The Voyage of the Forest Dream and The Amethyst Incident, fundraiser for Theatre Inconnu and the Maritime Museum of BC

If you have a love of old sea-tales, here's a fundraiser that will be of interest - just in time for spring break. The Forest Dream, under sail. http://glennmci.brinkster.net/ki/images/dream.jpg The Maritime Museum of BC and Theatre Inconnu present: The Voyage of the Forest Dream and The Amethyst Incident: Dramatic readings of two maritime adventures. A joint fundraising event for The MaritimeMuseum and Theatre Inconnu. The Voyage … [Read more...]

SPARK Festival 2013 at the Belfry Theatre

Victorians are fortunate to have a lively, varied and very active performing arts community. A yearly highlight is the Belfry Theatre’s SPARK Festival (March 11th – 24th) of new plays and new ideas. This year there are more than 40 free events and five big shows during the festival - truly something for everyone. Highlights include: A Brimful of Asha - Real-life mother and son, Asha and Ravi Jain, each defend their side of this true (and … [Read more...]

Spring Theatre 2013, Victoria BC

Spring is a busy time traditionally in Victoria BC theatre, and 2013 is no exception. The period March to May is book-ended by festivals - the Belfry Theatre's Spark Festival in March, and Intrepid Theatre's UNO Fest at the end of May - and includes theatre for all tastes, with three (Let's Make an Opera/the Little Sweep, the 39 Steps and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown) that would be appropriate for young audiences (without being children's … [Read more...]

16th annual Victoria French Fest, March 7-10th, 2013

Centennial Square is the site of the 16th annual Victoria French Fest. Celebrate French culture and heritage March 7 - 10th, 2013 in Victoria BC with free events for children, drumming workshops, sugar shack, artisans marketplace, performances and more!  (Complete program guide -in French and English here). Most free events take place noon – 4 pm in the Square. The Festival opens Thursday March 7th with a mixer (le 5 à 7) at the Sticky … [Read more...]

Saltwater Inc presents: Side by Side by Sondheim – February 28 – March 3rd, 2013

One of my highlights of the 2010 Victoria Fringe Festival was seeing Saltwater Inc's production of Kurt Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel. Joanna Hounsell had only recently formed Saltwater, and this was an ambitious project, complete with projections and choreography.  Now, she brings the music of one of musical theatre's most-awarded composers and lyricists, Stephen Sondheim, to the stage with Side by Side by Sondheim. This revue features songs from … [Read more...]

In the Next Room at Theatre Inconnu – a review

Ah, those Victorians – they certainly get a bum rap as stuffy, given their adventurous natures. One wonders if our descendants will laugh as much at our sexual antics as we do at theirs in “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play” currently at Theatre Inconnu. A doctor (Julian Cervello) invents an electrical device to treat hysteria in women (and sometimes, men).  Misconceptions about sex, desire and orgasm abound in this rollicking and rapid … [Read more...]

Helen’s Necklace at the Belfry Theatre – a review

What woman has not, on losing a treasured object, turned house and home upside-down, searching until it is found, remaining inconsolable if it is not?  Helen, in Carol Frechette’s miniature parable Helen’s Necklace, (Belfry Theatre) echoes the common response in an uncharacteristic way. … [Read more...]

Reasons To Be Pretty at UVic Phoenix Theatre – a review

The language is as blue as the collars of the four young working class protagonists in Neil La Bute’s Reasons To Be Pretty but it is not gratuitous. Filled with all the passions and dreams of these twenty-somethings on the cusp of adult-hood, this naturalistic, sprawling juggernaut of a tale moves rapidly from scene to scene, underscored by the throbbing music of  “the Boss” himself – Bruce Springsteen. Reasons To Be Pretty premiered in 2008, … [Read more...]

Wired Arts Festival, the first online performing arts festival

We’re at a pivotal moment in the future of the performing arts, world-wide. New technologies and social media give us the ability to connect, as performers and audiences, in un-paralleled fashion. Kathryn Jones and the team at Virtual Arts TV hope to capitalize on this interest as they present the first online performing arts festival Wired Arts Festival, February 19th – March 2nd, 2013. I first met Kathryn on Twitter, and became very … [Read more...]

The Third Annual Victoria Spoken Word Festival – “Objects in Space”

More than anything else, social media has given me connections to people; people locally in Victoria like Missie Peters - communications professional, spoken word artist, performer and founder of the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. Peters was already an established slam poet, two-time winner of the Victoria Slam, when she had the germ of an idea. She'd toured to other cities with spoken word festivals, but noticed a need for a festival that would … [Read more...]