52 replies to this topic

[Ms. B. Havin]

I thought I'd start a thread with this heading, to use in case anyone goes to a local show, performance, exhibition, etc., which you want to recommend to others.

[Ms. B. Havin]

So, my first contribution, which you have to catch tonight (Saturday) since it's closing:

[url=http://www.skam.ca/:adc83]Theatre SKAM[/url:adc83]
The Amazing and Impermeable Cromoli Brothers in:
The Best of the Cromoli Brothers!
written & performed by Lucas Myers

It's a fabulous & hilarious one-man theatre show, click on SKAM's [url=http://www.skam.ca/currentproductions.htm:adc83]"Current Productions"[/url:adc83] link for more info. Show starts at 8 pm (doors open at 7:30 pm).

Where? At the Metro Theatre (which is at the corner of Quadra & Johnson, in the building behind the Victoria Conservatory of Music's Alix Goolden Hall.

Admission is only $10 -- go and support local theatre (besides, it's a funny show -- I saw it last night, trust me). Call 386-7526.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Another "go see":

Bigger Than Jesus -- Starring Rick Miller
Belfry Theatre (Fernwood & Gladstone) -- through March 25

Saw it tonight, recommend it highly, a one-man tour de force starring Rick Miller as Jesus Christ (with plenty of brilliant staging help behind scenes).

More info on the [url=http://www.biggerthanj.com/about.html:eb556]Bigger Than Jesus website[/url:eb556].

Ross Crockford, in a review included in the program and also available online [url=http://www.belfry.bc.ca/shows/bigger_article.htm:eb556]here[/url:eb556], writes (quoting Miller):

“Our idea was to bring the mass into a secular space, and ‘explode' it in a visual and performative way,” continues Miller, who developed the show with director Daniel Brooks. “Daniel is Jewish, so he was interested in my relationship with the liturgy, and the figure of Jesus. He had a very different understanding of Catholicism than I did, and he was interested in working through my own personal baggage to create something of a religious experience in the theatre.” (...)

(...) “Negative reactions to the play sometimes come from people who don't want to question anything within themselves, and are quite certain about what is true and what isn't,” Miller says. That applies as much to atheists: a few people walked out at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal , turned off by the show's moments of serious religious contemplation.

Well, speaking as an atheist, I was not offended at all. I bet [url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1580394,00.html:eb556]Steven Pinker would like it[/url:eb556], too.

Ticket prices aren't totally cheap, but you could go to Sunday's 2pm matinee as part of the [url=http://www.bc.united-church.ca/discus/messages/18/1654.html?1170954883:eb556]United Church group[/url:eb556] for $17.17...

[Ms. B. Havin]

The Sixth Annual Fairfield Artists Studio Tour takes place this weekend, Saturday & Sunday, from 11am to 4pm.

See [url=http://pacificcoast.net/~mlavallee/tour/:70244]this page for details and printable map[/url:70244] (or pick up map guides at numerous vendors throughout Fairfield/ Cook Street Village.

On Friday evening (tonight!), there's going to be some sort of opening ceremony at the Fairfield Community Centre's "Garry Oak Room" (1335 Thurlow), 7-9:30pm, with Victoria's Mayor Alan Lowe in attendance. Refreshments courtesy of the Royal Bank. Free.

[Rob Randall]

Here's a good play that's just opened. (Shameless self-promotion: I did the poster and the scenic painting )





Written in 1944 it's a satire about what happens to greedy speculators who plan to level Paris' Chaillot district to search for oil.

Theatre Inconnu has had a great season this year, with the last few productions final performances selling out as word of mouth spreads, so go check it out. A good plan for Mothers' Day, too.

[Ms. B. Havin]

I have seen it, and recommend it! Thumbs up, it's very funny, and the acting is great. And the sets are lovely, of course!

The Madwoman (Aurelia) is of course eminently sane -- she's just loopier than a Mighty Mouse rollercoaster, that's all. She has 3 friends who are even crazier -- they play their parts so well!

The Ragpicker is excellent as the defense attorney at the greedy developer's "trial" (overseen by one of the friends, whose sister was married to a lawyer, which makes her an "expert" in law...).

The defendant is tried in absentia, the verdict a foregone conclusion (death) -- this is not for the faint of heart, I guess. The friend who's the law expert advises that it's always a good idea to corral as many miscreants as possible into one space because it makes dispatching them so much easier: you can kill 'em all at once. (Strangely, this made me think of Iraq and fighting an insurgency... How sage the old bats conjured by Giraudoux were... :shock: )

David Allen of [url=http://www.davidco.com/:a982e]Getting Things Done[/url:a982e] fame & fortune could learn a thing from old Aurelia. For personal motivation, she receives daily instructions by mail for what is on her agenda that day. These instructions she writes herself, the day before, and then mails off. She is frighteningly rational, after all! 8)

The play ends on the 19th, so see it soon if you're interested.

[Holden West]

Things that make you go hmmmm....



Title: A group of young men performing a ballet at the Victoria High School Red Cross Circus.
Photographer/Artist: UNDETERMINED
Date: 1948

(Don't laugh--that might be your dad.)

[Caramia]

The caption was especially well chosen... Things that make you go hmmmm.... Indeed!

[Rob Randall]

A great new play is coming soon. Come check it out.

Theatre Inconnu is pleased to announce a new initiative: The New Play Series.

Our plan is to showcase – each spring - a new play by a local playwright. The plays chosen will have either won recognition through a major play writing competition, and/or gone through a previous workshop process under professional supervision.

Our inaugural play for this initiative is the Trutch Street Women. This play, by local playwright and published novelist Ellen Arrand was a finalist in the 2006 Theatre BC National Play-writing Competition, where it under went a workshop process at the “new Play Festival in Kamloops. It was subsequently work shopped at Theatre One in Nanaimo. It is a moving story that captures the passion of the feminist movement in the early 1970’s, as a group of young single mothers band together for friendship and support as they challenge the status quo. Directed by Inconnu Artistic Director Clayton Jevne, the cast includes Meara Tubman-Broeren, Lindsay Alley, Zoe Pappas-Acreman, Ellen Arrand, Taryn Von Niessen, Hannah Johnson and Kayvon Hanlan.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Out of the Box Productions presents:

The Body Celeb 2007
...a carnival of power and passion (Ages 19+)
......August 11th, doors open at 7:30
.........at the Victoria Arts Connection
............2750 Quadra St. (just north of Hillside)

Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
...available for purchase at Lyles Place, 726 Yates or ph.886-1587

Q:What's on?
A: A LOT!!!

Host MC: Hurrican Himes

Axe Capoeira

The Mesmerizing Mermaid - Hilary Ann Higgins

Fashion Show - Susan James Stores for Adventurous Adults

Champion Body Builders - Ross Addicott - Light Heavy Weight Champion, BC; Megan Turner

Cheesecake Burlesque Revue

Flamenco Dancers from El Kabela

Belly Dancers From Aeiwa School of Cultural Dance

Modern Dance - Constance Cooke

Poi Pixies - Angy Marie

Butoh Theatre - SNAFU Dance Theatre

Stage Combat Artists - Swashing Bachelors / Peter Abrahams & Graham Croft

Belly Dancing - Featuring Palomitas De Maiz

Acrobats - Matt Barker (et al.)

Chocolate Fountain - Roger's Chocolates

Visual Artists - Curator Heidi Bergstrom

Body Painter - Alisa

DJ Dance - Alan Smith

[Rob Randall]

[Ms. B. Havin]

Hmm, where to put this item?

I don't think anyone here needs a reminder that Symphony Splash is on tomorrow (Sunday Aug.5), but there was an article in today's T-C, which no one has posted anywhere else. It's about the contribution that Patricia & Ken Mariash of Bayview are making to this event, and how they've put themselves down for at least five years of support. It could go in the Bayview thread, but it's arts, and it's an event this weekend, so let's put it here...

