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THEATRE SERIES SUBSCRIPTIONS

The SPOTLIGHT Theatre Series includes the best national and international touring performances in theatre. Five award-winning productions from across Canada will grace the stage this coming season.

Theatre Series subscribers get the very best seats for the very best price: 5 Shows for just $147 (25% off).

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New subscribers: click the subscribe link below or call our Box Office at 250-549-SHOW (7469) to secure your seats.

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Season Events

Hey Viola!
Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre presents

Hey Viola!

VIOLA DESMOND: THE SOUNDTRACK OF A LIFE
Hey Viola 500 X 625

$40 Adult
$37 Senior
$35 Student
$30 First two rows (all ages)

A smashing tour-de-force performance by acclaimed Canadian jazz and blues singer Krystle Dos Santos. Hey Viola! is a musical exploration of civil rights trailblazer, Viola Desmond—the fearless woman featured on your $10 bill.

Hey Viola! takes the audience on an extraordinary journey through Viola’s life and the events that shaped her, from the 1917 Halifax explosion to the civil rights struggles of the 1950s. Featuring hot jazz, gospel, and traditional spirituals, this eye-opening new musical brings bold, new energy to the life and times of a remarkable woman.

Features brilliant hits of the era from Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Mills Brothers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Richard M. Jones, and more—plus songs that influenced history including Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, A Change is Gonna Come, Sinnerman, and Mississippi Goddam.

“A splendid new musical. Hey Viola! is first-rate entertainment, a story of hard-earned hope generously told with artistry and class. Hey Viola! gives us a surprisingly in-depth portrait of an extraordinary woman, a pioneering Canadian entrepreneur and reluctant civil rights hero and martyr.”
- Vancouver Sun

Run time: 80 minutes, no intermission

Photo by David Cooper

Bear Grease
Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre presents

Bear Grease

Bear Grease 500 X 625

$35 Adult
$32 Senior
$30 Student
$30 First two rows (all ages)

Bear Grease is a fresh and fun Indigenous take on the classic 1978 musical. The all-Indigenous cast includes Crystle Lightning (2021 Canadian Screen Award Winner for Best Actress, Trickster, and Three Pines) as Sandy and MC RedCloud (Yellowstone) as Danny. Get your tickets early - this smash hit has sold out festivals across Canada and the US!

Cast and Crew:

Crystle Lightning (Enoch Cree Nation) as Sandy
MC RedCloud (Huichol/Wixaritari) as Danny
Teneil Whiskeyjack (Saddle LakeNation) as Marty
Bryce Morin (Enoch Cree Nation) as Roger
Tammy Rae (Whitefish LakeNation) as Rizzo
Skylene Gladue - (Beaver FirstNation) as Jan
Ger Carriere (Cumberland HouseCree) as Frenchie
Rodney McLeod (Frog Lake Nation) as Canuckie
Arik Pipestem (Tsuut'ina Nation) as Hoopy
Josh Languedoc (Saugeen FirstNation) as Sonny

Josh Jackson (Enoch Cree Nation): Showrunner/Stage Manager
Sabrina Pipestem: Choreographer

Run time: 90 minutes, no intermission

The Birds and the Bees
Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre presents

The Birds and the Bees

By Mark Crawford
Birds And Bees 500 X 625

$45 Adult
$42 Senior
$40 Student
$30 First two rows (all ages)

Sarah, a turkey farmer, has split up with her husband and moved in with her mom, Gail, a beekeeper. Add in Earl, the flirty neighbour, and Ben, an eager young graduate student, and you have the perfect breeding ground for unlikely attractions. Set in adjoining bedrooms, The Birds & the Bees is a Canadian comedy about love, lust, beekeeping, and the artificial insemination of turkeys.

“What could be better therapy than an old-fashioned, knee-slapping, rip-roaring sex comedy?”
—The Vancouver Sun

Audience Advisory: general sauciness, strong language, sexual content and some nudity.

Run time: 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission

BOOM X
Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre presents

BOOM X

By Rick Miller
Boom 500 X 625

$45 Adult
$42 Senior
$40 Student
$30 First two rows (all ages)

He’s back! BOOM X is the explosive new solo show by Rick Miller that captures the music, pop culture, and politics of the 70s, 80s and 90s. From Atari to Kurt Cobain, Watergate to punk rock, Rick captures generation-defining moments through music and impersonation. He gives voice to over 100 different characters in this stunningly staged production that blends cutting-edge multimedia with tour-de-force storytelling.

BOOM X is the second in Miller’s trilogy of solo multi-media performances that collectively span 75 years and chronic generation-defining moments for the baby boomers, generation X, and millennials.

“STUNNING… A marvelous mashup of media, verbatim theatre, jukebox musical, and autobiographical confession”
- Globe & Mail

“MASTERPIECE… The special effects will blow you away, and so will his impersonations”
- The Suburban

“JAW-DROPPINGLY IMPRESSIVE...Rick Miller’s BOOM X is nothing short of MIRACULOUS.”
- Times Colonist

Audience Advisory:
This show contains the use of strobe lights.

Run time: 2 hours with one intermission

The Wilds
Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre presents

The Wilds

By WONDERHEADS
The Wilds 500 X 625

$30 Adult
$27 Senior
$25 Student

When Wendell discovers that both his wife and their beloved tree have vanished from the backyard, he must venture into the mysterious Wilds to bring them home. Pixar meets Miyazaki in this fantastical love story that the CBC called “captivating and magical”.

Charming and profoundly moving, this wordless award-winning show features WONDERHEADS’ signature masks, along with dazzling puppetry, and moves its audiences to both laughter and tears.

WONDERHEADS’ work has been described as living animation; their masks come to life in a way that must be seen to be believed, and their stories reach profound, funny, and heartwarming depths that you wouldn’t think possible of masks and puppets.

★★★★★
“Nothing short of exceptional.”
- Winnipeg Free Press

★★★★★
“Captivating and magical.”
– CBC (five stars)

★★★★★
“There aren’t enough adjectives to describe this astounding production.”
- Vue Weekly

Made for adults by kids at heart, this show is a little dark and a little light. Recommended for a general audience (ages 8+).

Run time: 60 minutes, no intermission