Popcorn Galaxies

Introducing Popgals' Board of Directors

5/6/2022

Allow us to introduce our board of directors!

Our Fabulous President: Evan Medd

About Evan: Evan Medd (he/him) is a dramaturg, producer, performer, climate activist, and puppeteer. He is Co-Artistic Producer and Resident Dramaturg for the Major Matt Mason Collective, an Alberta-based company dedicated to supporting and developing the work of young artists and is also the creator of Dreaming Climate Consciousness, a workshop series where participants work in collaboration to build climate conscious futures using science fiction as an activist's tool.

You can see more of Evan's work here:
mmmtheatrecollective.com
dreamingclimateconsciousness.com
riverclydepageant.com

Evan's favourite houseplant: "This inch plant is my favourite plant because, as someone who has not had a ton of success with taking care of houseplants, this particular plant is thriving beautifully. I'm also a huge fan of the green and purple, made all the more vibrant by the shiny reflective bounce the texture of the leaves create."

Our Wonderful Vice President: April Davis

About April: April Davis (she/her) is an art educator and maker. She believes that through an appreciation of art and participation in the creative process we become more in touch with ourselves and more connected to the world around us. She loves sharing in this experience with others through her teaching and her making practice.

April's favourite houseplant: "It is both amazing and miraculous. It is amazing because when given to me last fall it was just a small unidentified water plant but over the winter it sprouted spectacular roots and shot up to be over four feet tall. It is miraculous because one night not long ago, before going to bed I held its stalk in my hand and wished it would produce a flower. The next morning a blossom had appeared. I can now identify it as Zantedeschia aethiopica, the Giant White Calla Lily!”

Our Treasured Treasurer: Kam Bansal

About Kam: Kam Bansal (he/him) currently works with organizations to help reach their environmental, social, and governance goals by 2030. Kam is grateful to be part of this incredible board to support connecting communities to art, and making art accessible to all.

You can find Kam online here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kam-bansal

Kam's favourite houseplant: "I love how funky and wild this plant grows. I also love that people call it Swiss cheese! Mmm…cheese."

Our Amazing Secretary: Matt Clarke

About Matt: Matt Clarke (he/him) is an actor, director, producer and instructor of theatre in Vancouver. Highlights include producing and starring in the Stories Written by Kids series, a new collaborative theatre project between youth authors and professional actors presented at The Cultch Theatre.

You can see more of Matt's work here:
www.littlemountainlion.com

Matt's favourite houseplant:I have a major sweet tooth and raspberries are better than candy! I'm lucky to have some growing in my own back garden.

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Perfect Strangers in rEvolver Festival!

4/3/2019

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We are so excited that Perfect Strangers will be presented in the 2019 rEvolver Theatre Festival!!

Find more information and book your ticket here!

Here are a few photos from a recent workshop showing of the project:

photos by Sophia Wolfe

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Mount Pleasant Artists in Communities!

1/28/2019

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BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Popcorn Galaxies has been selected as the 2019 Artists in Residence at the Mount Pleasant Community Centre!!

If you are interested in receiving updates about projects, workshops, and events sign up to our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/gfn73L

Meeting Places Project
January - December 2019

Taking place in and around Mount Pleasant Community Centre throughout 2019, Meeting Places is a collaborative community art project centring on the potential for creativity to strengthen and activate community. In a city where neighbours often don’t know each other and where it can be challenging to make new connections outside of our own social circles, this project investigates how we can use art to bridge gaps and make the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood a more lively and welcoming place to live. Through pop-up activities, artist walks, guerrilla art installations, and community collaborations, participants will be invited to share artwork, share skills, share stories, and share experiences with one another, sparking curiosity, generosity, and empathy between people who might not otherwise meet.

Meeting Places is created by Mount Pleasant Community Centre artists-in-residence Popcorn Galaxies as part of Vancouver Park Board Artists in Communities program

For more info visit https://meetingplacesproject.weebly.com/project.html

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Branscombe Artist Residency

2/22/2018

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Popgals are excited to say that this year Keely is the Richmond's Artist-in-Residence, working out of Branscombe House in historic Steveston to produce free community art workshops, collaborative projects, performances, exhibitions and events!

You can check out this page for upcoming events at Branscombe House, or follow along with Keely's process in her notebook.

