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DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Touchstone Theatre announces 2024-25 season, appoints Lois Anderson as artistic director

Kat Sandler’s hit comedy Yaga and Anosh Irani’s drama Behind the Moon are among the works on offer

By Gail Johnson

TOUCHSTONE THEATRE HAS revealed its 2024-25 season with a lineup of works that draw on myth and legend to explore themes of migration, displacement, settlement, home, and identity. It has also shared the news that Lois Anderson has been appointed the company’s new artistic director.

Teaming up with Zee Zee Theatre, Touchstone launches its season with a one-night-only presentation of Qwalena: The Wild Women Who Steals Children at The Cultch on September 21. (Stay tuned to Stir for a forthcoming feature article on the work.) Taking place in honour of the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, the multimedia performance by Indigenous storyteller Dallas Yellowfly addresses the ongoing impacts of the Indian Act.

Kat Sandler’s hit comedic thriller Yaga makes a return to the stage in a Gateway Theatre presentation from October 24 to November 2. Touchstone’s recently retired artistic director Roy Surette directs the show, which stars Genevieve Fleming and Aidan Correia as a small-town sheriff and private eye who collaborate to find a killer, while Colleen Wheeler returns as Katherine Yazov, a professor who lands at the top of the suspect list.

From January 23 to February 9, Touchstone teams up with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival to co-present SWIM at the Vancity Culture Lab. Created by Jivesh Parasram, Tom Arthur Davis, Gavan Cheema, and David Mesiha, the play is loosely inspired by the epic poem Laila & Majnun and imagines the risky journey from Güzelçamli, Turkey to the Greek island of Samos by those seeking asylum.

Behind the Moon by playwright and author Anosh Irani hits the Vancity Culture Lab March 25 to April 6. Directed by Anderson, the play is set in a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, and offers a moving portrait of the lives of three men from India seeking a better life in Canada. The cast includes Dhirendra and Zahf Paroo, with music by Joelysa Pankanea.

Additionally, Flying Start playwright-in-residence Jordyn Wood continues development on their new play Vascular Necrosis, a narrative that subverts typical zombie tropes to explore identity, chronic illness, and belonging. A public reading is scheduled for February 2025 as it makes its way to a world premiere next season.

The season announcement comes with the news of Anderson’s recent appointment as Touchstone’s artistic director. She earned the 2017 Jessie Award for best direction for her adaptation of Pericles at Bard on the Beach and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation for her adaptation of Lysistrata. Anderson has been an artistic associate with the NAC, Runaway Moon, and Leaky Heaven, focusing on theatre that develops community engagement.

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Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder and associate editor of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

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