Visceral Visions Society

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Visceral Visions Society

Visceral Visions' mandate is to:
- champion the diverse provocative voices that struggle to be heard

09/28/2026

For those who missed our March sneak-peek staged reading, we are excited to be partnering with Western Gold Theatre to present a second staged reading of VV’s Co-Artistic Producer Valerie Sing Turner’s latest play in development, Breaking Parity, as part of Western Gold’s 2026 Have a Senior Moment Festival:

Saturday, October 3rd
7:30pm
PAL Studio Theatre, 581 Cardero Street

The fabulous cast features the acting talents of David Bloom reprising the role of Henry Kissinger; Anthony F. Ingram reprising Robert McNamara; James Yi as the Spirit of the Past; and Valerie as the Spirit of the Present.

SYNOPSIS: December 12, 2002. In a nod to Dickens, a Scrooge-like Henry Kissinger is 16 days into the prestigious chairmanship of the commission to investigate the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States – but with the families of the 9/11 victims demanding Kissinger release a list of his consultancy clients to prove no conflicts of interest, he’s in a quandary. Returning to his office following a meeting with a delegation of 9/11 widows, the 79-year-old Kissinger falls asleep, only to dream of a middle-aged Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson, who warns of the imminent visitation of three spirits of the past, present, and future: an old man whose village in Laos was annihilated by a secret American bombing campaign; a female Chinese-American nuclear physicist who worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb; and a Vietnamese girl, one of countless civilian victims of the Vietnam War. Kissinger was National Security Advisor when he assured President Nixon, “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

The Have a Senior Moment Festival line-up, running September 25th to October 4th, includes two other new play readings, a full production of Anniversary written by Carol Shields and Dave Williamson, as well as other events. Check out their website for tickets and program details!

https://westerngoldtheatre.org/hasm-festival/

05/21/2026

: Visceral Visions Society and Re:Naissance Opera have put out a REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FROM ANIMATION ARTISTS!

APPLY HERE:
https://culturebrew.art/opportunities

03/05/2026

Join us for the first sneak-peek staged reading of Valerie Sing Turner’s latest work, Breaking Parity (working title). This one-act political satire about power and politics features the acting talents of Anthony F. Ingram, David Bloom, Donna Yamamoto, and Kameron Louangxay, with dramaturgy by Stephanie Wong, and stage management by Xin Xuan Song.

Monday, March 9, 2026
7:00pm
Free Admission
Moderated audience talkback post-reading

Venue: The Post at 750
750 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Accessibility through CBC Vancouver Production Centre*

Get your tickets today!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staged-reading-breaking-parity-by-valerie-sing-turner-tickets-1982916601935?aff=oddtdtcreator

SYNOPSIS
December 12, 2002. In a nod to Dickens, a Scrooge-like Henry Kissinger is 16 days into the prestigious chairmanship of the commission to investigate the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States – but with the families of the 9/11 victims demanding Kissinger release a list of his consultancy clients to prove no conflicts of interest, he’s in a quandary. Returning to his office following a meeting with a delegation of 9/11 widows, the 79-year-old Kissinger falls asleep, only to dream of a middle-aged Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under JFK and Lyndon B. Johnson, who warns of the imminent visitation of three spirits of the past, present, and future: an old man whose village in Laos was annihilated by a secret American bombing campaign; a female Chinese-American nuclear physicist who worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb; and a Vietnamese girl, one of countless civilian victims of the Vietnam War. Kissinger was National Security Advisor when he assured President Nixon, “The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

*For those unable to navigate stairs, we ask that you please RSVP and select the General Admission (Accessible Entrance) ticket. The Post at 750 is accessible through the elevator located through CBC's main entrance at 700 Hamilton Street.

10/09/2025

Congratulations to Canada’s Black Screen Office for launching the world’s first Anti-Black Racism Policy Framework for cultural organizations! Developed with Black artists, leaders, and cultural workers, this groundbreaking framework offers clear, practical tools to dismantle systemic racism and create lasting change across screen, music, literature, and the performing arts. The Framework sets out 25 adaptable policy considerations that tackle hiring, leadership, authorship, accountability, and representation. It is a flexible guide for organizations ready to move from statements of intent to real action and institutional change.

Kudos to Joan Jenkinson and the rest of the BSO team for creating and sharing a fantastic tool to build a more equitable cultural sector! 👏

Download your guide today!
https://bso-ben.ca/abr-policy-framework/

08/25/2025

How I spend my summer holiday: tackling way too many books at once. Overly ambitious? Maybe. Pretentious? Hopefully not. 😉📖

10/18/2024

This is an important reminder to VOTE TOMORROW!! Our sector needs all eligible BC voters to exercise their right to cast a ballot for the future of arts, culture, and heritage. Voting places are open on Election Day from 8AM to 8PM (Pacific time). Bring your voting card and go with a friend! (Know that even if you don’t have your voter card, you can still register at a voting place.)

For innovation, equity, sustainability, community, cultural heritage, and creativity, do your part for and VOTE!

Photo credit: Glam Z Gala Fashion Show, Richmond Academy of Dance - HP High Studio

10/15/2024

In the 2024 BC Election, we’re teaming up with the BC Coalition of Arts, Culture, and Heritage to amplify !

Arts, culture, and heritage are vital to our communities. Did you know 1 in 5 cultural workers in Canada calls BC home? It’s time to connect with your local candidates and champion a vibrant cultural sector.

Make your voice heard! Register to vote at ElectionsBC.ca and check out the Coalition’s Election Advocacy Toolkit to shake things up in your community: CoalitionBC.ca/bc-election-24. Let’s do this!

Graphic images (clockwise from top left):
1) Port Moody Arts Centre; 2) Bill Reid Gallery. Credit: Sama Jim Canzian; 3) Momentum of Isolation - MOI (Kuebler/Radical System Art). Credit: David Cooper. 4) Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival 2023. Credit: Jamie Poh; 5) Chinatown Storytelling Centre. Credit: Chinatown Foundation; 6) Eastside Culture Crawl - Mergatroid Studios. Credit: Joshua Wright.

10/10/2024

In the 2024 BC Election, we’re teaming up with the BC Coalition of Arts, Culture, and Heritage to amplify !

Advance voting starts today!!

Make your voice heard! Register to vote at ElectionsBC.ca and check out the Coalition’s Election Advocacy Toolkit to shake things up in your community: CoalitionBC.ca/bc-election-24. Let’s do this!

07/31/2024

A Hydra Journal of the Plague Year - Co-Created by Anju Singh, Derek Chan, and Valerie Sing Turner

Opening Reception: Friday, August 2nd, 5pm - 8pm
Gallery Hours: August 3 - 17, 12pm - 6pm
Wednesdays - Saturdays, plus Sunday, August 4th
Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art - 268 Keefer Street, Unit 205

A Hydra Journal of the Plague Year is a multi-channel audio-visual media arts sculptural theatre installation based on the 2021 premiere online production, A Journal of the Plague Year, conceived and directed by Colleen Lanki (1965 - 2023). A Journal of the Plague Year is the English-language translation of Ekibyō ryūkōki (疫病流行記,1975), a play written by Terayama Shūji (1935 - 1983) in collaboration with Kishida Rio (1946 - 2003), co-translated by Tsuneda Keiko and Colleen.

Presented by Powell Street Festival and Centre A in association with TomoeArts and VACT, Visceral Visions is proud to produce this exciting exhibition in honour of the memory of Colleen Lanki, who succumbed to cancer before her vision and our co-production of the fully-staged English-language premiere could be realized.

A Hydra Journal of the Plague Year is a kind of artistic annals across geography and time, making connections between a series of artists who tried to make sense of scourges throughout history: an English author in the 1700s, whose fictional memoir of the Great Plague of London inspired two Japanese avant-garde theatre artists in Tokyo in the 1970s, which inspired a white Canadian artist to translate the resulting play into English for a virtual production four decades later, which inspires a multi-sensory gallery installation created by three racialized artists in 2024. We invite you to come and immerse yourself in an alternate world…or maybe it’s the real world, and we only wish it were fiction!

Our installation also includes a sound collage in tribute to Colleen, with audio contributions from many of the artists who were part of the online production – Alisa Lindley, Anthony F. Ingram, Chengyan Boon, Heather Pawsey, Howard Dai, Jennifer Aoki, Jesse Del Fierro, Montserrat Videla Samper, Valerie Sing Turner, Xin Xuan Song – working together virtually in June 2021 during the deadly heat dome in BC in isolation from our respective homes, and amidst the other now-surreal aspects of our pre-COVID-19-vaccine reality – which oddly feels like a few decades ago, rather than just a few years…

07/23/2024

Join us on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at 4:30pm PT for a staged reading + talkback for IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAINS, written by Valerie Sing Turner.

Livestreamed + In-Person
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
950 41st Avenue West, Jewish Community Centre, Vancouver
Produced by Visceral Visions

Headlined by a fabulous and entirely BIPOC cast – David Geary, Donna Yamamoto, Justin Neal, Kim Villagante, Lissa Neptuno, Ray Koh, Ronin Wong, Sarah Kelley, Sunny (Daydream) Chen, Yumi Ogawa – the presentation may (or may not?!) also include a few design elements coming out of our about-to-begin Design Jam explorations with Anju Singh (composer/sound design), Cande Andrade (projection design), and Chengyan Boon (set/lighting design).

Valerie Sing Turner - Playwright/Director
April Starr Land - Stage Manager
Jessica Schacht - Dramaturg
Paige Louter - Producer
Daryl Cloran - Director Mentor
Dennis Joseph - Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Elder/Cultural Consultant
Catherine Clement - Community Historian (Chinese Canadians during WWII)
Sherri Kajiwara - Director | Curator, Nikkei National Museum
Maiko Behr - Japanese Cultural Consultant

RSVP now! >> https://ow.ly/KRAC50SHJvh

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Toronto, ON

Website

https://www.visceralvisions.com/

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