604-685-0752. 

VANCOUVER, B.C.—Lyric Stage Project presents the premiere run of their first full-length, original experience The 21st Floor. Written by company Artistic Director Michèle Lonsdale Smith in workshop with the ensemble, the piece has been created in accord with LSP's perspective that it is essential to tell stories that are relevant to the place and time of its audience. The 21st Floor dissects the city of Vancouver through the lives of its residents, to examine the utterly unique consequence of living on top of one another while surrounded by beautiful open spaces.

Set high above an increasing unrest in the streets below, ten people are sequestered inside their designer laps of luxury, comfortably numb within spaces held aloft by concrete, steel and status. But when the unthinkable meets the inevitable, the cracks begin to show...

The 21st Floor is a study in catalytic social forces and the space between people. It asks: "what would it take for us to really engage with each other in a community caught between an increasing sense of isolation and an unrelenting push forward?"

It just might take everything we've got.

Michèle Lonsdale Smith graduated from the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York in the late '80s. She is the Artistic Director of Lyric Stage Project and Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver, which she co-founded in 2001.  As a director, her latest credits include Miss Julie by August Strindberg (adapted by Craig Lucas), and Dutchman by LeRoi Jones, for Lyric Stage Project; The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams; Lion in the Streets by Judith Thompson; Eric Bogosian's one-man show Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll; and Chekhov's Three Sisters with York University's Master Acting Ensemble. She can be seen on stage in this fall's Arts Club production of John Patrick Shanley's Pullitzer prize winner Doubt. This is her first full-length work as a playwright.

Written and Staged by: Michèle Lonsdale Smith

Starring: Graem Beddoes, Chris Bradford, Ryan Hesp, Nick Hunnings, Eliza Norbury, Simon Ogden, Stephen Park, Nathalie Therriault, Anthony Ulc, Matt Ward, Anna Williams and Nadine Wright

Original Score and Sound Design by: Rylan Kerbes

Produced by: Paul Armstrong

Come to PAL Vancouver's SHOP and A SHOW Art Market and Cabaret Fundraiser

Performing Arts Lodge
581 Cardero Street
Vancouver
8th floor PAL Theatre 

Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6
Doors open at 6 pm.
Show begins at 7:30 pm 

Shop - unique gifts created by resident and guest artisans: paintings, photography, jewelry, lampshades, stationery, exotic rugs and much more. Click here to see photos.

Show - featuring MC Michael Morgan, and singers Sean Allan, Lia Renee Clark, Nancie Foreman, David Paul Grove, June Katz, Patricia Trottier, Judy Ginn Walchuk

Invited Guest Performers - Barbara Bodie, Doug Cameron, Charles Morris, Marlee Walchuk, Mark McConchie, Sean Allan

Musicians - Ron Johnston (piano), Darrel Lang (percussion), Jim Walchuk (bass)

Raffles - over 50 prizes to be won, including:
      - Tickets to Bard on the Beach
      - Tickets to Theatre Under the Stars
      - Click here to see photos of other prizes
50/50 tickets for cash prizes
And featuring "Pick Your Prize, Pick Your Odds Showstopper Draws"

Tickets are only $20
Call 778-329-1803 to reserve yours today.  

Sunday Art Market
December 7, 12-5pm
Free Admission

Nearest parking can be found:  -      on the street (two hour maximum)  -      beside White Spot (corner of W. Georgia and Cardero)  -      in Westin Bayshore lot, under the PAL building (entrance on the side)  -      across the street from PAL, underground  -      Coal Harbour Community Centre (off Nicola and W. Hastings)

A HOLIDAY TREAT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
December 11-14 at PAL Vancouver

PAL Vancouver residents present a new and highly entertaining adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale of a miserly man who finds the true spirit of Christmas through the intervention of ghosts. This timely version of "A Christmas Carol" runs from December 11-13 at the PAL Studio Theatre.

Faithful to Dickens' language and theme, this unique production is enhanced by a chorus of best loved Christmas carols and the ghostly sounds of chains, squeaky doors and thunder played live on stage.

Adapted for radio by Tony Palermo, the piece moves from the greedy world of "Bah Humbug" to the joy of "God Bless us one and all" and includes all the well known characters including Scrooge (David Petersen), Marley's ghost (Mina Mina); Narrator (PAL President elect Keith Martin Gordey), Tiny Tim (West Vancouver's young Scott Brooks, a student at DRAMAWORKS) and Mrs. Fezziwig (distinguished actor, Joy Coghill).

Director Michael Fera and Co-producers, residents Sean Allan and Camilla Ross, transform the PAL Theatre into a contemporary radio studio. The "show within a show" will be performed by PAL resident actors and singers, supported by resident technicians and volunteers, and the audience will play the part of studio audience.

"A Christmas Carol" will resonate in these times of financial uncertainty when much of the blame is being aimed at greed on Wall Street. The sins and final redemption of Scrooge may illuminate some of the causes of the current crisis and offer hope for the future.

A benefit for PAL (Performing Arts Lodge) Vancouver, the production is sponsored by Vancity, West End Community Branch and the West End Seniors' Network.

Four performances only at the PAL Theatre, 581 Cardero St., Dec 11, 12, 13 at 8pm and 2pm matinee on the 13th. Tickets $20 / $10 at www.ticketstonight.ca, 604.684.2787. www.palvancouver.org.