Intrepid Theatre presents a Puente Theatre & Firehall Arts Centre Co-Production

Creative team:

Written by: Elaine Ávila
Directed by: Mercedes Bátiz-Benét
Performances by: Sara Marreiros, Judd Palmer, Pedro Siqueira, and Dan Weisenburger
Original Production Costume & Set Design by: Patricia Reilly
Original Production Lighting Design by: Emma Dickerson
Original Production Sound Design by: Aidan Dunsmuir

About the company
Puente Theatre is dedicated to celebrating our country’s cultural diversity through theatrical experience.  Since its founding in 1988, Puente has created, produced, translated, toured, and presented professional theatre from the perspective of people outside of the mainstream, bringing people together across boundaries, and exploring what it means to forge a future for our planet made out of billions of different and utterly unique identities.

The Firehall Theatre Society/Firehall Arts Centre is celebrating its 38th season of bringing theatre and dance works from diverse cultural and indigenous heritages to the stage.  We support the development of new plays, musicals and choreographies in our intimate black box theatre in downtown Vancouver. We are honoured to have worked with Puente Theatre on this joint production of Elaine Avila’s Fado, The Saddest Music in the World.

Artist Bios

Elaine Avila (playwright) is the 2019 Fulbright Scholar to Portugal, named a “Descendentes Notáveis” (Notable Descendent) by the Government of the Azores, and co-founder of the International Climate Change Theatre Action, involving 50 playwrights and 12,000 audience members worldwide. Based in Vancouver, Elaine’s plays are produced internationally, including Brackendale, recently performed for Al Gore. An Associate at the Playwrights Theatre Centre (2013-2016), Elaine’s Best New Play Awards include: Jane Austen, Action Figure, (Festival de los Cocos, Panama), Lieutenant Nun (Victoria Critics Circle), and Café a Brasileira (Disquiet, Lisbon).

Mercedes Bátiz-Benét (director) is a Mexican-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and award-winning director. Productions of her work include Faust: Ignis Fatuus, Shining Through, Cruel Tears/Lágrimas Crueles, and as co-writer, The Umbrella, The Secret Sorrow of Hatchet Jack Macphee, The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan, and Gruff. In 2014, Mercedes won the Canadian Stage Award for Direction at the SummerWorks Festival with her play El Jinete – A Mariachi Opera, and in 2015 she was chosen as the Distinguished Alumna of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria. She is the artistic director of Puente Theatre. Mercedes is honoured to be able to bring this beautiful music to audiences far and near during the pandemic.

Judd Palmer is grateful for the opportunity to explore this beautiful music and to work with all these wonderful people. Judd is Puente’s General Manager, and also one of the artistic directors of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, which is responsible for shows such as Famous Puppet Death Scenes, Ignorance, and, most recently, Ghost Opera. He also designs sets & costumes for companies like Vancouver Opera & the National Arts Centre, writes and illustrates peculiar children’s books, and was once the slide banjo player in a trancepunk blues band called The Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir.

Sara Marreiros is the embodiment of a musical nomad. Her latest EP, Something Sweet on The Wind, was released to a worldly following of listeners who appreciate her presence as a songstress who maps together melodic stories of the old and new. Growing up between Portugal and Canada allows Sara to dive deeply into an eclectic mix of musical genres, including Fado. Being in this production has been an honour and deeply moving experience.

Pedro M. Siqueira is an actor, musician and dancer who has performed in different countries such as Australia and Brazil. Pedro is thrilled to be part of “Fado in Concert”. He is very excited to reconnect with his Portuguese background through the beautiful music of Fado. His recent credits include the Hoopoe in Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of the classic Greek play The Birds, Bernardo in West Side Story, and Giuseppe in the CCPA’s Company C Studio Ensemble’s production of The Light in the Piazza in January of this year. Most recently, Pedro worked with our fearless director, Mercedes Bátiz-Benét, as composer and guitarist in “Yerma” by Federico García Lorca.

Patricia Reilly (set & costume designer) is a Canadian Theatre Designer working between B.C. and Ontario. Recent credits include Costume Design Lumberjacks in Love (Chemainus Theatre Festival) and Assistant Costume Design The Merry Wives of Windsor (Stratford Festival). Online: www.patriciareilly.com.

Dan Weisenburger is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Victoria, BC. Along with performing as a professional musician, Dan has also been involved in theatre; past theatre credits include The Ballad of Weedy Peetstraw with Caravan Farm Theatre and The Show He Never Gave with Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre. He fell in love with Fado music after visiting Portugal and is honoured to be part of this show.