Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing by Jason Sherman

OMINOUS SOUNDS AT THE RIVER CROSSING; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play

By Jason Sherman

Touchstone Theatre Presents

CAST (in alphabetical order)

Angela Chu
Nicole Lipman
Allan Morgan
Monice Peter
Alex Poch-Goldin
Kerry Sandomirsky

Runtime: Approximately 110 mins with no intermission. Please turn off all digital devices and refrain from recording or photographing the performance.

Touchstone Theatre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre and engaged under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement professional Artists who are members of Canadian of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

Cover design by Markian Tarasiuk. Cover photo by David Cooper.

We are especially appreciative to the Coast Salish peoples, in particular the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. We humbly acknowledge that we create and present our Canadian-identified work on their land.

PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTES

Jason Sherman

The first draft of this play was completed in June 2019. Unusually for me, the play you are seeing tonight is essentially the one I wrote at that time, with some minor revisions.

A play does not really exist unless it is put before the public. My thanks to Touchstone for doing so.

‘Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,’ it suddenly occurred to him. ‘But how could that be, when I did everything properly?’ he replied, and immediately dismissed from his mind this, the sole solution of all the riddles of life and death, as something quite impossible.

— from The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

Roy Surette

We are in a tsunami of change, reflections, conversations, some whispered, some shouted. For many, it’s challenging to keep up with progressive ideas and identity politics. I love the sharp and playful way Jason investigates these generational seismic shifts in imaginative and surreal ways. It’s a roller coaster of ideologies, aspirations, impulses and some flailing too…yep, we’re all flailing.

GENERAL MANAGER WELCOME

Susan Shank

I am so excited to be rejoining the Touchstone Theatre team during the Society’s 45th Anniversary Season! What a time it has been, full of shifting, pivoting, pirouetting with a sprinkle of reevaluating life choices. Like many theatre companies during COVID, Touchstone has had to cancel, reschedule, cancel, reschedule, cancel……. We found ourselves filling our time with zooms, podcasts, and online streaming. To all the artistic hearts and minds that didn’t stop creating even if it was in your own living room – thank you. It has warmed our hearts and changed our perspectives. Although the pandemic has rewritten the meaning of “The Show Must Go On”, today we look ahead at illuminating the theatres with live performances. We look forward to our masked audiences taking in the sets, costumes, lights, sound, stories and characters! Let’s raise a cup and toast our return to the Theatres. Enjoy!

Angela Chu

Angela is excited to be back on stage and performing in front of a live audience again. It was truly a pleasure to work and explore with such an amazing cast and crew on a production that will spark a lot of conversation. She is thankful for all the continuing support of her friends and family. Angela is a graduate of Studio 58.
Her experiences includes the Theatre Replacement production of East Van Panto: The Wizard of Oz, as one of the ensembles, and Young Cal in Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre MSG Lab’s staged reading of Before They Cut Down Our Tree. Her Studio 58 performances include being cast as Helga in Cabaret, and Amanda in Incognito Mode. She’s one of the co-creators of Studio 58 and Neworld Theatre’s co-production of The Porn Project.

Monice Peter

Monice Peter is a professional actress with over 10 years of stage and screen appearances. Most notably, she spent three seasons at The Stratford Festival and one season acting at The Shaw Festival. A reading of her play, Ruth, was presented at the 2018 Springworks Festival. Currently, her play Burnt Cork is being developed with the support of Urban Ink Theatre. Monice is on a mission to engage with community through her creative endeavors. Her social justice energy is currently flowing with the Vancouver Artist Labour Union Co-operative and with The Africa Friendship Society. Both organizations prioritize community building and cultural education from a personal and authentic place. Monice’s work strongly inhabits the same principals.

