Warm winds and melty days – spring is in the air. Or is that creativity? There seems to be clouds of it floating around Calgary these days. There’s just so much awesome on the calendar this week and it’s all here in the Round Up.
Noir with a Twist
A cast of unlikely characters invade their author’s apartment in Stage West’s And Then, the Lights Went Out.
Photo courtesy of Stage West Calgary
A dingy Edmonton apartment. A writer struggling to finish his newest project. A sweltering heat wave partnered with an overbearing landlady who wants the AC off to save costs. You can’t blame author Thomas Levine for starting to unravel.
But when his characters start appearing in his apartment offering him advice on what to write things get really interesting. It doesn’t help that they’re drinking all his liquor and demanding better roles.
Stage West’s current production And Then, the Lights Went Out is a wonderful and unique piece of dinner theatre staple – the murder mystery. Written by Alberta-born and educated playwright Andy Garland, the show nails the character archetypes and pokes fun at the noir theme in a delightful way.
“It started back when I was still in school at Red Deer College,” he explains. “In between semesters I was at a garage sale in Edmonton and I came across a copy of the Maltese Falcon. I read it cover to cover and loved it. I got really into noir fiction and at that point I was just starting out playwriting. I started out just trying to write a straight up film noirish type play and then the subplot of the writer trying to write the story at the same time crept in.”
It took about a year, off and on to get finished and went through a long development dating back to workshops at Central Alberta Theatre in Red Deer. It also received distinction as the runner-up in the 2009 Alberta Playwriting Competition. From there it sat quietly for a few years before being officially debuted onstage in 2014 at Workshop Theatre. Now, being produced by a company like Stage West, the show is gathering steam and it’s easy to see why. It’s funny, refreshing and a great blend of film noir and comedy.
The characters are really the heart of the piece.
“There’s plenty of stereotypes and clichés in film noir,” Andy says. “I wanted to try to play with those as much as possible, not just with the characters but with the lives behind the characters. For example, Jim O’Reiley [played by Trevor Leigh] the private eye. He’s jaded, cynical and bitter. That gets passed on to Thomas the writer [played by Warren Bain]. For Bruno [played by Luke Marty] he’s the nameless, faceless thug who just wants a bit more. Like a personally and defining traits… something more than just Goon #3 who takes a shot and falls off the camera. End of story. All of these characters have been written into these boxes, into these corners and they’re struggling for a way to break out of them. They all want more.”
And Then, the Lights Went Out runs until April 12 at Stage West Calgary.
What Really Happened In Those Woods?
Ciaran Volke stars as Steven Truscott and Emma Ross as Lynne in Workshop Theatre’s presentation of Steven: The Steven Truscott Story written by Calgary’s own Louis B Hobson.
Photo courtesy of Workshop Theatre
Before this week the name Steven Truscott didn’t mean anything to me.
I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know that he was sentenced to hang for a crime he didn’t commit. I didn’t know that he was only 14-years-old when that sentence came down.
But, thanks to Workshop Theatre’s upcoming world premiere of Steven: The Steven Truscott Story, I do now.
Written by Calgary’s own Louis B Hobson, who is most known as the voice of Calgary Sun’s entertainment section, the play covers a dark time in Canadian history.
It tells the true story of 14-year-old Steven Truscott, the youngest person to sit on Canada’s death row.
In the summer of 1959, 12-year-old Lynne Harper was found raped and strangled to death in farm woodlot near Clinton, Ontario. Days later, Steven was charged with her murder and, after a two week trial by jury, he was found guilty and sentenced to hang.
“It is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the greatest cases in injustice in the Canadian legal system,” explains Louis. “This was a 14 and a half-year-old boy and they were willing and determined to have him hanged. He didn’t do it, as we clearly show in the stage play. But even if he had, this is a 14-year-old boy. What were they doing trying him in an adult courtroom? It was a horrendous miscarriage of justice.”
At the centre of the play is a reenactment of the crime as the prosecution presented it to the jury.