Symphony Splash: Sponsor digs deeper, wades in for five years
Developer backs Symphony Splash to the tune of $75,000 a year
Joanne Hatherly, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, August 04, 2007

"The gig goes on."

Those are the words Victoria Symphony violinist Julian Vitek used to describe what Bayview Residences developer Ken Mariash's $75,000 sponsorship means to tomorrow's Bayview Victoria Symphony Splash.

At a pre-event luncheon held amid the roar of construction machinery on the unfinished sixth floor of Tower One at Bayview Residences, Mariash confirmed that the gig will go on for another five years, as he and the Victoria Symphony signed a five-year contract guaranteeing $75,000 every year to the annual outdoor performance that last year attracted an audience of 40,000.

But why stop there?

Mariash suggested that the partnership has room to grow.

"I talked with David Foster, and he's very happy to have some artists come up and perform with the Victoria Symphony," said Mariash, who sees the orchestra as more than a cultural centerpiece, but also as a "tremendous asset to do fundraising for the homeless and other charities."

Indeed, expansion plans are in the works. Paid-for seating was introduced this year to pump up revenue to cover the cost of running the fundraising event, which up to now has been donation-only. The 200 seats, which sell for $75 until tomorrow, when they will go for $99, will give their buyers a guaranteed view of the floating stage from which the Victoria Symphony will perform. Each purchase comes with a $50 tax receipt.

Keith Dagg, communications consultant for Bayview Developments, said the 200 bleacher seats are a trial balloon for expanded paid seating at next year's Splash.

"This year it's 200, next year it could be 2,000," said Dagg.

Sheila Taylor, spokeswoman for the Symphony, confirmed the plan, but was a little more cautious.

"It will depend on the reaction this year," said Taylor, noting that as of yesterday, only 32 tickets remained. "If there's a way to do it without impeding sight-lines, we'll do it, because it's a good way to raise funds." But Taylor doesn't see the number increasing 10-fold next year.

At yesterday's press conference, Mariash accepted thanks from Victoria Symphony's incoming president, Deedrie Ballard, and executive director Marcus Handman, but he didn't shy away from pointing out that one hand washes the other.

"We're selfish and we're commercial," said Mariash, adding that the partnership between the Symphony and Bayview promotes both organizations.

Mariash got his start in the construction business before the age of 12 by tagging around after his father, whom Mariash described as a farmer/builder.

Before he was 15 years old, Mariash lied about his age to get a construction job.

"There I was, driving big trucks around, phew," said Mariash. Inspired by architects he met at construction sites, he studied art, physics and business before landing at the University of British Columbia's School of Architecture during Arthur Erickson's tenure.

He obtained four university degrees, some while running his own construction firm. The small-town Saskatchewan boy eventually made his presence felt even in New York.

He hired architect Patricia Ridgeway in the late 1980s and married her in the 1990s. Now she is an active design partner in Mariash's ventures.

After the press conference formalities, Vitek, with violin in hand, expressed his personal gratitude to Mariash for saving Symphony Splash. Mariash tapped the 28-year-old on the shoulder and said, "It's a partnership."

jhatherly@tc.canwest.com


© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
http://www.canada.co... ... 3a&k=29349

[Ms. B. Havin]

Last Saturday night's screening of Yellow Submarine broke attendance records, according Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival (VIFVF) organizers. The " Free B Film Festival" continues this coming Saturday "when giant rubber monsters return to the Free-B, devastating balsa wood buildings across Japan in Gamera Vs. Gaos." It's a 1967 Japanese monster extravaganza directed by Noriaki Yuasa.

Forget super scary giant monsters, it's Gamera time! He's not your average over-sized flying turtle with fire-breath. Gamera's a defender of the earth and a friend to children everywhere. Gamera was Toei Studio's answer to the terrifying monsterous Godzilla that made tearing down balsa-wood buildings a fun outing for the whole family.

