Arts Scene

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

World premiere

Mulgrave Road Theatre will present the world premiere of a new Daniel MacIvor play called Confession in Wolfville.

MacIvor is a stalwart of the Canadian theatre scene, having written and directed numerous award-winning productions.

In 2006, he received the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You. In 2007 he was named Artist of the Year by the Toronto Sun.

Confession promises to be a lyrical play about the promises we make then break, the dreams we long for then forget and the peace we finally make when we learn to take responsibility for our choices

Directed by Ann-Marie Kerr, Confession features Barbara Gordon, Sherry Smith and Gil Anderson.

In Confession three very different women eventually show themselves to be very much the same as they share their secrets with the audience.

The characters are Kit, the daughter, an outspoken, funny and rebellious 21-year-old; Kath, the mother in her forties who has become sardonic and bitter when faced with the realities of motherhood; and Kitty, the old lady who tries to piece together the puzzle that is her life by finding a way to confess her greatest failing to us.

The characters speak in monologues delivered to the audience and in dialogue to one another as they try to come to terms with which story they will tell and how they tell it. In the end it is the unity of these three very different women, the coming together of these diverging voices, that tell us the truth about themselves and many women like them we have known.

The play was commissioned last year and the theatre hosted MacIvor as playwright-in-residence earlier this year.

The production will be in Wolfville Nov. 2 at the Al Whittle Theatre, Wolfville at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.

www.mulgraveroad.ca

See Ionesco

The Acadia Theatre Company will presents Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros Nov. 5-15.

A small town that has seen better days is overwhelmed by a sudden influx of rhinos. The town’s foremost slacker, Berenger, watches in bemusement as it gradually becomes clear the rhinos are townspeople who have transformed. Soon the majority becomes the minority and the remaining humans are faced with the ultimatum shouted out by the Rhino Boyz: adapt or die.

This terrifyingly funny play takes the themes of intolerance and creeping dehumanization, which are so current in modern society and brings them to life through puppets, masks and stomping, and chanting rhinos. At the heart of it all is Berenger, who faces the fundamental question; is there more to life than eating and rutting?

The Acadia Theatre Company production is directed by Michael Devine. The play runs Nov. 5-8 and Nov. 12-15 at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8 and 15. All performances will take place in Lower Denton Theatre, Acadia University.

Ticket prices are $12 regular and $10 for students/seniors and may be purchased at the Box of Delights Bookstore in Wolfville or at the door. Tickets may be reserved by calling the reservation line at 585-1766. Ticket sales are cash or cheque only and please note that reserved tickets not picked up 10 minutes before the show will be sold at the door.

Campbell has new book

Wanda Campbell of Wolfville has a new book, Looking for Lucy, being released at a launch Nov. 6 at the Irving Centre Auditorium. "Anonymous was a woman," says Virginia Woolf, but these poems celebrate the name of several women who found a way to bring light into dark circumstances.

Beginning with several Lucys who made a difference ¬¬– saint, suffragette, author, artist, comedienne, cartoon character, mother, muse ¬– this poetic journey continues with the unlikely love story between Lucy Adaline Hurd and William Cornelius Van Horne, the man responsible for building the railroad that joined Canada from east to west.

As he drove his iron dreams across lakeshore and forest, prairie and mountain, she stayed behind in Montreal, knowing that her passions – children, music, orchids – would not endure. At the driving of the last spike Nov. 7, 1885, at Craigellachie, B. C., Van Horne pronounced "the work has been done well in every way," but these poems take a closer look at that most famous of Canadian photographs.

The final section draws upon letters, newspaper articles, and obituaries to reveal what ultimately happened to Addie and the picturesque Canadian places she called home. Using a variety of forms including free verse and found poems, sonnets and sestinas, this collection explores the lives of women who inhabit the margins of history and the ways in which they shine.

Campbell was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, and spent the first decade of her life there. She studied at the University of Windsor under Alistair MacLeod and has a PhD in Canadian Literature from the University of Western Ontario. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Wolfville, where she teaches creative writing and women’s literature at Acadia University.

She has edited several anthologies and published a collection of poetry entitled Sky Fishing (Black Moss) and a chapbook Haw(Thorn) (Gaspereau). Her poems and stories have appeared in the anthologies and numerous journals across CanadaLeaf Press

www.leafpress.ca

McCurdy exhibits

A Stitch In Time, Alexandra McCurdy’s exhibition of ceramics and prints, will be showing in the Professional Gallery at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in Canning, Nov. 2 to Dec. 18, with an opening reception Nov. 2 at 1 p.m.

McCurdy’s work creates a stunning confrontation between the soft appearance of quilts and textiles and the hardened forms of porcelain and clay. Drawing inspiration from traditional Mi’kmaq quill and needlework, European textile and her personal history, McCurdy’s work investigates the passage of time and influence of tradition on both a personal and cultural level.

