2025 Theatre + Dance + Performance
Halloween Festival Kick Off, with BODY PROOF
Friday October 31, 6:30pm – 9:30pm
Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main Free
Kick up your heels and get ready for a spooky time at the DTES Halloween Festival Kick Off! Wear your best costume, walk the red carpet, enter the costume contest to win awesome prizes, and gear up for disco-ball dancing with DJ Maxi and crew spinning tunes.
With a special appearance — here comes BODY PROOF! Five Vancouver choreographers in residence at MascallDance join the fun at the Heart of the City Festival Kick Off. Dance with Marisa Gold, Ysadora Dias, Tobias Macfarlane, Nick Miami Benz and Mario Matias, who will throw their mix of favourite dance moves and fragments of their ancestries onto the dance floor.
It’s a Halloween night of masquerade magic, dance and community fun for friends and families alike — a party to remember! Refreshments provided, everyone welcome! Hosted by the one and only DJ Maxi, aka Lance Lim of the Pigeon Den Art Collective.
Famous Last Words
Friday, October 31, 7pm – 9pm
SFU Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre
149 W. Hastings Free
Tickets FamousLastWordsHeartofthecity.eventbrite.ca
In Famous Last Words, poets participate in a faux competition where they ‘battle’ in a series of rounds, ‘judged’ by Uni the Unicorn, the host, and the audience. A spoken word comedy show with a puppet poetry round, a unicorn interpretive dance, and much more. Come in costume, let’s have fun! Free chocolate! Featuring Grace Kwan, Marlo Browne, RC Weslowski, Sean McGarragle, SJ Valiquette, Spillious the Ridiculous One, and Uni the Unicorn. Presented by Death Rides a Unicorn with SFU and the Heart of the City Festival.
Theatre in the Raw: A night of unusual, awakening one-acts
Saturday November 1, 7pm – 9pm
Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Free
Theatre in the Raw presents staged readings of two award-winning plays from their 12th and 13th Biennial One-Act Playwriting Contests.
Wednesday’s Children by Ron Davies, with Angie Nolan and Cecilia Splendiferous, directed by Teresa Vandertuin. In this well-crafted and powerful play two sisters meet for the first time in twenty years; despite one sister’s hopes to reconcile, will her sister’s painful memories of childhood sexual abuse keep them apart?
An Evening with Oscar and Noël by Thomas Mason and Craig Mason, with Allan Morgan and Mackenzie Gray, directed by Jacques Lalonde. What would happen if two of the greatest, most influential and hilarious playwrights met in the afterlife? Come to the reading and you’ll find out!
The Carnegie Dance Troupe & Karen Jamieson Dance
Sunday November 2, 3pm – 4pm
SFU Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre
149 W. Hastings By donation
In a work-in-progress performance, the dancers demonstrate the power of collective artmaking that is always grounded in community. Since 2006, the principle supporting the Carnegie Dance Troupe is absolute inclusivity. Performances are created through processes of collaboration, seeking to connect us to our body, to our breath, to the energy of the earth, to each other and to our diverse communities. The Carnegie Dance Troupe is part of Karen Jamieson Dance, with support from Carnegie Community Centre and Simon Fraser University. www.kjdance.ca
Epigone – a work in progress by Electric Company Theatre
Sunday November 2, 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Left of Main, 2nd floor, 211 Keefer
Free. Tickets epigone.eventbrite.ca
Join Electric Company artists for a staged reading of excerpts from Epigone, a new play exploring a family’s navigation of grief and loss, complicated by the stigmas surrounding mental health, addiction and isolation. Come take a peek inside the Electric Company laboratory and witness the early stages of a new play’s development. This event is held on the second floor, accessed by a flight of approximately 20 stairs.
A Day of the Dead Celebration / Una Celebración del Día de los Muertos el Domingo
Start the day with a mask-making workshop, join the community procession to visit local ofrendas, peruse the art market for unique finds, and enjoy the evening at Spirit Encounters.
Catrina & Catrin Mask Workshop
Sunday November 2, 11:30am – 1pm
Russian Hall, 600 Campbell
Free. Limited capacity
Register: mask-workshop.eventbrite.ca
Join artist extraordinaire Gerardo Avila and make a Catrin or a Catrina mask for the Day of the Dead Celebration (Día de los Muertos). Learn the tradition and history of the Catrinas/Catrinos with a warm invitation to join a community procession to visit different altars (ofrendas) in the Downtown Eastside following the workshop. All materials provided.
Taller de máscaras de Catrín y Catrina
El 2 de noviembre a las 11:30 am, los invitamos al Russian Hall (600 Campbell Street), a crear una máscara de Catrín o de Catrina para el Día de los Muertos. Después de platicar sobre la tradición de las Catrinas/Catrinos, los invitaremos a participar en la Procesión que visitará varios altares de ofrendas en el centro de Vancouver Eastside. La procesión empezará después del taller. Todos los materiales serán proporcionados.
12 participantes como máximo, se requiere registrar de antemano.
Day of the Dead Community Procession
Sunday November 2, 2pm – 3:30pm
Meet at Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Free
“Day of the dead, a celebration of memory and a ritual that privileges remembrance over oblivion.”
Giant Catrinas will lead a Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) community procession beginning at 600 Campbell, stopping along the way to visit the ofrendas in the community, including in the Russian Hall, Listening Post and Carnegie Community Centre. The ofrenda is a Mexican and Latin-American tradition that is intended to welcome the deceased to the altar setting, with photos, food, flowers, drinks and special objects. Photos of your deceased family members are welcome. Let’s celebrate the living by honouring the dead!
Procesión a altares de ofrendas por el Día de los Muertos
El 2 de noviembre a las 2pm, los invitamos a unirse a la Procesión del Día de los Muertos, siguiendo las Catrinas Gigantes, y visitando varios altares de ofrendas en la comunidad de Vancouver Eastside. La Procesión saldrá del primer altar ubicado en el Russian Hall (600 Campbell Avenue), para luego visitar otros altares en el Listening Post y en el Carnegie Community Centre. Los altares están dedicados a familiares y amigos difuntos y adornados con flores, comida, agua, y objetos especiales. Las fotos de sus difuntos son bienvenidas. ¡Celebremos la vida honrando a los muertos!
Spirit Encounters
Sunday November 2, 7pm – 8:30pm
Russian Hall, 600 Campbell
Free. Tickets spirit-encounters.eventbrite.ca
On the Day of the Dead, when the veil between the living and the dead is lifted, join the celebration at Spirit Encounters. Gerardo Avila’s latest theatrical performance celebrates the living by honouring the dead, featuring shadow puppetry, comedy, Flamenco and Mexican dance, and music. Historical personages from Mexican and other cultures will join the festivities. Presented with puppeteers Hazel Bell-Koski and Dana Wilson, storyteller Steven Schwabl, dancers Maria Avila and La Zarmari, and musicians Anna Lumiere, Peter Mole, and Graham Ord.
Encuentro con Espíritus
2 de noviembre, de las 7 pm a las 8:30 pm en el Russian Hall, 600 Campbell
Entrada Gratuita
regístrate en: spirit-encounters.eventbrite.ca
En el Día de los Muertos, cuando el velo entre los vivos y los muertos se levanta, la celebración en Spirit Encounters (7pm), la más reciente presentación teatral de Gerardo Ávila, que incluye teatro de sombras, comedia, flamenco, danza mexicana, y música. Presentado con las marionetistas Hazel Bell-Koski y Dana Wilson, el narrador Steven Schwabl, las bailarinas María Ávila e La Zarmari y los músicos Anna Lumiere, Peter Mole y Graham Ord.