Monthly Archives: January 2008

2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy menu announced: now with Mongolian Beef to celebrate Year of the Rat


2008
Menu for Gung Haggis Fat Choy™:
Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner

– Anticipating the Year of the Rat!

What:     Gung Haggis Fat Choy™ Dinner
When:    January 27, 2008 – Sunday
Time:     Reception 5:30 pm – with Dim Sum appetizers
                Dinner 6:00 pm
Tickets:  $64.50 adult, $54.00 student, $43.50 children 13 & under
Purchase online www.ticketstonight.ca
NEW # ORDER BY PHONE:
604-631-2872

Additional $2.50 per ticket for phone orders


Call Gung Haggis Fat Choy Productions at 604-987-7124 by January 21 to reserve a table for 10 for $600

Our
selections are not a real “traditional” Chinese New Year dinner menu –
but a blending of favorites, and brand new fusion-fare.  It is created
to help introduce “real Chinese banquet fare” to Scottish-Canadians and
to help make “haggis” safe for Chinese-Canadians.  And if you are
Ukranian-Italian-Japanese-First Nations… that's alright too!


Here is the menu for 2008, subject to change at my whimsy and the kitchen's demands:

Haggis Dim Sum Appetizer buffet
This will be available upon people's arrival soon after the reception starts after 5:30pm
The restaurant will have the bar open for 5:30pm
We have moved the dinner location to the South side of the restaurant so we can use the BIG bar.



1a –  Deep fried Haggis Wun Tun
Haggis
Wun Tun was first created in September 2003 when I walked into New Town
Restaurant in Chinatown with a Haggis from Peter Black's and asked them
to make won tons for me to take to the CBC Radio reception to welcome
Shelagh Rogers and “Sounds Like Canada” to Vancouver.  She said that “the haggis wun tun and special plum sauce goes together like Bogart and Bacall.” It's been a
favorite ever since. 

We ask the restaurant to mix the haggis with
water chestnuts to make it crunchy – yum yum!  Even the Scottish Studies coordinator from Simon Fraser University, Harry McGrath, has said it is “surprisingly good!”

1b   Haggis Su-Mei (Pork Dumplings)
Pork Dumplings (Su-Mei) are classic
cantonese dim sum, and we are adding haggis for great taste!  Somehow the haggis and the pork seem to go very well!

1c Haw-Gow (Shrimp Dumplings)
non-haggis dim sum… one of my favorites!  tasty morsels of shrimp wrapped in rice noodle wrapping.

1d  Vegetarian Spring Rolls
Because we knew there would be people who wouldn't want Haggis or meat their Vegetarian spring rolls.

2 – Hot & Sour Soup
Always
a favorite for everybody – and vegetarian to boot!  Warms up the
innards on a cold January night.  I am sure Burns would approve.


3 – Ginger Dungeness Crab
The
West Coast equivalent to Nova Scotia Lobster and better tasting too!
Flavoured with Ginger, it's always been one of my favorites.  The best
way to eat crab is to have somebody else crack it and de-shell it for
you.  If your husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend won't do this –
invite somebody else.

4 – Buddhist's Feast
A traditional New Year dish – with rice vermicelli noodles and lots of vegetables and lotus root.  All the good things that every vegetarian loves.  The Chinese calendar is based on the 12 animals that came when Buddha called.  Feb 7th starts a new 12 year cycle that begins with the Year of the Rat – the first animal to see Buddha.  I was born in the Year of the Rat.



5  – Haggis
You
can't have a Robbie Burns Supper without Haggis… We serve the best
haggis that I have found.  It comes from the Highlands of West
Vancouver… or rather the Lowlands of West Vancouver's Park Royal,
from Peter Black & Sons. 
Peter's
haggis is like a nice liver pate.  It is not too oaty, and it has many
nice spices.  Try it with sweet & sour sauce.  But the Plum sauce
is best. 


6  Lettuce Wrap
We
serve a vegetarian lettuce wrap.  We had so many vegetarians who
lamented that they couldn't eat the duck or the pork or the beef
lettuce wrap… so now it is a vegetarian lettuce wrap.  Very tasty. 


We
encourage people to combine Haggis with the lettuce wrap…. Take a
large spoonful of haggis, plunk it on a lettuce leaf, add the
vegetarian filling, smother it with Hoi-Sin Chinese plum sauce, and
it's great.  People really like it.  Before we invented the haggis
lettuce wrap, there was always plenty of haggis left over.  But now…
everybody eats it up.  We blame it on the lettuce wrap.


7 – Mongolian Beef
At one time the Mongolian empire was the largest contiguous empire in human history reaching  into what is now Modern Poland by 1279.  That's almost 90% of the distance from Beijing to Edinburgh!  Mongolian beef is one of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team's favorite Tuesday night dishes after a hard paddle practice.

8 – Deep Fried Shrimp balls with fruit salad.
It's traditional to have a fish dish because the Chinese word for fish sounds like the Chinese word for money… But we are substituting this wonderful Floata Restaurant specialty.  The shrimpballs are lightly
deep-fried to a nice light crunch.  The salad is melons with a
mayonaise sauce… very much Hong Kong style.  While, not one of the
Chinese-Canadian dishes that I grew up with, but the Chinese members on
our Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team really like it, and they
assure me that it is a traditional style food dish for Chinese New Year.

9 –  Special Long Life E-Fu Noodles
Long noodles signify long life – a very important part of traditional Chinese New Year greetings.  I really like the E-Fu noodles.  They are lighter than regular Chow Mein noodles – very heavenly.  Another traditional belief is that the Kitchen God goes to heaven, to report on the family.  Maybe this is why the e-fu noodles are so special!

10 – Dessert 
The return of Mango Pudding.  My girlfriend was happy to see this back on the menu after years of traditional Chinese New Year pastries.   One of the top selling gelato ice creams at Casa Gelato is Death by Mango.  We will definitely NOT have blood pudding – Go ye to a
Scottish resturant for that stuff


Hope you enjoyed these delicious descriptions…

Each
year we are challenged by the logistics of serving 350 to 450 people at
the same time, in coordination with a fantastic musical and literary
show.  Every year we try to improve on the presentation and the
execution of our event, while making it fresh with adjustments to both
the menu and the performance schedule.


So….
reception starts promptly at 5:30pm.and the dim sum appetizers will be
available because we know people will be hungry.  The restaurant assures us that the bar will be open at 5:30pm and we have moved the event to the south side of the restaurant to utilize the large bar, and to be closer to the kitchen.


And
of course… the entire program and menu is subject to change.  We do
our best to create a fabulous meal and evening of entertainment.  And
the best way is to be sensitive to the audience, the performers, spontaneous to great ideas, and
meeting any challenges that come our way.




I look forward to sharing the surprises and joys of Gung Haggis Fat Choy™ 2008 with you!

Toddish

Help CBC Radio Vancouver move to the FM Dial!

Gung Haggis Fat Choy LOVES CBC Radio….

We would love to tell everybody to follow the instructions below and help CBC Radio One move from 690AM to the FM Dial.

Why does Gung Haggis Fat Choy love CBC Radio?

CBC Radio hosts Margaret Gallagher, Sheila Rogers and Priya Ramu have helped to co-host past Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinners.

Back in 2002, Bill Richardson interviewed Toddish McWong about Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Dinner.  In 2004, Sheila Rogers interviewed Todd.  Margaret Gallagher has also interviewed Todd for her 690 to Go slot on the Early Edition.

CBC Radio has also run stories about the Save Joy Kogawa House campaign in 2005 and 2006. 

Many of our friends have had spots on CBC Radio including Adrienne Wong, Charles Demers, Henry Yu, Joy Kogawa, Jennifer Sookfong Lee, Paul Yee, Qiu Xia He and Silk Road Music, Brandy Lien Worrall, the Chinese Canadian War veterans, Larry Wong, Jim Wong-Chu, etc etc etc…
 
We LOVE CBC Radio….  please help.


CBC Vancouver has
the unique opportunity to move Radio One from the AM dial to the FM
dial in the Greater Vancouver area, therefore vastly improving the
sound quality and coverage of our Radio One service!

 

Our
application to the CRTC has been approved for public hearings and we
have just two weeks to show enormous support from listeners in the
Lower Mainland in order to convince the CRTC to give us the FM signal.

 

Why move to FM?  There are two main reasons.  

 

1. 
AM reception is very poor in many parts of the Lower Mainland,
including the heart of the city in the West End.  CBC did a survey of
Radio One listeners in Vancouver that told us that almost 40% of
respondents experienced poor reception either at home, at work or in
their cars.  Making the move to FM is the only way to ensure that all
of the people of Vancouver are able to receive Radio One's unique and
distinctive service.

 

2. 
Tuning to the AM dial is in decline and has been for years.  Four out
of ten Vancouver radio listeners do not listen to the AM dial at all. 
Making the move to FM is an investment in CBC Radio One's future.  It's
about being relevant and staying connected to everyone living in Metro
Vancouver.