“What I really tried to do was show visually what they gave to the jury as what happened in those woods,” he continues. “And when you see it, presented to you visually, you go – That’s impossible.”
In the second act, they’re going to show you what happened to him in prison.
“Everything was stacked against him and I think we have to see that. We have to see that our legal system is not infallible,” continues Louis. “I think that’s what the The Steven Truscott Story points out. It was this trial, it was Steven Truscott’s trial, because of this we no longer have the death penalty.”
In 1967, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled he had gotten a bad trial and if he had been allowed to testify in 1959, he wouldn’t have been found guilty. The Ontario Court of Appeal looked the case again after Steven filed an application for review in 2001, but it wasn’t until 2007 that he was acquitted.
“He spent 48 trying to clear his name,” says Louis. “He and his wife Marlene and his mother Doris refused to give up and I think that’s what makes them heroes. True Canadian heroes. And that’s why his story deserves to be told.”
Steven: The Steven Truscott Story runs February 27 to March 7 at the Pumphouse Theatres (2140 Pumphouse Ave SW).
Why We Need Public Art
Now, it’s time to get a bit personal – this is a column after all.
2015 has been kicking my butt and I know I’m not the only one that’s been having a hard time.
From the loss of One Yellow Rabbit’s Michael Green to the tumbling economy to the upcoming last printed edition of FFWD, it seems that Calgary’s arts community is taking a kicking too. But, the debate that’s going to happen behind today at City Hall over suspending the City of Calgary’s Public Art Program, like Mayor Naheed Nenshi said at last week’s Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions, it’s incredibly short sighted.
Councillor Peter Demong put forward the motion and, if successful will see Public Art funding under the program suspended for 2015.
Calgary Arts Development put out an elegant and poignant open letter last week urging the members of council to reconsider. (Read the whole text here.)
“Strong arts make for a better city and we urge you to not support the motion put forward,” it reads.
It also encourages everyone to reach out to their councillors and voice their support for the program.
There’s been a lot of blame placed on Travelling Light – also known as the blue thing that was a waste of money hanging out by the airport – and that’s simply not fair. I myself don’t personally like it, mostly because the placement of it, but the fact that it’s grabbed people’s attention, got them to discuss – sometimes rather venomously – what it is, why it came to be and what is the purpose behind public art is wonderful. And that’s what GREAT art does. It provokes feeling – not only good ones – and stirs passions.
In that regard Travelling Light has been a huge success not to mention it’s biggest criticism, the fact that the artists aren’t local, can be countered with it was built locally by the same firm that built the beloved Wonderland by Jaume Plensa.
You can also read Sarah Pynoo’s Five Pieces of Public Art that Make For A Better Calgary for more examples of awesome public art.
Personally, I think life would be pretty drab without public art. There’s nothing more exciting that stumbling upon a piece that intrigues you, grabs you and makes you stand in awe.
It’s not guarded behind the walls of a gallery making it not so much owned by someone rather owned by us all. It brightens spaces and days. It brings art to everyone.
I can remember, as a child sticking my nose to the window every time we whizzed by the Brotherhood of Mankind by Mario Armengol. Better known as the Family of Man, the 21 foot tall gathering stands at 1st Street and 6th Avenue at the former Calgary Board of Education offices. And it always looked like there was a meeting of giants to a child. I didn’t know it was public art, but I wanted to go visit them, talk to them, hear what they were saying and ask them where their clothes were. I never got a chance until I was grown to visit the site, but that memory of those giants and my nose against cold glass remains.
Just think, that giant blue hula-hoop has to have enamoured at least one child as they zoomed by on the Deerfoot, heads filled with thoughts of a giant’s swinging hips and a whirling loop.
So. Please. Don’t.
We need public art, especially in times like these. Because every smile it brings is worth it’s weight on gold.
