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Greater Vancouver Historical Performance Society of BC (GVHPS)
BC Non-Profit Arts Society # S-30188  Registered Canadian Charity #107418

President of the Board:  Katharine Li
 Vice President: Mary Crumblehulme
Treasurer: Elizabeth de Balasi
Secretary:  Janet Walker

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:  Catherine Lee
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Pat Unruh
WARDROBE DIRECTOR:  Brenda Webster

Contact Us!
email:  historicalperformance at gmail.com
Mailing address:  2131 Stirling Avenue, Richmond, BC  Canada  V7B 1J6


 

Performers Bios


Angela Brown - Performer/Visual Artist
Angela is an interdisciplinary performer with degrees in visual art, dance and theatre, Angela has worked as a director, performer, and writer in Historical Parks of BC, performed with GVHPS since 1996 and has a duo with Mehlinda Heartt called "Two Amuse". She is writer and director for a Living History project sponsored by GVRD called "Voices of the Fraser" which will take place on Deas Island Delta, June 2007. For GVHPS Angela created three characters in Habits of The Heart and played Goddess of Fields & Forests and Madame D'Ailleboust in Le Masque Canadien. She has starred in Micki Maunsell's autobiographical Sitting on a Suitcase, and in her own Woman in a Wheel. She is working with West Coast Chamber Music as a dancer and storyteller for a new work which will be presented at Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre in March of next year and will be touring B.C. schools. Her historical dance teachers have included Catherine lee, Edgar Tumak of Ottawa, and Thomas Baird, Paige Whitely Baugess and Angene Feves of the US. Angela has taught beginning courses in Renaissance & Baroque dance for GVHPS and now for Capilano College.

Mehlinda Heartt - Performer/Visual Artist
An eclectic artist, Mehlinda is much in demand as Harpist, Opera Singer, Composer/Arranger, Costume designer & Visual Artist. Performing song and dance with Historical Performance since 1998, she is also a flamenco and Brazilian dancer and performs with Angela Brown in “Two Amuse”. Mehlinda has taught beginning classes in Renaissance dance. She created the Sun King and Moon Goddess costumes as well as her Columbine dress for Ladies’ Aires & Dances.  She has been a professional harpist for 28 years and is the founder of the music agency Harpistry (www. Harpistry.com) A professional opera singer, she is in much demand by the Italian & Hungarian communities. She teaches voice & harp. As a visual artist she has numerous commissions to her name, in paint, stained glass & other media.

Monica Kim - virginials, harpsichord, resident harpsichordist for Historical Performance Ensemble
Monica Kim is a multidisciplinary artist, active as actor and musician in Montreal and Vancouver. Monica’s character interpretation ranges from Mr. Bull in Nader Dolatshahi’s black comedy The Animal Farm, (based on George Orwell’s celebrated satire), to the social activist, June, in Outlaw Radio. Monica was seen as Lady Luck, in Lady Luck, Razor Tongue, screened at Tinseltown Cinemas for Mighty Asian Movie Marathon, September 05. She most recently acted and played in The Feigned Courtesans, Jericho Arts Centre Nov/Dec). Monica received numerous awards and scholarships during studies at McGill, UBC, and Douglas College, including participation in Early Music Vancouver Baroque Festival and Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax (where she performed with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra). As harpsichordist and pianist, Monica is in much demand both as soloist and ensemble player in the Lower Mainland, including concert series’ (St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church, Douglas College) playing for a jazz fusion choir, Pacific Spirit Singers, as well as the Renaissance ensemble, Light o’ Love.
Catherine Lee - Artistic Director, Performer 
Catherine is a performer, creator and teacher with extensive experience in dance, extended voice and singing. For GVHPS she wrote & directed Le Masque Canadien and Les Filles du Roi, and recreated The Secular Masque (Dryden, 1699). Performances in almost 200 events for GVHPS span the arts: (with David Garfinkle) 1989-2003 in Amorosi di Cosmo (including with Vancouver Symphony under Maestro Commissione), theatrical solo and duet songs of Henry Purcell in Spirits of the Air and much dancing.  Catherine is becoming well known as an expert consultant for plays, movies and operas in historical gesture and dance. She coached actors in the Arts Club’s School For Scandal in October 2006 and in Studio 58’s Comedy, Satire…. During 2004-2005 she coached movement and created choreographies for the plays Cherry Orchard (UBC) and Mary Stuart (Blackbird Theatre) and the operas Orpheus in the Underworld and Eugene Onegin (UBC).  With degrees in Dance and Drama/English, Catherine has had the perfect jobs (teaching movement for actors at Studio 58 and singing and dance for actors at TooBa Physical Theatre Centre).  With internationally acclaimed women's choir, Elektra, she has toured Australia (including Sydney Opera House) , New Zealand, Canada and the US (including Carnegie Hall) and is heard on all 8 Elektra CDs.  Founding Director of True North Performance, Catherine has created and directed numerous inter-disciplinary works, including Earth Magic, Snow Magic, and Taking Place. 

Pat Unruh - Musical Director, viola da gamba, recorder 
Pat specializes in early bowed strings. Pat has performed in early music ensembles on viola da gamba and vielle in Canada, the USA and the UK and is a founder-member of ANIMA, Medieval Music Duo. Pat plays and arranges music for the Victoria women’s medieval choir Ensemble Laude. directed by Elizabeth MacIsaac and she is a frequent guest-performer with Victoria’s Continuum Consort. She has two CDs ANIMA: Medieval Song for Christmas and La Rosa Enflorece: Sephardic Song - Rhythm & Romance, and, with Ensemble Laude: Pleasure, Pomp and Power: Music of Fourteenth Century France and Italy. Pat is a sessional instructor in Medieval Music History at UBC and indulges her love of Renaissance pops in her own ensemble Light o’Love. She has been recorded on CBC and has created music for period plays, including The Cherry Orchard (UBC Telus Theatre ) The Taming of the Shrew (Savage God) and The Feigned Courtesans (United Players ) as well as for Shakespeare plays in “modern” 1930’s and 1960’s settings.

Brenda Webster - Wardrobe Director, Performer
A performer, teacher and costumier for GVHPS and its antecedent, with a special interest in social history, her degrees are in English and Dance Education. Brenda was seen dancing in the film "Little Women" and TV movies including "The Titanic". She regularly performs in Historical Performance Ensemble soirées and productions. Brenda originated Madame D'Ailleboust in C.Lee's Le Masque Canadien. She has studied Historical Dance and notation extensively with Thomas Baird & Paige Whitely-Baugess, Angene Feves, Elaine Biagi Turner, Catherine Turocy, Ken Pierce and Christine Ellis-Rogers in Canada, the US and Great Britain. Brenda collaborates in teaching the professional dance class with C.Lee and offers workshops in garment construction of the 17th C.  Officially Wardrobe Director since 2000, Brenda built some of the earliest Renaissance outfits GVHPS owns. She has also built five Baroque dresses and a man’s 1705 suit. Her most recent creations are the light green silk Baroque dress, Pat Unruh’s outfit and the work done for this show. She takes great pleasure in researching and recreating not only the accurate styles but the correct colours, fabric types and floral designs, and where possible the proper type of stitches She has also been commissioned to produce costumes for Cornelius Fischer Credo, Danstabat, True North and other Vancouver modern dance projects.
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