Miguel Santa Maria

The annual Zombie Walk took place in downtown Vancouver on the weekend of September 5.

However, with the upcoming new musical The Best Laid Plans, you can expect more heart and comedy to the subject than anything you could expect to get from the Mike Duffy trial.

When people think about revenge films, what comes to mind are angry, hellbent protagonists present in films like Oldboy or Unforgiven. However, in the case of director Atom Egoyan’s Remember, the result is one of the genuinely saddest, most pitiful revenge quests one can ever see.

In Belonging, a Q&A event part of the Vancouver Writers Fest, all four writers personally attested to experiencing being “othered” throughout their lives. Whether through excerpts from their memoirs or discussing feelings on the spot, they also focused on how their personal turmoil translated into their literature.

“I had a lot of young women [in Seoul] coming up to me saying ‘Oh I feel like that character’ and I couldn’t believe it because it’s a different language [and] culture," she said. "But maybe certain things there are universal like heartbreak [and] feeling lost.”

Personal experience with mental health was not necessary for artists to participate in the event. Some artists still desired to address issues that pertained to discussing mental health even if indirectly.

The play’s well-written banter between all characters is noteworthy. It makes the chemistry and emotional ties between all characters feel legitimate and are made better by the aforementioned acting. In other words, it has plenty of lighthearted personality to keep you engaged. This is also important because these are the play’s only saving grace.

“UBC definitely has an issue of visibility and that’s why I wanted to have an event like this,” said Blain. She also claims that although the university does promote diversity, it is in a highly tokenistic attitude. “They love [diversity] like that’s how we sell, that’s how we get the money from donors and that’s how we look good in comparison to other universities. It’s not a real celebration of all the culture and communities that exist here.”

Usually fairy tales and myths revolve around the hero saving the damsel in distress. Rarely do they focus mainly on the hostage waiting — or more importantly — if they even want to be saved at all. Such is the case of UBC Theatre’s newest production.

In the past few years, the debate on these killings has been reignited. This was mainly due to director Oppenheimer’s efforts to reveal their reality through two widely renowned documentaries: The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.

“It was one of those things I never thought I would do. Now, it just feels like my whole life,” said Kelly, whose first stand-up set was done on a whim after an improv colleague asked if she wanted to go see a show.

“Velocity Meadows” is similar, but a little more experimental as it utilized a digital sound mixer and was complemented by footage of abstract images. The end result of that was an experience that had a tinge of Radiohead in it.

“I treat everybody’s secret with respect. I use my home address, not a P.O. box, and I think all those things help me earn the trust of people that tell me the deepest stories, the funniest confessions and the deepest admissions.”

UBC plans to develop a new residence building by 2019 that will feature sub-$700 “micro-apartments” for students. Today, a full-sized model of one of them has been put up next to CiTR at the Nest, and everyone is welcome to take a look inside.

I think it’s really cool. It’s a really cool concept and I would live in here, but the price is a bit expensive. But the idea of letting more students live on-campus and kind of being all in this self-contained space is really cool.