On the Boards This Week: Dec. 6 - 12

All right, all right, you can stop the letter-writing campaign, I'm back On the Boards. I had to take a couple of weeks off to put my money where my big mouth is and throw up a play, many thanks to Meg for filling in the planks for me while I was locked in a little room telling actors what to do. You're a rock star, girl. And my gratitude to everyone who came to Riffs, we had a sold-out run, thank you very much, despite Vancouver snowing on my parade. One more play in the bank for us, what do the rest of you have going on? Let's have a look-see...uh-oh.

Just not much going on in the ol' indie theatre scene this week, it seems. Okay then, I shall take this opportunity to talk about some other cool shit happening onstage...

Ass-kicking enough for a hold-over, UMOJA-the Spirit of Togetherness has been extended until the end of the year. A tirade of African song and dance thrown at you by ridiculously fit men and women, it's a musical history of Africa that travels from early rhythmic tribal ritual to the modern club scene. Wicked first date option.

I think it's about time I sent a little love TheatreSports' way. After all, they've been going strong here since 1980. 1980! (Okay, so we've got Pierre Trudeau and a porn star, what's an object they might use?) I've taken a couple first dates to see these guys back-in-the, I don't mind tellin' ya. And let's face it, no matter which way you slice it, it takes stones to get up there and be funny with no script. Their Christmas show is a Jack Bauer send-up amusingly titled 24th: Christmas Eve of Destruction. See? That's pretty amusing. What's that, a samurai sword? Sorry, I already heard toilet plunger.

Photo by Chris Randal, courtesy of UMOJA