Link to Tear the Curtain! promo trailer.  Running Sept 9-Oct 10 at the Stanley Theatre.

Arts Club Theatre Company in association with Electric Company Theatre presents the world premiere of Tear the Curtain! at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville St., at 12th Ave.) from September 9 to October 10, 2010. Tuesday at 7:30 pm, Wednesday–Saturday at 8 pm, and Wednesday, Saturday & Saturday at 2 pm. Tickets are $29 to $63, inclusive of all tax and fees. Call the Arts Club Box Office at 604.687.1644 or visit artsclub.com.

A collaboration with the Arts Club Theatre Company, this stylish thriller is inspired by the "reel" history of the Stanley Theatre. Experience a multimedia spectacle featuring your favourite Hollywood film noir archetypes: the mob boss, the femme fatale, the hardboiled detective, and his girl Friday.

“We commissioned the Electric Company as part of our Silver Commissions Project,” says Bill Millerd, Arts Club Artistic Managing Director, “and the piece they have created takes their continued exploration of combining film with live stage action to a new level of creative energy.”

“The language of film noir is beautifully manipulated in the protagonist’s quest to break through social and theatrical convention to find something truly authentic,” Rachel Ditor, Arts Club Literary Manager adds. “The Electric Company looks back to theatre greats like Antonin Artaud in order to suggest a new future.”

Tear the Curtain! is a pure hybrid of theatre and feature film. In 1930s Vancouver, where rival crime bosses fight for territory, a jaded critic uncovers the forgotten legacy of a theatrical legend. A suspenseful reimagining of the events that lead to the birth of the historic Stanley Theatre, Tear the Curtain! lays claim to the entire venue —scenes unfold at the ticket window, in the lobby, the dressing rooms, and under the stage. Created by a team of Vancouver’s most talented film and theatre artists, this innovative project promises a standoff at gunpoint between two halves of the Stanley’s past. Does the truth lie somewhere between the stage and screen?

This project is co-presented with the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, and is supported by generous investments from the Vancouver Foundation, Arts Partners in Creative Development, the BC Arts Council, and the Eric Hamber Foundation. The playwrights acknowledge the assistance of the 2009 Banff Playwrights Colony—a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, the Banff Centre, and Alberta Theatre Projects.

Select Artistic Credits: By Electric Company’s Jonathon Young and Kevin Kerr; Created with Kim Collier;

Starring David Adams, Scott Bellis, Craig Erickson, Hiro Kanagawa, Tom McBeath, Laura Mennell, Dawn Petten, Gerard Plunkett, James Fagan Tait, & Jonathon Young.

Director Kim Collier; Set Designer David Roberts; Costume Designer Nancy Bryant; Lighting Designer Alan Brodie; Sound Designer Miguel Nunes; Director of Photography Brian Johnson; Video Designer Michael Sider; Composer Peter Allen; Stage Manager Jan Hodgson; Assistant Stage Manager Jennifer Swan; Early Story Development with David Hudgins.