58 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Friday, March 31

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      Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 58 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, March 31.

       

      CONCERTS

      Scottish alt-rock band Biffy Clyro plays the Vogue Theatre, with guests O'Brother.

      Sultans of String perform Celtic reels, flamenco, Gypsy-jazz, and South Asian rhythms at Centennial Theatre, with guest Anwar Khurshid.

      Canadian rockers the Tea Party perform their fourth album Transmission in its entirety at the Commodore.

      Oakland-based jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire plays the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts with Capilano University's NiteCap and "A" Band.

       

      BENEFITS

      Making Magic Happen gala at Rocky Mountaineer Train Station features a cocktail reception, live and silent auctions, dinner, live music, and dancing, with proceeds to the Looking Glass Foundation for eating disorders.

       

      FORUMS

      Inspirational speaker and cerebral-palsy sufferer Marco Pasqua discusses how persons with disabilities can reduce stress and depression and build resiliency through community engagement at the United Kingdom Building.

      Paul Maddison, the High Commissioner of Canada in Australia, speaks on Australia and Canada in the Trump Era at UBC's C.K. Choi Building.

      Glaciologist Gwenn Flowers discusses how glaciers work, how and why they are changing, and the global and local implications of this change at New Westminster's Boston Pizza.

      Symposium at SFU Harbour Centre addresses the state of, resistance to, and connections between the migrant detention processes in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.

      Walter G. Andrews discusses a big-picture glimpse of the early modern Ottoman Empire as revealed by serious poetry at the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business.

       

      SPORTS

      The Vancouver Canucks take on the Los Angeles Kings in National Hockey League action at Rogers Arena.

       

      COMEDY

      Comedian Jason Rouse performs the second of three nights of standup at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

      Comedian Sarah Tiana performs the second of three nights of standup at the Comedy Mix.

      Night of comedy by local improv troupes the Radical and Hocus Pocus at Seven Dining Lounge.

      Fatima Dhowre hosts an evening at Little Mountain Gallery that sees Vancouver comedians go head-to-head in a battle of wit and insults.

      Evening of comedy by headliner Damonde Tschritter and guest Mike Greenwood at the ANZA Club.

      Audience questions prompt confessions and inspire scenes performed by the improvisers at Havana Theatre's Truth or Dare.

      Musical comedy by Harris Anderson, Colin Lamb, Lisa Person, Maddy Kelly, and host Sam Tonning at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

       

      ARTS ETCETERA

      The two-day Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, featuring headliners Poison Ivory and Bazuka Joe, kicks off at the Vancouver Playhouse.

      Kitty Nights presents a Kate Bush burlesque tribute at the Rio Theatre featuring performances by Burgundy Brixx, Kevin Kreisz, Sister Mary Madly, Jayne Fondue, Lace Cadet, Androsia Wilde, Trixie Hobbitses, Cleo Victory, Lux Sterling, RainbowGlitz, and Aurora Wilde.

       

      DANCE

      SCA Repertory Dancers present Women Marching!, a contemporary dance concert at Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre featuring the work of Yossi Berg and Oded Graf Dance Theatre, Henry Daniel and Marla Eist, Judith Garay, Vanessa Goodman, and Wen Wei Wang.

       

      LITERARY

      Celebrate the release of three new publications by SFU School for the Contemporary Arts faculty members at the Djavad Mowafaghian World Arts Centre.

      The three-day LitFest New West features readings, storytelling, workshops, amateur podcasters, authors, and poets at various New Westminster venues.

       

      MUSIC

      Under the direction of Robert Taylor, the UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble performs works by Bates, Whitacre, Bryant, and Mackey at Chan Shun Concert Hall.

      The University Singers, Chamber Choir, UBC Women’s Choir, and UBC Men’s Choir present the world premiere of Andrew Bortz's Requiem at Chan Shun Concert Hall.

       

      GALLERIES

      Oh, How I Long For Home Marianne Nicolson's installation at the Teck Gallery, addresses a persistent idea of the city as a conflicted promise for indigenous people.

      Sonny Assu creates a new series of digital tags on a body of Emily Carr paintings at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

      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.

      Layers of Influence: Unfolding Cloth Across Cultures at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 130 diverse cultural garments, from Japanese kimonos, to colourful Indian saris, to the elaborate feather cloaks of the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

       

      THEATRE

      Performance at Studio 58 of The Refugee Hotel, writer-director Carmen Aguirre's dark comedy about eight Chilean exiles who struggle with the effects of fleeing their homeland.

      Performance at the Firehall Arts Centre of Refuge, Mary Vingoe's provocative story of the pitfalls of seeking sanctuary in today’s suspicious world, directed by Donna Spencer.

      Puppeteer provocateur Ronnie Burkett and his resident company of over 40 marionettes perform The Daisy Theatre at the Cultch.

      Fabulist Theatre presents Songs For a New World--a song cycle exploring themes of immigration, war, motherhood, poverty, and the singular moments that transform our lives--at PAL Theatre.

      Hardline Productions presents the world premiere at Presentation House Theatre of Redpatch, Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver's historical drama about a young Métis volunteer soldier deployed to fight in World War I.

      United Players present a performance at the Jericho Arts Centre of The Train Driver Athol Fugard's exploration of guilt, suffering, redemption, and the powerful bonds that grow between strangers.

      The Sidekick Players present a performance at Tsawwassen Arts Centre of Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose's 1954 teleplay about the jury at a murder trial of a young man accused of the fatal stabbing of his father.

      Vagabond Players presents the Western Canadian premiere at Bernie Legge Theatre of Vinci, a play that sees Leonardo da Vinci's father and mother battle for his affections.

      Performance at Deep Cove Shaw Theatre of Marion Bridge, Daniel MacIvor’s play about three estranged sisters who reunite in their family home on Cape Breton Island to say goodbye to their dying mother.

      Performance at Studio 58 of Zoetrope: The Curiosity of Puppet Oddities, in which students use three-person, shadow, and object puppetry to tell a story of love and death.

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part One: Millenium Approaches at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

       

      ATTRACTIONS

      Cypress Mountain features skiing and snowboarding lessons, snowtubing park, cross-country ski trails, downhill skiing and snowboarding trails, and snowshoeing tours.

      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.

      Grouse Mountain resort features a Skyride to the peak with views of Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean, as well as skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, mountain ziplines, and the Peak of Christmas.

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

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

      The Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition features over 250 privately-owned bikes from around the world.

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

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

      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.

      Mount Seymour features skiing and snowboarding lessons from the Mt. Seymour Ski and Snowboard School, tubing and tobogganing, and snowshoe trails.

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

       

      MOVIES

      Screening at the Rio Theatre of Ridley Scott's sci-fi actioner Bladerunner: The Final Cut, starring Harrison Ford.

      Screening at the Cinematheque of works from Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, a cycle of films made between 1962 and 1972.

      The three-day Just Film Festival at Vancity Theatre features 14 documentaries about social justice and human rights, including The Occupation of the American Mind.

       

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

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