The May Long Festival brings the party—and the local talent—to virtual stages
From soul to drag to stand-up, the Anvil Centre Theatre’s online fest features four wildly diverse performances
Allan Morgan (left) and Jaylene Tyme appear in Reflections as part of the May Long Festival.
The Anvil Centre Theatre presents the May Long Festival May 21 to 24 on-demand online.
WITH TRAVEL OFF the books for the Victoria Day weekend, the Anvil Centre Theatre is filling the things-to-do gap. Its May Long Festival, running May 21 to 24 on-demand online, has a lineup of fiercely talented artists who are based in or affiliated with New Westminster in some way and who want to celebrate community at a time when it’s never been needed more.
Reflections is a collaboration by Indigenous Two Spirit trans drag queen Jaylene Tyme, aka “Empress 35 of Vancouver, The Mother Court of Canada, Heir Apparent to Queen Mother I of the Americas-Empress Nicole the Great, 2nd in line of succession and Minister of Canadian Affairs for the International Court Council”, acclaimed actor Allan Morgan, and a few friends. The comedic conversational performance features drag along with stories from the Massey Theatre’s Gay Seniors Storytelling group.
Tyme, who’s a make-up artist and LGBTQ2SIA+ ambassador, may be best known for her celebrity tributes, convincingly transforming into everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Dolly Parton. Morgan, meanwhile, has been on stage for more than three decades. He appeared in The Overcoat in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; has appeared in several Bard on the Beach productions, and toured across the country with the Electric Company, to name a few career highlights. He also wrote and performed two one-person shows, I Walked the Line and PRIDE.
Krystle Dos Santos. Photo by Andrea Sunderland
Krystle Dos Santos and Friends present BLAK—Canadian Women in Music & Arts. Dos Santos, a Canadian College of Performing Arts alumna, is a Western Canadian Music Award-winning soul, jazz, and R&B singer of Guyanese descent who debuted her cabaret-style musical about Canadian civil rights hero Viola Desmond, Hey Viola!, at the Anvil last fall. (It was a co-creation with producer-writer Tracey Power.)
In BLAK—Canadian Women in Music & Arts, Dos Santos intersperses important stories of Black history with classic songs from the peak eras of leading female Black artists such as Salome Bey, Canada’s first lady of the blues, and Eleanor Collins, Canada’s first lady of jazz. Dawn Pemberton and Marisa Gold make guest appearances.
Janice Bannister, who has been doing stand-up comedy and storytelling shows for more than 20 years and who teaches comedy courses through her Laughter Zone 101, brings The Weirdest Year of My Life to the May Long Festival’s virtual stage. A former psychiatric nurse, she covers everything from the challenges of being a single mom to the joy of being a Boomer grandma in the show, which is a mix of stand-up, storytelling, “laughter wellness”, and frank talk, all within the context of COVID-19 putting an end to live gigs.
“I think virtual shows are marvellous,” Bannister said in a release. “I get to see audience members’ feet on their screen, I can hear their dogs barking, and I have seen a few ‘ooops that camera should not be on’ moments that I can’t unsee. But audiences have tuned in from all around the world, and I can hear laughter, see smiles, and I see a lot of jazz hands laughing signals.”
Devon More. Photo by Kelly Tatham
Janice Bannister.
Devon More or Less is the name of singer-musician Devon More’s show. It features selections from her one-woman cabarets such as Berlin Waltz, Flute Loops, and Hits Like a Girl, as well as new music and musings.
All of the performances were filmed at the state-of-the art Anvil Centre Theatre, which recently installed cutting-edge recording equipment.
“We all look forward to May Long Weekend,” Anvil Centre Theatre operator and programmer Jessica Schneider said in a release. “This year we will be staying local so let’s celebrate resilience and get excited by the possibilities of the future.
“What better way to spend a long weekend around home than with new shows by great, local artists,” Schneider said. “Each performance has been created by artists who know and love our community. They celebrate our community, so we felt it was important to bring them out for this Festival in hopes we will soon close out this long gap in local arts.”
Tickets are $10 per device per show, while a festival pass is $30 for all four. More information is here.
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