Nicola Lipman

I was born at the Vancouver General Hospital a few years ago. I attended UBC and The National Theatre School of Canada, and luckily, have been a busy Canadian actress ever since. By great good fortune, I’ve worked in many theatres across the country from the Belfry, the Playhouse and the Arts Club in British Columbia, to theatres in Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. I’m the proud recipient of three Jessie‘s, two Nevilles, one Betty, a Queens diamond Jubilee medal and …I have loved and been loved – so …no complaints. I’ve always disliked writing bios, it seems so pointless to try and cram a lifetime into 120 words, but if this bio means that audiences and theatres are coming back to life then I say blessed be the bio!! Thank you Roy and Jason!!

Alex Poch-Goldin

Alex is an actor, playwright and librettist. He has performed across Canada and his plays have been produced internationally. Selected theatre: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Incident At Vichy (Dora Award -Soulpepper); Bang Bang (Evie Award/RMTC); Oslo, Disgraced (Mirvish); My Name is Asher Lev (Segal/RMTC-META Award); Superior Donuts (Coal Mine); Harper Regan, Angels in America, Intimate Apparel, Comedy of Errors, (Canadian Stage); Remnants, Scorched (Tarragon/National tour); King Lear, (RMTC); Belle (NAC/Factory); Amadeus, Romeo and Juliet, Possible Worlds (TIFT/Munich).
Film/TV: The Porter, Skymed, Suits, Dark Matter, Cardinal, The Calling, The Kennedys, Flashpoint. Playwriting: Cringeworthy, This Hotel (Dora Nominations), Yahrzeit (Jewish Playwriting Award/German tour), The Great Shadow, The Bad Luck Bank Robbers, The Right Road To Pontypool (4th Line). Opera Libretti: The Shadow, From The House Of Mirth.
Upcoming: His play The Great Shadow will open 4th Line Theatre’s 30th summer season.
Love to my incredible daughter Chloe.
Alexpochgoldin.com

Allan Morgan

Alan is very happy to have returned to Touchstone Theatre and to be working once again with Roy. Allan has been a professional actor since 1984 and consider many of the shows he directed me in to be my fondest memories. Lilies, Toronto Mississippi, Innocence Lost, and The Visit top my list.
I appeared at Bard on the Beach, most notably as Prospero in The Tempest, and in many other venues here as well as across the country. Allan has written 2 plays – Pride and I Walked the Line, both of which I was fortunate enough to perform safely during the pandemic.
This is a play of the theatre, in the theatre with an audience, and I know that for all of us in the Performing Arts, having the public return to the theatres is everything.

Kerry Sandomirsky

Her creative history with the OMINOUS team – For Touchstone: Unity 1918 (Jessie Nomination) How It Works (Jessie Award), Life After God, Haunted (Jessie Nomination), Late Company (Jessie Nomination), Late Company (Jessie Nomination).
With Roy Surette – Communion (Rub Slippers), Patience (MTC, Belfry), Black Coffee (Gateway). In Jason Sherman land – The Retreat (WCTC), Patience (Belfry, MTC); With Nicola Lipman – The One That Got Away (Electric Co, NAC, Magnetic North); With Allan Morgan: Carol’s Christmas (The Arts Club), Museum (Vancouver Fringe); With Monice Peters – Wobble (Banff Colony, as playwright); With Angela Chu – Studio 58 (Instructor); With Alex Poch-Goldin – This! Yay!; With Stephen Courtenay – Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor, Love’s Labour Lost, As You Like It (Bard on the Beach).

Recent credits include: Hong Kong Tour of King Arthur’s Night (Neworld), Mahalia (Lifetime), directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Galiano Island. Next up: Courage Now (Firehall).

Jason Sherman

PLAYWRIGHT

Jason Sherman is one of Canada’s most influential and prolific playwrights, with a multi-award winning body of work that has been produced around the world. Among his plays are Patience, It’s All True, The Retreat and Three in the Back, Two in the Head, which won the Governor General’s Award for Drama. Sherman has also written extensively for the screen, notably the docudramas Jonestown: Paradise Lost, and We Were Children, about Canada’s residential schools system, as well as numerous one-hour dramas for network and cable television, including two shows he executive-produced: Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures and The Listener. He also created and wrote a number of radio dramas for the CBC, including two long-running series: National Affairs and Afghanada. My Tree, his first feature-length documentary as both writer and director, had its World Premiere at Hot Docs in April 2021, and has since played across the country.

Roy Surette

DIRECTOR

Much of Roy Surette’s career has involved championing new work and Canadian playwrights. He currently serves as Touchstone Theatre’s Artistic Director, a position he occupied from 1984 to 1997 before his return to the company in July 2017. Previously, he served ten years as the Artistic Director for the beautiful Belfry Theatre in Victoria and ten at the helm of Montreal’s esteemed Centaur Theatre in Montreal where he was Artistic & Executive Director.

Roy has received multiple awards as a director and has directed across Canada for the National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, Shaw Festival, The Arts Club Theatre, The Vancouver Playhouse, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, Axis Theatre, Carousel Theatre and productions in Scotland and Australia. Directing credits since returning to Vancouver include Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing; or, Another Fucking Dinner Party Play, Lights, Happy Place, Kill Me Now (Touchstone Theatre); Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (The Arts Club), and The Light In The Piazza (CCPA).

Roy has had the great pleasure of working with many incredible theatre makers since graduating from Studio 58 a long time ago.

Kimira Reddy

SET DESIGNER

Kimira is a Set Designer based in BC. She uses virtual reality as a concept tool for set design and creates an immersive VR walk-through of the final product. She is also the Communications Director for Raven Spirit Dance. Originally from South Africa, she holds an MFA in Design from UBC and a Bachelor’s in Performing Arts Technology. Credits: VR 360 Logo Designer for Ruby Singh VOX.INFOLD song; VR Technician for Uninterrupted (Canada Wild Arts Society). Set Design for In Response to Alabama (Little Thief Theatre); we the same (Ruby Slippers); Like It Or Not (Greenthumb Theatre); bad eggs (Unladylike Productions); Playthings (Affair of Honor); Zoning Out (Blackout Theater); No Child (The Arts Club); The Turn of the Screw (Aenigma Theatre); Romance, Relationships, Rights (UBC Centre for Inclusion & Citizenship partnering with Community Living Society); Burqa Boutique, The Way You Carry On, Fireflies (Killjoy Theatre); The Crucible (UBC Theatre). Assistant Set Design for Birds and The Bees (The Arts Club); The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare in Love, All’s Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus (Bard on the Beach). Props for Foolish Operations; A Journal of the Plague Year (TomoeArts); Liminal Magic (Rumble Theatre).
www.kimirareddy.com

Itai Erdal

LIGHTING DESIGNER

An award winning lighting designer, writer and performer, Itai is the founder of The Elbow Theatre in Vancouver, for whom he co-wrote and performed in Hyperlink, This Is Not A Conversation and A Very Narrow Bridge.
Itai has designed lighting for over 300 shows for theatre, dance and opera companies all over North America and Europe. Some of the companies he worked with include: New Victory (Off Broadway), The Stratford Festival (11 shows), The Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Playhouse, Arts Club Theatre (10 shows), Bard on the Beach, Soulpepper, Tarragon, National Arts Centre, The Citadel, MTC, The Segal Centre, The Electric Company, The Jerusalem Lab, Haifa Theatre, Tamasha, Box Clever and Teatro Villa Velha in Salvador, Brazil.
He won six Jessie Richardson Awards, Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Award, a Winnipeg Theatre Award, the Jack King Award, Victoria’s Spotlight Choice Award and the Design Award at the 2008 Dublin Fringe Festival. He was shortlisted to the Siminovitch Prize in 2018.
Itai’s one-man show: How to Disappear Completely (The Chop, directed by James Long), had 26 remounts in 22 cities and continues to tour nationally and internationally. It won the best director award at the 2013 Summerworks Festival.
www.itaierdal.com, www.theelbow.ca

