Tag Archives: YEGarts

Jude Griebel’s ‘Crafting Ruin’ Art Exhibition Preview for Vue Weekly

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Here’s my first big local break. I wrote the cover story for Vue Weekly this week about a sculpture exhibition by prairie-bred artist Jude Griebel.

After installing exhibitions around the world, Jude Griebel returns to Edmonton this week for his first solo exhibit at the dc3 Art Projects gallery.

With seven-foot resin figures and bone sculptures the size of a human head, the Alberta-bred artist’s 12-sculpture installation, Crafting Ruin, tackles modern environmental issues like consumption and wastefulness. Read more

His exhibition opens today at dc3 Art Projects, and it’s filled with provocative figures that make us think about our place in the environment. I had a lot of fun writing this preview, and I’m glad I could share some of Griebel’s perspective with a wider audience.

‘Soliciting Temptation’ Theatre Preview for Vue Weekly

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Here’s a preview I wrote for Vue Weekly about an exciting looking play called Soliciting Temptation opening at the Varscona Theatre tonight.

Soliciting Temptation tackles the social complexities of sex tourism from the inside of one nondescript hotel room set in an exotic country. And that hotel room shuttled from Calgary to Edmonton this week for a new crowd to see. Read more

The Jason Mehmel-directed play is coproduced by Calgary’s Sage Theatre and Edmonton’s Shadow Theatre, starring Patricia Cerra and Mattie Overall. The 90-minute, two-person performance opens at 7:30pm tonight and runs until Mar. 26.

‘Sister Sister’ Theatre Review For Vue Weekly in November

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This review is for one of my all-time favourite pieces of modern theatre. I critiqued Northern Light Theatre’s Sister Sister for Vue Weekly back in November.

When it comes to Northern Light Theatre’s mandate of dark and provocative productions that challenge audiences, Sister Sister delivers and satisfies.

Playwright Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich’s script about two sisters’ reconnection after 15 years sets a grim theme, as the women come together to celebrate their deranged mother’s death. Read more

The two-woman performance from Louise Claire Lambert and Arielle Rombough was intense, and I’m glad I got to share my opinion with the community.

‘La Cenerentola’ Opera Review for Vue Weekly

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I reviewed Edmonton Opera’s production of La Cenerentola for Vue Weekly earlier this month. I’ve never heard so many laughs in an opera house.

Edmonton Opera’s rendition of Cinderella is a funny, modernized take on Gioachino Rossini’s 1817 masterpiece La Cenerentola that’s as much a display of great theatre as it is a demonstration of the beautiful limits of the human voice.

Every acting performance in Cinderella is superb. Don Magnifico (Peter McGillivray) is great as a bumbling idiot who respects food and wine more than he respects people, and Tisbe (Sylvia Szadovski) and Clorinda (Caitlyn Wood) play their obnoxious sister roles perfectly. But it’s Dandini (Michael Nyby) who really steals the show. Read more

The La Cenerentola production already finished it’s run, but Edmonton Opera already announced its 2017-2018 line up. You can check it out on their website, featuring Les Feluettes, HMS Pinafore, and Don Giovanni.

Wildfire Teen Improv Festival Preview for Vue Weekly

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I missed this preview going live on Vue Weekly earlier in the month, but the Wildfire Teen Improv is still ongoing. The junior high division finals of the competitive festival are on Saturday with additional performances tonight and tomorrow.

“Wildfire Teen Improv Festival is very strange,” says 17-year-old Darby Gynane.

She’s heading into her fourth run at the festival alongside her teammates from Louis St. Laurent. The improv competition, running from Feb. 7 to 25 at the Citadel’s Ziedler Hall, pits teams of junior and senior high students from across Edmonton and Alberta against each other to see who’s the most spontaneously entertaining.

“You see people who are creating art in front of your eyes that they’re never going to do again and you’re never going to see again,” Gynane says. “It’s very much an in the moment kind of thing.” Read more

Rapid Fire Theatre is an absolute force in Western Canada, and their festival that develops youth is no exception. You can get tickets for the last three shows of the festival through Eventbrite. Each performance starts at 7pm in the Citadel’s Ziedler Hall.

High Level Lit Salon Preview for Vue Weekly

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I previewed a salon series for a non-fiction anthology coming this October from Edmonton writers. I talked to Edmonton’s youth poet laureate Nasra Adem about the events. You can read the full preview over on Vue Weekly.

Edmonton literati plan to celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial with the means they know best— the printed word.

A non-fiction anthology titled High Level Lit: Musings on YEG for Canada’s 150th birthday—featuring a dozen authors reflecting on Edmonton’s place within Canada’s history—will be published in Eighteen Bridges Magazine this October during the Edmonton International Literary Festival. Read more

The first Mar. 1 salon is fully booked right now, but there’s a waiting list service in place until Feb. 28, and the dates of other salons will be announced throughout the year.

Footloose Review: A Triumphant Farewell at The John L. Haar Theatre

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Wrapped in a charged presentation of a musical theatre classic, Footloose, is the history of decades of MacEwan University theatre arts.

And while each performer’s voice may not hold a weighty, well-produced presence, the energy of their performance culminates in another triumphant night for the final season at the John L. Haar Theatre.

Continue reading →

‘International Print Exhibition: Canada and Japan’ Preview for Vue Weekly

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Here’s a preview I wrote about the “International Print Exhibition: Canada and Japan” at the University of Alberta Museums Galleries. It went live on Vue Weekly earlier today

In a bid to showcase Canada’s rich print culture, internationally decorated print artist Liz Ingram curated the “International Print Exhibition: Canada and Japan” with the help of April Dean, executive director of the Society of Northern Alberta Print-Artists. Read more

SNAP Gallery‘s Director April Dean spoke to me about curating Canadian print art with Liz Ingram. Ingram was on the way to beating lung cancer when Akira Kurosaki offered her the job, so Dean came in to help.

The exhibit runs from Feb.16 until Mar. 25 at the University of Alberta Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave. You can get in with a donation and it’s open on Thursdays and Fridays from 12pm – 6pm, and on Saturdays from 12pm – 4pm.

Henry V: Vue Weekly Theatre Review

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Here’s part of my review for Grindstone Theatre and The Malachites Henry V which appeared on Vue Weekly yesterday.

‘All things are ready, if our minds be so,’ but fighting the nature of our own ears isn’t always an achievable task.

The elegance of the space inside Holy Trinity Anglican Church certainly lends itself to champion the spirit of Shakespeare in a modern time, but the effects of that grand mission statement are lost when I can’t hear what the players are saying. Read more

The joint production between Edmonton’s Grindstone Theatre and London, England’s The Malachites is directed by Benjamin Blyth. Brynn Linsey’s performance and King Henry V marks a Canadian first, and you can try to listen to her great performance at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. The play runs tonight and tomorrow at 7:30pm.

Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes: Vue Weekly Theatre Review

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Here’s a part of my review for Cardiac Theatre’s Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes which appeared on Vue Weekly yesterday:

No one knows what it’s like to die, at least no one alive to recount the experience. Still, the seconds, minutes, and hours before death can be observed and communicated with as much precision as a dying person’s five senses and remaining faculties will allow. Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes is an incredibly lucid journey that leads us through the mind of a boy who suffered one of the most politically public deaths of the 20th century. Read more

Cardiac Theatre’s production of Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes is directed Harley Morison and written by Jordan Tannahill. You can catch Bradley Doré in the lead role while the play runs at the PCL Studio Theatre of ATB Financial Arts Barns. It plays tonight at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm.