Events › Summerween: Theatre, Zombies and Mental Health with Jordyn Wood

Attention Zombies, the Library of the Living Dead is now open! Touchstone Theatre’s playwright in residence, Jordyn Wood will discuss how zombie references across popular films and books has influenced their research and work. Their exciting new play, Vascular Necrosis, is a thrilling narrative that subverts typical zombie tropes to explore identity, chronic illness, and belonging.

Put on your best zombie costume for a chance to win two tickets to Touchstone Theater’s production of Vascular Necrosis at The Nest on Granville Island!

Jordyn will be in discussion with Lois Anderson, Artistic Director at Touchstone Theater and a Q & A will follow the event.

—

In partnership with Touchstone Theatre. Image credit: Samantha Walters.

---

Jordyn Wood is a Vancouver-based playwright, theatre artist, and producer. Their practice has been intentionally varied, jumping from devising to playwriting to directing to curating and producing. Their written work negotiates the line between autobiography and fiction, refracting lived experience through science fiction and horror genres in service of a search for the self. Influenced by their intersections of queerness, chronic illness, and mental health disability, their work poses the question: how do you find belonging in a world you never felt a part of? 

In addition to being Touchstone Theatre's Flying Start Playwright-in-Residence, Jordyn is also the Company Producer of Glitch Theatre and the Administrative Assistant of Theatre Replacement. They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SFU’s School of Contemporary Arts in the Theatre Performance stream. Recent playwriting credits include Vascular Necrosis, (presented as staged readings by Glitch Theatre in 2024 & rEvolver Festival 2023), Dry Rot (Or Festival 2022), and Grounded (Calgary Young People's Theatre 2017). 

Lois Anderson is the Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre, and an Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Department of Theatre and Film. She won the Jessie Award for Best Direction (Pericles, Bard on the Beach) and the 2019 Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation (Lysistrata). She has worked extensively in Canada and Australia and has been an artistic associate with The National Arts Centre most recently directing You Used to Call Me Marie by Tai Amy Grauman.

You don’t have to wait until October to celebrate the communal spirit of Halloween. If the heat of the summer is becoming a horror show, join us for our first Summerween Summer! 

Other events in this series include: 

• Summerween: Scary Summer Movie Festival on August 18th 
• Summerween: True Crime Edition with Eve Lazarus and Aaron Chapman on September 8th.

---

Please register. Registration is required to attend, as it helps us anticipate attendance and send a reminder the day before the event, or any updates about this program.

---

VPL is committed to making our programs accessible for all. If you have an access need that we have not addressed here, please email us at programs@vpl.ca.

• Elevator access to the Montalbano Family Theatre on level 8 is available with the main elevators on level 2.

• The theatre has three wheelchair accessible spaces in the front row on the right hand side.

• Alternate styles of seating may be available, if you require another type of chair, please email us.

For more information on physical access, view the Accessibility information on the Central Library page.