Special Announcement: Saturday Night Rooftop Music line up confirmed

Have you ever been to a party on the rooftop of a parkade? I haven’t.  But it sounds awesome to me!

The line up has been announced for the three Saturday night Rooftop Parties being presented as a part of Bridge Mix.  Wachu has put together three wicked nights of live music that we’re super excited about!

Saturday, June 11 – David Ward

International touring artist David Ward is known for his stunning vocals and an eclectic mix of heavy grooves that pulse with a rawness and vibrancy rarely heard. davidwardmusic.com

Saturday, June 18 Henry and the Nightcrawlers

Vancouver favourites Henry and the Nightcrawlers are a french new wave influenced rock outfit sure to bring you to your feet.  (henryandthenightcrawlers.com)

Saturday, June 25 (Closing Night!) Bear Mountain

Fast rising through the Vancouver electro scene my Bear Mountain creates a mix of vintage samples and live instruments that creates a palette of soulful dancebeats with a nostalgic twist. mybearmountain.com

To see these bands buy tickets at Brown Paper Tickets for a Saturday night performance of Bridge Mix.  See the show and then stay for the concert on the rooftop!

Meet the Bridge Mix Companies – Round 1

Welcome to Bridge Mix! Presented by ITSAZOO Productions and Enlightenment Theatre, Bridge Mix is a site-specific installation taking place at the Metro Parkade in the heart of downtown Vancouver. We’ve got established and emerging theatre companies creating ALL NEW 10 minutes pieces designed exclusively for this unique urban environment. We’ve also got our renowned roving bar and roof top parties every Saturday night with live music presented by Wachu. For the next two weeks we’ll be profiling all the different companies involved and giving you taste of what their up to. First up:

Enlightenment Theatre Presents Choose Your Own Adventure

Two individuals are thrown into an unexpected situation. Together they must find a way out. The stakes are high and the audience must guide the two out of the mess they’ve found themselves in.

Company Bio

Enlightenment Theatre is committed to fostering relationships between emerging and established artists. Since our incorporation in 2006 Enlightenment has created several opportunities where performers, writers, composers, visual artists, musicians, comedians, clowns, directors, technicians and more have been able to work side by side with other emerging artists and local professionals.Bridge Mix is Enlightenment’s latest opus. We hope to continue along this path of creating community.

Participating Artists

Ryan Hauser and David Benedict Brown.

ITSAZOO Productions Presents Lifeline

A dying man comes to the roof of a parkade to die a perfect death. But when the absurd unpredictability of reality foils his plans he’ll only have one chance to be saved. One chance at a lifeline.

Company Bio

You know who we are!

Participating Artists

Written by and Starring: Sebastien Archibald

Directed by: Chelsea Haberlin

Sound Design by: Chris Adams

Genus Presents Geronimo

Join us as we build a healthy, vibrant community through co-operation and togetherness.

 Company Bio

Formed in June 2003, Genus Theatre is a group of theatre artists who strive to produce shows which inspire, entertain and connect with audiences looking for a theatre experience that is both challenging and accessible.  We work with various artists across all disciplines to enrich and inform our productions.  Writers, directors, actors, dancers, puppeteers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers all have a home at Genus.

Also be sure check out our production of Eugene Stickland’s, A Guide to Mourning at Performance Works  June 8-12 2011. We are proud to be co-presenting this production with Upintheair Theatre Society. Visit www.genustheatre.com for details.

Participating Artists

Created by: JORDAN BODIGUEL, PEDRO CHAMALE, DURAN CRUICKSHANK, NICOLE DESLAURIERS, VICTORIA LYONS, FRANO MARSIC, FRANK NICKEL, KATHLEEN POLLARD, KELLY SHERIDAN

Performed by:  JORDAN BODIGUEL, PEDRO CHAMALE, DURAN CRUICKSHANK,  VICTORIA LYONS

The Great Debate

I recently saw a documentary called The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.  It was a movie about advertising, branding and product placement.  It follows Morgan Spurlock, the director, as he attempts to get companies to fund his movie through advertising, branding and product placement.  These companies were willing to invest up to a million dollars to be featured in his film.  In the end the entire film was funded by these corporate investors.