 

How can you help?

 

By
sending your written support by email, fax or mail to the CRTC by
January 23, 2008.  The message doesn't have to be long, but it
does have to be individually written.  The CRTC dismisses the “cut and
paste” copying of form letters.  A few sentences explaining why you
value Radio One's programming and how you would like it to be on the FM
dial so you can hear it consistently wherever you are in Metro
Vancouver is all that's required. 

 


To email your support:
 

Go directly to the form on the CRTC website at http://support.crtc.gc.ca/rapidscin/default.aspx?lang=en and click on the button #2007-18.
Then, check the box beside #200714239 (in the list, this is the second CBC application) and go to the bottom of the page and select Next
Follow the instructions to complete your letter of support.
And please remember to also send a copy to CBC of your e-mail at REGULATORYAFFAIRS@CBC.CA

 


We also have a Facebook page which you can link your own Facebook page to if you'd like, at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8429916755 

 

In
order to be successful, we will require hundreds of letters of support,
so please pass this information on to everyone you know who values
public broadcasting in Greater Vancouver.  Again, the deadline is less
than two weeks away – January 23, 2008.

 

We have been trying to get Radio One moved to FM in Vancouver for ten years, and now a dial position has become available.  This is a very rare and unique opportunity long overdue so we welcome your support!  If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

Sheila

 

Sheila Peacock

Specials Producer

CBC Radio

604-662-6095

Adrienne Wong playing “My Name is Rachel Corrie” about the peace activist killed by a bulldozer while defending a Palestine house


Rachel Corrie

My Name is Rachel Corrie
Havana Theatre
Push Festival
January 25 – February 9, 2008

Rachel
Corrie was 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli
army bulldozer on March 16, 2003. She was working with others trying to
protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition in Rafah,
Gaza Strip, Palestine. “My Name is Rachel Corrie” is a powerful

Sometimes we can be pulled so strongly into doing things by our passions.  Rachel Corrie was driven by passion to stand in front of Palestinian homes on the Gaza Strip, being threatened by Israeli bulldozers.  As an U.S. citizen from Olympia WA, she felt it was her duty to protest the actions of the U.S. government.  Unfortunately Rachel was killed by a bulldozer, but called a martyr by Palestine leader Arafat.

Adrienne Wong is playing Rachel Corrie in the Push Festival's “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” Wong was also similarly driven by her passion to play the young activist.  Read the article: Hour.ca – Stage – My Name Is Rachel Corrie to learn about Wong's unusual audition for the role.

My Name is Rachel Corrie, is a play composed from Corrie's journals and e-mails from Gaza, written by British actor Alan Rickman. I've checked the blogosphere, and it looks like a real interesting play with controversial themes.  Was Corrie being used for Palestinian propaganda?  Did the bulldozer driver not see her? Why is it important to to destroy Palestinian homes on the Gaza Strip?

The initial 2005 opening in London, directed by Rickman at the Royal Court Theatre in London, England won the Theatregoers' Choice Awards for Best Director
and Best New Play, as well as Best Solo Performance for actress Megan Dodds.  It was subsequently scheduled to open in New York City at New York Theatre Workshop
in March 2006. But due to fear of reactions from Jewish groups, the play was “postponed indefinitely.”

What will Vancouver's Jewish community say about My Name is Rachel Corrie?  What will White audiences and critics say about an Asian actor playing a blonde American character?  Hopefully, they will all say that both the actor and the play are full of passion.  Adrienne is actually Eurasian or Hapa-Canadian, as her mother is French Canadian.  Wong already has many ethnic “roles” on her resume.  Ethnicity shouldn't be a quality for casting, but sometimes it is.

Adrienne is a committed actor involved on many levels in Vancouver theatrical community.  A few years ago she was writer in residence at the Firehall Arts Centre, and I have seen her in lead roles in Golden Child and Gold Mountain Guest.  She has also been a past co-host for the 2004 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event.

Banana Boys back again at the Firehall Arts Centre

Banana Boys
Firehall Arts Centre

January 17 – February 9 , 2008


Last year Firehall Arts Centre brought back Urine Town the following year, after a smash initial run.  This year, they have brought back Banana Boys.  I saw the play last year and found it a hysterical, fast-paced, action-packed with both ideas and physical comedy.

Some of our female dragon boat team members said “Hey what about the Banana Girls?”  This play hits the nerves about Asian-Canadian identity.  What is it like to be considered a banana? Yellow on the outside but White on the inside.  No doubt many Canadian-born Asian Canadians are considered more and more banana with each passing generation, as they lose their mother tongue language, and traditional customs. 

But can you lose something you never really had? Often times this 5th generation Chinese-Canadian bristles at being asked “Where are you from?” 

On the other hand, the Asian traditionalists and new immigrants have often asked me “Are you Chinese?  You look Chinese… You should speak Chinese!”

This play addresses all these issues… the push and pull of living between cultures, while trying to establish your own identity.

This Leon Aureus play is based on the original book by Terry Woo.  Terry came to Vancouver last year for the rehearsals and the opening night performance, and was really pleased with the Firehall's production.  No wonder the play sold out its final nights and has been brought back for 2008.

SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival – features dragon cart racing + human curling

It is time for the 3rd annual SFU Gung Haggis Fat Choy Festival at Simon Fraser University.  The SFU Recreation department asked me to help create an event that would blend SFU's Scottish history with the large Asian population.  They liked the idea of Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner – but wondered how it would translate to a university campus?

In 2005, we came up with a take on the traditional Highland Games – but substituted dragon cart racing as a variation of dragon boat racing.  The 7 person carts were made by Bob Brinson, a former coach and steersperson with the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  In 2007, the event known as “human curling” was added.  Each event draws on a Chinese or Scottish cultural tradition, but with a Canadian twist that is wacky enough to capture the attention and spirit of fun that university students are known for.

Festival Activities and schedule:

TIME                                 ACTIVITY

11:30 – 11:45
                     Opening Ceremonies & Welcome + Celtic Dance Club Performance & Intro to Human Curling Challenge

11:45 – 12:20                      Human Curling + Awards

12:20 – 12:40                      Lion Dance by the Kung Fu Club, Capoeira Demonstration & Intro to Dragon Cart Races

12:40 – 1:15                       Dragon Cart Races

1:15 –
1:30                         Dragon Cart Awards & Closing Ceremonies

In addition we are having a Food station which will be offering popcorn, fortune cookies, haggis and egg rolls

I am being asked to provide a brief welcome and history of the event and then
to assist with MC'ing during the Human Curling Challenge & Dragon
Carts (providing commentary – as was done in the past). 

Please also note that this Festival is on THURS. JAN. 24th (and will
not be in conjunction with Robbie Burns Day which takes place Fri. Jan.
25th).

Full details for the Festival are online at http://students.sfu.ca/recreation/events/index.html#ghfc.

Great new musical, literary and theatrical raffle prizes for Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner

Our Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner always has raffle prizes to further help raise funds for Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, Historic Joy Kogawa House and Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team.  We try to find prizes that reflect our themes of BC's Chinese-Canadian and Scottish-Canadian history and culture.  In particular we try to help promote Asian-Canadian arts and culture.

The dinner actually costs quite a bit to put on, plus additional production costs including sound technician and additional equipment plus publicity and posters.  We hope that our guests will further help us raise funds for our very worthy organizations, by purchasing lots of raffle tickets!

For our 2008 dinner on January 27th, some of the prizes so far include:

From Harbour Publishing:


The Trail of 1858: British Columbia's Gold Rush Past  – by Mark Forsythe & Greg Dickson


 
.

The BC Almanac Book of Greatest British Columbians: – by Mark Forsythe & Greg Dickson


Forage
Forage – by Rita Wong


Abby's Birds
From Tradewind
Abby's Birds – illustrated by my friend Sima Elizabeth Shefrin

From Arsenal Pulp Press

Swallowing Clouds, edited by Andy
Quan & Jim Wong-Chu (This poetry collection is one of my favorites – it contains the Jim Wong-Chu poem “Recipe for Tea” which tells the story of how tea was originally introduced to Scotland from Southern China by traders.)
When Fox is a Thousand, by Larissa
Lai (Another favorite – I love Foxes)


Hopeful Monsters, by Hiromi
Goto (Hiromi is now the Writer-in-Residence at the Vancouver Public Library)
Kuroshio: The Blood of Foxes, by
Terry Watada
Soucouyant, by David
Chariandy
Vancouver Art & Economies, ed by
Melanie O'Brien

From Vancouver Opera
2 tickets to Italian Girl in Algiers
2 tickets to Voices of the Pacific Rim

2 tickets for Banana Boys

From TF Productions
2 tickets for The Quickie – the follow up theatrical production from the “Twisting Fortunes” team

Things are getting exciting with Gung Haggis Fat Choy…

10 more days until Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Dinner.

Yesterday and today, I received calls from Matt Burrows from the Georgia Straight asking what was happening for the 10th Anniversary celebrations for Gung Haggis Fat Choy.  We have celtic band Blackthorn, Vancouver poet laureate George McWhirter, our house band Joe McDonald and Brave Waves + an sneak peak excerpt from Grace Chin's new theatre play.

“Sorry, I can't tell you anything more because everything else is going to be a surprise,” I told Burrows.  “I am looking at some of the best memories, performances and elements over the past 10 years and trying to find a way to make the dinner have the same remarkable spontaneity that the first dinner of 16 guests had, but now with 400 guests. 

As usual we will be having people reading Burns Poetry, reading Asian Canadian poetry… and we will have members of our audience come up on stage to read.  It's always important for me to find a way to recognize both the
Scottish-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian history and culture of our city
and province.

It's always exciting seeing who will be in our audience.  By introducing celebrity people and community leaders in our audience, it always makes the dinner feel more intimate and friendly.  This is one of the secrets that has made Gung Haggis Fat Choy such a cherished must-attend event for so many Vancouverites.  After singing a chorus of “When Asian Eyes Are Smiling” or “My Haggis Lies Over the Ocean,” you have 9 brand new best friends at your dinner table… and 400 new friends surrounding you…. all singing Auld Lang Syne in Mandarin!

At that first dinner, we had no idea what was happening… we had a list of things that were supposed to happen at a traditional Robbie Burns dinner.  I cooked most of the Chinese dishes, and other people brought or cooked some more of the dishes.  But as the dinner grew to 40 people, then 100, then 200, then 400 and up to 590, it has always struggled with losing the original intimacies of the first dinners, while taking advantage of the opportunities for better performances and better sound/video technology as the dinner grew to larger venues.

“We are going to be showing clips from the CBC documentary Generations: The Chan Legacy which features some of the history of the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, including being interviewed by Peter Mansbridge from The National, and also the CBC Vancouver TV special,” I shared with Burrows.  “After all, how many times does a Burns dinner get to spin off a TV special… it's been pretty incredible!”

All the haggis is now ordered from Peter Black & Sons in West Vancouver's Park Royal.  It's very fitting, since the first dinner of 16 guests took place in a North Vancouver town house.  The haggis will soon be delivered to Floata Restaurant where they will make hundreds of deep-fried wun tun appetizers, as part of our haggis dim sum appetizer buffet that will greet guests on their arrival at 5:30pm

Tickets Tonight is handling all single ticket orders, while I take reserved tables of 10.  There are many organizations and individuals reserving tables.  These will all be announced during the “Calling of the Clans.”
Single ticket holders will all be assigned seating at “General Admission” tables in the order that they bought their tickets.  Reserved tables of 10 will have the “Clan Names” place on the tables.

Our host organizations Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, Historic Joy Kogawa House Society and the Gung Hagggis Fat Choy dragon boat team will each receive a portion of funds raised from the dinner, as well as provide volunteers for the event.

Raffle prizes are looking very good.  Each year I talk with organizations that contribute to the intercultural nature of our arts community. 

Banana Boys theatre – 2 tickets from Firehall Arts Centre
Italian Girl In Algiers – 2 tickets from Vancouver Opera
Voices of the Pacific Rim – 2 tickets from Vancouver Opera
The Quickie – 2 tickets from TF Productions
Book gift pack from Arsenal Pulp Press
Book gift pack from Harbour Publishing
and many more prizes…

So… everything is now set up.  Media interviews are happening.  Last week I was interviewed on Co-Op Radio by Rowan on Accordion Noir.  This friday I am being interviewed by Eric Model for this radio and podcast for his Conversations on the Road show where he travels all across North America interviewing interesting people and stories.

Hmmm… what's next.  Read Thursday's Georgia Straight to find the latest work in dress attire for Gung Haggis Fat Choy… and who will be wearing a kilt to the dinner.

Catherine Barr is a finalist for CKNW IDOL – VOTE for CAT

Catherine Barr

Catherine Barr – is one of Vancouver's rising media personalities.  She is already widely known for her society and events columns in Metro News, The Courier and the Westender.

And… Catherine is going to be a SURPRISE guest presenter at the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy: Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Dinner.  What will she do?  Can't tell you…. it's a surprise.

