Identity, pornography and retro-glam are among the themes being explored by current and former Tri-City performers at this month’s Vancouver Fringe Festival.
A handful of local actors are in the plays — many of them opening tomorrow (Thursday) — with stories ranging from the thought-provoking to the bizarre.
Coquitlam’s Joylyn Secunda, a Dr. Charles Best secondary graduate, offers the Vancouver debut of her one-woman show The Moaning Yoni, an acclaimed production she co-wrote with her father, retired SD43 teacher David Secunda.
With choreography by her mother, Linda Arkelian, Joylyn Secunda spins the tale of Zoe, a college student who taps into an elixir that makes her vagina talk.
She told The Tri-City News she was inspired to pen the play based on her real-life discovery of asexuality. The show “is more about a journey than finding a concrete solution,” she said, noting viewers within the asexual spectrum have been “empowered” by her character.
It runs this month at the Havana Theatre (1212 Commercial Dr., Vancouver).
Meanwhile, Port Coquitlam actor Tim Howe stars in Frenzied Millennial Collective’s The Great Canadian Porno: The Musical, which will see its world premiere at the festival.
Inspired by lyrics from a Christian hit song heard during a road trip through the Fraser Canyon, creator Nick Preston told The Tri-City News he spent four years getting the play ready for the stage.
It opens Monday, with five shows at the Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova St., Vancouver).
Also premiering is Alice in Glitterland, a large-scale immersive dance and theatre piece starring Gleneagle secondary graduate Lyndsey Britten. Set in a 1960s cabaret, the play by Geekenders opens Friday at Wise Hall (882 Adanac St., Vancouver).
Friday will also see the opening of 4.48 Psychosis. in which the ensemble — including Jessica Fowlis, the marketing assistant at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre — has learned the entire text and designate the lines through impulse in each performance, making each show unique.
The production that centres around the topic of mental health runs at the Culture Lab at The Cultch (1895 Venables St., Vancouver).
Coquitlam actor Christian Krushel will also be at The Cultch to showcase Legoland, a one-act play that was previously part of DebuTheatre at Surrey Little Theatre. The coming-of-age tale has six performances in the Culture Lab.
And finally, in the Firehall Arts Centre, Coquitlam native Bronwyn Henderson leads the all-female cast of The Russian Play, a Lovecat Theatre production by Hannah Moscovitch that has this as its description: “Love is beautiful. Girl meets Boy. Boy digs graves. Girl sells flowers. Love is s---.”
For tickets or more details about the plays, visit vancouverfringe.com.
