Theatre: Theatre in the Raw Connects Today's Youth With Vancouver's 70's Flower Children

Cast of Yippies in Love (Clockwise) Steve Maddock, Rebecca Shoichet,
Artistic Director Jay Hamburger, Music Director Bill Sample, Bing Jensen, Danielle St. Pierre.

It's forty years since the "Invasion of Blaine" and other politically charged antics by local "Yippies" - members of the movement fathered by Abby Hoffman on the East coast primarily to oppose the Vietnam War - and playwright Bob Sarti, worries that the hard won victories his generation fought for may be in danger of being short-lived in light of current socioeconomic attitudes and climates.
With "Yippies in Love", the much anticipated prequel to the 2008 smash hit "Bruce: The Musical". Sarti, a Vancouver Sun reporter when the plays were set, has taken it upon himself to seek out and workshop the play with young people from East Van's Purple Thistle, a youth-run community centre for arts and activism.
"It's important for young people to know that many of the freedoms and challenges we - as a society -are facing today were first brought to light by the Yippie movement.
"Workshopping the play at the Purple Thistle was important to me," Sarti says. "Because i think the Thistle has that "Yippie spirit" and because I wanted to be sure this play has relevance today, too."
The music for this production was once again scored by BC Entertaiment Hall of Famer (and Drive Denizen) Bill Sample, who worked recently with returning star Steve Maddock in the Vancouver Playhouse production of The Fantastiks. Audiences familiar with that production will also recognize Bree Grieg as one of the chorus and taking on several of incidental roles in the show.
Rehearsals are well under way and the show is set to run March 17 - 27 at the Woodwards Sky Room near the site of the notorious Gastown riots (commemorated in Jeff Wall's mural in the Woodwards Atrium).
More info and tickets are available online at:
http://theatreintheraw.ca/tickets.html