PHOTO: East Van Panto: Robin Hood – by Emily Cooper

That’s a wrap on another East Van Panto season here at Theatre Replacement, and our hearts are full as we put dear Robin Hood to bed! We are so grateful to the beautiful company, cast and crew of this year’s production, to our partners at The Cultch and to our amazing audiences, who filled the seats each night and joined in with cheers, boos and look behind yous. It felt so good to sing and laugh and clippity clop our way through this holiday season. Over 17,500 audience members joined us at the York Theatre over the sold out run — families and friends from all over the Lower Mainland and beyond!

The East Van Panto is a very special show for TR, because it gives us the chance to create a show that is so much about this place — the East Van community we know and love — and to celebrate all its heart and quirks and complexities. Thank you for being with us this year, and for those of you who are looking for more Panto magic, don’t worry! We’ve already started work on the next East Van Panto — stay tuned for more info on the incoming creative team and the next Panto story this spring!

Welcome to TR’s new Creative Producer Intern – Amanda Sum

PHOTO: Amanda Sum

We are thrilled to announce that Amanda Sum is joining Team TR (officially) as our 2025 Creative Producer Intern. Many of you know that Amanda is no stranger to Theatre Replacement, after being our 2021 COLLIDER Artist in Residence, starring in several East Van Pantos and teaching at our PantoLand + PantoTown summer camps. She’s also co-producing her show, New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert, which is heading back out on tour this spring. This internship is an opportunity for Amanda to work closely with TR’s Artistic Director Maiko Yamamoto, and receive mentorship on all aspects of creative producing. As part of her time with us Amanda will also be developing a new experimental performance, directed by Yamamoto. Please join us in welcoming Amanda to the team! Reach her at amanda@theatrereplacement.org

MORE ABOUT AMANDA
Amanda Sum is a performer and creator who dances between music and theatre. She has collaborated on many interdisciplinary theatre based works, which have brought her to perform and present works at the Smush Gallery (Jersey City) at On The Boards (Seattle) and Summerworks (Toronto). Recent acting credits include 4 seasons of the East Van Panto (Theatre Replacement) and Sense and Sensibility (The Arts Club). Her latest EP does it make me naive if i’ve never been part of something where i’ve meant more to them than they did to me? was released in June 2024. Her music video Different Than Before (2022) garnered a JUNO nomination and won the SXSW Music Video Jury Award (2023). She is currently working on her next full-length record, and developing an accompanying experimental theatre show. Amanda holds a BFA from SFU. Antics and updates: @amanduhsum

Please say hello to our Festival Producer for HOLD ON LET GO – Kayleigh Sandomirsky

PHOTO: Kayleigh Sandomirsky

Please join us in welcoming Festival Producer for HOLD ON LET GO, Kayleigh Sandomirsky to Team TR! We feel very lucky to be working with Kayleigh on our 2025 edition, as we swing right into busy festival season! We can’t wait to share these exciting new works by local and national artists with you this February 4-8, 2025 at the Russian Hall (600 Campbell Ave). Please join us in welcoming Kayleigh! Reach her at holdonletgo@theatrereplacement.org

MORE ABOUT KAYLEIGH
Kayleigh Sandomirsky is a Vancouver-based stage/production manager, producer, curator and performer, who works across theatre and dance. She is the new Operations Coordinator for The Chop Theatre, has toured both large scale and independent performances across Canada, and is currently developing her skills in design and Tour Management. A multi-faceted arts worker who has collaborated with an incredible roster of local and national companies, recent credits include production management for TechniCowlour and EMPTY-HANDED for The Biting School, Dance in Vancouver at the Scotiabank Dance Centre as well as Pulsive Party’s Lip Service projects. As a stage manager, she has worked with rice and beans, ITSAZOO Productions, New Works, Realwheels, O’Dela Arts and UpintheAir Theatre among many others. Kayleigh has taken an impressive list of productions on tour: Black and Rural (We Are StoryFolk/Pi Theatre), PIÑA and BLUSCRN (FakeKnot), Confluence (Raven Spirit Dance), 003_playback (Caroline MacCaull/Chimerik), New Societies (Re:Current Theatre) and Ying Yun (Wen Wei Dance). She has co-designed sets for The Falling Company, and was Props Designer for Pi Theatre’s Medicine at The Cultch in 2024.  

HOLD ON LET GO single tickets are selling fast!

PHOTO: Kyle Loven’s Loss Machine – By Tim Summers

Single tickets for HOLD ON LET GO are selling quickly! If you are looking to attend specific performances or events between February 4-8, 2025, buy your tickets soon to make sure you can get a ticket! ALL ACCESS PASSES are also on sale, and for only $15 more than a single ticket price you can see/attend everything at HOLD ON LET GO! Visit holdonletgo.ca to learn more about the 7 exciting performances (5 Mainstage and 2 In Development), Festival Gatherings, including artist talks, panels and mixers, and Emerging Artist Series, curated by Amanda Sum.

One of our Mainstage presentations at HOLD ON LET GO is Loss Machine, by Kyle Loven, an intimate one-person show that combines puppetry, objects, light, sound and original music in a visual and sonic exploration of loss and discovery.

In a 7’ tall tower filled with life’s debris, a collection of characters move through an ever-changing assemblage of found and constructed objects. A lost city made up of lost things. With the “machine” further symbolizing the human body, the piece follows the process of loss and grief that impacts us all. Connected by a shared emotional journey, each scene picks up in the place where the last character left us. The resulting mosaic is poetic, fantastical, and leaves room for audiences to inject their own relationship to loss. 

Catch Loss Machine on Wednesday, February 5th @ 7pm or Saturday, February 8th @ 8:30pm.

Thanks for reading this.

Team TR
Maiko, Chelsea, JK, Amanda & Kayleigh