Happy Thanksgiving

We wish you and your families a safe and Happy Thanksgiving Weekend.

We are grateful for so much even in the midst of a pandemic, and despite not being on the road for our Fall Tour for the first time in 13 years, we are finding silver linings.

We are thinking of the thousands of people we’ve met over the years of touring Jake’s Gift as well as the many many veterans who have become such dear friends.

We wish you all a healthy and happy Autumn, and we hope to be back on the road at some point in the next year.

Enjoy the Autumn and may you and all your loved ones remain healthy and safe.

Jules, Dirk & Jake

Fall 2020 Tour Update

Hello,

Thanks for stopping by. We have sad, but not surprising, news to share:

On Tuesday, August 25, 2020 we got official word that all our Fall 2020 Tour dates, which were to be in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and PEI, have now been cancelled with the hope of re-scheduing them in Fall 2021. We will have new dates as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience in hearing from us, and we hope you and your families are well and safe.

Enjoy the rest of September and the last few weeks of summer.

Jules, Dirk & Jake

“Be Kind. Be Calm. Be Safe.” - Dr. Bonnie Henry

July 24 update about our Fall Tour

We hope you and your families are well and managing through the pandemic as best as you can.

This Fall we are scheduled to have shows in AB, Ontario, Quebec and PEI. We are waiting to hear from our Host Presenters as to their ability to open for the 20/21 season. As soon as we have solid information about the feasibility of touring this Fall we will post info on our Touring page.

Thanks for your patience as we all navigate this time. Stay healthy and safe.

Jules, Dirk & Jake

Happy First Day of June

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since we posted any news beyond the cancellation of our Spring Tour 2.5 months ago. The world is going through a rough patch on so many levels, and we hope you and your families are doing well, and keeping safe and healthy.

We are keeping fingers crossed we will be able to tour this Fall, but we are also very aware that our Fall Tour may be postponed or cancelled as well. When we have news about that final decision from our Presenters, we will update you immediately.

We are remembering our amazing tour of Normandy exactly a year ago this week for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. We are so grateful for that time and memories.

We hope you enjoy the start of this new month, and may it be one of good news more than bad.

Be well.

Jules, Dirk & Jake

SPRING TOUR 2020 • CANCELLED DUE TO COVID19 PANDEMIC

Dear Friends & Family,

Well, a lot can change in a week, and we have some disappointing news. After chatting with our upcoming Alberta Presenters, with regards to the current Covid19 Pandemic, our April Tour of Jake's Gift has been cancelled. The hope is that we will be able to re-schedule this tour for October 2020. As we all know, this is a very fluid situation, and we have no idea how the weeks and months ahead will unfold. We hope very much that we will be back on the road as soon as we can be. Please take care of yourselves and your families. #WeAreInThisTogether. #SocialDistancingIsSexy!

We will be in touch with updates as they come to light.

Cheers, and we wish you good health in these uncertain time.

Jules, Dirk & Jake

Happy New Year!

We hope you had a fabulous holiday season with your family and friends. We had a fantastic holiday season with a lot of time with family & friends, delicious food and much merriment. Weather has been a big news story across BC, - and all of Canada - and it affected our early new year family gathering in the Okanagan, which we had to cancel due to white out conditions.

We drove to Victoria to celebrate Theatre SKAM’s 25th Birthday Bash on January 11th. Theatre SKAM was the one of the first Theatre companies Julia ever performed and wrote with and for, and we were thrilled to be able to attend the party to celebrate their 25th. Check out their website: www.skam.ca.

After a harrowing drive down to Vancouver, we were delayed getting to Van. Island when Ferries were cancelled until 5PM. We took our chances and waited in line for 4 hours, and luckily made it on.

The 25th Birthday Party was a ton of fun with all four original founders in attendance, Sarah Donald, Karen Turner, Amiel Gladstone & Matthew Payne, plus a lot of other folks who’ve been w/ SKAM since the beginning. Previous SMAM artists sent in Happy Birthday videos, which were just fabulously received by all the folks in attendance. Well done, Lucas Myers, Mike Rinaldi, Camille Stubel, Meg Roe & Sean Dixon! Amanda Lisman was a charming and exquisite Host/MC & David Radford and Christina Patterson did a fab job Roasting and Toasting SKAM. Dirk Van Stralen and I even threw in 25 Roasts in way less than 59 minutes. Lovingly named after a popular SKAM show from the 90s: 29 Plays in 59 Minutes.

After the late night party wrapped, 13 of us met for brunch on Sunday at a fabulous Cafe called The Northern Quarter. After filling our bellies we nestled in for a longer visit as we were stuck on Vancouver Island for 2 days w/ more Ferry cancellations, and brake issues for Ginger (Our trusty touring vehicle). #336600 KMs and counting!

Now that we are home we are diving back into work mode and prepping our 2020 tour for Jake’s Gift. Stay tuned for details in the coming weeks, and stay warm out there too!

Home sweet home...

November 26, 2019

We are home after an incredible 6 week tour of Jake’s Gift that took us across the prairies and back to BC before wrapping up at the Quesnel Legion on Saturday, November 23rd. It was an amazing whirlwind tour, and we are so grateful to all of the incredibly generous Presenters that hosted us. We are very thankful too to all the people who came out to see the show.

We had a surprising number of patrons who came back for their 2nd or 3rd time because they wanted to share Jake’s Gift with other family and friends. That warms our hearts so much, and we are very moved that people would want to share our little play with their loved ones. Isn’t that what life is all about? Sharing moments together and stories that reflect our common bond.

Thank you all for continuing to support us all these years in. We are grateful every day for the opportunity to share Jake’s Gift in so many communities across Canada as well as in Normandy this year. That was an incredibly moving experience to be back on Juno Beach for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and to get the opportunity to meet and thank more WW2 veterans, and to share Jake’s Gift with some of them and the local French communities across Normandy. Merci!

We will update our website and touring schedule as soon as dates are confirmed. We will continue to work on our 2020 Tour plans this December and into the New Year. If you would be interested in having us tour to your community in 2020, email us anytime at jakesgift@gmail.com.

We wish you all a very peaceful and restful winter.

Cheers,

Julia & Dirk

Week 5 begins…

It’s been a while since we wrote. What an amazing tour we had across the prairies. Thanks to all our fabulous hosts, and everyone who came out to the shows.

We are now on a flight to Vancouver loading in at Presentation House Theatre for our shows Nov 11, 13, 15 and 17. Very excited to be back at PHT! Please join us if you can. Tickets and times are on our touring page.

Week 2 of our Fall Tour begins!

We had a fabulous time in Brandon, Manitoba. We had our first shows of the Fall Tour at the beautiful Lorne Watson Recital Hall, and had a great turn out for the student matinee and the public evening show on October 18th.

Thanks to the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum for hosting us, and to everyone who took the time to come out to the show. So many men and women from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta joined up in WW2. It’s always a privilege to bring Jake’s Gift back to the Prairies.

Next stop: Mayerthorpe Legion. October 23 @ 8PM. Hope to see you there!