Monthly Archives: September 2016
PTN Promotes Island Theatre
A group of six Island professional theatre companies have come together to form the Professional Theatre Network of PEI in order to share resources, collaborate, and work with government, all with the purpose of furthering professional theatre on the Island. The six companies are The Charlottetown Festival, The Guild, Harbourfront Theatre, Victoria Playhouse, Watermark Theatre, and Young at Heart.
These companies collectively hire approximately 500 full time, part time, and seasonal workers each year and they spend over $5.5 million annually, proving that professional theatre is a major employer and economic contributor to the Island. The group defines professional theatres as organizations that strive for artistic excellence and in which the artists are consistently paid for their work at a Canadian Actors’ Equity and Associated Designers of Canada standard or its equivalent.
The PTN are planning and have planned several new initiatives. First and foremost is the desire to rally government and corporate support for a large scale marketing initiative promoting Prince Edward Island as a theatre destination. Similar to previous campaigns featuring golf courses and local food, the PTN sees professional theatre as a way to draw more tourists to the Island.
This year, the PTN, along with governmental agencies, began a Mentorship Program in which 16 interns were trained this summer with theatres across the Island. This program will continue into 2017 and beyond.
The PTN is also looking at new ways to offer packaged ticket offers where audience members may buy a “Theatre Passport” to see productions at numerous theatres throughout the summer months. Other coordinated ticketing possibilities are also being explored.
Possible collaboration opportunities include joint Events (March 27th), joint marketing opportunities, additional training or development partnerships, and sharing resources whenever possible. A theatre blog has been launched at http://www.peitheatre.com as a way to promote all the theatres productions at one location.
In addition to their monthly meetings, representatives of the PTN have already, and will continue, to attend outside meetings and conferences voicing the concerns and wishes of the group, all in the hopes of furthering attendance to theatrical events and fueling the provincial economy.
For further information and/or to set up an interview with any of the member theatre companies please contact Catherine O’Brien at cathjobrien@gmail.com or 902-393-9419.
Green Gables 1967
Singing for Your Supper
This Sunday, October 2 Confederation Centre Youth Chorus is presenting a fundraising concert at 3pm, St. Paul’s Anglican Church to support the upcoming chorus tour to Rome & Naples, Italy in April 2017.
The concert is directed by Donald Fraser, accompanied by Sara White and will feature a variety of choir favourites! A free-will offering will be collected.
Green Gables 1966
Ferrier Shows Alaska Paintings
The Alaska cruise was closely surrounded by the magnificent Rocky Mountains. Humanity clung to their precipitous sides. We embarked from Vancouver where, in Stanley Park we viewed authentic Totem Poles. It was June- Long days and calm seas. The first stop was the state capital- Juneau, where a tour boat took us out to see pods of whales.
From our stateroom, actually from anywhere on the ship, we had close-up views of the Rockies. We went up the Inside Passage to Skagway from where, 118 years ago would-be millionaires took off for the Klondike Gold Rush.. Since the only province/territory in Canada I hadn’t visited was the Yukon, we went partly by bus and partly by train- with original coaches clinging to the rails, deep into the mountains to Caribou Crossing.
It was an artist’s paradise. The on to Glacier Bay, where the ice on the Margerie Glacier refracted a beautiful aqua light. Our final stop was Ketchikan. I declined to go on the Zipline with my grand-daughter. I stayed on board and sketched the coastline and watched the small planes flitting about.
Nan Ferrier’s Painting’s of the Alaska Cruise are at The Guild starting September 28.
Green Gables 1965
Tribute to Dad Hagg
The East Coast Production Group invites you to celebrate the life and music of Merle Haggard as performed in an inspiring homage by his son Marty Haggard.
Marty’s love for his Dad’s music inspired him to begin a project titled “A Tribute to Merle Haggard “My Dad””.
In 2010, he cut the first album in his tribute consisting of 15 Hag classics. It was so well received that in 2011 he recorded a second Tribute album to his Dad. Marty has spent the last five years performing all over the United States and Canada plus England, Ireland and Scotland. Marty is currently working on a new album of his own music and plans on more of his Dad’s songs soon.
Mr. Haggard’s tour features Merle’s long time guitar player Mr. Eugene Moles. The duo will make two stops with The East Coast Production Group. The first, in Moncton at the Moncton Wesleyan Celebration Centre and the second, at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside, PEI.
Marty Haggard is at the Harbourfront Theatre on Tuesday, September 27 at 7:30 PM.
Final Countdown at the Festival
Confederation Centre is proud to present one more week of the touching new musical Belles Soeurs: The Musical — the closing production of a very memorable Charlottetown Festival season. Crackling with electricity and performed by a powerhouse all-female cast, Belles Sœurs plays the Homburg Theatre until Saturday, October 1.
