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The Online Home of the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret
THE DUSTY TALE
Everything You Need to Know About the Dusty Flowerpot!
WHO WE ARE
The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret is a non profit society dedicated to creating and supporting original work of physical theatre in stages both traditional and site specific. Since 2013, we operate from our studio The Dusty Flower Shop which is also available for rentals. The DFC creates large scale musicals, small scale roving acts, and festivals. On a regular basis the DFC produces the well loved and community involved Parade of Lost Souls, a monthly "Third Thursday Cabaret" and a weekly "Clown Gym" work out for anyone who has clown or physical theatre equivalent training. All of these events are offered by donation. Please contact Kat Single-Dain, Artistic Director since 2013, to get involved with our season of activities, as there are many many opportunities!
OUR MANDATE
To create and present multi-disciplinary arts events with a focus on community engagement and artistic excellence.
WHERE WE'VE PERFORMED
Made In BC – Dance on Tour
Vancouver Folk Festival
Vancouver Fringe Festival
Vancouver Summer Live:
125 Anniversary Celebrations
In The House Festival
Tremors Theatre Festival
FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery
North Shore Women’s Centre’s
Crimson Cabaret
Push Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Japanese Multicultural Procession
Vancity Members Day
The Shadbolt Center for the Arts
The Russian Hall, Strathcona
Vancouver Car Free Day
Parade of Lost Souls
FulFord Hall, Salt Spring Island
Injest: Festival of Clown and Play
Museum of Vancouver
Waldorf Hotel
The Vancouver Club
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BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
Katrina Bowen
Ron Skolney-Elverson
Nicole Ebert
Lindy Sisson
Raina Von Waldenburg
"What good is sitting alone In your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret."
~John Kander, Cabaret
OUR COLLABORATIVE HISTORY
Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret was formed in 2006 on a rainy winter's night in a Strathcona, Vancouver art studio, when a group of local artists met over red wine and blue cheese and decided to collaborate.
Their first show together The Valley of Ashes premiered in November 2007. The story of a boy on a quest with a flowerpot strapped to his back sparked the imaginations of audiences was written by Ari Lazar and became a spring board for collaboration between the cast members. The unique style of presentation combined storytelling, pantomime, puppetry, dance, original music and masks. The play was presented as storybook of forgotten fables, a multi-media tapestry. The shows ended each night's performance in a community dance party and a tradition was born. The Valley of Ashes was remounted the following May 2008 for a second sold out run.
In 2009 the DFC returned with a 5 evening run of an all new show The Listening Jar, this time teaming up with Pivot Legal Society to create a show that explored the theme of 'Justice'. The play was a dark immersive fable, telling the story of a girl who finds a song in a jar and goes up against her totalitarian society in order to find the truth behind the mysterious melody.
In December 2010, the DFC produced The Village Project -- a weekend long immersive miniature village complete with a treehouse, an art gallery, farm stands and shops, a hair salon and rumors of secret moonshine down a hidden alleyway. During the day at The Village you could visit a fortune telling DJ, buy a leather beard that is also a bag, or a slice from a pie that looks like a bird’s nest. During the night the Village square filled with “villagers” (audience) to watch the nightly Vaudeville show and dance the night away to live music.
In spring of 2011, having received funding from The Canada Council for the Arts and the Vancouver Foundation, the DFC produced Hard Times Hit Parade. The original script, concept and direction by one of the Dusty founders Kat Single-Dain, this theatrical re-enactment of a depression-era dance marathon incorporated swing dance, puppetry, clown, video and live music, created collaboratively with its dancers and players. The show’s multi-character narrative weaves together stories of competing couples with central themes of economic collapse, environmental decay, and the value of community. These themes were felt both on and off stage, where every single show ended in a dance party--sometimes all night long. Hard Times Hit Parade enjoyed an immensely successful month-long run, selling out its hold over shows in less than 10 minutes. The production was nominated for Critic's Choice at Vancouver's Jessie Theatre Awards, received rave reviews, and is now in post production as a feature film.
Partnering with Made in BC in 2012 – Dance on Tour, Single-Dain and a touring cast played Hard Times Hit Parade throughout BC, presenting in Golden, Kelowna, Courtenay, Maple Ridge and finally concluded with a 61 person cast on Salt Spring Island!! As part of the tour, community workshops were hosted and participants were invited to enter the dance marathon as competitors for the first act.
In 2014, Artistic Director Kat Single-Dain spear-headed the next large scale Dusty production, The Scarlet Queen of Mercy. This was yet another original, interactive, music and dance extravaganza that played a month long run at Strathcona’s Russian Hall. In the “dusty” style, each player brought their character to life from the page and beyond through a collaboration with the writer/director and thereby made the show what it was through their unique contributions. With clown training as a common language of most dusty actors, unique characterizations and improvisations was a key element of the show. Please see the extensive credits for a list of all the incredible players and crew of The Scarlet Queen of Mercy. Single-Dain is also directing a feature film version of the show, which has stunning imagery, seen HERE.
Since 2010 The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret has been co-producing Commercial Drive's beloved Hallowe’en time street party, 'The Parade of Lost Souls' alongside Public Dreams. From 2014, after the dissolution of Public Dream Society, the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret’s Kat Single-Dain has continued to produce the Parade of Lost Souls. Her goal is to keep the tradition alive and well by hosting a parade that is by and for the community, with a mission to “say Yes” to the ideas that come forward from willing participants. Having arrived to Vancouver in 2001 and experiencing then the Parade of Lost Souls as a time and place where all artistic expressions are welcome and playfulness is the common language for a night, she firmly believes that the strength of the event is equal to its community involvement.
In 2018, the DFC began a new adjacent tradition of The Parade of Little Souls. After starting a family of her own, Single-Dain envisioned a new, related event aimed at children and families. This would happen at the top of the night, 7pm, lead by local children’s brass band Greenhorn and Tim Sars (leader of the epic Carnival Band). A beautiful aspect of the 2018 and ‘19 parades, The Parade of Little Souls will continue as part of the event into the future.
The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret continues to innovate and perform and expand their reach. Throughout the years the DFC has created both stage and site specific work for a number of organizations and events too ample to name. The ‘Dusties’ love to bring unique performance work to the public in ways that charm and inspire. Contact us anytime for ideas or requests. Most recently Kat Single-Dain has collaborated with the Beaumont Studios to write and direct their sold out 2019 Tim Burton themed Hallowe’en tours, The Tours for the Recently Deceased. She is currently writing the next set of Beaumont Studio tours tentatively scheduled for March 2021, with the working title “Trouble in Candy Land”.
And finally, the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret invites YOU to be part of the show, at the Third Thursday Cabaret, which is an open stage for original physical theatre. We feel that cabaret—the practice of sharing our joy and struggle through live theater—is one of the most fulfilling things we can do in this life. We look forward to seeing you one day again at the ol’ Dusty Flower Shop where we share ourselves and our dreams with each other.
the DUSTY CREW
KAT SINGLE-DAIN
Artistic Director
Kat Single-Dain is Artistic Director of the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, producer of the Parade of Lost Souls creator, director, and choreographer of The Scarlet Queen of Mercy and Hard Times Hit Parade, two immersive theatrical extravaganzas that sold out in Vancouver and have taken their turns touring BC with up to a 61 person cast. She also tours under the guise of an over-the-hill chorus girl in Gloria's Happy Hour and sings and dances in The Myrtle Family Band.
www.gloriashappyhour.com
NATALIE LEFAUVRE GNAM
Financial Operations Manager
RHYS LILLO
Studio Operations
Rhys is a musician-writer-director-producer-sound designer-actor-multi-hyphenate-clown-performance artist-emcee. His performance artistry may show up in the most unexpected places and is always sure to entertain. He was headhunted to play Dr. VonPayne in The Scarlett Queen of Mercy, and quickly immersed himself within the folds of the DFC, serving as Vice President on the Board of Directors, before stepping down to fill his current role as Studio Operations.
STEVE GAIRNS
Web / Social Media Director
Steve Gairns has been involved with the DFC for the past three years as lead installation designer, workshop co-leader, illustrator, and Producer of the annual Parade of Lost Souls Festival. Outside of the DFC, Steve is an Intern Architect and co-founder of the euoi collaborative, with Chelsea Louise Grant, an art and design collective that seeks to use design as a supportive structure for both natural processes and public interaction.
