We love Helix Design and Communications and they’ve just launched their new website. They designed our logo, and have done the designs for all the promotional posters for us as well. They’ve also designed all the logos for Becky’s film company Asteroidea Films. If you are in need of designs done quickly and cleanly, we can’t recommend them enough.

Staircase XI is pleased to announce the fabulous cast and crew of Lanford Wilson’s Home Free.

Brian Cochrane - Director

Brian is from Saskatoon, where he started the Skinny Walrus theatre company in 2004. Saskatoon credits include directing Rum And Vodka (Skinny Walrus), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Skinny Walrus/Live Five), and Charlie & Ella (Llewellyn Productions/Live Five). Since moving to Vancouver in 2009 he has directed the Canadian Premiere of Love/Stories (Kinetichism Productions), co-created and performed in Parked: An Indie Rock Musical For Novelty Instruments (Delinquent Theatre), and assistant directed House/Home – Pi Theatre’s contribution to Hive 3. He has just started a new theatre company called Temporary Thing, and will perform in their flagship production of The Bomb-itty of Errors this April in Vancouver. After that he will assistant direct King John at the Bard on the Beach Festival and direct Home Free for Staircase XI. Brian is a graduate of both UBC and U of S.

Heidi Quicke - Technical Director

Heidi is a Vancouver-based Stage Manager and Theatre Technician. Her production experience spans managing touring shows, costuming musicals, and running commercial shoots. Recent theatre credits include Guys & Dolls (Production Manager – Belmont Musical Theatre), Under the Mango Tree (Tour Stage Manager), VIMY (Apprentice Stage Manager – Firehall Arts Centre), 10x10x10 (Stage Manager – The Dance Centre), Pharaoh Serket (Apprentice Stage Manager – Carousel Theatre), Visiting Mr. Green (Stage Manager – Presentation House Theatre), and Little Women (Apprentice Stage Manager – Banff Centre Opera). Other theatre work includes two years as a Fringe Festival Venue Technician, three years as Site Crew/FOH with the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Concert Crew at Rogers Arena, and teaching Stagecraft workshops in high schools and churches. When not working backstage Heidi can often be found knitting, cycling, or reading.

Jason Clift - Lawrence

Jason Clift is a graduate of Studio 58′s professional theatre training program and Langara College Film Arts. He most recently played Tom in the Belfry Theatre’s production of “Jitter’s” He is currently in production to stage his first written work for Studio 58′s Fourplay this March. Jason is thrilled to work again with his friends Maryanne Renzetti and Brian Cochrane in this classic controversial play.

Maryanne Renzetti - Joanna

Maryanne Renzetti, Producer, Joanna: Maryanne Renzetti is a graduate of the UBC’s BFA Acting program, as well as the British American Drama Academy (Oxford, England). She is the Co-Artistic Director of Staircase Xi Theatre and is notable for her performances in Staircase Xi’s Evelyn Strange and Oh The Humanity and Other Good Intentions. Other favorite roles include: Kate and Petruchio in two different versions of Taming of the Shrew, The Gas Heart (GasHeart Theatre) in the 2009 Fringe Festival & the 2011 Neanderthal Festival, Medea in Lois Anderson’s Medea (Theatre at UBC), Mary Tyrone Karamazov in The Idiots Karamazov (Theatre at UBC), Sunna in Unity (1918) (Theatre at UBC), Love/Stories (Kinetichism), Nurse in The Verona Project (Stonesthrow).

Home Free! is a haunting and evocative play concerning Lawrence and Joanna, a brother and sister in their mid-twenties, who have cut themselves off from the world “outside,” living in a cluttered playroom which they share with two imaginary companions, “Edna” and “Claypone”. Surrounded by toys, including a brightly colored miniature Ferris wheel, they have created an atmosphere of almost suffocating intimacy and remove, where play becomes the business of life and reality an alien force to be kept at bay.

But life intrudes all the same, and their fantasies have betrayed them into Joanna’s pregnancy. Yet even this cruel irony can only be dealt with in almost antic, unreal terms, as though it too were but a facet of the dream world which Lawrence and Joanna have constructed about themselves.

They continue to play and talk idly of future plans — until the birth pangs begin and their house of illusion comes crashing down. But still Lawrence cannot leave, cannot face the world beyond their door. Instead he sends “Edna” for the doctor, and as Joanna’s life ebbs away he holds her hand and talks of the new toy which he has made for her and hidden away in their Surprise Box of secret treasures.

Home Free: Vancouver Fringe Festival 2012 September 6-16 (exact dates TBA) at Carousel Theatre, 1411 Cartwright St., Vancouver, BC.

We are pleased to announce that we will be present Lanford Wilson’s Home Free at the 2012 Vancouver Fringe. The show will run from September 6th to the 16th 2012 at the Carousel Theatre venue. Show times to come.

Staircase XI is pleased to announce another show coming next fall to Vancouver stages. We have acquired the rights to Home Free by Lanford Wilson. More details coming soon.

Thank you to everyone who came out and made Evelyn Strange a success. Here’s some photos of the show, taken by Anthony Liam Kearns. Click the image for a larger view.

Lewis and Perry comisserate

Evelyn gives Lewis and Nina something to think about

Perry, Lewis, Evelyn and Nina

Adam Bergquist, Byron Noble, Shauna Johannessen and Maryanne Renzetti

Evelyn and Perry share a smooch

Adam Bergquist as Lewis Hake

Byron Noble as Perry Spangler

Thank you to Gay Vancouver.net for the 4 star out of 5 review for Evelyn Strange. Only 6 Shows Left! Have you got your ticket?

We’re a third of the way to our goal in our campaign to raise $1500 to help make Evelyn Strange Happen. Thanks to generous donations from people like you, we’ve managed to raise almost $500. There’s still a long way for us to go and we can only get there with your help. We’re even offering amazing perks for our donators, including Free Tickets, Coupons, and Reserved Seating. Check out the Indie Go Go Donation Page fore more information and thank you all.

Staircase XI is pleased to welcome Adam Bergquist to Evelyn Strange in the role of Lewis Hake.

Adam Bergquist - Lewis Hake

Adam has been a ‘man about town’ for several years in Vancouver and is no stranger to theatres across the lower mainland. This is his first production with Staircase X1. Favorite recent shows include The Busy World is Hushed (one2theatre/Pacific Theatre), Twelfth Night (What You Will Equity co-op), A Christmas Carol, Having Hope at Home (Chemainus Theatre), The Drawer Boy (Rosebud Theatre), The Odyssey (Carousel Theatre) and The Crackwalker (Ashwood Theatre Society). Up next Adam will be reviving the character of ‘Rep 1′ in You are Not Dead: a guide to modern living; a life-changing(ish) okayness seminar developed through the Fakeproject Corporation and brought to you by Blackpants Productions. Look for us at the Fringe!

We here at Staircase XI would like to Welcome Shauna Johannesen as the titular Evelyn Strange.

Shauna Johannesen is avid actor and playwright in Vancouver.  She holds a BA from Calvin College in Michigan and an MA from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Most recently, Shauna wrote, produced and performed in her Fringe show “Deadley,” and traveled to Calgary for the premiere of her play “Charades.”  Look for her this spring on Stargate Universe, or encouraging you to buy cars and children’s toys while you wait for your show to come back on.  Shauna is thrilled to bring the fabulous lines of fellow Edmontonian Stewart Lemoine to life with such a vibrant and committed company.  Find her next in Pizza Man at Little Mountain Studios, or read more about Shauna here.