Monthly Archives: August 2017

News Flash

Watermark Helps Fund Actor’s Fund

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Watermark Theatre is proud to announce that $1,617 was raised last week through audience collections and company contributions for the Actors Fund Of Canada (AFC). Generous audience members of Barefoot in the Park on August 23rd and Mrs. Warren’s Profession on August 24th reached into their pockets and donated to an extremely important organization to actors across the country. Cast, crew, administrators, and board directors at the theatre also contributed.

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The AFC is the lifeline for Canada’s entertainment industry. Through compassionate and confidential support, the organization helps Canadian entertainment professionals maintain their health, dignity and ability to work. The AFC is an expression of the community’s goodwill, helping entertainment professionals when they are at their most vulnerable due to injury, illness or other personal hardship.

In the past 24 months, the AFC has distributed over $1 million in emergency financial aid to help entertainment professionals working in all aspects of film & TV, music, theatre and dance. The AFC believes by supporting the health and wellbeing of arts and entertainment professionals, the industry as a whole will benefit. In a sector in which employment can be unpredictable, it’s good to know that a caring community is looking out for their most vulnerable.

‘There are many rewards to a life in the theatre in this country, one of them is not financial”, says Artistic Director Robert Tsonos. “Three members of our company, including myself, have been helped in the past by the AFC when we were in financial distress”. Actors Jerry Getty and Ian Deakin are the other two who found themselves in a financial jam at one point in their career. “We’re thrilled to be able to do our part to help our fellow actors and really appreciate those in the audience who contributed”, says Tsonos.

To donate to the AFC go to: http://afchelps.ca

For more information please contact Andrea Surich at 902-963-3963 or generalmanager@watermarktheatre.com

Music

All You Need is Hat Fitz & Cara

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Celtic blues from Australia and Ireland comes to Summerside when the musical duo Hat Fitz & Cara make their first visit to Harbourfront Theatre. Hat Fitz is a veteran of the blues scene in Australia with a record 18 straight appearances at Byron’s East Coast Blues and Roots Festival. Cara draws on her soul background and although blessed with a sensational voice, has also taken to drumming duties as well as washboards, flute and tin whistle, sometimes all at once.

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Blues and Soul magazine praises the duo:  “Aussie bluesman Hat Fitz and Irish-born folksinger Cara Robinson are a striking pair. He is a giant raggedy-bearded man, maybe the lost member of ZZ Top who lives deep in the woods and eats anything that moves. She is a petite blonde, who barely reaches his shoulders. He has a deep, gruff Howlin’ Wolf-esqe voice while she dances with angels in her vocal. He plays wonderful resonator guitar. Her instrument is that sweet and soulful voice. It’s all she needs…”

Hat Fitz & Cara are at the Harbourfront Theatre on Saturday, September, 9th, at 7:30 PM.

State of the Art

Mother Daughter Art Show Opens

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A new PEI artist, Barbara MacLeod, will be having her first art show from August 30 to September 10 at The Gallery at the Guild.
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Barb spent most of her career as a retail entrepreneur, opening Whipper Snapper, The Fun Toy Store, and The Uncommon Grocer in Charlottetown. Over the past 5 years, painting has become a big part of her life. Influenced by her mother who passed away in 2002, picking up a paintbrush didn’t seem like a big leap.
News Flash

Keynote Speaker Announced for Theatre Conference

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Confederation Centre of the Arts is pleased to announce Bob Martin as the keynote speaker for The Charlottetown Festival Theatre Conference happening Sept 5-9, 2017.

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“We’re excited to have Mr. Martin, a champion of Canadian theatre, as our keynote speaker for this important event,” said Adam Brazier, Artistic Director of The Charlottetown Festival. “His experience as both an actor and a writer, will bring an invaluable wealth of knowledge and inspiration to our attendees.”

Martin has worked as an actor and writer in theatre, film and television for over 30 years. He has received many awards in both Canada and the U.S., including a Tony for his portrayal of “Man in Chair” in The Drowsy Chaperone. This original Canadian musical not only made it to Broadway and the West End, but went on to win five Tony Awards in total, including the first for Canadian writers. Martin is also well known as the co-creator of Slings & Arrows, the hit Canadian television show about running a Shakespearean theatre festival.

The Theatre Conference, a national gathering, kicks off on September 5 with the performance of Kronborg 1582 in the Homburg Theatre followed by four packed days of showcases of new Canadian works, breakout sessions, panel discussions and more, culminating with the world premiere of the new musical, A Misfortune at The Mack. Martin will give his keynote speech on September 7 at 11:00 a.m. in Memorial Hall.

