Arts Scene

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com



Back again

Willpower Theatre, in collaboration with Festival Antigonish, are about to present their third consecutive late summer season in Wolfville.

This year they will offer the smash Canadian comedy Sexy Laundry and the Canadian premiere of the controversial and thought-provoking British play Grace at the Al Whittle Theatre from Sept. 9-14, in repertoire, with matinees Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets are for sale at the Box of Delights Bookstore in Wolfville or by calling 542-3044. Also, see www.willpowertheatre.ca for performances times. Tickets are $20, $18 for students, and subscriptions (both plays) are $36.

Musical revival

On Sept. 12 and 13, CentreStage Theatre, in conjunction with the Glooscap Curling Club, will present the show Guys and Dolls, along with a four-course meal. The menu includes soup, salad, pork loin, wine and a dessert.

The event will take place at the Glooscap Curling Club on Crescent Street in Kentville.

Guys and Dolls revolves around Nathan Detroit, the organizer of the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York, who bets fellow gambler Sky Masterson that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with him. The next girl he sees happens to be Miss Sarah Brown, a pure-at-heart Salvation Army-type reformer.

Meanwhile, Nathan's girlfriend and the main attraction at the Hot Box nightclub - Miss Adelaide - wants only to get married. The stage is set for a hilarious evening of complications. Well-known songs include “Bushel and a Peck”, “Luck be a Lady,” “Sue Me” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

Guys and Dolls will be directed by Chérie Zinck, with accompaniment by Debbie Mailman on piano and James Churchill on drums. The full cast includes: Sharon Churchill, Fiona and Brian MacInnis, Stephen Abbass, Neal Benneworth, Alan Slipp, Mike L’Oiseau, Zach Rigby, Ernie Robinson, Heather Ongo, Bob Cook, Ernest Zinck, Tracy Churchill, Jean Kelly, Nancy Henry, and Mindy Vinqvist-Tymchuk, Dave Ogilvie, Kim Sweet, John Churchill, Emily Oickle, Lauren Berlemont, Brianna Berlemont and Liz Stern.

Tickets are $50 each and include the meal and the show. The reception starts at 5:45 p.m. with dinner at 6:45 and an 8:30 performance. Cheques can be made payable to the Glooscap Curling Club.

There will also be a silent and a live auction. To reserve your seat, phone 678-8040, or e-mail centrestage@centrestagetheatre.ca.

Fundy Film

Fundy Summer Films screens Death at a Funeral this coming Sunday. Watch as chaos ensues when a man tries to expose a dark secret regarding a recently deceased patriarch of a dysfunctional British family. This film is very funny in a twisted British style.

It will screen at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville Sunday, Aug. 31 at 8 p.m. Tickets ($8) are available 30 min before screening. www.fundyfilm.ca or 542-5157.

Picture a Faerie Cottage

On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6-7, the Charles Macdonald Concrete House Society is inviting artists of all ages, sizes, beliefs, abilities and disciplines to join them for an afternoon of creativity inspired by the whimsical 1930s-built faerie cottages of Huntington Point near Hall's Harbour.

Bring a favourite medium and paint, draw, sculpt, photograph, or film the 1930s-built Blue Cottage or the cottage Charlie and Mabel MacDonald called Point Cottage.

Come at 2 p.m. (or earlier for those photographers and videographers who don't want other artists in their shots) and enjoy the day at Huntington Point.

Calling all singers

The Acadia University Chorus resumes rehearsals Monday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in Denton Hall Auditorium, Wolfville.

If you haven’t sung with this group before or if you are an excited returning member, come join us for a wonderful year of choral music. For more information, call the School of Music at 585-1512.

Get your writing feet wet

Creative writing classes with Berwick writer Christy Ann Conlin are something to consider for fall.

The class, being organized by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, will take place at the Berwick fire hall Thursday evenings, from 7-9 p.m., beginning Sept. 25 and running through Nov. 6

Getting Your Feet Wet is a seven-week writing workshop suited to all levels of writers. In-class writing exercises and discussions will spark enough inspiration to take some home. Enrollment is limited to 12 writers.

Conlin’s debut novel, Heave, was a national bestseller and one of the Globe and Mail's top books of 2002. Her second novel will be published by Doubleday. Her fiction has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Stories 2004.

Gearing up

The Acadia Dance Community will hold some classes at Acadia University this fall.

“We are hoping to get another location secured before Sept. 1. If any readers have a location in mind, I’d encourage them to contact me,” says Courtney Smith.

Last year, the program had approximately 85 students in total and eight teachers, but in May their facility in Grand-Pre burned.

The fire fundraiser in July helped secure approximately $1,000 that quickly has gone toward replacing equipment. “We will need to begin anew in September. We are planning further fundraising efforts again in autumn with the pooled efforts of our membership,” Smith said.

Acadia Dance Community is a not-for-profit community dance program started in 2004 and that provides dance lessons in various disciplines to all ages, skills and abilities.

“We are excited to offer new classes in Highland and HipHop, and will continue to offer some favourites: Just the Boys, Acro, Ballet, Jazz, Creative Movement, Dance Movement and Tap.”

For information, call 691-1083.

Night Kitchen

Another installment of the Night Kitchen is coming up Saturday, Sept. 6 at the Al Whittle Theatre, Wolfville.

Organizer Andy Flinn is billing it as the ‘supreme edition’ and featured will be: Resisting Gravity, Paul Marshall, Carter Lake, Tripalady and Rachel McLean.

Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Music starts at 8 p.m.

The Road Here

Peggy Sanford of Kingston, a war bride from Southhampton, England, and another war bride, Betty Rafuse, who first lived in Garland, are featured in a book published recently by a Valley women’s resource centre.

The Road Here chronicles the contributions of 21 senior women to their rural communities. Published by the Western Area Women’s Coalition, with funding from New Horizons for Seniors, the book combines the stories of senior women from their late fifties to early nineties from Annapolis, Kings and Digby counties. They speak of their careers, family life and work in their communities.

Editor and photographer Rachel Brighton of Bridgetown says she was inspired by the women, many of whom returned to the workforce after raising families and often became agents of change in their communities.

Proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Francis Mills-Clements Bursary Fund, which provides scholarships for women continuing post-secondary education.

The Road Here is available by calling the Women’s Place Resource Centre, Bridgetown, 665-5166.

Coming up

Until Sept. 6

Who’s on First, CentreStage Theatre, Kentville, 678-8040

Sept. 13

Stan Carew and the Magpies, Aylesford fire hall

Until Sept. 25

Gail Davis exhibit, Valley Regional Hospital Gallery, Kentville

Send arts items to: welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca