History

Pangaea Arts has been introducing Canadian audiences to performance traditions from around the world since 1997. Pangaea Arts creates productions that educate by participation, encouraging audiences and artists to actively investigate different cultures and ideas.

1997 - Cultural Metaphors

Cultural Metaphors developed over a period of three years, and was a dynamic fusion of the musical, cultural and performance traditions of India, Ireland, and China. Cultural Metaphors won a 1999 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Significant Artistic Achievement in the Theatre for Young Audiences category.

2000 - Into the Heart of Beijing Opera

Created and performed by artists from BC, Mainland China and Taiwan, Into the Heart of Beijing Opera was a bilingual production that introduced Canadian audiences to the art of Chinese Opera through performance, educational demonstrations and audience participation. This production toured to schools in BC from 2001 through to 2004.

2002 - Einstein's Dreams

An adaptation of Alan Lightman’s international best-selling novel. Einstein’s Dreams was a choreographed fusion of Asian and Western theatrical forms, spoken word, physical theatre, multi-media projection and original music.

2004 - Butterfly Dream

In May of 2004, Pangaea Arts produced a new work called Butterfly Dream, adapted by Yuan-Tzeng Hsia, in partnership with the Gateway Theatre in Richmond. This was a full-length bilingual Chinese Opera performed in English and Mandarin (with English surtitles). Included was an educational lobby display on the history of Chinese opera in BC and the art form of Chinese opera.

2004 - Fabulous Fables and Masked Mayem

Pangaea Arts was commissioned by the Singapore International Arts Festival (children’s component), to develop two interactive storytelling shows. The result was Fabulous Fables and Masked Mayhem, featuring masks by acclaimed designer and mask-maker Melody Anderson, which premiered in Singapore to much acclaim in June of 2004, and currently tours throughout the lower mainland to festivals and special events.

2005 - Noh Theatre Workshops

Part of the development cycle of The Gull had Richard Emmert, one of the leading experts on noh in English, visiting from Japan. As well as giving a specialized three-day workshop in noh performance, Mr. Emmert led a public workshop in The Music of Noh Theatre.

2005 - Staged Reading: The Gull

A crucial part of the developement of The Gull was the workshop process, which provided training in noh technique for the Canadian performers, development time for playwright Daphne Marlatt and composer Richard Emmert, and critical audience feedback from two public performances, one at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, and one at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre.

2006 - Lecture Demonstrations: Noh Theatre

Ancillary events for The Gull: The Steveston Noh Project included several Noh Theatre Lecture Demonstrations in the community by noh theatre performers who had come from Japan to participate in this collaboration. Workshops were led by noh master Akira Matsui, noh scholar and composer Richard Emmert, and by Wakayama noh maskmaker Hakuzan Kubo.

2006 - Exhibit: Noh Masks Exhibit at Richmond Museum

Wakayama mask-maker Hakuzan Kubo created two original noh masks for The Gull: The Steveston Noh Project. While here, he gave workshops on the art of noh maskmaking, and partnered with the Richmond Museum to create a Noh Mask Exhibit.

2006 - The Gull: The Steveston Noh Project

Developed over three years, The Gull: The Steveston Noh Project was a new Canadian noh play by Daphne Marlatt with
music by Richard Emmert, about the experience of Japanese
Canadian fishermen returning to Steveston after the internment
years. A noh master, a noh composer, a noh mask maker and four noh musicians came from Japan to collaborate and perform with Canadian theatre artists.