Hobson's Selection: Busy vacation season for native theatres

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With openings at Stage West, Fireplace Exit and the College of Calgary, November is proving to be a busy and diversified month for theatre in Calgary.

Step by Step, Stage West’s vacation providing that runs on the dinner theatre from Nov. 17 to Feb. 4, tracks the evolution of boy bands from The Beatles to One Route.

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These live performance tribute reveals have turn into a well-liked staple at Stage West. Final yr right now, Stage West remounted its One Hit Wonders, created by Howard Pechet and Tim French in 2008, and it proved a fair higher success the second time round.

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This yr, Pechet has teamed up with Toronto director Liz Gilroy for a take a look at the boy band phenomenon, one of the profitable musical genres.

Gilroy says “The creation of a boy band is fairly simple. You are taking a heartthrob, a cutie, a foul boy, and a man that could be somewhat too previous to be in a boy band, and throw them into some matching outfits, and synchronized dance strikes, and rapidly, you’ll make the music world swoon.”

These synchronized strikes in Step by Step shall be created by Stephen Dickson and Eric Dahlinger, with musical route by Konrad Pluta and Lisa MacDougall. Gilroy, who has directed greater than a dozen reveals for Stage West, shall be staging Step by Step.

Step by Step will take a look at Gary Lewis and the Playboys in America and Herman’s Hermits in England. The early tributes will even embody The Beatles, the Monkees, The 4 Seasons, The Bee Gees, The Bay Metropolis Rollers and The Seaside Boys.

Additionally on the musical menu are Again Avenue Boys, New Children on the Block, NSYNC, Hanson Brothers, Maroon 5, Jonas Brothers, Coldplay and One Route.

Bringing these bands to life are Niko Combitsis, Eric Da Costa, Eric Dahlinger, Luciano Decicco, Kory Fulton, Jason Lemmon, Andrew McAllister, Caulin Moore, Luke Opdahl, Adam Sergison, Mayson Sonntag and Jesse Weafer.

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Mackenzie Sutton and Jonathan Prime in Fireplace Exit Theatre’s Final Prepare to Nibroc. Courtesy,  Stephanie Lanting Photograph by Stephanie Lanting /jpg

HOP ON THE TRAIN TO NIBROC

Final Prepare to Nibroc, Fireplace Exit’s second play of its twenty third season, is the Forties story of an opportunity encounter between a younger Kentucky couple who meet on a practice carrying the our bodies of writers F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathaniel West to their burials. A medical situation has stored the wannabe author Raleigh from enlisting, and Mary needs to be a missionary. It’s a trip that modifications their lives eternally. That is the primary play of Arlene Hutton’s trilogy of Nibroc performs, and her most profitable, having acquired a whole bunch of productions because it premiered in 1999.

Fireplace Exit’s inventive director Val Lieske, who’s directing the light drama,calls it “a narrative that issues. It’s about constructing a life round deeply held convictions that may probably price you one thing. At first look, Nibroc appears so easy. Only a boy meets lady story till you see what they’re keen to sacrifice to be able to turn into what they’re speculated to be. It’s set throughout the backdrop of the Second World Battle, making it all of the extra well timed.”

Jonathan Prime, who wrote, directed and starred in Actual on the Calgary Fringe this summer time, performs Raleigh, with Mackenzie Sutton, a current graduate of the BFA program on the College of Alberta, as his star-crossed love curiosity.

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Final Prepare to Nibroc runs within the Arts Commons Engineered Air Theatre Nov. 22-26 with performances Nov. 22-25 at 7:30 p.m. and a couple of p.m. matinees on Nov. 25 and 26. Advance tickets can be found at fireexit.ca/present/last-train-to-nibroc.

SHAKESPEARE SEARCHES FOR HIS OWN JULIET

The College of Calgary College of Artistic and Performing Arts is opening its mainstage season with Lee Corridor’s stage adaptation of the hit 1998 film Shakespeare in Love written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard.

The movie received seven Oscars together with greatest image, and appearing awards for Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench, and have become one of many highest-grossing movies of that yr, a rarity for a romantic comedy.

It’s a fictional story of a romance between Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a rich service provider, and Shakespeare, who’s tormented by author’s block as he works on his new comedy Romeo & Juliet.

This model of Shakespeare in Love opened in London in 2014 with critics calling it a joyous celebration of theatre.

Christine Brubaker, the top of drama at SCPA, says the play is whip-smart and 40 college students within the College’s graduate and undergraduate packages have been working to deliver it to life. The manufacturing has been designed by Hanne Loosen and Anton Degroot, each alumni of the drama program who’re working repeatedly for Calgary’s skilled theatres. MFA candidate Steven Conde is directing a solid of 25 actors with Oli Khubyar as Shakespeare, Amber Billingsley as Viola, Kevin Sandal as Shakespeare’s literary rival Package Marlowe and Nicci Rvachew as Queen Elizabeth I.

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Shakespeare in Love runs within the College’s Reeve Theatre from Nov. 24 to Dec. 2 with advance tickets out there at arts.ucalgary.ca/tickets.

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Two Households Meet from Discuss to Me, with from left: Rose Bene, Trish Clark, Faye Brown, Ron Kuehne jpg

SOMETHING IS BREWING IN THIS  LAB

Calgary has a novel theatre program run by means of the Household Leisure Centre. The Seniors Performing Lab affords Calgarians over 50 lessons in appearing, improvisation, playreading, Shakespeare and playwriting.

Authentic performs which have been workshopped are offered by means of Being Artistic. Emily Katherine’s two-act play Discuss to Me is the most recent to be showcased. It’s going to run Nov. 21-25 at Theatre 1308, which is at 1308 Edmonton Path, N.E.

Katherine says her play is a household drama in each sense of the phrase.

“Discuss to Me is a drama about grownup little one and mum or dad relationships set in a Mount Royal household. A disaster attracts the household collectively, and roles and relationships are explored and untangled,” says Katherine, a retired social employee.

Discuss to Me was dramaturged by Trevor Ruegar, the chief director of the Alberta Playwright’s Community, and has been directed by Val Pearson, an area actor and director who most not too long ago directed the premiere of Caroline Russell-King’s Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka & Sake, and was the musical director for StoryBook Theatre’s live performance model of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Avenue.

The solid for Discuss to Me contains Rose Bene, Marc Motiejunas, Trish Clark, Lori Bachynski, Ron Kuehne, and Faye Brown.

Performances Nov. 21-25 are at 7 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 25.

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