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For one night only, The Flame: Lunar New Year Edition, a special performance of Vancouver’s wildly popular storytelling series, is coming to Richmond for the first time. Join Deborah Williams, the award-winning actor and one of the creators of Mom’s the Word, and talented local storytellers for an evening of “True Stories Told by People Who Lived Them.” This entertaining night filled with personal stories and live music will weave together moments of joy, tears and rebirth in time to celebrate themes of the Lunar New Year. Featuring talented local storytellers and a musician, this Flame will be in English with occasional dialogue and songs in the storytellers’ mother tongue.
TICKET PRICES
General Admission: $25
Featuring
DEBORAH WILLIAMS
Host
DEBORAH WILLIAMS
Host
Deb Williams is a multi-talented artist with over 35 years of experience in acting, playwriting, and producing. She co-created and starred in the Mom’s The Word plays. Deb is also the co-founder and Artistic Producer of The Flame, Vancouver’s top storytelling event. She has written several plays, including Broccoli and Butterflies and Drift Wood, and has been an Associate Artist at the Belfry Theatre for ten years. Deb is also an experienced personal storytelling teacher, coach, facilitator, and consultant, having taught nearly 1000 tellers of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, cultural identities, and mental and physical abilities.
Website – www.theflame.live/about-deb-1
BEVERLEY ELLIOTT
Storyteller
BEVERLEY ELLIOTT
Storyteller
With over 100 film/TV credits, Beverley is an actor, singer, songwriter, storyteller, writer, and teacher.
Credits: Seven years on Once Upon A Time, several Hallmark Films, and Family Law.
Pump Boys and Dinettes, Kitchen Witches, and her original plays, Sink or Swim and Didn’t See That Coming (Gateway Theatre). Both original plays won Pick of the Vancouver Fringe Festival and Sink or Swim won Best Musical at the NYC United Solo Festival.
Beverley has been a Flame storyteller since its incarnation, has performed at The Moth in NYC 4 times, and on Public Radio USA. She believes that storytelling is the root of all connection.
Beverley Elliott shares a childhood memory of almost drowning while on summer vacation with her family.
Facebook – Beverley Elliott and Beverley Elliott performer
Instagram – thereelbeverley
Twitter/X – thereelbeverley
Website – beverleyelliott.com/
CHRIS NOWLAND
Storyteller
CHRIS NOWLAND
Storyteller
An experienced and versatile actor, Chris Nowland lives and works in Vancouver, and has been a part of the Vancouver film and television industry for 20 years. Some of his film and TV credits include A Million Little Things, Under The Bridge, Animal Control, Valley of the Boom, Arrow, Supernatural, Stargate: Atlantis, The Killing, Psych, Sucker Punch, The Good Wife, Bates Motel, and Ice. Chris also has the dubious distinction of dying eleven times on camera, which, as much fun as that may sound, has not been great for steady employment. Chris loves being a character actor. Its fun, and you can work forever – they always need a cop or a grumpy, balding landlord.
Chris Nowland takes you on a crazy survival camping trip in bleak winter that brings him face to face with death, and finding rescue in the most unlikely of places.
Facebook – Chris Nowland
Felicity Huang
Storyteller
Felicity Huang
Storyteller
Felicity is a transgender activist and a mental health counselor. After moving to Canada one year ago, she started to share her stories publicly and freely. She joined the Zee Zee Theatre’s Queer Asian Stories Collection and told her story in Vancouver Public Library. She also performed trilingual stand-up comedy in UniCome Queer Feminist Group, SaveChinatownYVR, and Laughs in Queer.
Felicity shares a story about her journey to flee her homeland and rebuild her life in Canada.
Instagram – instagram.com/felicity.8964/
SAMANTHA SUN
Storyteller
Story: The Importance of being Fujoshi (Rotten Girl)
SAMANTHA SUN
Storyteller
She/They
Samanatha Sun is a theater technician at Gateway Theater; A sound designer just finished her diploma in Software Engineering. She has been a Flame storyteller since 2019 and performed in both Mandarin and English. Samantha recently shared her stories at TAIWANfest, The Flame – Back Home Again at Chutzpah! and Asian Queer Stories Collection at VPL.
SARVIN ESMAEILI
Storyteller
SARVIN ESMAEILI
Storyteller
Born in Tehran, Iran, Sarv Star (Sarvin Esmaeili) is a queer multidisciplinary theater artist. (Healer, actor, writer, puppeteer) Sarvin’s intention is to create stories that make theatre a spiritual, experimental, and process-based experience. Sarv has worked as a theatre creator and actor with local companies like Greenthumb, vAct, rice and beans theatre, Rumble and Blackout. Sarv is a graduate of Studio 58.
Sarv has recently co-founded Queer Soul Poets Collective. They are currently in residency with Carousel Theatre.
Instagram – @sarviiinak
Yanting Qiu
Storyteller
Yanting Qiu
Storyteller
Yanting Qiu is a first-generation Chinese immigrant theatre creator based in the unceded lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations. She is a playwright, producer, translator, and cultural connector. As a long-term personal storytelling facilitator and producer, she works with Deborah Williams in bringing true stories to the stage, especially from immigrant and queer storytellers. She co-founded the Theatre as a Second Language Society to build a community for culturally and linguistically diverse artists and audiences. As Gateway Theatre’s current Community Engagement Producer, Yanting is excited to create shows and events where community members will feel themselves and their cultures being seen, connected, and celebrated.
Yanting shares a story of reviving a childhood recipe using ingredients from a local farm.
RENEE FAJARDO
Performer
RENEE FAJARDO
Performer
Born and raised in Manila, Filipino Mezzo-soprano Renee Fajardo has performed on the opera stage and as a solo recitalist in the Philippines, UK, Europe, and Canada. She is based within the traditional lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking peoples.
Committed to artistic practice that creates belonging for all, she is also the Education Manager at Gateway Theatre and an Artistic Producer for Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre.
An advocate for Filipinx artistry, she is producing and performing in the digital production of Liham (Spring 2025), a song cycle for two voices and piano by Juro Kim Feliz and Riley Palanca, that speaks to complex political identities within the Filipino diaspora. Liham premieres live at the Mise-En Festival (New York) this summer.
Renee graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the University of Toronto’s Opera Performance program.
She recently sang the role of Flosshilde in Edmonton Opera’s Das Rheingold (May 2024).
Facebook – Renee Fajardo
Instagram – that.reneefajardo
DARLING SPARROWS
Musician
DARLING SPARROWS
Musician
Darling Sparrows is a Canadian award-winning singer-songwriter who creates music and art as a means to wayfind, heal, transform, and celebrate. Her debut eponymous EP will be released early this year.
Under her alter-ego, Ginalina, she has been creating timeless songs and stories and recording award-winning albums for over ten years and has won multiple JUNO and Canadian Folk Music Award nominations for her family folk music and Asian Heritage-West Coast fusion folk genres. Most recently, she debuted her most recent and personal songs at the Gateway Theatre as part of the Jade Music Festival.
Darling Sparrows believes in the connecting and healing power of music and the joys of dreaming aloud, stillness, and gratitude.
Instagram – @darlingsparrows
Website – www.darlingsparrows.com
Other – Spotify
