Leaky Heaven Circus presents its Youth Company in their premiere performance 

Sparrows

(based on the book An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden)

Vancouver International Children's Festival May 11 - 18, 2009

Surrey Children's Festival  May 28 - 30, 2009 

Woven into a 1950’s world of bustling streets, empty lots, and buildings, comes this beautiful tale of the unlimited imagination of children and the child’s ability to dream beyond what is reasonable or economically plausible. Paper birds fly, sandwiches sing, balls, parades and musical bands form, a garden can grow from rubble and the imagination can grow and flourish.

Lovejoy Mason finds a packet of cornflower seeds and dreams of growing an Italian garden, complete with statues and walk-ways, somewhere in the bombed out landscape of her post-war London neighborhood.  She is at first taunted by Tip Malone and his pack of boys and then, inspired by her persistence, he helps her to realize her dream.  All the activity of Catfish Street occurs under the watchful eyes of the wealthy sisters Miss Olivia and Miss Angela, and Lovejoy continues her clandestine gardening under the looming threat of The Home Of Compassion for Wayward Girls.    The biggest obstacle?  Where to find dirt?  Who owns dirt?  As Tip says, it is underneath everything....so how can anyone own it?  If they steal dirt from The Private Gardens is that really a crime?  The show looks at themes of ownership, turf, charity, and how life insinuates itself and blossoms even in the midst of poverty and opression.

The show uses elements of commedia del arte, keystone kop slapstick, lazzi, tap dance, choral music and features Alison Jenkins on accordian and clarinet, and the all-boy’s band The Bank Dogs.

“Imagine it Become it!” is the 2009 motto of The Surrey Children’s Festival. What we imagine can become our reality.  Children’s dreams are inspiring in their audacious, outrageous, courageous ferocity.  This is the story in The Episode of Sparrows and it is also the story of The Leaky Heaven Youth Theatre.  The troupe consists of young creative artists who are energized, creative powerhouses ready to step up, hold their own show, and perform it for their peers in an international festival setting.

For information on the Vancouver International Children's Festival and how to buy tickets, please click here.

For information on Surrey Children's Festival and how to buy tickets, please click here.

When the first Leaky Heaven show exploded into the Vancouver East Cultural Center in 1999 (Leaky Heaven) the youngest child in the cast was 3.  She is now 11.  Over the Leaky years, our performing youth have been exposed to a diverse theatrical training  (clown, commedia, mask, bouffant, character creation), working alongside some of the most innovative award-winning artists in the city.  To further the artistic development of young people we launched The Leaky Heaven Youth Theatre Company in the spring of 2008.  The mandate of this youth company is to give full focus to the youth, through training workshops, and performance, building on they is past relationships to The Leaky Heaven Circus.  The youth are drawn from past performers, young people who have been part of our dynamic audience community, and some newcomers.  It is the goal of the parent company to foster the creative dynamo, ideas, and artistic abilities of a young company through the support of active professional artists, directors, designers, and musicians, and so inspire both the participants and our youth/ family audiences in “the Leaky Heaven spirit.”  

FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY:

Joseph Abbott
Liam Hill Allan
Zach Bergman
Rowan Bostock
Ruby Izzat
Anouska Anderson Kirby
Elena Anderson Kirby
Sky Lambourne
Sarah Lowery
Rohan MacKinnon
Cydney Paddon
Sam Tuck
Shawn Yip
Oscar Youseff
Zak Youseff
Camille Gingras
Eva Gingras
Mark Haney (music)
Alison Jenkins (music)

Sparrows is made possible by the generous support of

The Province of British Columbia

The City of Vancouver

Great Northern Way Scene Shop

Masters in Digital Media Program, Great Northern Way Campus

McLeans Foundation

The Vancouver International Children's Festival

The Surrey Children's Festival

UBC Department of Theatre and Film

Bard on the Beach

The Russian Hall