UPDATE: Just before 11am on Monday, the motion failed with a 9-5 vote meaning the one per cent for the Public Art Program will remain intact throughout 2015. City manager Jeff Fielding also said $20 million in savings will be brought to council in March or April although it’s not yet known what the details are.
Some Well Deserved Cudos
We have some amazing talent here in Calgary. And seven Legacy Artist Award winners were honoured at Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions last week in front of a sold out crowd.
Organized by Calgary Arts Development and the Office of the Mayor, the event has sold out for the third year in a row with over 675 Calgarians from all sectors gathering to celebrate arts in Calgary.
This year’s recipients of the Cultural Leaders Legacy Artist Awards were:
Aaron Sidorenko (ATB Financial Healing Through the Arts Award)
Hamraz Salehi (Calgary Catholic Immigration Society New Canadian Artist Award)
Nicole Mion (Colin Jackson and Arlene Strom Creative Placemaking Award)
Rebecca Northan (Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award)
Mark Ikeda (Enbridge Emerging Artist Award)
Col Cseke (MacLachlan Community Beacon Award)
Studio C (SANDSTONE City Builder Award)
Winners received a $5,000 cash prize and the ever amazing Rebecca Northan received a residency at The Banff Centre as the winner of the Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award. During the event she also announced that she would donate $1000 of her prize money to Ellis Lalonde, a young theatre artist she mentors.
The event was hosted by Dave Kelly and featured speakers science journalist Jay Ingram, Calgary Downtown Association Executive Director Maggie Schofield, and writer, director and stage performer Karen Hines, as well as a conversation with Mayor Naheed Nenshi. Dozens of young Calgary artists were also on hand as part of the Youth Arts Showcase including music ensembles, circus performers, ballet and hip hop dancers, and visual arts and multimedia installations.
Attendees also observed a moment of silence for One Yellow Rabbit co-founder Michael Green, Blackfoot elder Narcisse Blood and Saskatchewan artists Michele Sereda and Lacy Morin-Desjarlais, who were killed in a highway accident on February 10.
“Michael’s passing has been a shock to the entire arts community,” says Patti Pon, President & CEO of Calgary Arts Development in a statement. “However, I know that the arts will not only help us recover from this loss, but continue to flourish in Calgary. The strength and energy of the arts champions at this year’s lunch proves to me, once again, how many citizens believe in a creative, connected Calgary through the arts.”
Arts Out and About
Lets have a look at the arts calendar and see what else is on the go, shall we?
Well. Over at AVALANCHE! Institute of Contemporary Art they’re opening an exhibition of new work by local visual artist Stephen Nachtigall titled tfw.
Having exhibited internationally and he is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Oregon.
tfw runs February 27 to March 28 at AVALANCHE! with an opening reception this Friday, February 27 at 8pm.
A limited edition print has also been produced and can be seen here.
And if you haven’t made it over to The New Gallery’s Main Space to see Jacqueline Hoang Nguyen’s Space Fiction & the Archives, you might want to make time to swing by.
Focusing on St Paul, Alberta and their UFO Landing Pad built in 1967, the exhibition presents a short film titled 1967: A People Kind of Place and a photograph of world’s first UFO Landing Pad.
Space Fiction & the Archives runs until March 28. Details here.
At the Esker Foundation they’re hosting an Artist Talk with Luanne Martineau this week to complement their current programming which is part of Oh, Canada: Contemporary Art from North North America.
Luanne will be discussing some of the shifting processes and material transitions central to her art practice focusing on her newest large-scale textile pieces. Those pieces bring together a patchwork of materials “cannibalizing” images and forms from her previous work.
The talk goes down this Friday, Feb 27 from 7pm to 8pm and is free but registration is required. Head here for all the details.
Another visual arts treat is Calgary Allied Arts Foundation’s Open Studio with artist in residence Kyle Beal.
For the two months, he has worked to complete a body of work that includes charcoal drawings, digital prints, and mixed media sculpture for his upcoming exhibition Electric Park at Douglas Udell Gallery (Edmonton, AB) as well as preparatory research and design for the work Roulette – an interactive installation slated for show at TRUCK in April.
