Music at Acadia
The month of March brings many performances by students at the Acadia School of Music. Here are some of concerts to look forward to:
- Singing Theatre Production Ensemble, directed by Christianne Rushton, March 22, 8 p.m., and March 23, 3 p.m., Denton Hall.
- Graduation Recital - Sarah Padovani, clarinet, with Jennifer King, piano, March 23, 8 p.m., Denton Hall.
- Acadia University Symphonic Band, with conductors Ardith Haley and Dr. Denise Grant, on March 24, 3 p.m., Festival Theatre. Admission: adults $10, seniors $8, students free.
- Acadia University Vocal Ensemble, directed by Claire Mallin, on April 4, 8 p.m., at University Hall.
- Student Recital - Melanie Clouthier, soprano, with Edward Enman, piano, April 5 at 8 p.m., Denton Hall. Free admission.
- Gamelan Concert - Students of Ken Shorley, April 6, 8 p.m., at Denton Hall.
- A Choral Fantasy - Acadia University Chorus and Orchestra, with John Hansen, piano, featuring Susan Boddie, Paula Rockwell, Claire Mallin and Jason Davis, directed by Michael Caines and Dr. Christoph Both, will perform April 7, 3 p.m., Festival Theatre. Admission: $20.
- Graduation Recital - Andrew Johnson, percussion, will perform April 8, 8 p.m., at Festival Theatre, free.
Ceilidh time
St. Patrick's Fundraising Ceilidh Dance will be held on March 15. It will feature live Celtic music by the North Mountain Ceilidh and dance calling by Niamh Webster of Tir na nOg Irish Dance Academy. Proceeds will help send youth of St. Joseph's Church on pilgrimage to Brazil this July as part of World Youth Day.
The ceilidh starts at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph's Church Hall, 48 Belcher Street, Kentville. Advance tickets $10, age five and under free; at the door, the price is $12.
Tickets are available at St. Joseph’s church, Kentville, and Box of Delights Bookshop, Wolfville.
Bring on comedy
The Dead Sheep Scrolls, Wolfville's most carbon-based, bipedal sketch comedy quartet, presents The Big Dead Show on March 30.
This promises to be a full-length show of 100 per cent original comedic sketches, starting at 8 p.m. at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville.
The Dead Sheep Scrolls were formed four years ago. They have been writing and performing original material in Wolfville ever since.
The group includes Ross Chapman, Kate Corrigan, Jamie Loughead, Alan Slipp, and occasionally, friendly guest stars.
Tickets are $10 each and available at Box of Delights in Wolfville or at the door.
Tokai coming
The Acadia Performing Arts Series is pleased to present the Tokai String Quartet at Acadia’s Festival Theatre on March 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Presenting a program of works by Beethoven, Wolf and Ravel, Tokai will also perform a new piece by Canadian composer Katarina Curcin, titled, The World on A String, which was written for the quartet and is being premiered on this tour.
On their Debut Atlantic Encore tour, the Tokai String Quartet will perform six concerts and seven educational activities, ranging from university master classes to elementary school concerts, as part of the Debut Goes to School program.
Wolfville tickets are $26 for adults, $20 for students. For more information or for tickets, visit the Acadia University Box Office in person or by phone at 1-800-542-8425, or online at boxoffice.acadiau.ca
Tickets ready
Tickets are now on sale for the West Kings Theatre production of Guys and Dolls, a 1950s-era musical that paints a colourful picture of big-city life and its characters of gamblers, night-club entertainers and do-gooders on a rollicking quest for luck and love. Featuring songs like Luck Be a Lady, A Bushel and Peck and I’ve Never Been in Love Before, the show runs at 7:30 p.m. April 3-6 and at 2 p.m. on April 7. Reserve seating can be purchased in advance at the school or at Pharmasave outlets in Kingston and Berwick.
CD Release Concert
Matt Balsor will be holding a CD release concert for his new gospel album, Back to the Cross, at Horton High School as a fundraising event for the school's Safe Grad program.
The concert, rescheduled from February, also features The Glorylanders. It is now scheduled for March 24 at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.). Tickets are $8 and available only at the door.
See Coldplay Live
The band Coldplay will be live on screen March 15 at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville.
Coldplay Live 2012 is the band's first concert film for nine years. It documents their acclaimed Mylo Xyloto world tour, which has been seen by more than three million people since it began in June 2011.
Directed by Paul Dugdale, Live 2012 includes footage from Coldplay's shows at Paris's Stade de France, Montreal's Bell Centre and the band's triumphant Pyramid Stage headline performance at Glastonbury 2011.
Fundy flicks
Fundy Film screens Samsara on March 13 at 7 p.m.
Filmed in 25 countries on five continents in 70 mm film, this is a big screen sensory experience. Travelling to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes and natural wonders with no dialogue or descriptive text, the documentary looks into human spirituality and experience while illuminating links between humanity and nature.
Then the film society will screen Robot and Frank on March 17. Frank’s kids think he should not be alone. Against his wishes, they provide him with a walking, talking humanoid robot. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this quirky indie drama is a meditation on aging and how to find friends and family in the most unexpected places. It screens at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets for both shows are $8 and are available at the Al Whittle Theatres 30 minutes before screening.
Stamp voting
Port Williams sisters Lucy and Sally Wilkie are hoping for online votes in the Canada Post young stamp design competition now that the website issues have been addressed.
Lucy is currently in first place and her sister is in third position. Please use the link http://www.deliverhope.ca/
See Antigone
Jean Anouilh’s Antigone is a modern take on Sophocles’ fifth-century tragedy.
Antigone premiered in German-occupied France at the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris in February 1944. It remains one of Anouilh’s most celebrated and most produced works.
This classic play will run March 14-16 at Acadia University’s Lower Denton Theatre. The play will start at 7:30 p.m.
Ticket prices are $12, $10 for students and seniors; $7 for groups of eight or more. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the Acadia box office or at the door.
On stage now
CentreStage Theatre in Kentville is presenting The Dixie Swim Club.
It is about five very different Southern women who met at college and continue to share long weekends together at the same beach house every August.
Dixie Swim Club plays weekends until April 6. Several matinees are scheduled. For more information, visit www.centrestagetheatre.ca
In the galleries
- Coming Through the Fog exhibit of the art of Matthieu Brouillard and Donigan Cumming, Acadia Art Gallery, Wolfville.
- Until March 28, Valley artists paintings, with featured artist Pat McLean, are on display at the Valley Regional Hospital, Art Gallery, Kentville.
- Jack’s Gallery, Wolfville, has a retrospective of artist and printmaker David Silverberg. Show runs until March 31.
- Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, has a print show called Press until March 31.