When the bat-like Gaos emerges from an erupting volcano in the South Pacific, his fury strikes Japan, raining destruction down from the skies. He may be Gamera's toughest opponent yet but Gamera's got a couple of plucky-kids on his side who will come through and save Gamera when the chips are down. And WHAT IS the secret of the singing staff from Gaos' island home?

Where? Beacon Hill Park. All shows 9PM at the Cameron Bandshell.

Also free movies on Fridays for the family -- free 3-D glasses provided.



See [url=http://www.vifvf.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/:9e88a]VIFVF's newsletter/ website[/url:9e88a] for more info...

[Ms. B. Havin]

Our very own Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has some uniquely Canadian exhibitions coming up.

On August 16, Thursday, take yourself to the opening reception of Robert Youds's show, [url=http://www.aggv.bc.ca/Upcoming+Exhibitions.aspx?upcoming=1#2092:a2069]"beautifulbeautiful artificial field,"[/url:a2069] and while you're there, catch Iain Baxter (of N.E.Thing fame -- yah, that'll date you if you remember that 'live,' so to speak), with [url=http://www.aggv.bc.ca/exhibitions+archive.aspx?year=-1&id=2093&decade=2000:a2069]"Passing Through: Iain Baxter& Photographs 1958-1983."[/url:a2069] The show includes all our old friends, from Jeff Wall through Ken Lum. Must see.

Not Canadian, but while you're there, stop at the LAB to see Scott Ingram’s [url=http://www.aggv.bc.ca/exhibitions+archive.aspx?year=-1&id=2089&decade=2000:a2069]The Holland Drawings: Remastering the Architectural Landscape[/url:a2069]. Those LAB shows are sometimes deflating, but at other times they've been stunning ([url=http://aggv.bc.ca/Exhibitions+Archive.aspx?year=-1&id=2056:a2069]Ho Tam[/url:a2069], for example, which was rivetting).


Robert Youds


Iain Baxter&

[Ms. B. Havin]

Darned if I can find it on the Greater Victoria Public Library's website[/url:c4889], but according to the [url=http://www.gvpl.ca/files/PDF/Library_Board_Meetings/minutes/May_29_2007.pdf:c4889]minutes[/url:c4889] of their May 29, 2007 board meeting, one of the agenda items discussed was the following:

- Community Partner – GVPL has a new community partner in the University of Victoria.

They will present The Dean’s Lunchtime Lecture Series, free public lectures by distinguished speakers from their various faculties, at the Central Library in the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008

Lest anyone think that I'm the kind of person who has nothing better to do on a Sunday night than read months' old minutes of library board meetings, the story is this: I searched the library's pages in vain for information related to the following item in today's T-C:

Maestra to share secrets of conducting at library class
Kim Westad, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, August 26, 2007

Authors weave a story, and often art and magic, out of words. Tania Miller does the same with an orchestra, standing in front of packed theatres armed with only a slim baton, her dramatic hand and body movements a language unto themselves to the musicians.

So it seemed only fitting, the maestra of the Victoria Symphony said, to share how she does that in a class at the Greater Victoria Public Library. Miller's one-night class on Sept. 19, where she'll share conducting secrets and just what it takes to guide 60 musicians through complex music, is one of the first in the library's fall adult program.

(...snip...)

Many of the library's programs have reserved seating, but not Miller's on Sept. 19, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Central Library.

[url="http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=b350b365-4251-47b3-9f4c-731d4800bd70&k=26593"]http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolo ... 70&k=26593

For a long time I've advocated the idea of a speakers' or lecture series at GVPL, and I'm happy to see the library going in that direction. It's a direction that appears to be suggested by the item from the library board's minutes, as well as by Kim Westad's article.

But what good is this initiative if it's not all over the library's front page? It should be one of the first things you see when you click through [url=http://www.gvpl.ca:c4889]here[/url:c4889], yet it's not. Good luck finding any info about Tania Miller giving a lecture there on Sept.19....

