• Main Stage

Miss Understood

Showing on January 27–31, 2016

Playing at Performance Works

Miss Understood, the frank theatre company, 2016 PuSh Festival
Photo: Raymond Shum

the frank theatre company (Canada)

Antonette Rea is one formidable presence. In this show she bares her soul, and the story of her life, through poetry. It’s been a long journey for this trans* woman: from life as a middle-class husband and father to the turmoil of a gender-identity crisis to the Downtown Eastside, where she lived as a drug-addicted sex worker. But now is the moment of her triumph. She is a spoken word artist, and when she speaks you’ll be riveted.

This interdisciplinary performance, written with and directed by James Fagan Tait, and produced by the frank theatre company, covers a life of pain: the oppression of queer identity by society, the dangers of sex work and the misery of addiction. It takes a special kind of strength to break through such obstacles, and Rea’s spirit radiates from the stage as we hear her words. They’re words of anger, of fear, of passion, of humour and hope. Rea began writing poetry while working the streets; it was a way of coping. Now it is her art, to be heard by the world and, maybe, to help change it.

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Artist Bio

Venue

Performance Works

1218 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, Vancouver

Showtimes

January 27–31
90 minutes (no intermission)


8:00PM (January 27–30)
4:00PM (January 30)
2:00PM (January 31)

Tickets

$31 Early bird / $36 Regular

Buy tickets via Ticketfly
Or call 604.449.6000

Eligible on the Youth Passport for advance sales and at the door.



PuSh Pass
Eligible on the PuSh Pass.


Credits

Post-show talk
January 28

Accessible PuSh
VocalEye Described Audio performances: January 31


Director: James Fagan Tait | Playwright: Antonette Rea | Performers: Antonette Rea, Starlise Waschuk, Austin Eckert | Choreographer: Noam Gagnon | Sound Designers: Candelario Andrade, Malcolm Dow | Set & Lighting Designer: Bryan Kenney | Costume Designer: Carmen Alatorre | Videographer: Candelario Andrade | Dramaturge & Producer: Chris Gatchalian | Stage Manager: Dorothy Jenkins | Artist-in-Residence: Jonathan Seinen | Production Manager: Adam Beauchesne


Supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Province of BC, City of Vancouver, Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation