50 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Thursday, May 11

Looking for something to do on Thursday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 50 events happening in or around Vancouver on Thursday, May 11.

 

CONCERTS

 

Vancouver Bird Week, running to May 13, features walks, talks, workshops, birding basics, bird art, and free birdy activities for all ages at various Vancouver locations.

Guests can explore galleries on their own, get involved in programs and activities, and answer trivia questions at the Vancouver Aquarium's After Hours event.

 

KIDS' STUFF

Circus West presents Neverland, a Peter Pan origin story featuring mermaids, pixies, pirates, and one boy who never wants to grow up, at the PNE Garden Auditorium.

 

FORUMS

Join Master Tek Siaw for an in-store presentation at Banyen Books and Sound on the ambiguities, misunderstanding, and misinterpretations in teaching and learning tai chi and qigong.

Fertility experts Jason Hitkari and Kali MacIsaac give an interactive discussion on how to naturally boost your fertility at Surrey City Centre Library.

Gardening expert Owen Reeves discusses growing plants naturally, including the benefits of living soil and compost, at VanDusen Botanical Garden.

Explore how marginalized styles, histories, cultures, and people worthy of recognition exist within the mainstream conversation on heritage at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

Discuss expert finger techniques, positions and toys, and the anatomy of the G-spot in women at The Art of Loving.

Universe of the Brain at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre features a dialogue with leading experts on neuroanatomy and neurotrauma and an interpretation of neural processes through dance.

 

COMEDY

Canadian comedian Kate Davis performs the first of three nights of standup at the Comedy Mix.

Canadian-American comedian Harland Williams performs the first of three nights of standup at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

The Lady Show is an evening of comedy by Catherine Falkner and Marylee Stephenson at Red Gate Revue Stage.

That Filthy Show features comedy by host David DJ Roy, Jackalyn Hyde, Andrew Fox, Dotty Davis, and Brodie Dwyer at Pat's Pub and Brewhouse.

 

DANCE

Ballet B.C.'s Program 3 features premieres by choreographers Emanuel Gat, Emily Molnar, and Ohad Naharin at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

 

THEATRE

Mom's the Word Collective presents Mom's the Word 3: Next 1/2 Empty at the Granville Island Stage.

Performance at Performance Works of Robin Hood: Prince of Tease, an original burlesque-style musical-theatre production inspired by the classic folk-tale figure of Robin Hood.

Performance at the Firehall Arts Centre of Circle Game: Reimagining the Music of Joni Mitchell, conceived and directed by Vancouver's Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman.

Metro Theatre presents Straight and Narrow, a comedy that explores what happens when a cozy relationship is threatened by personal crisis.

First Impressions Theatre presents a performance of On a First Name Basis, Norm Foster's play about a successful but cantankerous novelist who discovers he knows nothing about his maid of 28 years.

The Theatre B.C. North Shore Zone Annual Festival of Plays runs until May 13 at North Vancouver's Presentation House.

Performance at Studio 1398 of String of Pearls, Michelle Lowe's play that combines the stories of more than two dozen women, all connected to the titular necklace in some way.

Theatre Hera West presents a performance at Havana Theatre of Ties of Blood: The Brontes, a dramatic reimagining of the lives and art of the Bronte siblings.

The Cold Reading Series presents the final night at Studio 16 of 4X3, four short plays written by Vancouver emerging playwrights.

Patrick Street Productions presents a performance at New Westminster's Anvil Centre of A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway-style musical about mismatched couples.

Ace Productions presents a performance at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre of Freud's Last Session, in which author and former atheist C.S. Lewis visits the London home of Dr. Sigmund Freud.

 

GALLERIES

Pacific Crossings at the Vancouver Art Gallery features works from well-known Hong Kong artists created after their relocation to Vancouver throughout the 1960-90s.

Susan Point: Spindle Whorl at the Vancouver Art Gallery surveys Point’s entire career through more than a hundred artworks that take the spindle whorl as their starting point.

Retainers of Anarchy at the Vancouver Art Gallery features new work from Howie Tsui that considers wuxia as a narrative tool for dissidence and resistance.

 

MUSEUMS

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature at at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features Amazonian basketry, textiles, carvings, feather works, and ceramics both of everyday and of ceremonial use, representing indigenous, Maroon, and white settler communities.

The Lost Fleet at the Vancouver Maritime Museum investigates the unjust 1941 seizure of 1,200 Japanese-Canadian fishing vessels following the bombing of Pearl Harbour through a collection of historic photographs, models of Japanese-Canadian-built fishing boats, fishermen’s tools, and replica documents.

 

MUSIC

Conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos leads the Vancouver Symphony in a performance of John Williams's score from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at the Orpheum while the film is played in high definition.

 

ATTRACTIONS

The 22-hectare VanDusen Botanical Garden features over 255,000 plants from around the world, a restaurant, a garden shop, and a horticulture library.

Edgewater Casino offers 24-hour gaming, over 60 table games, a poker room, a high-limit section, 500 slot machines, restaurants and lounges, and live entertainment, including concerts and televised UFC events.

Take a ride in an exterior glass elevator and get a 360° view of Metro Vancouver and the North Shore mountains at Vancouver Lookout.

Lighthouse Park features 10 kilometres of hiking trails, picnic areas, guided walks provided by the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society, and the historical 1912 Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

Science World features hundreds of interactive exhibits in five permanent galleries, live science demonstrations and workshops, and giant movies in the Omnimax Theatre.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge features seven suspended footbridges offering views 110 feet above the forest floor.

The Vancouver Aquarium features almost 800 animal species in galleries ranging from Canada's Arctic to the Amazon rainforest.

Soar from coast-to-coast across the Canadian landscape with a 25-minute ride featuring effects such as wind and scents at FlyOver Canada.

At the Bloedel Conservatory you can take in more than 200 free-flying exotic birds and 500 exotic plants and flowers.

 

MOVIES

The DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs until May 14 at various Vancouver venues, featuring a curated selection of public screenings, panel discussions, public forums, and educational programs. Tonight you can catch the documentary Pornocracy: The New Sex Multinationals at Vancity Theatre, with post-film discussion.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of Karl Marx City, directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker's thriller about the dangers of state surveillance.

Screening at the Rio Theatre of the 2017 action movie Ghost in the Shell, about a cyborg policewoman hunting a powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.

Thunderbird Entertainment presents a screening at the Park Theatre of the documentary I Am Heath Ledger, which takes an intimate look at the life and career of the late actor.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck's documentary examines the issue of race in America through the too-short lives of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X.

 

For all the latest Metro Vancouver event announcements and updates follow @VanHappenings.