06/18/2025
đźŽA message from Hugo van Essen starring as Erik:
I’ve been dying to tell this story because, for six years, I’ve been trying to become a Permanent Resident of Canada. For six years, immigration has given me heart palpitations, panic attacks, and sleepless nights. For six years, my anxiety has concocted the most devious worst-case scenarios for Erik to experience.
But before becoming a Permanent Resident in Canada, I lived in LA. It was the richest chapter in my unwritten memoir. I didn’t know what was warmer, the Californian sun or the welcoming acceptance of the fraternity brotherhood I joined. But it didn’t matter because my visa was set to expire, and I had to leave. I was ripped out of a thriving social community by an indifferent government hand. Going back from sprawling LA to my Dutch hometown of Westervoort, boasting a whopping 16,000 inhabitants, I fell into a deep, deep depression. It is a wound that still stings ten years later. It is that wound that made me choose to immigrate to Canada. Because, sure it is cold, but there was a pathway to Permanent Residency here. One that I’m happy to share I finally accomplished after living 1978 days in the country (but who’s counting?). And it is with the blood of this wound that I ink Paper Chase.
đź“ŤPremiering July 2-12
🎟️Tickets on sale now
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