Dear vAct supporters,

Since 2001, vAct has served as a space where Asian artists can find community and feel emboldened to experiment, learn, and tell their stories. Over 25 years, vAct has been driven by the visions of the forces who led the company: founder Joyce Lam (2000-2013), Producing Artistic Director Donna Yamamoto (2013-2022), and Managing Artistic Director Derek Chan (2022-2026). From community theatre to professional company, vAct evolved with keen eyes on the nuanced needs of Asian artists in Vancouver. Together, we fought for representation in all levels of theatre, the right to define our own stories, and a more inclusive definition of ‘Asian,’ while breaking records along the way. So, even at the risk of sounding too self-congratulatory, we hope this milestone means something to our community. We’re incredibly grateful for every show, artist, supporter, and audience member that made up the past quarter century, and we can’t wait to celebrate our 25th anniversary season with you all.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 to celebrate our 25th birthday and to help ensure another generation of artists can find a home with vAct.

Money raised from this campaign will help us develop new works, facilitate professional development workshops, produce our mainstage productions and so much more. With the generous support of our long-time donors Bonnie Mah, Jack Gin, Anndraya Luui, Ken Gracie, and Philip Waddell, every dollar raised during our 25th Anniversary Campaign will be matched, up to $25,000, doubling your impact on vAct’s future! 

Donate Now

To send a cheque, please include this donation form, and mail to the address indicated on the form.

+ Save The Date!

Join us for our 25th birthday party on Sunday, July 26! More info coming soon – subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get all the details. See you there!

Thank you for your support,

Annie, Leslie, Stephanie, and Karen
The vAct Team

Dear vAct Community,

Vancouver City Council recently approved a 12 percent reduction in funding for arts, culture, and community services. These cuts will no doubt have a crushing impact on our already-struggling sector, and we urge our community to keep showing up for the shows, events, and artists that matter to you.

Despite these difficulties, our work continues. Because we know that supporting Asian storytellers is a necessity. We know that producing Asian-led shows is a necessity. And we know that, regardless of what the city budget says, there is immeasurable value in the arts, and it is up to us to keep Asian artists from falling through the cracks.

This December, we need your support to keep the good work going. Donate now to help us reach our $5,000 goal by year-end. Uplift Asian voices and stand up for the arts.

And get a tax receipt!

Donate Now

To send a cheque, please include this donation form, and mail to the address indicated on the form.

Where Your Donations Went: Fall Update

This year, your donations supported 3 groundbreaking artistic teams in our experimental incubator program, vActory. For the third year at What Lab, our team has been privileged to develop the next generation of Asian Canadian artists who are fearlessly blending genres and pushing the boundaries of theatrical form – working at the intersection of contemporary dance, drag, and movement/sound collage. These interdisciplinary creators are bringing new audiences from their respective disciplines to the vAct community, experimenting with technology and innovative design to craft works that authentically reflect the multifaceted lived experiences of Asian artists today.

Your generosity also empowered 6 new QTIBPOC artists to share their voices in a heartfelt evening of performance and solidarity. In our second year at Notional Space, our Voices for Freedom & Democracy team created a gathering space where oral storytelling becomes a powerful tool for community connection and collective resilience – weaving together local and global narratives that reflect the urgent conversations of our time.

And through your support, we were able to nurture 2 new exciting Asian Canadian works by emerging playwrights. Our dramaturgy team has spent the past 8 months workshopping and developing these new works, bringing in professional designers, actors and directors to begin bringing our playwrights’ stories to the stage for you.

This month, we will be presenting excerpts from the work of our two playwrights at the vAct Creation Lab Readings — we’re so excited to share pieces of these new and important works with our generous community!

Your continued support helps us champion artists who dare to innovate, resource our community through art, and uplift new Asian Canadian stories. Together, we’ll begin these vital programs again in the new year, inviting more artists to add their voices to the pantheon of Asian Canadian works coming out of Vancouver.

Donate Now

Thank you for your support,

Derek Chan 陳嘉昊
Managing Artistic Director

Update: Due to funding challenges, we have made the decision to postpone TITA JOKES until 2026. We look forward to sharing updates on this show in the near future.

Dear vAct supporters,

We are so excited to see you again at your favourite Fall events! vActory is back for its third season at East Van’s What Lab in September; Voices for Freedom & Democracy returns in November after a successful debut last year; and the Creation Lab readings remain a staple in our December calendar. But here’s the catch: we need your help to make this all happen!

Why should you donate to vAct?
vAct’s mission is to cultivate stories from Asian Canadian perspectives to foster community. With all the heaviness in the world, we stand firm on our belief in art as a powerful medium for community transformation. We are committed to this work and it seems like you agree! At the Creation Lab readings last year, our lovely friend Tara (TM Visitor Studies) asked attendees to describe Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. Here’s what you said:

“Inspiring. Valuable community organization. Proud.”

“Essential to the Vancouver theatre scene”

“Groundbreaking, daring”

As we face tough funding cuts, your donation means we can keep supporting artists to “play and create and share” (Attendee, 2024). This includes the:

• 3 emerging artists commissioned for vActory,
• 8 local artists performing at Voices for Freedom & Democracy,
• 2 Creation Lab playwrights and 10+ artists hired for the readings,
• 5 members of the Tita Collective, and
• Many, many, many artists and collaborators who bring these events to life!

And that’s not all – your donation this summer will be DOUBLED by Silver donors Ken Gracie & Philip Waddell, who have generously agreed to match all gifts until August 31st, up to $5,000! This means you can make twice the impact, help twice as many artists, and bring twice as many Asian shows to the stage.

Donate Now

To send a cheque, please include this donation form, and mail to the address indicated on the form.

We thank you deeply for your support and look forward to sharing fresh, new performances with you this Fall!

On behalf of vAct,

Derek Chan 陳嘉昊
Managing Artistic Director

Dear vAct Supporters,

We invite you to make a donation today, so that vAct can continue to build bridges between artists, audiences, and communities in Vancouver, in BC, and beyond. This winter, the Jack and Sylvia Gin Foundation and our Board of Directors will be matching donations up to $10,000 to support our upcoming programming next season.

vAct is committed to sowing seeds and incubating new ideas among Asian Canadian storytellers. Our founder Joyce Lam built the first bridge between Asian stories and Vancouver stages. Donna Yamamoto built the second bridge, fully professionalising our work in the sector. Since I joined the company in 2022, we have been working hard on bridging gaps between performing arts disciplines (what), artist development (who), artistic processes (how), the communities we serve (where), and the role of Asian stories within a local and national intra-Asian diaspora context (why).

Your donation will directly support three main areas of vAct’s artistic and community programming:

1. Mainstage productions & partnerships,
2. New work & artist development, and
3. vAct presentations & showcases.

Donate Now

To send a cheque, please include this donation form, and mail to the address indicated on the form.

Fees for artists and production personnel account for 75% of our annual operating budget. For example, last year, that number was approximately $440,000 over 70 staff and contractors, building a season full of artistic and community programming together.

Here’s what people have to say about our artistic programming:

“As an actor who is relatively new to the industry having participated in theatre and film starting just this year, vAct’s Springboard initiative provided me an invaluable opportunity to develop my skills and connect with people in the industry. I learned so much from attending just 4 classes and am sure the skills I developed will assist me in the future as an artist and in my everyday life. As a working student, I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to attend this workshop for free. It was a very meaningful and educational experience.”

“This was an excellent offering for the community; The facilitators, participants and company all had an opportunity to meet, collaborate and deepen relationships. Opportunities like these are important to the arts community to help build relationships, skill and confidence.”

“Playful and safe community learning experience, with challenges offered for all levels. It was a great workout, a clear and enjoyable intro to stage combat, and a satisfying experience of integrating movement and text.”

“I felt very fortunate to receive a spot in this sponsored workshop – making a living as an artist while also finding ways to train and grow on a budget can be tricky, and being given the chance to do just that at no cost was delightful.”

Next season, we are excited to bring you three mainstage partnerships with companies in Vancouver and Toronto, including The Frontliners by Zahida Rahemtulla (Firehall Arts Centre, Blackout Theater, Evergreen Cultural Centre), Love You Wrong Time by Maddie Bautista and Deanna H. Choi (The Cultch, Bad Muse Collective (Toronto)), and A Taste of HK by Anonymous (Pi Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto)). In addition, we continue to offer the Creation Lab, a year-long new play development program; Springboard, a free professional workshop series for artists; and various individual and organizational mentorships. In the fall, we will continue to present our vActory showcase series, with two other smaller independent presentations in the fall.

We, collectively, are no strangers to uncertainties. At a time when the world desperately needs compassion and understanding, our determination to support each other becomes more important by each passing minute. Storytelling is essential to humanity because it is an act of collective processing, an acknowledgement of our differences, and a signal of intentionality. Communally engaging with a story is an exercise in empathy. And empathy is the first step to positive action in society. So, we ask you to help us build these bridges by donating to our winter fundraising campaign, and join us in these pockets of cultural spaces where we continue to tell our stories, in ways that only we ourselves can.

Thank you for your support,

Derek Chan 陳嘉昊
Managing Artistic Director