Here's a hot tip, for free: if you're going to convince busy people to give of their time to provide a public service like this, at least have the organizational acumen to make sure that as many people know about it as possible so that the speaker has the kind of audience he or she deserves. Otherwise, you're insulting the people who missed finding out about the event in the first place as well as the speaker who sacrificed an afternoon or evening to pull it off.

Put it on your front page, for pete's sake.

[Holden West]

They'd probably say it's because the September guide hasn't been released yet. But that doesn't cut it in the Internet era. Info should be released on a rolling basis. Bah, it's bad enough this will take place in an old cramped boardroom instead of an actual auditorium like a real capital city should have.

[G-Man]

Went and saw [SIC] at the Metro Theatre tonight by Theatre Skam. It was a quirky comedy, fun, I would recommend it if you are looking for something to do tomorrow or Sunday which is when it ends.
I really like the Metro, I just wish they had more of an outdoor presence with a Marquee or something. Still easier to visit than the Belfry that is for sure.

[Rob Randall]

It's my birthday!!!!!

So I'm going to see tonight's Antimatter program at Open Space. Maybe you'll come too?

9pm at Open Space (510 Fort St): GOOGLED EARTH (Foreign Matter: Finland)

Curated by AV-arkki, Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art
The works in Googled Earth represent a fundamental shift in contemporary artists' relationship to issues of landscape and sense of place. As society has embraced concepts of "thinking globally and acting locally," so too have media artists. Globalisation, economics, technology and communications have created a world where national borders no longer define one's context of "place." The artists in Googled Earth continue to map this dynamic psycho-geography, from microscopic investigations, through real (and constructed) landscapes, to explorations on a planetary scale.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Happy birthday, Rob!

Speaking of artsy types and the arts <ahem>, I came across an interesting item in Time Out Chicago, Bright lights? Big deal.[/url:1c290] by Christopher Piatt and Kris Vire. It's subtitled, "With the city’s attention fixated on glitzy Loop theaters, we ask if there’s still room for a theater of our own," and deals with the problem of mainstream media publications no longer having the space to review every single local theatre production, which in turn means less traffic / fewer audiences for those productions. Victoria currently has a pretty healthy theatre scene, and it would be great if more people could post reviews here of shows they've gone to see.

The Time Out Chicago article makes the case that the more plays get reviewed, the more people are tempted to see the production (".. the more plays received reviews, the more butts there were in the seats, the more plays got produced, and back again."). We get at best spotty coverage of theatre from the T-C, and practically none from the free community papers (VicNews, etc.). Monday Magazine consistently brings out reviews, but even they don't cover every little venue.

So there's definitely room for more web-based reviewing...! Interestingly, the online stuff and dwindling ad revenues are also what helped create the cut-backs in print reviews:

...at its height in the ’90s, the free press nurtured the city’s storefront community by creating a media-theater feedback loop; the more plays received reviews, the more butts there were in seats, the more plays got produced, and back again.

But Craigslist changed all that. Because the service site is free, the classified-ad sales that helped finance the Reader have dwindled, and major cuts in length and number of reviews followed, as has been extensively chronicled by that paper’s own ace media analyst Michael Miner. Meanwhile, as the arts continue to sag as a national priority, the Tribune has slimmed down from two on-staff writers to one (and a handful of freelancers) to cover theater. The same goes for the Sun-Times, which has only one full-time theater writer on its masthead (who is also required to cover dance). Consequently, arts writers are asked to pull treacherous double duty—acting as both reporters and critics.

But while the theater community definitely feels the pinch of reduced coverage, the average reader isn’t likely to notice the problem. “Nowhere in this country has the distinction between journalism and publicity,” Rich says, “been blurred more than the entertainment industry.”
http://www.timeout.c...hicago/article/ ... eal/4.html

So anyways...

