I have been meaning to do a post on going to see one night of the 20 Minute Musicals Premiere at the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival that took place in Vancouver last week. We went to see In the Yard, Havin’ Fun, which had the subtitle of “A Prison Musical”.

In the Yard was written by P:ano/No Kids frontman Nick Krgovich, and starred some fellow local musicians, including band mate Julia Chirka as a laundry-maid, along with Ladyhawk‘s Duffy Driediger and Ryan Peters as inmates, and Tygh Runyan of The Beans as the romantic lead.

How do I have all this information, you ask? Well because they did up a charming Playbill to hand out that included a ‘Who’s Who In The Cast’ page, along with a space for autographs. Here’s the poster:

If you are familiar with musicals, you will know that the Playbill is an essential element to the production (although I still can’t figure out the use of the Ye Olde English font for the cover). In fact, In The Yard stayed true to a lot of musical conventions and did them in a way that made me realize that musicals can be really light, fun, and funny when they aren’t taking themselves too seriously, the actors are having fun, and the entire thing is only 20 minutes long.

If you have listened to P:ano’s Ghost Pirates Without Heads, In The Yard seems like a natural off-shoot of songwriter Nick Krgovich’s stylings and interests. The opening song “The Girl From The Sticks” was probably also the highlight – the music and lyrics were amusing and it was accompanied by a cleverly choreographed group dance number.

I don’t know if there are plans to ever stage this again, but there were CDs available at the merch table at the show. You might have to try asking Veda Hille (organizer of the musicals) or No Kids to get a copy.

This place was a chance discovery from last summer and now if there’s any kind of excuse to eat chocolate (Valentines, birthdays, halloween, st. patrick’s day, Fridays)…I’m there!

Schokolade Artisan Chocolate & Cafe is on an unassuming part of the East Hastings strip, up past Victoria, almost right across from the Dayton boot store. They make the most amazing chocolates – all handmade, from natural ingredients, in small runs with no preservatives or additives. It’s also all peanut-free and most of the fillings have no sugar added – they just use juice. Don’t quote me but I was told there was a cup of raspberry juice in each Dark Raspberry Jelly (coincidentally, my favourite).

If that’s not enough to entice take a look at the listing of chocolates they offer:

Dark Pomegranate, Dark Passion fruit, Dark Raspberry heart, Dark Mah-Jong with fresh orange zest, Dark & White Sunny orange, Dark Raspberry Jelly, Dark Blueberry, & Dark Cherry, Strawberry Pepper, Mango Jalapeno, Dark Brandy Truffle, Dark Crown Royal, & Dark Pear William, Dark, Milk or white Almond Clusters, Dark or Milk Hedgehog with Hazelnut, Italian Nougat with mixed fruit and nut, Pistachio nuts and Hazelnut Crunch.

You can go there and just have a coffee (also good) and a couple of chocolates, and they sell baked goods as well. They also offer chocolate workshops where you can bring a group – I’m still mulling it over but it has to be a good idea for some future event…

Schokolade Cafe is located at 2263 E. Hastings, Vancouver. Open Tuesday – Saturday : 9am – 7pm, Sunday: 11am – 5pm, Monday and Public Holiday: Closed. Map to location.