Alistair Wallace

SOUND DESIGN

Alistair is an actor, producer, comedian and sound designer. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Alistair’s sound design credits include: THE ENEMY, OPENING DOORS (Firehall Arts Centre); SO HOW SHOULD I BE? (Presentation House); NO END OF BLAME (Sport for Jove); THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX, RIDE / FOURPLAY (Darlinghurst Theatre Co); ODD MAN OUT, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, A HISTORY OF FALLING THINGS, JACK OF HEARTS, BLOOD BANK (Ensemble); JOURNEYS END, THE BLOCK UNIVERSE (Cross Pollinate); A TOWN NAMED WARBOY (atyp); THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, THE HOUSE OF RAMON IGLESIA, PLATONOV (mophead); PUNK ROCK (pantsguys/ atyp) – winner, Best Independent Production, Sydney Theatre Awards 2012; JERUSALEM – nominated Best Independent Sound Design, Sydney Theatre Awards 2013 (New Theatre)

Christine Reimer

COSTUME DESIGNER

Christine has designed almost 100 productions in live theatre, opera, kids theatre, and living historical events across Canada and into the US. Recent productions include Buffoon, Noises Off (Arts Club Theatre) Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, (Bard on the Beach), Kuroko (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre), Alice in Nightmareland, (Stanley Park Ghost Train), Chicken Girl (Rice & Beans Theatre), and King Arthur’s Night (Neworld Theatre). Upcoming designs include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bard on the Beach). Christine is most happy to be working in live theatrical spaces again.
www.christinereimerdesign.com

Stephen Courtenay

STAGE MANAGER

Stephen has contributed his stage management expertise to about fifty Shakespearean productions over his twenty-seven year career with Bard on the Beach. Prior to that he spent ten years touring with the Vancouver Opera company. In addition he has worked for many theatres including the Vancouver Playhouse, Theatre Calgary, Studio 58/Green Thumb, Touchstone Theatre, the Electric Company and numerous others. Previous ventures have included a number of workshops for newly minted pieces including Leslie Mildiner’s Coming Up For Air. This production re-ignites some of the excitement that invariably comes with the launching of a new play.

Jamie Nesbitt

PROJECTION DESIGNER

Jamie designs across North America and Europe. His resume includes: Stratford, Shaw, Canadian Stage, NAC, Soulpepper, Vancouver Playhouse, Citadel, Theatre Calgary, Palazzo Circus (Berlin), Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show, Bard on the Beach, Arts Club, Charlottetown Festival, Electric Company, Kidd Pivot (Germany/Canada), Pacific Opera, Opera de Quebec, Company 14 (New York), Vancouver Opera, Why Not, Neptune, The Belfry, Old Trouts, ARC, Cahoots, PTE, Touchstone, Vertigo, Pi Theatre, Theatre Network, Birdland, Rumble Productions, Gateway, Greenthumb, Yukon Arts Centre, and many more. Graduate of Studio 58, 9 Jessie Nominations, 1 Jessie Award, 3 Critter nominations, 2 Critter awards, 2 Sterling nominations, 6 Betty nominations, 2 Betty Mitchell Award, 1 Capitol Critics award, 2008 Mayor Arts award, 2007 Sam Payne award, and the 2006 Earl Klein Memorial Scholarship.
www.jamienesbitt.com, www.jumpcurrent.com

Jack Goodison

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Jack (He/Him) is a UK-born Technical Director and Sound Designer who is currently living and working in Vancouver. Since arriving in Vancouver in 2021, Jack has worked in a variety of technical roles for independent theatre companies and was brought on by Touchstone as Technical Director for Ominous Sounds early in 2022. Working in a wide range of fields, Jack likes to experiment with new forms of technology and come up with creative solutions to difficult problems. He loves to work on shows which allow the design teams freedom in their work to support the production and create an exciting final product.

