MOVIN' ON UP 2018 Is Coming to The CBC!

Staircase Theatre is proud to announce our 4th edition of Movin' On Up: Staged Readings of intelligent, contemporary, raucous plays. It's a live reading of two, brand new, one-act plays- a celebration of emerging, local playwrights and an artistic investigation into the intersection and interaction of Vancouver's privileged and underprivileged citizens. This year's playwrights, Sabrina Auclair and Brahm Taylor hit close to home. The plays have received dramaturgy by Sherry MacDonald, will be directed by Mika Laulainen and will feature the acting talents of Tina Teeninga, Veenu Sandhu, Lara Amelie Abadir, Nicola Whitney-Griffiths, Corina Akeson and Xander Williams. Movin' On Up will have a silent auction (with proceeds going to Staircase Theatre), a bar, snacks and will be shakin' down at CBC 700 on August 25, 2018.

No Home Land, by Sabrina Auclair, studies the affordability crisis through a dystopian Vancouver where the class gap is monstrous. After the housing market explodes, putting Vancouver in an unprecedented crisis, the employees of a local bagel restaurant do everything they can to survive.

The What For, by Brahm Taylor, is a gender flipped reimagining of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Set in Vancouver, we follow two street-entrenched women as they pursue their dream of finding a basement suite in East Van by busking and raising money with a mystical, busted up two-string guitar.

Sabrina Auclair is a proud bilingual theatre artist, born and raised in Quebec city. A recent graduate from Studio 58, she also has a B.A in International Relations & Modern Languages from Laval University. Previous acting credits include Crème-Glacée (Théâtre la Seizième), Anonyme (Vortex Theatre) and Abigaëlle et le date coaching (FarWest Productions) She was also on set recently, filming the indie feature Popsicle (A Night Between Lives). Even though she loves being a performer, Sabrina has always had a profound love of writing. She has written many short stories, poems and plays, both in French and in English. No Home Land is the first play she has worked on that will have a staged reading, which makes Movin' On Up her playwriting debut. She is beyond excited to have been given the chance to work as a playwright for the very first time in her professional career. She is certain it is just the beginning of many new exciting endeavours.

This is Brahm's first foray into playwriting in a substantial way. Brahm has been mainly known as an actor for over twenty years across Canada and internationally. He can be seen this fall in VACT's new play The Ones We Leave Behind at The Cultch. He was a part of the original cast of the highly acclaimed production of The Overcoat and toured internationally for a many years. He worked with Radix Theatre on their genre bending theatre experience TBD (Tibetan Book of the Dead), Conrad Alexandrowicz's Mother Tongue poetry based movement piece, a production of Checkov's Three Sisters at The Cultch, and Dickens' Christmas Carol at the Caravan Farm Theatre. This past year he can be seen on episodes of Supernatural, Arrow, and up coming feature film Spontaneous. Brahm is a graduate of the Studio 58, Langara College, acting program, and has a Bachelor of Performance from Capilano University.

Staircase Theatre stages BC premieres of intelligent, contemporary, raucous plays. We strive to stimulate the minds and souls of all walks of life in Vancouver, bring emerging and established artists together for opportunities to learn and grow, and celebrate local playwrights and develop their plays at our new play reading event, Movin' On Up. Staircase has been nominated for four Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards and won for Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actor in 2015. www.staircasetheatre.com

Movin' On Up: Staged Readings Saturday, August 25 2018 CBC Studio 700, 700 Hamilton St., Vancouver Doors at 6:30, readings at 7:30. Sliding scale tickets prices at $7, $17, and $27.