Upintheair Theatre Presents Jarred Stephen Meek - Why Now Theatre Collective's

Grappling with the trauma of childhood abuse and the pressure of a life changing investigation, Gwen risks everything for the possibility of justice. Spanning 3 decades from the 70s through the 90s, and yet resonant in the wake of #MeToo,  A Life Sentence is a British Columbian story of real lived experiences and verbatim transcripts.

Jarred Stephen Meek- Playwright, Producer, Co-Director, JOEY/MR. MILLER

Jessie Liang- Co-Director

Alina Blackett- Producer, GWEN

Logan Fenske- JOHN

Stephanie Elgersma- BETTY

Sabrina Banks- PATRICIA

Tristen Bonwick-Foy- MIKEY/ L.L. VAN DE BEEK

Jimmy JinPyo Hong- PETER/BENJAMIN

Sofie Kane- LISA

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to an unfortunate injury sustained by an actor during the last performance, Why Now Theatre Collective’s final showing of “A Life Sentence” on Sunday at 8:25pm will be restructured to a staged reading, followed by a short talkback. We are heartbroken to not be able to share this piece with you in its full capacity, but the safety and well-being of our cast and crew are paramount, and we feel this is the best way to honour the tireless work our team has put in, as well as this delicate and important story. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the sudden cancellation of last night’s show, and the restructuring of our final performance. We appreciate your understanding and continued support, and would love to see you at The Cultch cheering us on as this piece faces another unprecedented obstacle. We want to thank The Cultch, Up In The Air Theatre, and the team of Paramedics as well as our cast, crew and community, who took impressive and immediate action handling this emergency and making us feel supported. Thank you.

“…a vibrantly navigated story of darkness… an uncomfortable watch, but a necessary one.” -Stir Vancouver

“…an incredibly moving experience… It had my blood pumping and my eyes tearing up throughout. The performances coupled with the skillful direction of such a delicate subject matter blew me away.” -Vancouver Fringe Patron, Canadian Fringe Reviews

“Deeply moving play, skillfully crafted like an intricate jigsaw…”-Vancouver Fringe Patron, Canadian Fringe Reviews

@whynowtheatrecollective

www.jarredstephenmeek.com/whynowtheatre

Content Warnings:

Sudden Loud Noises, Violence (physical, emotional, verbal, usage of weapons), Abuse (sex, child, physical, verbal), Suicide, Death, Alcohol usage

An Active Listener will be available for each performance of A Life Sentence

What is an Active Listener?

Active Listeners are often community members who may have similar lived experiences to content that is being shared on stage during a performance.

If an audience member, or anyone in the space, feels like the content of a performance is bringing up feelings for them, they feel like they may need some emotional support, feel like they need someone to engage with outside the performance space, the active listener is there to hold space, offer self-care and emotional support within a welcoming and calm environment, they can also just sit with you, if all you want is the quiet presence of another human. The active listener may be trauma informed but is not a trained counsellor and cannot offer mental health advice.

The goal is to make people feel seen and heard during a time where difficult feelings may arise for them as a result of the content in a performance. The Active listener may have a list of resources available for other organizations who can support individuals on a long-term basis, if someone request this information. It will never be pushed or forced upon someone.

Creating a safer space to be able to step away from content that may feel harmful is just one more way we can support and take car of our audiences, this is the role of an active listener.