I have a brief something to say about a local production (written by a local playwright, Joan MacLeod). I dare not call it a "review" since it's off the top of my head and written in first draft mode, but here goes:

I recently saw "Homechild" at the Belfry (it's playing till Oct.21). It got a baaaaaad review in the T-C, but I thought it was really compelling. (See "Slow plot, sulky lead hinders Homechild," Adrian Chamberlain, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, September 22, 2007
[url="http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/arts/story.html?id=f72059e8-d930-4e5f-b0e7-aec2f4f6cb92"]http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolo ... c2f4f6cb92)

Perhaps I went in with low expectations, thinking I'd hate the "maudlin" subject matter (boo-hoo, wee bairn torn from the family bosom, blah-blah-blah). But instead, I found myself totally mesmerized by (1) the history of the thing (I never knew about these "home children" before) and how Joan MacLeod managed to turn this into a unique, particular story; (2) the acting, which was really good -- ditto the set, which, contrary to Chamberlain's crit, worked well; (3) the humour (it wasn't a maudlin story at all -- it was wildly funny in places); and (4) the weird universality of the story.

Re. (4): The story convincingly shows how a grown man, who hasn't worked through a personal trauma that he experienced as a child victim of history, passes (via absolute silence about his past) that trauma on to his children, who become emotional cripples, too. Those of you from families where your parents or grandparents survived the Shoah, for example, might relate.

Spoiler alert! The main character, Alistair (played by John Krich), has the additional burden of a deep shame he brought on himself, by dint of his own actions: as a very young man he spent 18 months in jail because, when he learned that he and his sister would forever be separated, he went "home" to the farm he had been indentured to and blindly killed 5 cows. After he got out of jail, he changed his name and disavowed his family roots. Now, what's also important is that the cows are symbolic -- in these politically correct times it's pretty much verboten to say so -- of women and mothering (milk, nourishment, maternal stuff), which the main character has a confused hatred of since he believes that his own mother abandoned him and his sister to this "home child" program. At the same time, he becomes a "normal" pillar of the community by becoming a ...what else?, dairy farmer. But by the time we meet him in the time of the play, he has long since sold all his cows as he's now too aged to continue milking them, etc.

He and his kin have everything they need, materially, but they're totally bereft of a particular kind of nourishment, which derives from conversation and an open and shared past.

Anyway, I thought Chamberlain's review was really abrupt, as though something about the play rubbed him the wrong way from the get-go and he was consequently unwilling to give it a chance. It was far better than his review suggests.

[Rob Randall]

Theatre Inconnu Presents

The World Premiere of a powerful new Canadian play

Possessions by Kevin Land

Oct 17 – Nov 3, 2007

Possessions is a play inspired by Felicitas Goodman’s book The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel; upon which the Hollywood film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, was loosely based. This amazing play chronicles the true story of a young woman who received a Vatican sanctioned exorcism in the mid 1970’s. Land’s interpretation of well-meaning intentions leading to tragic results, is heartbreaking as well as terrifying. This play was work-shopped at Canada’s famous Stratford Festival, and Theatre Inconnu is excited to be the first to bring it fully to life.

Directed by Graham McDonald – director of Inconnu’s recent hit production of The Caretaker - this production features some of Victoria’s top acting talent: Pandora Morgan, Trevor Hinton, Lindsay Alley, Hannah Johnson, Eric Grace, Dennis Eberts, Deborah McDonald, and Shawn Watson. Apropos to the Halloween season, these skilled artists come together to prove that the truth is infinitely more disturbing and terrifying than fiction.

Show dates:

Half price ($6) preview: Wednesday, Oct 17th at 8 pm
Then: Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8 pm until Nov 3rd
*With no show on Friday Oct 26th
*There will be “Pay-what-You–Can” admission on Wednesday, Oct 24th
*There will also be one Saturday afternoon matinee: on Nov 3rd at 2pm

Ticket prices: $10 & $12

Location: 1923 Fernwood Rd. (across from the Belfry Theatre)
Theatre Inconnu is wheelchair accessible.

Information and reservations: 360-0234
Email: tinconnu@islandnet.com
Website: http://www.theatreinconnu.com