Aligning with the dates of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference, The Charlottetown Festival Conference will celebrate industry developments and new ideas as well as showcase some of the new musical theatre content being created in Atlantic Canada. The winners of the 2017 Charlottetown Festival Commission will also be revealed, who will receive $50,000 in funding to develop new works.

Special thanks are extended to the Government of Canada for their support of Confederation Centre; and The Charlottetown Festival sponsor, CIBC. Appreciation is extended to media sponsors Ocean 100, Hot 105.5, CTV, and The Guardian.

For more information, to purchase your conference pass, and see full conference schedule

News Flash

25 Hundred and Counting

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The Confederation Centre of the Arts will be commemorating the 2500th showing of Anne of Green Gables—The Musical™ at its August 23rd matinee performance with door prizes, treats, and cast appearances.

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Factoids:

Anne of Green Gables—The Musical™ is officially recognized as the longest running annual musical theatre production in the world. The production had its official opening night on July 27, 1965 and since then 18 actresses have played the role of Anne. Over the 1991 season, 57,549 people saw Anne of Green Gables – The Musical™ at Confederation Centre and as of today that number will reach over two million.

For more information and tickets please visit: http://www.confederationcentre.com/en/show/2-Anne-of-Green-Gables-The-Musical

Music

Elvis Returns to the Harbourfront

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THANE DUNN WITH SPECIAL GUEST BILL BAIZE OF THE STAMPS QUARTET

40 years ago the world lost the King of Rock and Roll. On August 24, come and celebrate the life, the music and the man who is still loved by millions to this day with the best in the business…

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Don’t miss International World Champion Thane Dunn with extra special guest, direct from Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Bill Baize of the Legendary Stamps Quartet who performed with Elvis from 1971-76. It’s like stepping out of a time machine and into the coolest decade ever with new songs, new suits and more of the world class magic that you’ve come to expect from Thane Dunn and the Cadillac Kings. Get your VIP pre-show meet and greet tickets while they last.

Elvis is at the Harbourfront Theatre on Thursday, August 24th at 7 PM.

State of the Art

Gallery Unveils New Commission

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Anishnaabe artist, Robert Houle, a member of the Sandy Bay First Nation, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, recently attended the opening of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery’s major permanent collection exhibition, RE:collection, and made introductory remarks and presented a public art talk on his 2017 painting, O-ween du muh waun (We were Told). 

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Commissioned by the Confederation Centre Art Gallery (CCAG) to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, with funds from the A.G. and Eliza Jane Ramsden Endowment Fund, Houle’s oil on canvas triptych is a very timely consideration of the long First Nation’s presence in this land and more generally the idea of history painting.

Houle’s work is a major addition to the Gallery’s collection and specifically the Confederation Murals Series, which includes works by Jean Paul Lemieux, John Fox, and Jack Shadbolt, commissioned in 1964, and work by Jane Ash Poitras, Yvon Gallant, and Wanda Koop commissioned in the 1990s.

Houle’s new painting is a further elaboration on his 1992 work, Kanata (collection of the National Gallery of Canada), in which he appropriates and reimagines the composition of Benjamin West’s 1770 painting, The Death of General Wolfe. West’s painting famously mythologized the battlefield death of the British general who led his troops to victory in the 1759 Battle of Quebec. Houle drew all the figures in West’s composition in conté, reserving colour for only the Indigenous figure in the foreground.

In his new work, O-ween du muh waun (We were Told) Houle focuses exclusively on this same Delaware warrior figure, seated on the Plains of Abraham, and facing east. He eliminates all the other figures from West’s composition. Like much of Houle’s work, O-ween du muh waun (We were Told) addresses current political and cultural issues by looking to history. As Canada looks towards a reconciliation with First Nations, Houle’s painting stands as an important marker within the CCAG’s collection and the RE:collectionexhibition as it explores the building of a Canadian art collection as an optimistic mission and a reflection on the evolving country, its history, geography, people and communities.

“The [Canada] 150 idea was not an issue for me, but rather a correction to clarify that my sense of country dates back further than 1867,” Houle offers, explaining his visions around the new work. “Our friendship and numbered treaties are also preceded by the presence of our ancestors going back millennia; as well as the whole question of the historical painting by such artists as Benjamin West.”

Houle was born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, in 1947 and currently resides in Toronto. He is widely acclaimed for bridging Indigenous history and contemporary art. In 2015 he received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art for his significant contributions to Canadian art.

O-ween du muh waun (We Were Told) is on display in Upper West Gallery at the CCAG until December 31.