Based on our 2016 One-act show that we took to the Edinburgh Fringe , Waiting for Garbo is now a new, full-length musical.
It is about throwing away our planet’s future. It examines our almost religious compulsion to consume and to create a plastic vortex in our oceans and landfills that drown us. But don’t expect a lecture - expect music, absurdity and comedy as we dig through this “Festival of Garbage”!
April 15 - 29 at Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver.
Waiting for Garbo introduces you to two radically different groups: The Catadores, garbage pickers at the world’s largest dump, on the brink of losing their livelihood. The dump is about to close and their jobs, recycling discarded trash, will abruptly end. In desperation they dream of saving themselves by saving the seas from plastic pollution - a solution doomed to fail. Enter the Garbo Seekers, three Magi mysteriously drawn to the dump on a quest to find the lost films of their goddess - Greta Garbo. Their worlds collide and what happens is in turn funny, irreverent, poignant, whimsical, and thought-provoking.
Dawn & Des started writing together to embrace the idea of making entertaining theatre with a social conscience and Curious Creations Theatre was born.
The current phase of development develops the short fringe-play into a full length musical with original songs. Scenes from the first draft were converted to lyrics and composers were invited to join the venture. The intention was to develop the musical for inclusion in the 2020 Vancouver Fringe festival - but then, Covid. Curious Creations was accepted as a member of the Presentation House Creative Hub Cooperative, an ingenious response to help artists during this period. They provided covid-safe rehearsal space enabling us to start to develop the new script and songs. In the fall Covid conditions once again prohibited a public performance or continued workshops, but we were able to make recordings of most of the songs, anticipating continuing development when possible.
The next phase is here. Curious Creations is scheduled for an April run of Waiting for Garbo at Presentation House Theatre, North Vancouver with both live and live-stream performances.
We have gathered a wonderful creative team
Artistic Team
Book and lyrics written by Dawn Moore and Desmond Price
Music composed by Amy Gartner, Holly Collis Handford, Tim Howe, Casey Por and Mariela Shuley
Directed by Mark Carter
Musical Direction by Holly Collis Handford
Choreographed by Aerhyn Lau
Set Designed by Lilly Wong
Stage Managed by Dayna Horn
Garbo Graphic, designed by Laura Pummell
Featuring Doug Cameron, Holly Collis Handford, Aerhyn Lau, Hayley Sullivan, Mikenzie Page, Avery Taylor, Elaine Thrash, Easton Van B.
Musicians The Ensemble
Produced by Curious Creations Collective in association with PHT Creative Hub
Like its subject matter, this play is written in the spirit of recycling. In (re)Making Project, Chuck Mee says, “there is no such thing as an original play…most work is taken from earlier stories or re-worked events, personal or public, then given a new “unique” form.” Curious Creations embraces this philosophy.
Waiting for Garbo intentionally recycles images and bits from plays, public lectures, and video, repurposing snippets from the theatre canon, words of the real catadores of Jardim Gramacho, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Charles J. Moore, Rod Serling, Bolan Slat, and David Suzuki in a theatrical vortex that forms our own unique, prophetic story.
THE WRITING TEAM
Desmond Price (Book, Lyrics)
Des is a Vancouver based playwright, and director. He writes plays in partnership with Dawn Moore and their latest play, Draining the Swamp, with music by Kevin Michael Cripps, had a sold out run at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. An earlier version of Waiting for Garbo, played at both the Edinburgh and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. He was previously the Artistic Director of Novus Theatre for whom he directed The Dance of Death, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Jennie’s Story, Molly’s Dream and Elizabeth – Almost By Chance a Woman. His production of Canadian Gothic was picked by the Vancouver Sun as one of the best ten theatre productions of the year for 1999. Other directing credits include: Top Girls, The Roaring Girl, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Waiting for Godot, The Seagull, Dracula, Mad Forest, Arabian Nights, The Tao of Ron and Treasure Island. He has twice been nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Design, for the original Tamahnous production of Haunted House Hamlet and for Novus Theatre’s production of Scary Stories. Acting credits include parts in The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, Laura, Bus Stop, Suicide in B Flat , Don’t Drink the Water, The Three Sisters, The People We Know and Primo Nana.
