Merry Christmas!

One of my favourite things about Christmas are all the traditions that go with it. My traditions start Dec.1 with a viewing of The Muppets Christmas Carol as I decorate the tree. Always right on Dec.1. And on Christmas Eve my mother always took us to the grocery store first thing in the morning to buy treats. Any fruit or vegetable we wanted we could have on Christmas Eve. Red Peppers were a special treat. Starfruit. Strawberries in December. When I was older, the family started using the fruit in a chocolate fondue after the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. Christmas Day started with my brother waking me up, us heading down to my parents room, climbing into bed with them and opening our stockings. Even when I was in university this was what happened. Then we'd go upstairs and open presents followed by waffles with whipped cream & strawberries. Then we'd go up the mountain and spend the afternoon cross country skiing.

This year I couldn't go up to my parents house becuase of my work schedule, so I've had to find my own way to do all of my traditions. Decorating on Dec. 1 was easy, but the Christmas Eve plans were harder. And finding a place to spend Christmas day, let alone to go skiing. But I was lucky enough to have a good friend invite me to spend Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with her family.

The last Christmas tradition I have is one I want to share: a time to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. My best friend started sending me links to Charlie Brown Christmas online in October this year, but I love it because it renounces the commercialism that comes with Christmas & leads us back to the true meaning of Christmas.

From A Charlie Brown Christmas, Linus explains the meaning of Christmas:



By the way, if you're looking for a great way to spend Boxing Day that doesn't involve large crowds of people spending more money than they have on sales they can't resist, we have two performances of Jesus, My Boy and the matinee tickets are at sale prices!

Friday Arts Quotes:

In this week's edition of Friday Arts Quotes: An old favorite & a new find.

I keep a leather bound book on my night table with the word "meditations" on the front of it. Into it I copy any quote that I find particularly inspiring that I will want to look back on and meditate on when I am down. The first quote this week has been in that book since the beginning, and the second just was added this week as I was watching TV.

"What do[es it mean to be] creators? Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint or clay or words. Creativity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation, or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts, or having some kind of important career....Our freedom to be creators is far less limited than some people would think." - Madeline L'Engle

"But our job as artists is to press on: continue creating, because that's who we are. Even if some critic does squash you like a bug. That's who we are." - Joan of Arcadia, "No Bad Guy"

15 Questions with Lois

Date & place of birth:

May 2, 1986; Vernon, BC

Lives now in:

Vancouver, BC

Education:

BA from Trinity Western University with a double major in Theatre & Communications, and a certificate in Media Studies.

If you hadn’t become a stage manager, what might you have done professionally?

I've changed my mind about my career goals many times: the first plan was to do PR in the music industry, but I think that if I were not stage managing, I'd probably go back to school and get my masters in television studies and end up as a professor.

Favourite plays:

Metamorphoses (Mary Zimmerman), Esspresso (Lucia Frangione), Proof (David Auburn), Jake's Gift (Julia Mackey), The Mistakes Madeline Made (Elizabeth Meriwether)

Favourite TV shows (currently airing):

Pushing Daisies (ABC), Dexter (Showtime), How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Favourite TV shows (no longer airing):

Veronica Mars (UPN/CW), Arrested Development (Fox), Wonderfalls (Fox), Six Feet Under (HBO), Slings & Arrows (Movie Channel/The Movie Network), Joan of Arcadia (CBS) & Dead Like Me (Showtime)

What was the last thing you saw on stage that had a big impact on you?

The last thing I saw on stage that had a big impact on me was UBC's production of Unity: 1918 a couple of week's ago. It is an award winning script (and with good reason!), but this production was so visibly stunning. The image of a spinning lantern dangling from the ceiling, a wounded soldier returning on a train (done with the actor standing on a chair on a revolve while a train track was flown in from the ceiling), a giant bonfire and revival meeting behind a cyc, a room full of dead bodies, a scene done entirely in the dark. Each image had the potential to fail hugely, but rather than fail, they inspired.

And the first?

The first play I ever saw was a local production of Annie when I was about six which sort of set up for me the fact that theatre was out there, but the first play that really had an impact on me was the Art's Club's 2001 presentation of Axis Theatre's Flying Blind. My high school was very arts focused and each semester the theatre teacher would take approximately 60 kids on a trip to either Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton to see mulitple productions and learn about the education opportunities in each city. The 2001 Vancouver trip was my first of three, and it was a very eye opening five days in regards to what theatre is capable of. We saw Elizabeth Rex at the Stanley, The Edible Woman at the Playhouse, some terrible musical review at the Gateway, & Flying Blind. What stuck out for me about Flying Blind was it's use of design to help shape the world. I've never been an actor - though I can recognize and appreciate good acting - but I've always been impressed by strong visual elements. I remember after the play going out for pizza with the rest of the people on the trip and discussing the show. I was one of only two students who enjoyed it (along with the two escorts). Everyone else "didn't get it" or thought that it was too abstract. I didn't care whether or not I "got" it - I just wanted to do that - create a world similar to our own, yet not our own that causes people to converse.

Favourite books:

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline L'Engle, the PostSecret books by Frank Warren, & Life After God by Douglas Coupland

Favourite after-show haunts:

Anywhere near Pacific Theatre that still has it's kitchen open when the show gets out: lately that's been either Earls, Cactus Club, or Cafe Barney. We used to always go to Ouisi's but the service there has gotten atrocious and the kitchen has been closing much earlier (besides, who really wants to eat alligator all the time?)

What do you expect to be doing in five years?

I've told myself that if in five years I am bored or burnt out from Stage Managing I will go back to school and do my masters in television studies after all.

What are the personal things that you do in your life simply because they make you happy?

Spend a whole day on the couch watching old TV episodes on DVD even though I've seen them 10+ times, try to laugh as much as possible, take photographs whenever I'm having fun so that I can look at them later and smile.

What would you advice would you give the government to secure the future of Canadian theatre?

I would advise the government that first and foremost, "Ordinary Canadians" really do care about the arts, I would advise reversing the millions of dollars in cuts to arts funding, I would advise the leaders to go take in some of the local theatre - independent, ground-breaking work so that they get a glimpse of the magic being created in their own backyards.

Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

Jesus, My Boy is running at Pacific Theatre until Dec. 27 and I've already begun prep for Holy Mo, which begins rehearsals mid-January.