Ildiko Susany

PROPS

Ildiko Susany is a writer, actor, and filmmaker. Props/Set Dressing: Touchstone Theatre and Belvoir Theatre (Australia). Playwriting: The Day the Galaxy Inevitably Exploded and Died (Shortlisted: Queensland Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Program, Backbone Youth Arts 2high Festival, Nominated for Best of Theatre Award: Sydney Fringe Festival). Ildiko was one of 100 BIPOC writers in Canada to be selected for the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative 2021. Ildiko has been the Script Coordinator on Virgin River S4 (Netflix) and Psych the Movie 3: This is Gus (NBC/Peacock). Acting: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist S2 (NBC), Lost in Space S2 (Netflix), Deadly Class S1 (Syfy), Henry V (Bell Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bell Shakespeare), A Man with Five Children (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), and Babes in the Woods (Redline Productions/Don’t Look Away). Filmmaking: Marley, Someone (Official Selection: Vancouver Independent Film Festival 2021 & Semi-Finalist: Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift 2021). Ildiko graduated with distinction from a Bachelor of Theatre Arts – Acting degree from the University of Southern Queensland.

Rachel Brew

APPRENTICE STAGE MANAGER

Rachel (She/Her) is a technician and creative currently working and living in Vancouver. Since arriving in Vancouver from the UK in June of 2021, Rachel has worked in many differing roles in both film and theatre, varying from stage management to design. Using her experience working in the UK at Sheffield Theatres, Only Lucky Dogs, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and others, working and learning in Vancouver has been a fresh and exciting step in her career. This is Rachel’s first time working with Touchstone and is loving learning from professionals around her.

TOUCHSTONE THEATRE STAFF

TOUCHSTONE BOARD

Touchstone gratefully acknowledges our show funders, sponsors, and partners.

DEEPEST THANKS TO TOUCHSTONE THEATRE INDIVIDUAL DONORS

$1000+
Elizabeth Reid, Tracy Proke, Marietta Kozak and Peter Hall, Ken Gracie and Philip Wardell

$300–$999
John Cooper, Julia Gibson, Wendy Lee, James Mactier, Sandra Marquardt, Karen Martin, Leslie Stark, Sharon Kahn, Leong Holdings, Katrina Dunn

UP TO $299

Darren Barefoot, Michelle Bjornson, David Bloom, Dawn Brennan, Robert Burns, Donna Celle, Judith Coffin, Rena Cohen, John Cooper, Larry Colcy, William Davis, Susan Dickson, Jason Dubois & Clayton Baraniuk, Ian Farthing, Jane Flick, Pamela Hawthorn, Jane Heyman, Marcella Helmer, Jane Heyman, Diane Kent, Kevin Kerr, David Kerr, Michael Levy, Linda Leong Sum, Roy Surette, Anne Mathisen, Elaine McHarg, Michael McLaughlin, Carol Newson, Julia Nichols, Alice Niwinski, Kathryn Oliver, John Malcolm Page, Rachel Peake, Tracey Power, Rory Runnells, Kathryn Shaw, Elizabeth Snow, Jane Stokes, Sally Stubbs, Anona Thorne, Camilla Tibbs, Sean Vanderfluit, Susan and Michael Walsh, Jerry Wasserman, Glynis Whiting,

DAVID KING PRIZE DONORS

Fran Gebhard, John Cooper & Esther Chetner, Janet Hodgkinson, Jan Van’t Hof & Harriet Hunter, Marcus Youssef, Greg Klassen, Debra Wiens, Jay Brazeau, Renee Ethans, Suzanne Ristic, Anthony Pare & Dawn Allen, Virginia King & John Penman, Susanna Bell-Irving Gray, Rory Runnells, Judy Cook, Susan Tessler, Leslee Silverman, Lynn Stoffman, Barbara Lobb, Lauren MacDiarmid, Peter Hill, Maureen & Hugh Taggart

SPECIAL THANK YOUS:

Douglas College, Craig Alfredson, Arts Club Theatre, Pam Johnson, Melody Anderson, Kareem Marie, Studio 58, Darren Alexander, Pedro Augusto Meza