Dawn Moore (Book, Lyrics)
Dawn, co-founder of Curious Creations Theatre, shares the role of Artistic Director with her writing partner Desmond Price. A Vancouver based writer, director and educator, her work focuses on collaborative, entertaining theatre with a social conscience. Dawn is a founding member of Capilano University’s Theatre Department where she taught directing, acting and history. A first incarnation of Waiting for Garbo won praise at the Edinburgh and Vancouver Fringe Festivals and inspired her to work on an expanded, all-musical show. With over forty directing credits, some favourites include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Laramie Project, The Heidi Chronicles, Charlotte’s Web: The Musical, Crimes of the Heart, Dancing at Lughnasa, Search and Destroy, Romeo and Juliet, 7 Stories, Camino Real, and Curious Creations’ political comedy Draining the Swamp.
Amy Gartner (Composer)
Amy is a musical theatre actor hailing from the Alberta prairies. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree, majoring in vocal performance, from the University of Alberta. Her introduction to music began very young through choir, dance, piano and voice lessons. After graduating from her degree, Amy caught the travel bug, spending 3 years singing and traveling the world with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a featured singer. She then moved to Vancouver and started to dip her toes into the world of musical theatre. Highlights include: Music of the Night (Sound The Alarm: See Less); Do It Anyways, a Solo Cabaret (Impromptu Cabaret Festival); Maud, Crunchy (Brave New Playwrites Festival), Woman 1, Side By Side By Sondheim (Sound The Alarm: Music/Theatre); Gussie Carnegie, Merrily we Roll Along (United Players); Mrs. Walker, The Who’s Tommy (Renegade Arts Company), Draining the Swamp (Curious Creations). Last year, Amy stepped across the table, Music Directing two shows Once on This Island (Fabulist Theatre) and Pageant (Something Extra Collective.)
HOLLY COLLIS HANDFORD (she/her) (Composer)
Holly is a Vancouver based actor and musician living and working on Coast Salish territory. She has performed with United Players (Emilia), Axis Theatre (Isabella in Juggle Me Not), The Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival (Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona), Theatre Under The Stars (Cinderella), and Six/Ten Productions (The Last Jubilee). Holly has composed and directed music for productions with Axis Theatre, UBC Theatre and Film, and National Theatre School (Art Apart’s Papa Records Everything). Holly has her ARCT in Voice Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music and a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia.
Casey Por (Composer)
Casey has been involved in the Vancouver theatre scene for the past decade as an actor and director, and songwriter. He has been playing music all his life, since joining the school band in grade 4 as a trumpet player. In recent years he has been involved in multiple musical projects as a vocalist, guitarist, and bassist. Some of his songwriting can be heard online and in the work of local ska band The Wavebirds.
Mariela Shuley (Composer)
Mariela is a performer and musician living and working in Vancouver, BC. From a young age, Mariela found solace in music. With both of her parents being musicians, it always surrounded her, and from numerous genres. Some of the first composing projects she participated in were at a beloved music camp, Jam Camp, where she learned new styles and how to be bold and make your mark in group composition. Further study of music and theatre at Capilano University broadened her horizons and brought on new goals to aspire to. Mariela is very proud of her solo composition project, distance, an album created over important events in her life. Released in the summer of 2018, the album is recorded, mixed, and released all by her. She looks forward to creating music wherever she can next, be it for theatre, stage, or simply, headphones. Some favourite past projects include Posh (FCP), Who’s Calling (SFU Productions), The Who's: Tommy (Arbutus Studios), The Bentayman Xperience (Independent) and The Artist’s Collective (Presented by Madison Blair Padgett), where she got to flex and grow her directing, acting, and producing muscles, in an all-around amazing experience.
Tim Howe (Composer)
Tim Howe is a professional stage and film actor as well as a musician located in Vancouver and graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley's theatre program. Recent stage credits as Ensemble in The Sound of Music [Arts Club], Cliff in Cabaret [RCMT], Jasper in The Aliens [Sticks and Stones] and film credits on Arrow, The Twilight Zone, iZombie. Tim is a recipient of an Ovation award as an ‘Outstanding Performer’ for his work as a cast member and musician in 'A Broadway Holiday' at the Gateway Theatre, December 2021.Tim is one of the five composers of music for the show.