Ruby Slippers Theatre 2018/19 Season Celebrates 30 Seasons Of Empowering Women And Radical Inclusivity

For three decades, Ruby Slippers Theatre's two-tiered mandate has 1. Furthered the voices of women / diverse people on the femme spectrum and 2. Strengthened cross- cultural diversity on the west coast by premiering Quebec works in English translation.

So we are kicking off our 30th anniversary season with a project that is both empowering to women, and cross-cultural pollination: the West Coast professional English-language premiere production of the iconic Canadian play, Les Belles-soeurs by Canada's legendary rebel Michel Tremblay. We are also featuring the Western Canadian premiere of playwright/environmental activist Rosa Laborde's Marine Life, and a five day festival of new plays written and directed by diverse Canadian artists who identify on the femme spectrum, Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women. Our thirty year history of producing, translating, premiering and presenting provocative text-based theatre from the vanguard of the English and French-Canadian canon, and furthering women's voices in the theatre, is being honoured and deepened by the 2018/19 season, challenging us with relevant works past and present that are engaging, diverse, and radically inclusive.

"Time flies when you're having fun," says Diane Brown, Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre. "So we are downright giddy to be able to go back to our roots, to the beginning of the Quebec New Wave and the early days of the Women's Rights movement, with our production of Tremblay's ground- breaking, Les Belles-soeurs - its first English-language professional production on the West Coast! This is a dream come true, and lands on the play's 50th anniversary and our 30th. None of this would be possible without the generous support of the Canada Council's highly competitive New Chapter grant. We are forever grateful for this, and indeed all our supporters. Our 2018/19 season harnesses seven rebel playwright voices, six of which are diverse artists on the femme spectrum, the premiere of a Quebec classic, and over twenty female performers in leading roles, making our 30th anniversary Radically Inclusive and Engaging Canadian Theatre."

Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women, in association with The Vancouver Fringe and Playwrights Guild of Canada September 10-14, 2018 False Creek Gym, 1318 Cartwright Street (Granville Island); admission by donation.

Ruby Slippers Theatre in partnership with the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Playwrights Guild of Canada present Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women. Five new plays by female- identifying playwrights will receive public readings in an exciting collaboration between some of

Vancouver's finest theatre artists. According to a national study, women account for less than a third of artistic directors, working directors, and produced playwrights in professional Canadian theatre. We aim to change that.

Curated by Ruby Slippers Theatre with priority given to diversity, the plays include: Gametes by Rebecca Deraspe, translated and directed by Leanna Brodie on September 10; The Ones We Leave Behind by Loretta Seto, directed by Donna Yamamota on September 11; Rubble by Suvendrini Lena, directed by Mindy Parfitt on September 12; While You Sleep by Kai Taddei, directed by Karin Saari on September 13; and Speed Dating for Sperm Donors by Natalie Meisner, directed by Jan Derbyshire on September 14.

Our definition of female includes trans women, non-binary, and gender queer individuals on the femme spectrum. Our definition of diversity includes cultural background, age, sexual orientation, and physical/mental ability.

Les Belles-soeurs September 28-October 6, 2018 (preview Sept. 27) Gateway Theatre, 6500 Gilbert Street, Richmond, BC Tickets through gatewaytheatre.com, 604.270.1812

Ruby Slippers Theatre is thrilled to announce the professional English-language West Coast premiere production of Les Belles-soeurs by Michel Tremblay, translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco. Produced in association with The Gateway Theatre.

Les Belles-soeurs premiered 50 years ago at the Théâtre du Rideau Vert in Montreal and Canadian theatre has never been the same since. Hugely controversial and ground-breaking in both style and content, Tremblay dared to put 15 women onstage; working-class women talking about their working- class lives on upper-middle-class stages. He also dared to expose not only the hypocrisy he perceived within the Catholic Church but also the working poor carnage of our Canadian capitalist culture; its racism, hypocrisy, ageism, and misogyny. The play stands today as one of the most powerful and most relevant Canadian plays, and Michel Tremblay's most popular.

The play was translated into English in 1973 and was produced across Canada, the first Quebec play ever to receive that level of recognition. It has been translated into 34 languages, engaging audiences around the world, but this production marks the first professional English-language production in Metro Vancouver.

Directed by Diane Brown, this incendiary production of an iconic Canadian play brings fifteen of Vancouver's finest actors together onstage: Patti Allan, Daria Banu, Eileen Barrett, Lucia Frangione, Emilie Leclerc, Pippa Mackie, Melissa Oei, France Perras, Sarah May Redmond, Sarah Rodgers, Kerry Sandomirksy, Ariel Slack, Agnes Tong, Tallulah Winkelman, and Beatrice Zeilinger.

With set design by Drew Facey, lighting design by John Webber, sound design by Mishelle Cuttler, costumes designed by Ellen Gu, stage managed by Lois Dawson, assistant stage manager Liz King.