Yes, it's just slightly past that time again, when I finally get temporary release from the cave and attempt to inform people of the boiling, seething pile of art events going on just under Calgary's pinstriped surface. There's quite a bit of stuff going on with varying connections to each other, but I'm going to stick with chronological order of public occurence. (You'll see what I mean.)
First off is Theatre Junction's Random Acts Festival starting tomorrow at Dancers' Studio West Theatre. Check their site here for hoards of stuff about them and their productions, or get the quick details of the festival at the quick-and-dirty version.
My connection with them is tenuous at best. This year, one Random Act production is At The Gates, which won a Best Original Script award (One Act Festival 2003 I believe) for local playwright danny_g and included yours truly as St. Peter. In fact, this year's production is the first time the piece has been produced without me in that role, and I for one would love to see what it looks like. There will be several other performances as well, and hopefully I can catch a few of them.
I've never actually done a show with Theatre Junction, but I somehow ended up on their website. If you Google my name, I show up as the Assitant (sic) director of Clem Martini's The Making of Myths, shown at Random Acts a few years ago. For those who need to know, this job was in fact Jason Mehmel's, but it's a pretty impressive typo. I assume it would be bad form to use it on my resume.
So that's my Wednesday night, which leads of course to the central impetus of most of these alerts, First Thursday.
As per usual, tons of things are on, including free skating in Olympic Plaza, chocolate strawberry makings at the Marriot Hotel, and fresh 'n' inexpensive theatre from Aleberta Theatre Project in the evening. I'm not going to make any of those, but for those who might want to spot me (and I'm told there are a few) my current plan is:
11-noonish Art Exhibits - The New Gallery and Triangle Gallery, which I'll probably drift back to in the afternoon
noonish-1ish Food & Wine - a bit of nosh (possibly even brown baggin') to fortify myself for an exploration of South American wines at The Cellar
1-3:30 John Wayne Film: Angel & the Badman at the WR Castell Public Library (finally got my card updated!)
5-6 EPCOR Centre Backstage Tours - I actually saw this back in my student days, before EPCOR owned the kaboodle, so I'm curious what I've forgotten and what may have changed.
After that I'm rehearsing. Details further below.
Next week begins the run of Scorpio Production's latest piece, The Spy Who Left Me.
This company's been going since 2000 under the guidance of danny_g (that playwright I mentioned before) and this is one of the few productions I am not involved in. I look forward to viewing this one from the outside, particularly with the original music and choreography they've put together for it.
And finally, the thing taking up all my evenings: Cappuccino Musical Theatre's production of URL=http://www.calgary-acts.com/viewEvent.php?eventNumber=390]A Chorus Line.
ACL premiered 30 years ago this coming July and became the longest-running musical of its time. We've got 6 weeks to capture some of that magic and it is looking good. Tickets are already on sale through Ticketmaster for seats at the Engineered Air Theatre, a stage I'm looking forward to trying out for the first time.
That should do it for now. I'll see you on the town!
Jason
PS - a few of you may not have realized I dance. It can be surprising, and that's all I'll say about the quality of it. I've taken a variety of forms, including several weeks of belly dance (yes, men can do it too) which brings me to one last point-of-interest. I signed up on a site called [meetup.com a few years back and just recently got word that the local Bellydance Meetup group is now active and having their first meeting this Friday. Get the details at [meetup.com - this is another event I can't make due to bad timing, else I'd give you all the details myself and take you all as my personal guests.
- j
First off is Theatre Junction's Random Acts Festival starting tomorrow at Dancers' Studio West Theatre. Check their site here for hoards of stuff about them and their productions, or get the quick details of the festival at the quick-and-dirty version.
My connection with them is tenuous at best. This year, one Random Act production is At The Gates, which won a Best Original Script award (One Act Festival 2003 I believe) for local playwright danny_g and included yours truly as St. Peter. In fact, this year's production is the first time the piece has been produced without me in that role, and I for one would love to see what it looks like. There will be several other performances as well, and hopefully I can catch a few of them.
I've never actually done a show with Theatre Junction, but I somehow ended up on their website. If you Google my name, I show up as the Assitant (sic) director of Clem Martini's The Making of Myths, shown at Random Acts a few years ago. For those who need to know, this job was in fact Jason Mehmel's, but it's a pretty impressive typo. I assume it would be bad form to use it on my resume.
So that's my Wednesday night, which leads of course to the central impetus of most of these alerts, First Thursday.
As per usual, tons of things are on, including free skating in Olympic Plaza, chocolate strawberry makings at the Marriot Hotel, and fresh 'n' inexpensive theatre from Aleberta Theatre Project in the evening. I'm not going to make any of those, but for those who might want to spot me (and I'm told there are a few) my current plan is:
11-noonish Art Exhibits - The New Gallery and Triangle Gallery, which I'll probably drift back to in the afternoon
noonish-1ish Food & Wine - a bit of nosh (possibly even brown baggin') to fortify myself for an exploration of South American wines at The Cellar
1-3:30 John Wayne Film: Angel & the Badman at the WR Castell Public Library (finally got my card updated!)
5-6 EPCOR Centre Backstage Tours - I actually saw this back in my student days, before EPCOR owned the kaboodle, so I'm curious what I've forgotten and what may have changed.
After that I'm rehearsing. Details further below.
Next week begins the run of Scorpio Production's latest piece, The Spy Who Left Me.
This company's been going since 2000 under the guidance of danny_g (that playwright I mentioned before) and this is one of the few productions I am not involved in. I look forward to viewing this one from the outside, particularly with the original music and choreography they've put together for it.
And finally, the thing taking up all my evenings: Cappuccino Musical Theatre's production of URL=http://www.calgary-acts.com/viewEvent.php?eventNumber=390]A Chorus Line.
ACL premiered 30 years ago this coming July and became the longest-running musical of its time. We've got 6 weeks to capture some of that magic and it is looking good. Tickets are already on sale through Ticketmaster for seats at the Engineered Air Theatre, a stage I'm looking forward to trying out for the first time.
That should do it for now. I'll see you on the town!
Jason
PS - a few of you may not have realized I dance. It can be surprising, and that's all I'll say about the quality of it. I've taken a variety of forms, including several weeks of belly dance (yes, men can do it too) which brings me to one last point-of-interest. I signed up on a site called [meetup.com a few years back and just recently got word that the local Bellydance Meetup group is now active and having their first meeting this Friday. Get the details at [meetup.com - this is another event I can't make due to bad timing, else I'd give you all the details myself and take you all as my personal guests.
- j
whitewidow:
You're back!!!