I sit, mesmerized, eyes closing, as “Big Mama” (Jackie Richardson) sings the slowest, most heart-felt rendition of Summertime I have ever heard, seeming to tease my very soul from its body. Big Mama! The Willie Mae Thornton Story, a Belfry Theatre/National Arts Centre co-production, is a blues musical feast, exposing Victoria audiences to an often under-appreciated stalwart of the 1950s-1980s blues scene. I am a blues fan, but, … [Read more...]
Big Mama! The Willie Mae Thornton Story at the Belfry Theatre. A review.
July 30, 2012 By 4 Comments
CCPA Performing Arts Party at Uptown
July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
As I’ve shared before, there is a special place in my heart for the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA). The Canadian College of Performing Arts is one of Canada’s top training centres for a career in the arts. Over the past 14 years, the Victoria-based College has made a difference in the lives of gifted young artists who have taken major steps towards their goals of becoming performers, teachers and arts leaders in communities across … [Read more...]
Announcing the first Singe Festival, Victoria BC, August 24th – September 2nd
July 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Announcing Victoria’s very first “off-Fringe” Festival - The Singe Festival (August 24th – September 2nd) featuring three of Victoria’s hottest and best known performers: Mike Delamont (Pick of the Fringe comedian 2011), Dave Morris (Pick of the Fringe improviser 2011) and Missie Peters (M-Award winning spoken word artist). Disappointed at not being selected in the Fringe lottery, and well aware that this year the Victoria Fringe Festival … [Read more...]
The Path by Impulse Theatre – a review
July 5, 2012 By 2 Comments
As the warm July day reaches a soft close and the sun heads slowly west, imbuing the air with golden light, we're gathered in the reception area of The English Inn, a period 1906 McClure mansion, prior to embarking on The Path, the newest site-specific interactive theatre experience from emerging Victoria company, Impulse Theatre. With drinks in hand, we follow our guide down the back stairs and into the magnificent gardens. She briefly … [Read more...]
Ocean Fox by Castlereigh Theatre Project – July 27/28 Intrepid Theatre Club
July 5, 2012 By 1 Comment
Castlereigh Theatre Project returns to Victoria for the première of their newest docu-drama Ocean Fox July 27th and 28th. Last seen at the YOU Show (Intrepid Theatre Club) in 2011 for a staged reading of their controversial work Castle in the Sky, the brother-sister playwriting duo of Jude Thaddeus Allen and Francesca Albright have been assiduously pursuing their storytelling vision. Ocean Fox is verbatim theatre, based on hundreds of hours … [Read more...]
Of Mice and Men, Blue Bridge Theatre, a review
July 4, 2012 By 1 Comment
With heart-breaking inevitability, the cast in Of Mice and Men, Blue Bridge Theatre’s current production, play out the unfolding tragedy in the lives of a pair of Depression-era migrant workers, George and Lennie. Originally written in 1937 as a play-novella by the Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, this contemporary classic has the dubious distinction of being one of the most challenged books in North American literary history for its … [Read more...]
Theatre Skam’s Bike Ride 2012
July 2, 2012 By 2 Comments
Despite some rather soggy weather on the second weekend, Theatre SKAM’s fourth annual Bike Ride live outdoor theatre festival along the Galloping Goose trail attracted large and enthusiastic crowds of cycling theatre-lovers. Matthew Payne, one of the original founders of Theatre SKAM, based Bike Ride on a concept seen at HIVE in Vancouver where theatre-goers moved from space to space to view mini-plays and vignettes. He first experimented with … [Read more...]
Impulse Theatre presents The Path on the grounds of The English Inn
June 28, 2012 By 1 Comment
With summer comes the opportunity to enjoy theatre outdoors. This year a group of emerging artists, Impulse Theatre, has arranged with the venerable Victoria landmark, The English Inn, to perform their original work The Path on the stunning lawns of this historic McClure mansion. Formerly know as The Old England Inn and home to a replica of Anne Hathaway’s cottage, the site was an absolute must-visit for any tourist to Victoria in the 1980s … [Read more...]
The Foreigner by Langham Court Theatre – a review
June 15, 2012 By 3 Comments
Langham Court ends their season with the audience-pleasing “good guys vs bad guys” Obie-awarded comedy, The Foreigner. Playwright Larry Shue, considered at the time to be a rising star, had achieved success for his previous play, The Nerd, and was working on a screen play for The Foreigner when his life was cut short in a tragic commuter plane crash in 1985. Set at a fishing lodge in rural Georgia, The Foreigner examines the question “what … [Read more...]
A Summer of Theatre in Victoria BC 2012
June 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A wonderful summer of theatre awaits with productions by Theatre Inconnu and Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre underway. What do you plan to see from the shows outlined below? Will some skillful scheduling, I hope to take them all in! JUNE The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh Theatre Inconnu June 1 – 16 It’s 11 o’clock in the morning in a council flat on the Walworth Road. In two hours’ time, as is normal, three Irish men will have consumed six … [Read more...]
