Wednesday, October 5, 2011
7:30pm
New Brunswick, Canada's Matt Andersen has a larger than life showmanship that has been earning him a fervent and steadfast audience wherever he graces the stage. Matt's sprawling blues, roots and rock musical hybrid with his sorrowing and soulful voice and astonishing guitar-playing has sparked a phenomenal buzz on Canada's East Coast and that grass roots word of mouth cannot be contained any longer!
For more information visit www.stubbyfingers.ca or view the show poster. Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
Friday, October 14, 2011
7:30pm
Ballet Rocks - From Bach to Pink Floyd
Iconic music of the past and present mix with an international palette of choreographers for a hard core ballet performance!
This program will showcase a repertoire of new contemporary ballets by internationally acclaimed choreographers:
- .mov - Bruce Monk, from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, choreographed this work for 7 Ballet Victoria dancers to Pink Floyd in 2009 and he is coming back to extend and remount the piece. The dancers and the audience were enthralled with this work, its physicality and depth. Bruce chose brilliant musical sections from Pink Floyd, the guitar solo from “Sorrow”, “Time” and “is there anybody out there”, Bruce is originally from Vancouver and he is an audience and critic favourite.
- Le Banc - Artistic Director Paul Destrooper will create a new ballet based on a piece created on Ballet Kelowna in 2009. Set to several J.S. Bach Cello Concertos (YOYO MA) the work examines various experiences around a park bench. A simple object that is the gravitational point of so many human emotions: a resting place, a meeting place, a waiting place, a meditating place, a home, a place where memories and experiences linger through time, space, generations, social and cultural condition.
The bench (le banc) is a stage for mankind. The piece laced with humour and a few melancholic moments will definitely trigger strong emotional responses.
The dancers portray distinct circumstances that revolve around the bench: the residence/favourite resting place of a bohemian character, the long-time meeting place of couple in love, the impromptu chance encounter that sparks instant connection. A place where a lonely soul meanders burdened with memories, and where the understanding and compassion of an unexpected bohemian is revealed. In the end, it is a place busy with possibilities and human qualities.
- New work (not yet titled), by french dancer and choreographer Sandrine Cassini, currently dancing with Bejart Ballet Lausanne. She is joining the company this season as a principal artist. Sandrine choreographed quand on a que l’amour to Jacques Brel’s song for BV in the fall of 2010. Sandrine and Paul Destrooper have worked together numerous times over the years when dancing with Ballet BC and Alberta Ballet respectively. She will create a piece to music by Pink Floyd alternating with J.S.Bach.
- Facets of Light – Premiere by Australian dancer and rising star choreographer Paul Knobloch, currently with Bejart Ballet Lausanne. The work will be a pas de deux, set to Bach’s Concert F BWV 1056.
For more information visit www.balletvictoria.ca. Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
Friday, October 21, 7:00pm
Steve Bell Solo Concert
Kindness Tour
Call him the best-kept secret in Canadian music. Winnipeg-based singer/songwriter Steve Bell has enjoyed serious commercial success over a prolific solo career that has spanned two decades, yet he has flown rather under the radar in terms of music industry and media recognition. Despite this, his large and loyal fan base has continued to grow.
Steve Bell’s career statistics are certainly striking. Since releasing his first solo project – Comfort My People – in 1989, he has put out a total of 15 CDs, and they’ve sold over 300,000 copies independently. Add in three concert videos, four songbooks, and an estimated 1,500 concerts, and you have a body of work equaled by very few artists in any genre. Bell’s work has also brought him numerous industry accolades, including two JUNO Awards (Romantics & Mystics, 1998; Simple Songs, 2001), multiple Prairie Music, Covenant, Vibe, and Western Canadian Music Awards.
Beyond the numbers and the crowded trophy shelf lies the fact that Steve Bell’s songs, music, and concerts resonate deeply within the hearts and souls of his fans, providing both solace and inspiration. It is this connection, rather than platinum plaques to hang on the wall, that is Bell’s true goal and his most real achievement. “This is a social thing we are doing,” Steve explains; “It is public work, not just a musical commodity where we are trying to sell as many albums as we can.”
This show presented by Powell River Ministerial. Tickets $15.
For more information, visit stevebell.com or view the poster.
October 30, 2011
2pm
Vaudeville for kids, including a costume contest!
Internationally renowned vaudevillians, Wells & Woodhead (aka: The Sons of Vaudeville) have a new show called FOOLZ: a character-driven amalgam of music, circus arts and comedy that demonstrates the power of synchronicity between two performers with vastly different dispositions.
Wells, the 'dapper Dane,' and Woodhead, the ‘bumbling fool,’ take the audience on a fun-filled ride where anything joyous seems possible. Their circus skills are in the outer limits, but the rudiment of their art is their ability to connect with the crowd. It’s not so much what they do, but rather who they are that creates empathy and pathos with their audience, insuring they’ll be wearing their happy faces long after the show is over.
Recent appearances include: the nationally televised Chinese Comedy Festival from Beijing, The HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas, “Le Plus Grande Cabaret Du Monde”, (Europe’s top-rated TV show), and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
For more information, visit thefoolz.com. Tickets $18/Adult, $14/Senior, $12/Youth, $2/5 and under.
with special guest
CEILISH
Thursday, November 3, 2011
7:30pm
April Verch doesn’t just perform music, she exudes it. The internationally renowned Canadian fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer has a passion for performing and her goal is to touch the lives of those who are listening at any given moment. “The world is this amazing puzzle that we can’t fully understand and music is the joy that pulls it all together and helps us make sense of it,” says Verch, with a dynamic excitement and confidence that makes you believe her in a heartbeat.
For more information visit www.aprilverch.com. Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
Friday, November 18
Saturday, November 19
Wednesday, November 23
Thursday, November 24
Friday, November 25
7:00pm
Directed by Brenda Laycock, this high school musical is truly a community affair with Roy Carson as music director and Grade 12 student Sarah Barton-
Bridges as the choreographer. Gary Huculak designed the sets which were built by VIU Level I Carpentry Foundations class
and decorated by volunteers and local artists. Posters were designed by Kyle Auclair.
Tickets are $10, available at Brooks School office or at the door. Phone 604-483-3171 for details. The office is open Monday through Friday, 9am to 4pm.
Seating is by general admission.
>> Click here to view the poster <<
Winter Band Concert - November 29
Winter Choir Concert - December 1
7:00pm
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
7:30pm
The mystical story of the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia. It is a wonderful tale of tragic life, ripped from history.
The mystery of the seventeen year old Grand Duchess has fascinated people for 90 years, spanning books, movies, and musicals. Anastasia is the story of an innocent girl, a modern myth, and its mysterious surroundings inspire great speculation about the summer of 1918.
Embrace the gripping human drama - the life of a young girl born to privilege and cast into a heartbroken world. Her emotions, aspirations, and affections make a beautiful pivot for the world that transforms around her. Ballet Jörgen Canada, renowned for its storytelling, passionately follows the daughter of the fallen Russian Tsar through St. Petersburg ballrooms, revolutions, captivity, and into the heart of the tragic mystery.
For more information visit www.balletjorgen.ca. Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
THE HUMAN STATUES and THE GOOD LOVELIES
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
7:30pm
Jeff Bryant and Zach Stevenson: together they comprise folk/pop duo The Human Statues. Originally from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, these young men are on a mission to spread “jubilation” across the nation. Whether it’s playing high-energy band shows at festivals such as the Ottawa Blues Fest, or intimate acoustic performances in theatres across the country, Jeff and Zach are committed to connecting with people through humour, authenticity and a love of music and live performance. Often described as a cross-breed between the Flight of the Conchords and Simon and Garfunkel, Jeff and Zach blend an energetic pop sensibility with lyrical depth and love of vocal harmony.
For more information visit www.thehumanstatues.com.
Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, the Good Lovelies' textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and witty on-stage banter have enlivened the folk music landscape since they joined forces in 2006 for their first show at Toronto's funky Gladstone Hotel.
How the Good Lovelies (Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore) got together is a bit of a mystery: Sue remembers meeting her band mates during a limbo competition, Caroline thinks they met at a chess tournament, but Kerri is convinced they first crossed paths during a bar fight... Whatever the story may be, the ladies immediately realized they had something special, so they hit the road on a mission to charm Canadian audiences coast to coast.
For more information visit www.goodlovelies.com.
Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
Canada's Strafford Shakespearean Festival production of
TWELFTH NIGHT
Saturday, March 20, 2012
2:00pm
Live on HDTV via Cineplex
Stratford's Twelfth Night brazenly audacious, infectiously entertaining
"If music be the food of love, play on," muses Orsino in one of Shakespeare's loveliest speeches.