I got to know Cat initially by the word of her proud father Robert Barr, former president of the Burns Club of Vancouver.  Over the past few years I have attended a few Burns Dinners for the Burns Club of Vancouver, and also bumped into Catherine Barr at different social events.  I am looking forward to our first planned event and glad she is going to be sharing her Scottish heritage with us for Gung Haggis Fat Choy.

Check out CKNW  980 AM radio on Wednesday Jan 16, 2007 for her Talk Show Idol 2 bid.  You can even vote for her on the CKNW website.

Catherine wrote me:

I'll
be put through my paces on current events and knowledge by Philip Till
at 7:20 am – and again at 4:20 by Jon McComb. Wish me luck.


I'm
also excited to get the opportunity to provide a featured editorial
which will be played during the noon hour. I'd love to hear your
comments afterwards, so please tune in and post your comments on my
blog.


Please click on these links and follow the CKNW logo to
put your comments on my blog page. And thank you so much ahead of time
for your support.

The Quickie – New Asian Canadian play sneak preview excerpt featured at 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event



Another Gung Haggis Fat Choy exclusive!!!

TF Productions' playwright Grace Chin is back with another “set in Vancouver” play that resonates sexual and racial intercultural politics and social customs.   Last year  Grace and her writing partner Charlie Cho previewed their first play Twisting Fortunes at the 2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner which I reviewed Twisting Fortunes is just like “real dating.

This
time the writing is all Grace… and she will be performing a sneak
preview excerpt onstage with fellow actor Emily Chow, as characters
Susan Fan and Regina Cho.

What do women really want?  Did Robbie Burns have the answer?  We know that Robbie Burns LOVED the fair sex and wrote many many poems dedicated to them – the most famous being “My Luv is Like a Red Red Rose.”  But does a rose smell as sweet whether it is red, or white, or yellow?  And what about men and women…. do they smell as sweet whether they are white or yellow? 

Check out this spicy excerpt that will be presented January 27th at the 2008 Gung Haggis Fat Choy : Toddish McWong's Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner.

Can you really know someone in five minutes? And is speed
dating a shortcut to happiness, or a slippery slope to heartache? TF
Productions, the team that brought the city its first “accidentally
Asian” romantic dramedy, Twisting Fortunes—which played to a sold-out
house at the Playwrights Theatre Centre on Granville Island last
year—presents The Quickie, a Vancouver-based, contemporary romantic
comedy that rips a strip out of speed dating, making whoopee, and
cultural collision. In all the wrong places.

The Quickie is directed by Ross Bragg (Producer, CBC) with
lighting design by Darren Boquist (Walking Fish Festival) from a script
by Grace Chin (Event Producer, Scripting Aloud), one half of the TF
Productions writing/producing team that includes Charlie Cho (Associate
Producer, CBC). TF Productions is grateful to receive in-kind support
from the CBC, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (VACT) and Scripting
Aloud. “A 'quickie' can mean a lot of things. This is a fun play about
dating in Vancouver, but it's not only about sex; it's about how
readily we judge people before we know who they are, about love at
first sight,” says Bragg.

In this take-out love story, Richard “The Rich” Gupta (Raahul
Singh) wants everything, while his buddy Darryl Chu (Alex Chu) just
wants the right woman. Susan Fan (Grace Chin) is willing to settle for
a man she can put up with, while her best friend Regina Cho (Emily
Chow) won't settle at all. The four meet their matches quickly enough
at the same speed dating event, yet find the follow-through far from
tidy. An amorous woman (Allison Riley), a party girl (Kit Koon), a
pretty boy (Phil Gurney) and a toothsome dentist (Victor Khong) further
complicate the “girl meets boy” dynamic.

The
Quickie is the second theatrical production, after 2007's Twisting
Fortunes, to be staged after being workshopped at Scripting Aloud, a
monthly pan-Asian Canadian scriptreading series active since 2005. A
short excerpt from The Quickie will be read live at the Tenth
Anniversary Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner event on January 27, 2008 at
Floata Chinese Restaurant, 400-180 Keefer Street, downtown Vancouver.

Performances:
Thurs. Feb. 7, Fri. Feb. 8, Sat. Feb. 9, 8 p.m.
Sun. Feb. 10, 2 p.m.
Fri. Feb. 15, Sat. Feb. 16, 8 p.m.
Venue: Playwrights Theatre Centre
(1398 Cartwright Street), Granville Island
Tickets: $15 at the door, $13 online via PayPal at www.scriptingaloud.ca/quickie

Media:
Charlie Cho
Co-Producer, TF Productions
778-288-5933

quickieplay@gmail.com