Meg Roe's made her directorial debut with The Tempest at Bard on the Beach on Wednesday night, and her interpretation was so assured and her production so refreshingly pretty that it was more like a perfect summer shower.

All hail the Holy Grail: the new stage-musical adaptation of the Monty Python classic maintains the original's deadpan surrealism and sheer absurdity while also sending up musicals.

At the 26th annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, which took place on Monday night at the Commodore Ballroom, the prizes in the large-theatre category were distributed democratically or oddly, depending on your point of view.

The setting is a fourth-floor walkup just off Main Street’s hipster strip, and outside sirens are blaring; there are no resonant gongs here, no chiming bonangs or mellow slenthems. Yet the feeling inside is convivial, as three gamelan-trained musicians share clove-spiked cigarettes and talk of their plans to bring the ancient gods of Java to the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre on Wednesday and Thursday (July 9 and 10).

Like most working comics, Roman Danylo has had his fair share of gigs from hell. He’s had a hex put on him by a drunken club patron, he’s been spotlit by a heating light on a buffet, and had to perform as a follow-up to scantily clad dancers.

The Back Kitchen Release Party

Aaron Carpenter, Steve Hubert, Kathy Slade: Hold On

On a summer’s day, there are few places as atmospheric for a concert or show than the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park courtyard. It’s fitting, then, that the Chinatown Arts and Cultural Festival should use it as an outdoor stage every Saturday this month. For the event on Saturday (July 5) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the theme is Asia Day, with crafts, visual art, dancers, and music.

True to its latest show’s title, Concrete and Glass, The Source Dance Company draws on styles straight out of its urban environment. Hip-hop, stomp, tap, street jazz, and more find their way into a production that plays out like a series of short stories about some big-city characters. Choreography is by a range of local and visiting urban-dance names, including Joanne Pesusich, Alex Pesusich, Chris Dupre, Heather Laura Gray, Shay Kuebler, Brock Jellison, and Kim Sato.

Kokoro Dance is not a group that limits itself to the darkened confines of a theatre, and that’s never been as obvious as this week. The veteran Vancouver troupe will transform very different outdoor locales with two separate shows. In the first, tonight through Saturday (July 3 to 5), at 7 p.m., 12 of its butoh-inspired dancers will perform at the Sunshine Market in an ambitious ode to the Powell Street neighbourhood and its history.

The Voice

Devil May Care

When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Madness, Betrayal and the Lash

Atmospheric Disturbances