Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival 2023: Theatre and Dance Afternoon

Tickets

Cost: Free
Find tickets: here

Agenda:
1:45 PM Theatre doors open
1:55 PM Land acknowledgement and opening words from host
2:00 PM Eva Cho
2:20 PM Mako Fujimoto
2:50 PM Eva Cho
3:05 PM Jerry LaFaery & Leef Evans
3:25 PM - 3:30 PM Final words from host

THEATRE AND DANCE AFTERNOON HOST
Laura Fukumoto (she/her) is a poet, theatre artist, person about town. She settled in so-called Vancouver almost 15 years ago (?!) from the Toronto area, and is committed to loving this city and all her neighbours. Laura gets paid to talk a lot, and you may have heard her hosting the annual Powell Street Festival’s annual Sumo Wrestling tournament, facilitating panels, or loudly talking about her other odd jobs (TA, fabric wizard, governance coordinator, potter, director, organizer of a one-time-only Spiritual Pizza Festival, dog-walker, costumer, etc). Recent poetry events include Main St. Car Free Day, Queer Arts Festival, Rehearsal Sessions at the Evergreen Cultural Centre, Powell Street Festival, Vines, and Verses Festival of Words. Laura writes about queerness+mycology, her Japanese Canadian heritage, and our hopeful futures.

PERFORMER:
Eva Cho is a dancer and musical performer. She enjoys dance and singing since when she was 7 years old. She has been a traditional Chinese Dance performer since her younge age. She moved to Vancouver in 2010 from Regina where she taught teens and adults Chinese Folk Dance. Eva volunteers at Carnegie Centre to teach seniors Chinese Folk Dance. She joined Woment Rock at Carnegie and performs in various DTES venues.

PERFORMER:
Originally from Japan, Mako Fujimoto moved to Vancouver in 2019 to pursue her professional acting career. Since then, she has made Vancouver her home. Mako initially turned to acting as a means of self-expression and protection. However, her passion for the craft has grown over time, and she now genuinely enjoys the art of acting itself. Mako strives to tell authentic stories through her characters, using her entire being—body, face, eyes, and voice. Acting, for her, is a mission to bring characters to life in the present moment and convey truth to audiences. She sees this as a lifelong endeavour.
Mako specializes in classical and contemporary performing arts. Mako holds a diploma from the New Image College Acting Conservatory in Vancouver. While Mako had participated in numerous theatre performances in Japan, her official debut in TV and film came after she moved to Vancouver. In 2021, she successfully auditioned for the upcoming TV series "Shogun," produced by FX, securing a recurring guest star role as "Shizu No Kata." Mako has also worked in commercials, short films, and feature films in Vancouver. Her theatre credits span both Japan and Vancouver, and she is a new member of the Vancouver local idol production "Shooting Star Media." Recently graduating from NIC, Mako is thrilled to embark on her new journey. In addition to her performance at VOAF, she will be appearing in the IOCO player's latest musical concert-style performance, "Lullaby to Broadway," this summer.
Outside of acting, Mako is a designer and owns her own design brand, participating in various local vendor market events. She also finds joy in burlesque dance and Japanese traditional dance, having showcased her talents in these areas as well. At the festival, Mako will present an original one-woman performance play. This experience is both exciting and challenging for her, as it marks her first solo performance. She is grateful for the opportunity to share this performance and express her appreciation as an “outsider” to the community of Vancouver.

PERFORMER:
Jerry LaFaery & Leef Evans
Pantomimes & Piñatas
We are building Pinatas. We are building Pantomimes.

We have built a hollow creature, made from paper and plastic. We know nothing about our creature other than the way it looks; the way it seems. We, then, fill the creature with narrative candy we’ve seen fit to dump in its head. We think we are right but we may, just as easily, be wrong.

We have also stitched a story from campfires, smart phones and urinal walls. We have endeavoured to Frankenstein the creature from hints and assumptions of cumulative gossip. The scissoring of flesh and tendon is guesswork at its best. But the product is compelling. And we’ve come to adore it like a blind and incontinent pet.
We are generating receptacles for story and whimsy and purpose. We are building ghosts from cardboard and toilet paper, PVC and zap straps! We are then dumping salt-water taffy and broken parables into our phantoms with all the hieroglyphs, runes, candy and lint that we find in our pockets. We then set it to motion to see what words leak out. PENNYFARTHING. SANCTIMONY. CALUMNY. BANJO. SPANNER.
We are, also, constructing votive piles, driven into silt to hang sour memories, to cure them in the wind and whispers and eat the resultant jerky. We tell stories that are made of wood and wire and string. We hang things on it and look for meaning. If we find no meaning we settle for sound. As sounds touch each other new thoughts tumble from the contact. Tumbled things touch other tumbled things and a soft shell is formed; a narrative calcium takes hold. It informs itself and fills its own holes and begins to be seen and to assume merit. Beowulf was once two bones touching in the fire. Jesus was once a clamshell.
We laugh at the nonsense. We are puzzled by incongruity and ashamed of our thoughts. We think language is cemented happenstance. As such, we frolic in the absurd sand and say silly things and wear our nonsense like a codpiece. We are, obviously, pretentious! But pretentions are the province of the Artist Statement.
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