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Presenting Paper Dream

5/15/2017

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We are excited to present Paper Dream coming up this spring. The idea for this piece literally arrived in a dream! As an interdisciplinary artist who loves both visual and theatrical mediums, this project is an attempt on my part to engage simultaneously with both these elements of my practice. Paper Dream is intricate, beautiful paper craft and unconventional, sited, immersive theatre all at once.

Coming up on June 3, 4, 10, & 11.
More info and tickets here.

-Keely

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Invisible City Reboot!

4/4/2017

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We are thrilled to be rebooting one of our favourite past shows, Invisible City, this Spring. After learning that the starting point for this interactive, theatrical audio-walk is slated to be torn down we knew this could be out last chance to share this piece with the world!

For for more info and tickets, click here.

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Announcing...Apocalypse Parade!

7/25/2016

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Friends! We are so excited to announce our upcoming show in the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Apocalypse Parade! We've been brainstorming, researching, and day dreaming for many months now, and are finally about to dive into devising. Yeeees!

For more info, click here.

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New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Valerie Christiansen

5/20/2016

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The final New Narratives artist in our interview series is the brilliant Valerie Christiansen!

Tell us a little about yourself and your work:
Valerie Christiansen is interdisciplinary artist with background in theatre performance, directing and cinema. She is interested in political theatre and creating spaces that collapse social hierarchies. She is a member of The Uninvited Guests collective whose productions focus on local social issues.

A major theme we are exploring in New Narratives is the interconnection between art and environmental activism. What is your perception of this relationship?
Art has sneaky way of manifesting your own personal reality into creation, a reality that I share with all humans on the planet is one that that is called climate change. We might as well change the name to what it is, climate of human extinction. Unless my eyes and ears were stapled closed it would be impossible to ignore the urgent condition of the abuse of our planet. Art is really our only hope, science and knowledge is never enough for the masses. Facts may feed us with knowledge but art moves people into action.

If you had to choose five words to describe your piece in New Narratives, what would they be?
Intimate, Rusty, Exhausted, Cheeky, Squeaky.

Would you rather eat a candle or wear shoes made of ice?
Shoes made of ice, I could glide around on my shoes and my feet would never sweat. There would be no use for me in eating a candle other than lighting my poop on fire.

Thanks so much Val, we can’t we to see your piece!
For more info on Valerie’s work, visit:
http://theuninvitedguests.ca

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New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Elliot Vaughan

5/15/2016

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Next up in our New Narratives artist feature series: a rare interview with the elusive Elliot Vaughan!

Tell us a little about yourself and your work:
I like sound. It is fun to create, manipulate, refine, notice, abandon, and communicate with noise. Mainly I make music, and that has led me to be involved in plenty of dance shows and theatre projects, or more often "theatre" projects, as well as studios around Vancouver and concert venues around the world. I have a moody pop solo project called Iffy South, an art trio called The End Tree, and have recordings available under my own name. I play the viola and some other things, and outside of the pop realm I compose textural, spatial music. Viiiiibe is key. But most of all I like hearing trains begin, gulls reflecting off buildings, different sized rooms, the morning bells from over the road, pages turning, onion skins, someone distant reversing, leaves in the wind, sand, plastic and paper bags, other people getting on with it.

What is a current question, topic, or theme that inspires your work?
Today I am restless, reckless. I want to to get caught in a web of outlandish lies, write strongly worded letters to WHOEVER, dismantle, undermine, argue about fine print, improvise, repeat nothing, provoke conversation between unlikely partners.

What project are you working on for New Narratives?

Wonders of the Ancient World: a speculative exhibition of extinct shadows, made by Keely O'Brien, with collaborators Ashley Aron and Alex Mah.

Would you rather be a banana or a bat? Why?
Maybe a banana, for the passivity. I love being a though human, it is seriously so cool. We are the actual best. Second choice would be australopithecus, those little guys were on the right track, or a neanderthal.

Thanks Elliot! Ugh you’re really cool!
For more info on Elliot’s work, visit: http://www.elliotvaughan.com/

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New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Tallulah Winkelman

5/8/2016

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Connect the Plots Mid-Summer Festival at the Strathcona Community Garden. Performer Thomas Jones as the God Lugh welcomes the crowd.

The next artist featured in our New Narratives Artist Interview Series is the incredible Tallulah Winkelman. Her answers pretty much blew us away. We’re especially excited to post this interview because of Tallulah’s connection to the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project: the initiative that your New Narratives ticket purchase will support!