Stratford Shakespeare Festival artistic director Des McAnuff responds with a musical feast fit for a lovesick duke in a gloriously revamped Twelfth Night. Written before the quintet of great tragedies, Twelfth Night is a blend of comedy and tragedy. McAnuff filters the play through musical lenses and, in the process, transforms it into a contemporary rock opera — The Bard meets Tommy or Jersey Boys, as it were.
Call it Twelfth Night, the Musical.
Shakespeare's most perfect comedy contains seven songs and McAnuff and co-composer Michael Roth have expanded the score by freely referencing the history of rock music, employing a range of period and modern instrumentation.
As a result, Illyria, the play's imaginative setting, is transformed from a land of make-believe and romance to a land of pop music inhabited by rock musicians, some of whom we recognize (John Lennon, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen, among others).
Not only does the production succeed brilliantly, it is McAnuff's most imaginative work in his tenure as the festival's artistic steward.
It's a creative triumph for designer Debra Hanson, sound designer Todd Charlton, lighting designer Michael Walton and Roth, who also handles musical direction and arrangements.
Hanson's set is a marvel, starting with a monumental proscenium arch cheekily overwhelming the Festival Theatre's famous thrust stage. Then there's a boat with outboard motor gliding on a sea of mist, a golf green and motorized cart, a tennis court with net and a party room with an open fridge suspended from on high.
Her costumes recall The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's psychedelic period, suggestive of such Illyrian pleasures as mind-expanding drugs and free love.
Twelfth Night promises to be the talk of the season on the strength of its creative chutzpa.
It might not be Shakespeare, baby, but it's cool, cool, cool.
Tickets:
$ 20 adult
$ 18 senior
$ 10 student/child
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
7:30pm
Canadian born, LORNE ELLIOTT has performed from Newfoundland to New York City, from Los Angeles to Australia and points in between. Lorne started performing in 1974 as a folk musician in East Coast Canada. At the same time he kept writing fiction as well as songs, monologues and one-liners. The outcome of such a training is a very special show of comedy and music, totally original, entertaining, up-lifting and foolish enough to make everybody laugh. Along with his unique and wacky performance style, it is the timelessness of his material, joined with keen observations of today's trends that make LORNE ELLIOTT's work so special.
For more information visit www.lorne-elliott.com. Tickets $26/Adult, $24/Senior, $12 Youth.
Returns to The Max Cameron Theatre
Saturday April 21, 7:30pm
"Imagine you are drinking black tea with canned milk, and it is snowing outside. The kitchen smells like homemade soup, and you don't have to work tomorrow so you can sit up all night talking and smoking cigarettes. Or maybe it is a warm night in the middle of July, and you are sitting on a wool blanket in the sand, resting your back against a big-beached log. The lake is smooth as glass and there is plenty of wood for the campfire. Someone is talking, telling you a story."
A local favorite, Ivan Coyote is the star of this evening's performance. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Ivan is an award-winning author but her first love is live storytelling.
General admission; Adults $20, Senior/students $15
For more information, visit www.ivanecoyote.com
~ Postponed to Fall 2012 ~
The Max Cameron Theatre presents MOVE: the company in a double feature event, ALLEMANDE and TOOLS FOR CUTTING, two works choreographed by Artistic Director Josh Beamish.
TOOLS FOR CUTTING originally premiered in February 2010 at the Chutzpah Festival after a month-long creation residency at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. This exploration of male identity as defined by one's relationship to sporting equipment, will soon make its way to Montreal and Toronto.
For video previews and more info please visit:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160709707284681
For more information visit www.movethecompany.com. Tickets TBA.
May 5, 2012
2 pm
From the balance of a peacock feather on his nose, to the rainbow skywriter, to the spectacular and nearly disastrous high-wire walk, Flyin' Bob takes your students on a one hour search for balance.
Through juggling, clowning, unicycling, acrobatics, wire walking, audience participation, comedy, and character, BE THE CIRCUS stresses the importance of physical activity, concentration, peer support, community, and the value of failure as well as success.
Students learn the rewards and consequences of taking risks and taking responsibility for their own actions.
BE THE CIRCUS has mesmerized elementary, junior, and senior school students across the country. When was the last time a show in your school made a kindergartener (is that a word?) and a too-cool senior laugh at the same time? Flyin' Bob fully connects with his audience (probably since he never really grew up himself).
For more information, visit flybob.com. Tickets $18/Adult, $14/Senior, $12/Youth, $2/5 and under.