Vertical City Performance

06/01/2026

So much great work in this year’s Ignite Festival of Emerging Artists.

IGNITE! Kicks off this Wednesday! We have four action-packed nights of original performances from emerging Canadian artists.

Book your seats today at sagetheatre.com!

05/08/2026

‘Dragon’ takes flight this evening. Our latest production meets its first audiences at cSPACE at 8 pm as part of New Works Calgary's 2025-26 season. The remarkable ensemble of Karen Kaeja, Juliet Palmer, and Jani Lauzon are joined by stellar percussionist David Schotzko for an immersive hour integrating music, dance and theatre. Dragon is designed by the incredible Beth Kates, along with Madi Blondal and in collaboraton with the ensemble. Pil and I couldn’t be more excited to see this very special project enter the world.
http://newworkscalgary.com/25-26/dragon-a-vertical-city-performance/

05/04/2026

We’re just four days away from introducing ‘Dragon’ to the world. It’s been a thrilling ride to arrive at cSPACE this Friday as part of New Works Calgary's 2025-26 season. Good friend and collaborator David Schotzko of Arraymusic arrives today to join our incredible team of co-creators: Karen Kaeja, Jani Lauzon, and Juliet Palmer. With the legendary Beth Kates and new team member Madi Blondal shaping lighting and costumes, it’s hard for Pil and I to imagine a more remarkable ensemble. Two nights only: May 8 & 9. We hope you’ll join us.
https://www.newworkscalgary.com/25-26/dragon-a-vertical-city-performance/

04/30/2026

The opportunity is rare to work with three of this country’s finest artists on an innovative and intimate performance that emerges at the intersection of dance, theatre, and music. Pil and I began co-creating ‘Dragon' with Karen Kaeja, Juliet Palmer, and Jani Lauzon just as the pandemic landed. Over that time, the work has grown and matured through a series of deep dives into questions of adaptation, evolution, and transformation on personal, societal, and planetary levels. In a little over a week, ‘Dragon' rises as the last offering of the New Works Calgary 2025-26 season. We hope many friends—old and new—will join us.

Connecting Calgarians through exploratory music, sound, and interdisciplinary performance.

04/19/2026

We’re excited to be bringing our latest project to Calgary audiences as the final production in New Works Calgary’s season of programming. New Works is one of the most innovative and vital presenters we have (locally, regionally, and nationally), and it’s a privilege to be rubbing shoulders in this company. ‘Dragon' has been in development for many years and has evolved into something very special for us. Can’t wait to share it with our community in this distinctly interdisciplinary context.

Dear Listeners ✨,

Our next and final performance of the 25-26 season is coming up in just three weeks!

We’re thrilled to welcome back Vertical City ( last witnessed at New Works in 2018) to premiere their new interdisciplinary performance work, ‘Dragon’.

Vertical City Performance is an award-winning interdisciplinary performance hub led by Co-Directors Bruce Barton () and Pil Hansen (.hansen.5 – both based in Calgary), who surround themselves with an evolving group of remarkable artists from a wide range of backgrounds and fields of expertise.

This upcoming project was co-created with composer-performer Juliet Palmer (), dancer-choreographer Karen Kaeja (), and multidisciplinary performing artist Jani Lauzon (), each of whom will also be performing on May 8th and 9th.

We feel the Vertical City approach aligns closely with our interdisciplinary mission at New Works Calgary, and we’re thrilled to close out our season with a deeply collaborative project that brings together such skilled, seasoned, and inquisitive artists.

ABOUT THE CONCERT:
‘Dragon is an interdisciplinary meditation on the possibilities that lie beyond power. Bringing together three celebrated female artists from the fields of dance, theatre, and music, Dragon explores the complexities of adaptation, the beauty of maturity, and the richness of experience when the desire for domination is replaced with the openness of embrace. Ultimately, Dragon collapses 400 years of embodied discovery and surrender into an immersive hour, in a sensorial and sensuous attempt to imagine beyond human awareness’ (Bruce Barton & Pil Hansen).

Concert times:
May 8 - 8pm, Doors 7:30pm
May 9 - 2pm, Doors 1:30pm
CSpace Theatre, 1721 29th Ave SW

See link in bio for tickets!

This event is made possible by Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Calgary Arts Development, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

03/21/2026

Creating ‘reset’ with Sage Theatre and Emil Agopian has brought many deep rewards, none greater than working with such a remarkable team of performers. Each is a star in our constellation.

In her own words (that no one else could imagine, let alone copy): Julie Orton is an actor/director/pisces who loves theatre a lot. She's acted on a lot of stages in Calgary and other Canadian cities and has been given a couple of awards. They're all made of glass and look really nice on this new ladder shelving unit she just bought. She's been in over 50 plays - she won't list them all because that's boring, but trust her - she's a BIG deal. She's directed 2 plays and they were both hard and wonderful. Notable reviews include the word “exhausting” and “relentless”. She's grateful for the creative connections she's made in her life. And she's humbled by the speed bumps. Bruce and Jason are sparky guys and this is a hell of a fun time. Also, Julie adores her wife and the moat they’ve built around their peaceful, quiet life.

With all remaining shows at Contemporary Calgary sold out, there are a few tickets left for our ‘unplugged’ staging at Stride Gallery on Sunday: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=306098.

03/21/2026

Fantastic performance this evening, followed by an exciting talk back session—with more than 75% of the audience sticking in their seats for over an hour of exchange with three AI experts from Computer Science and the Business School at UCalgary. Now that’s engagement. One more show at Contemporary Calgary and then on to Stride Gallery for a unique, stripped down, ‘unplugged’ version of the piece. Only a few seats left for the final offering on Sunday. What a ride.

What a quote! Thank you Deborah! We have been thrilled to see audiences turn up and be a part of this immersive theatre puzzle.

Sage Theatre is so glad to be collaborating with on this incredible work.

Very limited tickets remain for our "unplugged" performance on Mar. 22 and you DO NOT WANT TO MISS IT!

Cast:
Braden Griffiths
Jamie Konchak
Julie Orton
Mike Tan

Bruce Barton: Writer & Director; Vertical City Co-Director
K Hall: Stage Manager
Jason Mehmel: Associate Director & Producer; Sage Theatre Artistic Director
Dylan Lindsay: Associate Producer, Composer & Sound Designer
Emil Agopian: Filmmaker - Stream Designer

Venue partner:

for hosting us on Mar. 22.

Poster design:

03/19/2026

‘reset’ opened to a full house last night at Contemporary Calgary and the whole team was flying. So much gratitude to these remarkable performers, along with Jason, Emil, K, Dylan, and the entire Sage Theatre team. Happy to report that the limited run is almost entirely sold out. Remaining tickets—including to our unique ‘unplugged’ performance on Sunday at Stride Gallery—can be grabbed here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=306098