Since 2013, Theatre Replacement has been producing East Van Panto in partnership with The Cultch. Our first Panto, Jack and the Beanstalk: An East Van Panto, reopened the historic York Theatre in 2013. Since then, the production has grown into a beloved holiday tradition for hundreds of local families, now welcoming over 16,000 patrons each year. 

With a rotating and ever-expanding roster of artists, designers and technicians, the Panto strives to honour the traditions we’ve established while remaining a fresh and vital reflection of the East Vancouver community we love. Past and present Panto company members include Charlie Demers, Veda Hille, Amiel Gladstone, Stephen Drover, Anita Rochon, Meg Roe, Sonja Bennett, Mark Chavez, Allan Zinyk, Dawn Petten, Raugi Yu, Andrew McNee, Chirag Naik, Donna Soares, Rachel Aberle, Ming Hudson, Amanda Sum, Barry Mirochnick, Marcus Youssef, Jan Hodgson, Tracey Power, Amanda Testini, Ruth Bruhn, Adrian Muir, Barbara Clayden, Cindy Mochizuki, Laura Zerebeski, Sophie Tang, Drew Facey and Marina Szijarto, among many others.

What is a Panto?

Panto (short for Pantomime) is a tradition of holiday musical comedy. Popularized in England in the early 19th Century, Pantomime takes familiar fairy tales and injects music, contemporary references, and audience participation to create raucous, noisy entertainment that’s fun for everyone in the family. Our Panto takes inspiration from this classic form, but adds a uniquely East Van twist; a new, local tradition you and your family are invited to make your own!

Why Panto now?

We have a running joke that everything we know about Panto, we learned from Wikipedia. It’s actually true — when we first started to build the East Van Panto, we leaned heavily on the basic ideas of the classical form. Over the years, our Panto has really become its own form, allowing us to make it quite unique, hyper-local and singular. Our Pantos are new and built from scratch each year! We are constantly looking for playful ways of stretching the content of a well-known story to become East Van Panto-fied. Our Panto rooms are fun, creative and collaborative spaces that in many ways echo the processes we work in for our other, experimental new works. They’ve also allowed us to stay meaningfully connected to local artists, arts workers, partners and audiences.