Theatre is one of Vancouver's main cultural draws. The city has more than 30 professional groups, several major theatre festivals and more than 21 performance venues. The Vancouver Playhouse (www.vancouverplayhouse.com) stages up to six top-level professional plays or musicals every year, including both Canadian favourites and international classics. Granville Island is also a hot bed of theatre activity, with several theatres. The Arts Club Theatre Company (www.artsclub.com) performs here on the Granville Island Stage as well as at The Stanley Theatre on nearby Granville Street. For slightly edgier fare, check out the Firehall Arts Centre (www.firehallartscentre.ca).

Vancouver is also host to several annual theatre events. Theatre under the Stars (www.tuts.ca) offers al fresco summer romps through a couple of popular musicals at Stanley Park's Malkin Bowl, while the Vancouver Fringe Festival (www.vancouverfringe.com) and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival (www.bardonthebeach.org) are two of the city's biggest annual events. The former showcases eclectic comic, dramatic and musical short plays from around the world, while the latter offers four different Shakespeare plays every year in a dramatic tented venue in Vanier Park.

Regular priced tickets as well as day-of-performance, half-priced tickets for shows across the city are available from Tickets Tonight (www.ticketstonight.ca), which has a desk inside Tourism Vancouver's downtown Visitor Centre.

Story idea Take your readers behind the curtain with two backstage tours. Check out the production centre at the Vancouver Playhouse where the sets are designed, built and painted, then duck behind the scenes at the Orpheum Theatre for a walking tour coloured with ghost stories and star-studded anecdotes.