Bruce Is Back!
Yes that's right! Bruce Eriksen is back in town. Yes, the legendary activist who turned the Downtown Eastside upside-down and gave 'em hell on Vancouver City Council will soon be singing and dancing across a Downtown Eastside stage in a new original drama called Bruce - The Musical.
And not only Eriksen, but his other fellow civic-disturbers, Libby Davies,
Jean Swanson and Harry Rankin will be joining him.
An original two-act musical drama, Bruce - The Musical, recreates key events in the life of the late founder of the Downtown Eastside Residents
Association (DERA), and the individual most responsible for transforming the
image of Vancouver's lowest-income neighbourhood from Skid Road to
residential community. It is a story of tragedy and triumphs, told with
humour, action, human drama and song.
The play is a blend of historical characters (Eriksen, Rankin, Davies,
Swanson) and representative characters (older single men and working people
trying to survive and maintain their dignity, Chinese elders in a strange
new land, politicians grappling with difficult issues - and you can expect a
couple SRO hotel cockroaches too).
The play chronicles events in the period 1973-76, when Eriksen overcame his addiction to alcohol, went on to become an Ironworker on the Knight Street Bridge project and then fought successfully to make the beer parlors and hotels of the Downtown Eastside safer for the old loggers and other retired resource workers who lived there. Later, he won a seat as a city council member, where he was a constant "headache" to the centre-to-right NPA dinosaurs.
The playwright of Bruce - The Musical, is Bob Sarti, an award-winning
Vancouver Sun reporter who covered many of the events depicted in the play.
For more than 20 years, Sarti lived and volunteered in the Downtown Eastside. He is now retired. The music has been composed by BC Entertainment Hall of Famer Bill Sample and also Earle Peach, two established musician-composers with deep roots in the community.
The play features a professional and semi-professional cast of nine, under
the direction of Jay Hamburger, artistic director of Theatre In the Raw
Society, an award-winning professional company which has a long history of
commitment and work within the East Side of Vancouver and to social justice
issues - "Giving Exposure to Voices Seldom Heard" since 1994.
Bruce Eriksen passed away nearly ten years ago, and many of the people he
worked with are gone, too. Accounts of those early struggles are not always
accessible to the new generation of community-minded residents.
Unfortunately, the gains of that era are now being eroded under pressure of
the growing illicit drug market and by the trend to gentrification.
Bruce - The Musical is an initiative to reclaim the history of the Downtown
Eastside, to equip current residents with an understanding of how their
community came to be what it is, and to reacquaint them with some of the
strategies for positive change that have succeeded in the past in
community-building. Bruce often spoke for those that found it hard to speak
for themselves; an inspiration for many.
Bruce - The Musical will run for ten performances from Nov. 6 - 16, 2008, at
the Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Avenue, in Vancouver's Strathcona
neighbourhood. Community members will be admitted at low or no cost; tickets
at $5 under/ unemployed; $10 student/ senior, $15 general/ adult. Preview
Night Pay-What-You-Can will be on Wednesday, November 5 and a 2-for-1
Matinee November 9, 2008.
Advanced tickets will be available online at
http://www.theatreintheraw.ca/tickets.html, also at Urban Empire, 1108
Commercial Drive, Vancouver (cash only) and at the door.
Ticket Prices for regular shows are:
$5 Under/Unemployed
$10 Students/Seniors
$15 General Adult
Tickets available to purchase online on our website at
http://www.theatreintheraw.ca/tickets.html
At Urban Empire at 1108 Commercial Drive (Cash Only) in mid October
Or at the door (as available)
Bruce The Musical Show Dates:
Wed, November 5, 2008 - Pay-What-You-Can Preview - 8 pm curtain - Doors
open 7:30 pm
Thurs, November 6, 2008 - Opening Night - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30 pm
Fri, November 7, 2008 - Regular Eve Show - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30 pm
Sat, November 8 - Regular Eve Show - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30 pm
Sun, November 9 - 2-For-1 Matinee Show - 2 pm curtain - Doors open 1:30 pm
Mon, November 10 - NO SHOW
Tue, November 11 - NO SHOW - REMEMBRANCE DAY
Wed, November 12 - Pay-What-You-Can Night - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30
pm
Thurs, November 11 - Regular Eve Show - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30 pm
Fri, November 14 - Regular Eve Show - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30 pm
Sat, November 15 - Regular Eve Show - 8 pm curtain Doors open 7:30 pm
Sun, November 16 - Regular Eve Final Show - 8 pm curtain - Doors open 7:30
pm
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East Vancouver Darkness - Carnegie Drugmartby richardmclaughlin0078,462 views
Bruce - The Musical is the best Downtown Eastside play ever - Produced by Vancouver's own Theatre In the Raw - Directed by Jay Hamburger... written by Bob Sarti - Music by Bill Sample and Earle Peach... One of the most moving real plays I've ever seen - i was in tears... great stuff - I hope Theatre In the Raw presents it again sometime soon!!!
drumweaver 2 years ago
i saw this!
ineedausernameplz 3 years ago