Once again Workshop West Theatre cracks out a daring line-up of cutting edge theatre during the Canoe Theatre Festival running Jan. 18 to 23.
Artistic director Michael Clark has planned six days of rotating productions mounted at the University of Alberta Second Playing Space, Timms Centre and the Stanley Milner Library Theatre.
Locally there’s BASH’d!: A Gay Hip-Hop Opera starring Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow as rappers Feminem and T-Bag. It’s a tale of star-crossed lovers told in hip hop rhyme with two dudes telling a story that is part comedy, part tragedy.
Also on the local front, Firefly Theatre has created Operation EVAsion, a contemporary aerial arts portrayal of Eva Peron, a woman born into poverty who rose through the ranks to marry Argentina’s president Juan Peron.
From Yellowknife’s Akpik Theatre there is TUMIT, meaning “tracks” in Inuktitut. Reneltta Arluk explores the cycles of generations weaving traditional and contemporary stories together.
Switzerland’s Compagnie Drift offers Sound Machine, a playful skewering of how science might investigate the absurd and indescribable using computer generated sound with dance and theatre.
And Germany’s Theaterlabor presents Absurdesque, a mash-up of absurdity that blends Theatre of Cruelty with Commedia dell’Arte.
Tickets are $20 and $18 for students/seniors. Three-show and five-show passes are also available. Call WWT at 780-477-5955 or purchase online at www.workshopwest.org.
Bob Jahrig, Marc Ladoucer and Don Marcotte all make an appearance at Mark Ammar’s Open Stage this coming Tuesday at LB’s Pub.
Jahrig, an Edmonton singer/songwriter has released two CDs – Treetops and Colour of the Moon. “His inspiration comes form family and his hobby as an amateur astronomer and the wilderness he experienced growing up in northern Ontario, Alaska and Alberta,” says Ammar adding Jahrig has opened for musical veterans such as Ian Tyson, Bill Bourne and Tim O’Brien.
Marcotte, a member of the Lional Rault Trio, is one of the rare stand-up bass players at the jam. “This guy’s tempo and clock and body motion can be a drummer’s best friend when playing live.”
And Ladouceur has come full circle exploring punk rock, blues, R&B, folk and bluegrass. “Besides playing in Down to the Wood, Marc is a sought-after sideman and studio musician lending his guitar and mandolin expertise for artists such as Karla Anderson, Anna Somerville, Andrea House and Jessica Heine.”
The jam starts at 9 p.m. LB’s is at 23 Akins Drive. No cover.
Once again American chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux returns to the Edmonton International Jazz Festival as a concert headliner at the Winspear Centre on June 26.
She honed her vocal and guitar skills as a teenager busking across Europe and has based her style of jazz and blues on cornerstones of Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith and Edith Piaf.
Her last album Bare Bones is a collection of self-penned compositions and co-writes featuring Joe Henry and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker. In a recent Australian tour she shared a triple bill with Diana Krall and Melody Gardot.
The festival runs June 24 to July 3 in venues across Edmonton. Tickets for Peyroux’s concert range from $55.75 to $70.25. They are available at 780-428-1414 or purchase online at www.winspearcentre.com.