This is a great chance to see what goes into preparing for shows.
The Open studio takes place this Wednesday, February 25 from 6-8pm (doors 6pm to 6:30pm) at #503, 319 10 Ave SW (enter through East door in back alley). Kyle finishes his residency this week.
Switching gears to the art of film, Calgary Cinematheque’s Masters: Agnes Varda series concludes this week with a showing of 1985’s Vagabond.
Sandrine Bonnaire plays the defiant young drifter Mona, found frozen to death in a ditch at the beginning of Vagabond, a role that won her the Best Actress César. Using flashbacks to tell her story, the film is a splintered portrait of an enigmatic woman.
It all goes down this Thursday, February 26 at 7pm at The Plaza Theatre. Details here.
And this week is a theatrical smorgasbord.
In addition to the shows featured earlier in the Round Up there are offerings from The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions, Third Street Theatre and Ellipsis Tree Collective Theatre Company.
Presented for Black History Month 2015, Ellipsis Tree Collective Theatre Company’s production of The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God by Djanet Sears – the final play in their ground-breaking Black Canadian Theatre Series.
Set in Negro Creek – a historically accurate and lesser known Black Community in Ontario – Adventures introduces us to Rainey Johnson who still wrought with guilt over the death of her daughter. Navigating through the heartache of pending divorce and a disconnected relationship with her ailing father she seeks meaning, purpose and salvation.
The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God runs February 26 to March 1 at the Arrata Opera Centre (1315 7 St SW). Details here.
The Shakespeare Company have teamed up with Hit & Myth Productions to present Bill Cain’s Equivocation – a high stakes political thriller.
Prime Minister Robert Cecil commissions Shagspeare to write the “True Historie” of the Gunpowder Plot (Remember, remember the 5th of November), he and his men discover the King’s version may be a cover-up. Does he take the money and betray his moral principles, or risk his and his fellow Globe actors’ lives by writing a play that tells the truth?
Starring Christian Goutsis, Joel Cochrane, Karl Sine, Brian Jensen, Geoffrey Simon Brown, and Geneviève Paré, this is going to be a great production.
Equivocation runs February 26 to March 7 in Lunchbox Theatre (160, 115 9 Ave SE).
And Third Street Theatre is once again remounting Ludwig & Lohengrin – a fairytale for adults by Kyall Rakoz.
Winner of Best Solo Performance of the year at the 2014 Calgary Critics Awards, this show is based on historical events that speak to the struggle between desires of the heart and societal expectations through poignant and comedic storytelling. It tells the story of Ludwig the second, a Bavarian King renowned for his patronage of the arts—in particular the operas of Wagner— and his fascination with building fantastical castles and his obsession with fairytales.
In it Kyall uses little more than a white sheet and paper swan to play 17 characters that all want to weigh in about the so-called “mad” or “swan” King.
Running February 24 to 28, at the Motel Theatre in Arts Commons (205 8 Ave SE), if you haven’t caught this play yet, make sure you do.
And last, but certainly not least, are our friends at Lovecraft Gallery (121, 1803 60 Street SE) with a bunch of events this week that you might want to check out.
First up is a workshop by Mara Davies on Thursday, February 26 introducing wire wrapping.
Aimed at those new to jewelry making, this $35 workshop includes materials to make one pair of earrings to take home. Details here.
Then on Saturday, February 28 join them for a book reading and signing with Darren Morrison, the author of Moxie Fox Has Adventure for Breakfast.
Moxie Fox: Super Adventure Girl is a sweet little fox girl who doesn’t let adventures get in the way of breakfast (or anything else)! The book is enjoyable for adults to read to children, as well as for kids to read to themselves or each other – ages four to eight.
Details here.
A whole list of their upcoming workshops can be found here as well.
Do you have something awesome coming up and want to be part of the Calgary Arts Round Up? Drop me a line at amy @ calgaryisawesome.com!