Photo collage video of Stock Characters: The Cooking Show – Rehearsals 2006-7 and Live Performance Nov. 2007.
Created and Directed by Elaine Carol
Music is Can’t Sleep, a hip hop piece commissioned for the work and composed/performed by Ndidi Cascade.
Photos by Chris Randle
2 minutes
Stock Characters: The Cooking Show
Using results that came out of our March 5, 2005 What Are You Passionate About? workshop with twelve young people from East Vancouver aged 14 – 18 years old, MISCELLANEOUS Productions' Artistic Director, Elaine Carol has developed a collaborative performance and video project for the youth of East Vancouver entitled Stock Characters: The Cooking Show.
Based on themes of stereotyping, poverty, racism, violence, peer pressure, substance abuse, family, the politics of food and pleasures of cooking, MISCELLANEOUS Productions has created an ensemble performance with music, dance and video featuring diverse, at-risk and high risk Eastside youth aged 15 – 26 years old that will have its World Premiere at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on November 9, 2007 and run for two performances until November 10.
Hilarious and hard-hitting, Stock Characters is a campy Iron Chef (Japanese television cooking show) parody set in East Vancouver - but it's an apocalyptic East Van of the future. Using the framework of "a hardcore cooking contest at the end of the world," Artistic Director Elaine Carol and a cast of young people ages 15 to 26 take a raw, honest look at the challenges facing youth in the community: poverty, racism and other forms of stereotyping, gang violence, addiction, abuse.
The November 2007 performances of Stock Characters: The Cooking Show mark the culminating point of a three year-long journey that, true to MISCELLANEOUS Productions’ tradition, has been as much about community development as it has been about the creation of a work of art. The process with the performers started with a casting call in September 2006 that drew youth from Eastside high schools, community centres and workplaces. Since then, under the guidance of Director/Writer Elaine Carol, the seven youth performers - Karine Behmard-Larue, Pinky Bining, Michael Cheng, Natalie Falk, Roberto Hidalgo, Dakota Prince and Herb Varley - have collaborated with Elaine and the company to develop and rehearse a compelling script based on true stories of the lives of East Vancouver youth.
Stock Characters: The Cooking Show is a show created and performed by at-risk/high risk youth in collaboration with a team of professional artists and deals with tough issues. It pushes boundaries on all fronts – content and aesthetics, and yet remains accessible: at once angry and hopeful, funny and frightening, beautiful and brutal.
The finished play will include music, dance and video; and a script written mostly in English with significant sections in Farsi, Punjabi and Spanish. Polished production values are contributed by an impressive slate of local arts professionals, including Ndidi Cascade (Hip hop/R&B composer), Uzume Taiko (Composers), Kaoru Matsushita (Composer), Jennifer Bishop (Choreographer), Marina Szijarto (Costume Designer), Adrian Muir (Lighting Designer), Yvan Morrissette (Set Designer) and Jamie Nesbitt (Video Projections Designer). Esther Oh (Consulting Social Worker), Eric D. Wong (Diversity Consultant), Azin Sadr and Sarah Sawatsky (Assistant Directors) and Alison Jenkins (Stage Manager).
In addition, we are filming a documentary film about our process of bringing professional artists, technicians, educators and social workers together with youth from the community to collaborate to create this unique performance.
Rehearsal Photos
Confirmed professional artists & production staff to date include:
- Elaine Carol, Director, Head Writer, Acting Teacher, Choreographer (new music sections) and Co- Choreographer (Taiko drumming sections)
- Azin Sadr, Assistant Director/Community Developer
- Sarah Sawatsky, Assistant Director/Acting Coach
- Ndidi Cascade, Hip Hop and R&B/Soul composer
- Bonnie Soon and Jason Overy, World Music/Taiko drumming and Percussion Composers and Co-Choreographer (Taiko drumming sections)
- Kaoru Matsushita, New Music Composer
- Jennifer Bishop, Choreographer and Dance Teacher (Hip Hop/Tap/Stomp sections)
- Marina Szijarto, Costume Designer
- Adrian Muir, Lighting Designer
- Jamie Nesbitt, Video Projections Designer
- Yvan Morissette, Set Designer
- Deanna Teeple, Singing Coach
- Esther Oh, Consulting Social Worker
- Eric D. Wong, Diversity Consultant
- Elia Kirby, Technical Director
- Jonathan Teague, Production Manager
- Alison Jenkins, Stage Manager
- Corporate Graphics: Graphic Designers
- Adam Jones: Web site Designer
Professionals collaborating on the documentary DVD/video and public education campaign include:
- Stephen Miko and Kelly Mason, Co-Directors of Photography
- Chris Randle, Stills Photographer/Videographer/B Camera
- Alison MacLean, B Camera
- Jonathan Teague, Alison MacLean and Marietta Kozak, Co-Production Managers
- Elaine Carol, C Camera
- Jeff Henchel, Sound Recordist
- Mary Ungerleider, Editor
- Dennis Burke, Sound Editor
We are supported by:
- Azin Sadr, Assistant Director / Community Development
- Sarah Sawatsky, Assistant Director / Acting Coach
To date, our funders include:
- BC Arts Council
- Spirit of BC
- Canada Council for the Arts
- Inter-Arts – Artists and Community Collaboration Fund
- City of Vancouver Office of Cultural Affairs
- Telus Community Fund
- BC Ministry of the Attorney General - BC Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism Program
- BC Gaming Commission
- Canada Council for the Arts – Music – Artists and Community Collaboration Program
- Canadian Heritage – Multiculturalism
- The Hamber Foundation
- Dr. George Tien INC.
Youth Leadership Funder
Internships / Work Placement Sponsor
To date, our donors include:
- Kelly K. Korpesio
- Masako & Masashi Matsushita
- Karen Dunfee
- Elaine Carol
- Brenda Joy Lem
- Rita K. Wong
- Stephens Insurance Brokers Ltd.
- Gerry Hildebrand
- Estelle Cormier
- Sally Rogow
- Fern Vineberg-Karpman
- Laurie E. Newell
- Louisa Azevedo
- R. Cole Harris
- Douglas C. Harris
- Walter Bishop
- Paul Kingsbury
- Rebecca Bishop
- Ellen Pond
- Susan Pond
- Evin Jones
- Eric D. Wong
- Esther Oh
- Jeff Henschel, RoomTone Productions
- Julie Cruikshank
- Lisa Webster
- Katharine Dickinson
- Clare Patterson
- Joanna Chen
- Angela Chen
- Jennifer A. Currin
- Rick G. Wong
- Masashi Matsushita & Kaoru Matsushita
- Gwyneth Lewis
- Karen Clarke
- Jenny Coyle
- Karen Guelke
- Trikinetic Massage Therapy
- Megan Turnock
- Estelle M. Cormier
- Elaine Arrowsmith
- Jules Rochielle
- James F. Pond
Our rehearsal venue sponsor for this project is:
Our audition and rehearsal venue for this project is:
Our Open Rehearsals/Community Forums sponsors are:
Film Industry Sponsors are:
- Sim Video
- PS Canada Production Services Ltd.
- Imagika Film Productions
- Jeff Henschel of RoomTone Productions
- Kelly Mason
- Steven Miko
- Mark (Sparky) Pitkethly
- Alison MacLean
To date, our community partners and advisors include:
- Kensington Community Centre
- Family & Youth workers in the Vancouver School Board – Eastside and Southeast secondary schools
- PEERS – Prostitutes Empowerment and Employment Resource Society
- David Thompson Secondary School – Community Support Team
- Killarney Secondary School – Community Support Team
- Community Kitchens, Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society
- Environmental Youth Alliance – Community Gardens Program
- Multicultural Helping House Society
- Britannia Community Services Centre – Teen Centre and Latin American Youth Program
- Broadway Youth Resource Centre and the Vietnamese Youth Development Program
- John Oliver Secondary – Community Support Team and Community Support Team
- Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
- Vancouver Native Health
- Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design
- Culinary Capers
Vancouver East Cultural Centre
Vancouver East Cultural Centre is our venue for the performance in November 2007.
895 Venables Street
Vancouver, BC, V5L 2H6
© MISCELLANEOUS Productions
Website design by Adjo
Stock Characters: The Cooking Show & e-race photos by Chris Randle
What You Carry With You… photos by jamie
griffiths
THE REENA PROJECT / Outcasts & Angels photos by
Daniel Collins