Geekenders present Star Wars: A Nude Hope

Can anyone overstate the importance of Star Wars to geek culture – to culture in general?

Star Wars laid the groundwork for the summer blockbuster, changing the cinematic landscape forever. It percolated into every aspect of the modern world, its language and scope becoming a universal means of communication. Everyone knows what a Jedi is. Everyone knows Luke and Han and Leia and Chewie. Everyone knows Vader.

It’s a silly science-fantasy movie that came out forty years ago.

And yet.

Can anyone overstate the importance of Geekenders and the Rio to the Vancouver creative community?

Let’s start with the Rio: the heart and soul of Vancouver’s thriving creative community, the home that gives people a place to strut their stuff, grow their craft, and show the best of what Vancouver has to offer. The Gentlemen Hecklers. Geekenders. Critical Hits. Improv Against Humanity. The Rio is one of the most important landmarks that Vancouver has to offer.

Geekenders is a part of that community. A troupe of burlesque performers, comedians, singers, songwriters, and other people born for the stage, Geekenders has gone off Broadway, won awards and acclaim, been hosted one-off shows and been involved in some of greatest parody shows Vancouver has to offer ranging from Portal to the Wizard of Bras.

But they cut their teeth on Star Wars.

And yet.

Geekenders has sold out the Rio with A Nude Hope, the Empire Strips Back, Reveal of the Jedi, and the Force Ashakin.’ The Lust Jedi has been announced for May 4th, 5th, and 6th. There have been rumors of a prequel trilogy for years (A Phantom Man’s Ass?) The point is, there are parallels to be drawn here: a nervous cast unsure of how well the show would do coming to love what they were doing as it was embraced by a wider community.

It gets better with age, as the Geekenders tweak performances, the script, dance numbers, and routines. As they add more people and performers to their cast, professionals who bring so very much to the table.

And the performers that make this show what it is: Draco Muff-Boi as the naive and clueless Luke meshes perfectly with Stephen Blakely’s confident Han Solo swagger, and Jayne Fondue’s Leia will demand and receive your affection. Kitty Glitter returns as an adorable R2-D2, rollerskating through her performance and embodying the astromech’s “hold my beer” attitude.

And does anyone bring more to the role of C3P0 than Grand Johnson?

A Nude Hope plays at the Rio on March 23 and 24, with doors opening at 7pm and the show starting at 8pm. You can buy tickets for the Friday show by clicking here or the Saturday show by clicking here, and you might also think of joining us for the Lust Jedi on May 4, May 5, and May 6 – you can buy tickets by clicking on any of those days.

May the Force be with you.

For I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. 

And on that note…

The Rio is in danger, and we are the Rio’s only hope.

There are some people that would like to demolish the Rio and replace it with Condos that no one can afford to live in, as Vancouver continues to struggle against a future where no one actually lives in the city anymore. Here is our hard line: the Rio Theater is, in many ways, a bridge between the future of and the past of this city. It is everything good and great about Vancouver, representing the best aspects of the Vancouver creative community. It is the home of so many artists, so many shows, so many things that make this city a better place and would not exist without the Rio to be there.

And the Rio makes money. It is a solvent business, a place where people find their voices, their careers, their futures. It is a place of community and growth, and in many ways, it is the heart and soul of the Vancouver creative scene. They partner with other businesses and everyone is better for the Rio being there.

Some people that do not live in the city would like to demolish it to build a highrise that no one in that part of the city will be able to live in. They want to do to Commerical Drive what they did to Coal Harbour, turning a thriving neighborhood into a ghost town where no one lives, no one goes, an empty urban sprawl of nothing.

We need to fight back.

The people that own the land the Rio is built on have given us the means to do so, and we will fight tooth and nail to keep our home standing. We’re not alone in this – Kevin Smith, Ryan Reynolds, anyone and everyone that has lived in Vancouver understands the importance of the Rio. Kevin Smith is hosting two sold-out shows at the Rio where he plans to talk about how important this theater is.

Watch this and understand:

Can you help? #savetherio has an Indiegogo up now, which you can find by clicking here.

Help us help keep Vancouver vibrant, alive, and creative. Save the Rio. We can do this.