She trained as a ceramist at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She has a Masters Degree in 3-D Design-Ceramics from the Cardiff Institute of Higher Education in Wales. Her ceramics are included in numerous public collections, including the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, Italy, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Nova Scotia Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Burlington Art Centre and the Art Bank of Nova Scotia.

Family Art Sunday

A clay and quilt-themed family art project is set for the Ross Creek Centre Nov. 2.

From 1-4 p.m. the class will coincide with Alexandra McCurdy’s exhibit, A Stitch In Time. Family Arts Sundays take place once a month. All ages and groups welcome; suggested donation of $5 per person or $15 per family of five.

Visit Banana Creek

Well-known Valley sculptor Nistal Prem de Boer is holding an open house in Canada Creek to celebrate the launch of a completely new body of work called Banana Creek. “There will be some bronzes, some terra cottas, but the focus is on my new multi-media reliefs. This also will be an opportunity to celebrate the latest addition to Banana Creek,” he says.

The theme of his latest body of work is Gaia dying, he notes, which “refers to the hardships that our planet is now suffering. Gaia dying is a metaphor that speaks more to our abuse of Gaia than it does to her demise, as I believe she will survive us easily.”

These works are “primarily portraits of the Gaia principle, a visual embodiment of the care and nurture our planet embraces, something which I think has been lost in the way we currently exploit our planet's fragile resources.”

This show will travel to various galleries in Nova Scotia in the near future and the individual pieces will be for sale. This gathering offers the opportunity for friends and supporters to preview the show. The preview takes place Sunday afternoon, Nov. 9.

Nistal’s work will preview on the Russia Road near the Black Rock Baptist Church.

Book launch

Valley resident Paulette Chase Whitman has completed her book, From Port Williams to Paradise. Her memoir, in poetry and prose, is about growing up in Port Williams and her life in Paradise, Annapolis County.

The book is published by Bailey Chase Books and will be launched Saturday, Nov. 15, from 2-4 p.m. at the Inside Story Book Store, Greenwood Mall.

On a Wolfville wall

Jack's Gallery, which is a new shared venture of the Just Us! Wolfville Café and the Acadia Cinema Co-op, is looking for submissions. Forms are available at the Just Us! Wolfville café or at www.justuscoffee.com. Deadline is Oct. 31.

All lined up

The Friday night Open Mic Kitchen Party at the Union St. Cafe has the following line-up: Oct. 31, Newberry vs. Newberry; Nov. 14, Beer in the Headlights; Nov. 21, Ian Foster; and Nov. 28 a CD Release for Caleb Miles' Memory Well.

In Middleton

Valley potter and gallery owner Margaret Jansen is hosting an exhibit by four local artists at Apple Pie Pottery and Gallery in Middleton until Oct. 28.

Besides Jansen’s own clay sculpture and functional pottery, the gallery is displaying multimedia wall hangings by Nistal Prem de Boer, stone sculptures by Vera Burne and colour nature photographs by Rachel Cooper. “I wanted to bring together the works of these artists because I sensed a strong coastal focus. Each artist approaches this subject in a vastly different way, yet the works resonate together very effectively,” said Jansen.

De Boer was born in Amsterdam and moved to Canada after obtaining a degree in architecture and engineering. He moved to Nova Scotia in 1976 and has worked here as an independent architect focusing on solar houses. His art includes life-size bronze sculptures and life-size terra cotta statues and portraits.

Burne displayed acrylic paintings in a show last year at the gallery: Three Paths of Feminine Spirituality. In the current show she concentrates on her rock assemblages. Burne has worked as a teacher, actress and copywriter in Hong Kong, England, Montreal and Toronto, and now lives by the Fundy Shore, where she has a studio. “I came to art through academia, the theatre, and poetry,” she said.

Cooper has shown successfully at the gallery previously. A freelance editor and writer, she lives by the Minas Basin near Canning. She returned to Nova Scotia in 2003 after 11 years as an editor in England. “The diversity and richness of nature here have inspired the photography,” she said.

Apple Pie Pottery and Gallery is at l06 Main Street, Middleton. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

CentreStage Theatre presents

On Sunday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m., CentreStage Theatre in Kentville will present Gershwin: A Musical Revue. This show will feature Gershwin’s greatest songs as performed by the Halifax group, Three is Company. The group consists of John O’Halloran, Connie Eaton and Russ Hall.

Tickets are $15 each and available at the door, or can be reserved by calling 678-8040.

For Halloween

The Night of the Living Forest is happening at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens in Wolfville Thursday, Oct. 30. Hikes start every 30 minutes on the half-hour from 7 until 8:30 p.m. Rain date is Saturday, Nov. 1.

Coming up

Until Nov. 8

Edward Burtynsky’s photos, Acadia Art Gallery, Wolfville

Nov. 8

Roll Out the Barrel, St. Joseph’s Church, Kentville 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 9

The Armed Man: Mass for Peace, Festival Theatre, Wolfville, 3 p.m.

Until Nov. 27

Erma Walker, Valley Regional Hospital Art Gallery, Kentville