For a limited time, the Centre is offering 35% off theatre tickets for this heartfelt rags to riches story. To obtain this special discount – for Tier 1 & 2 seating only – patrons should contact the box office, quoting promo code ‘belles35’.
This promo ends on Monday, September 26 and for more information or tickets, visit confederationcentre.com/charlottetownfestival or contact the box office, toll-free, at 1 (800) 565.0278.
In Belles Soeurs: The Musical we meet working-class housewife Germaine Lauzon, played by Canadian treasure and Dora Award-winner Lisa Horner (Little Mosque on the Prairie; Kinky Boots; Wizard of Oz; Les Mis). Germaine wins one million department store stamps – the Jamie Oliver stamps of the 1960’s – and invites her Montreal family and friends over to celebrate. But pride + greed = envy! The women complain aggressively, overshare shamelessly, and fantasize freely while secretly coveting Germaine’s precious stamps.
Richly textured and outrageously fun, Belles Sœurs will sweep you through joy and drama, laughter and tears, all resonating through the medium of the modern musical. Audiences will fall in love with hits such as ‘I Want it All,’ ‘Johnny,’ and the incredible ‘Ode to Bingo,’ leaving them humming for days.
This touching musical is based on Michel Tremblay’s internationally-celebrated play and is produced by Copa de Oro and the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts. Adapted and directed by René Richard Cyr in collaboration with the award winning duo Neil Bartram and Brian Hill, Tremblay’s tale takes on a whole new dimension in this musical Opening Night Reviews calls: “Hilarious, a landmark piece of theatre…a quiet riot of piety and a cautionary tale of commercialism.”
The Charlottetown Festival is presented by CIBC. Confederation Centre wishes to recognize the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Government of P.E.I., and the City of Charlottetown for their continued support. Media sponsors are The Guardian, Hot 105.5, Ocean 100, and CTV.
Last Call, Last Call…
Last Call for Three Summer Exhibitions at CCAG
With ‘Secret Citadel’ closing, Graeme Patterson to lead ArtTalk and Tour Sunday, September 25 at 2 p.m.
It’s closing time for three visual art exhibitions that have been turning heads all summer at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. This month is the last chance to view works from Graeme Patterson, Landon Mackenzie, and Gwen Michaud.
Showing until September 25 in the Upper and Lower East Galleries, Graeme Patterson: Secret Citadel explores the trials and tribulations of male friendship through a four part sculptural/video installation and an experimental animated narrative. Based in Sackville, New Brunswick, Patterson works in miniatures, using tiny figures in stop-motion to explore much bigger themes and stories. Although based on specific memories of the artist’s past, Secret Citadel draws you into its captivating worlds by highlighting universal themes of love and loss, play and competition, companionship and loneliness.
Patterson will lead an ArtTalk and public tour through his exhibition this Sunday September 25 at 2 p.m. in the Art Gallery. There is no cost to attend and all are welcome to hear this first-hand account of how the touring exhibition came to life from one of Canada’s most exciting young artists.
B.C.’s Landon Mackenzie is a nationally-known Canadian artist, admired for her large-scale works using paint on canvas. Less widely known are her works on paper, which she produces in high numbers as a tandem practice to her larger paintings, often while travelling. Showing in the Upper West Gallery until September 25, Landon Mackenzie: Parallel Journey: Works on Paper (1975-2015) takes the viewer on a journey through the past four decades of Mackenzie’s art production on paper, beginning with a watercolour the artist painted when she was 14 years old, and concluding in the year 2015.
Showing in the Centre’s concourse cases until October 2 is Gwen Fichaud: Arranging the Local. This exhibition provides an overview of the work of Fichaud (1915-1988). Born in Montreal, Fichaud took up painting full time in 1964, a few years after moving to P.E.I, where she became an early supporter of the Centre and chair of the Women’s Committee. She was immediately taken with Island history and the pastoral landscape, and her work ranged from country scenes to studies of flora and fauna, to images of local community. Her work was always focused on carefully arranged details, presenting facts and anecdotes about the Island way of life and its natural setting. The high horizons and ordered compositions of the artist’s images allow a maximum of visual information to be brought together within a single frame.
“The great variety of characters, colours, activities, and incidents in Fichaud’s crowd scenes are tightly organized and brought together into an ordered whole that mirrors her vision of community,” remarks Pan Wendt, gallery curator. “Made by an urban settler impressed by the apparent naturalness and harmony of Island life, these works articulate an ideal rural Prince Edward Island.”
Theatre PEI 