Tell us a little about yourself, your company, and your work:
Tallulah Winkelman is a Vancouver born theatre artist who has worked professionally as an actor, improvisor, playwright, theatre maker and teacher for over 20 years. Her collaborations include new improvisation formats, sketch comedy, mask, music, puppetry, site specific and environmental theatre. Twenty years ago she became a shareholder and fell in love with Fraser Common Farm Cooperative and by extension, small scale agriculture and natural food systems. Out of this interest, Theatre on Earth and it’s first production, Project Corndog, was born. Do we own the life forms we create? Do we owe them anything? Do life forms have intrinsic rights? Project Corndog travelled through the fields and forests of Fraser Common Farm following a farmer, her daughter and her daughter’s wonderfully weird creation. The play ended with a full sit down, outdoor organic meal sourced heavily from the farm and enjoyed by audience, artists and farmers alike. The conversations around the table were an integral part of the evening.

The Theatre on Earth collective has had the privilege of including many great local theatre artists. The current ensemble is made up of original members; Sarah May Redmond, Thomas Jones and Tallulah Winkelman. This year’s project Wild Mind will mark our 5th year of working together with the Environmental Youth Alliance in the Strathcona Community Garden on our Connect the Plots series. We have hosted Keys to the Streets pianos, garden music jams, the Cultch’s Ignite Youth Program and festive community gatherings.

Theatre on Earth team up with the Cultch's Ignite Youth program to create an original site specific piece that travels through the Strathcona Community Garden.

What is the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind project, and how are you involved?
The Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind Project is phase one of a succession plan for transitioning the south/east corner of the Strathcona Community Garden from a landscape dominated by Himalayan Blackberry to a wildscaped pond and forest garden that is safe, inviting and open to all. It will create habitat for a diversity of local pollinators, birds, insects and small mammals as well as a space to convene the local community that provides education and inspiration on urban re-wilding. Theatre on Earth will be working alongside Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind project as artistic collaborators. We will be gathering content and sharing our artistic practice to enhance the learning process with a wide range of school and community groups. Throughout July and August we will lead weekly workshops that encourage creative expression of the themes of the project, inviting the participants into the creative process as writers, performers and designers. Our program will culminate in a theatrical presentation at the Strathcona Community Garden Fall Fair, based on themes regarding the history of the location, the life of indigenous plants and the story of creating a place where urban and wild co-mingle.

Freidi meets her corn/dog creation for the first time. Theatre on Earth's Project Corndog @Fraser Common Farm

Is there a quote, an image, an artist, an artwork, a book etc. that currently inspires you? What is it?
Wendell Berry is an American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.His work teaches me what is possible. He is a weaver of; reverence and rebellion, art and nature, people with the land they work and eat from, as if it is all one and there is enough beauty
in the abundance of life itself to sustain us. He gives me hope that if we truly integrated with our present world we could find a balance within it. I encourage you to read (with a simple google search);

The Peace of Wild Things
For the Hog Killing
& any of the Mad Farmer Poems

Would you rather live under the sea or inside a giant balloon? Why?
Under the sea, absolutely. I would rather face my fear of the depths and encounter whatever enormous sharp-toothed cold-blooded creature I may find than to be floating in absolute isolation untethered from the earth.

Georgia and her daughter Freidi say goodbye to the Corndog. Theatre on Earth's Project Corndog @Fraser Common Farm. Performers: Sarah May Redmond, Chloe Doucet-Winkelman and Tallulah Winkelman

Thanks so much Tallulah! We’re SO excited to see your piece in New Narratives!

For more information on the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project (the initiative that your New Narratives ticket will support!!) visit:
http://eya.ca/project-view/wild-mind/

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Introducing Popgals' Board of Directors

Our Fabulous President: Evan Medd

Our Wonderful Vice President: April Davis

Our Treasured Treasurer: Kam Bansal

Our Amazing Secretary: Matt Clarke

Perfect Strangers in rEvolver Festival!

Mount Pleasant Artists in Communities!

Branscombe Artist Residency

Presenting Paper Dream

Invisible City Reboot!

Announcing...Apocalypse Parade!

New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Valerie Christiansen

New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Elliot Vaughan

New Narratives Artist Interview Series: Tallulah Winkelman

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