This film really made me think a lot about marketing and the difference between marketing film and theatre.  The major difference, as far as I see it, is that films have money to put in to marketing, lots of it, and theatre generally doesn’t .

This brings me to the great debate.  ITSAZOO normally has a limited marketing budget on every production and we always spend a great deal of time debating how this limited budget is best spent.  We start by exhausting every free marketing possibility – Facebook (which I find is becoming less effective every day), Twitter, our lovely blog, online listings etc.  We hire a publicist and pray that we get good coverage in the form of previews, radio interviews, reviews etc.  Especially reviews.  Our poor PR rep always gets this email a million times “Hey, have you heard from the Georgia Straight yet?  Are they coming?  We really want them to see it and review it.” If you produce theatre in Vancouver you’d be lying if you told me you haven’t ever sent that email.  We all have.

Beyond that we have  a lot of hard decisions to make when it comes to how to spend our money. Here are some of the questions we ponder: is it worth spending lots of money on tons of posters when they get covered up so quickly anyway? Would just a few in choice locations be better? Are print ads in Newspapers worth the money?  Do people look at bus shelter ads?  What’s the greatest bang for our buck?  Is Playboard worth the cash?  Who reads it?  And on and on.  We come to a different conclusion with every show and it’s a constant balancing act.

I’m curious what you think.  What do you see that makes you want to see a play?  What do you think is the best bang for your buck?  Join in the great debate.

The Where’s Waldo Rooftop shot

Rooftop Party!

This is the awesome promo shot taken by Chris Kattner for Bridge Mix. I just love this shot. It’s a composite shot and is the result of one of the longest, coldest photo shoots we’ve ever done. So worth it though.  Each of the scenes was photographed separately and Chris combined them all in to one shot in post.  It’s a bit of a fun game for the eyes.  Kind of like a Where’s Waldo.  Here are my Where’s Waldo questions:

1. Who do you think is inside the monster costume?
2. Can you tell how many times Katie Takefman is in this photo? And what characters is she?
3. Who are the clowns?

If you answer all of these questions correctly you can win an ITSAZOO membership!  With a membership you get  2 for 1 tickets to all ITSAZOO shows and an awesome ITSAZOO button.

Have fun!

Meet Wachu

Bridge Mix is fast approaching and this year it will be bigger and better than last year thanks to a few new additions. One of those new additions is a rooftop dance party every Saturday night with DJs and live bands. Wachu has come on board to produce the Saturday night rooftop parties.  Wachu is the brain child of Harry Chu and Dave Ward and over the past year they have been bringing awesome live music to the Vancouver scene.  Here’s a brief history of Wachu:

To get a taste of what Wachu’s all about they have a show coming up this month and if you love it then you can see them again at Bridge Mix!  Here’s the info

Date: May 20th (Fri.)

Location: The Backstage Lounge (Granville Island)

Time: Doors @ 8:30 pm, Show @ 10 pm

Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 @ door.

※tickets can be purchased online @ www.wachu.org or at the following vendor:

Innocent Coffee- 1340 West 4th Ave Vancouver

Local Talents of:

Bear mountain (www.mybearmountain.com)

David Ward (www.davidwardmusic.com)

Nadia Von Hahn (http://www.myspace.com/nadiavonhahn/music)

I look forward to seeing you all on the rooftop!

Shooting on the roof – Bridge Mix style

This week we were up on the rooftop of the parkade taking preview shots for Bridge Mix. The photos won’t be ready for another week but in the meantime here are some behind the scene shots to give you a taste of what’s to come!

Guess who's in the monster...

Hardcore Sebby

Katie Takefman as a princess

Hurry up and wait