Former Nylon Micah Barnes to perform in Victoria
Jazz crooner Micah Barnes and pianist Holly Arsenault will perform at the Victoria Playhouse on Monday, Aug. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Barnes would probably be best known to audiences as a former member of the A Capella group The Nylons.
He began is career in the cabarets and jazz clubs of Toronto while still a teenager and became a singer-songwriter on the Queen Street scene before joining The Nylons and touring the world.
Recording with the A Capella Pop act brought Micah into the global music scene and landed him in Venice Beach, Calif., where he launched a solo career touring the U.S. Barnes’ latest show “New York Stories” is a musical tour of The Big Apple featuring songs from the world of Broadway, jazz and doo wop from legendary New York songwriters like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Carole King and Burt Bacharach, as well as numbers from Barnes’ critically acclaimed disc “New York Stories”.
The piano has been Arsenault’s favourite toy since the age of four when she came upon the tired old upright at her grandmother’s house in Cape Breton. In the years since, she has travelled the globe as a pit musician, music director, sideman, soloist and leader of her own trio. Arsenault currently lives and plays in Halifax, N.S., with forays into the wider world as opportunities and adventures beckon.
For tickets, call the playhouse box office at 1-800-925-2025 or order online at www.victoriaplayhouse.com.
Fiction and memoir writer Isabel Huggan will offer a writing workshop to Island writers, Aug. 11-12, at the Haviland Club in Charlottetown.
Participants choose whether they take part in one or both days.
Huggan has been teaching creating writing for more than 40 years (including 20 years with the Humber School for Writers). Her works include “Elizabeth Stories’’, “You Never Know’’, and “Belonging: Home Away From Home’’.
Although she lives in France, where she has a Writers’ Retreat in her old stone barn (Le Mas Blanc), she travels to Canada from France every summer and often works with writers by correspondence.
Entitled “What’s Not in the Picture,” this workshop is open to writers of all genres (fiction, non-fiction and poets). Participants are asked to bring a pen and paper and at least two photographs (preferably ones that show a group of people at some occasion and of which there is a personal attachment).
On Aug. 11, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Huggan will lead participants through an imaginative development exercise in the morning. In the afternoon, participants will have the chance to create their own piece of work based on the morning’s exercise. Day one will end with the opportunity for participants to read their work aloud, allowing for critical comment and group discussion.
Those who would like some guidance in the fine art of selfcriticism can sign up for day two of the workshop on Aug. 12 from 1-4:30 p.m.
This half-day program allows participants to work together, reading one another’s work with the unifying goal of improving the text.
Those interested in this session are asked to bring no more than two pages of writing to the session.
Interested writers are encouraged to register early for this event as space is limited. Seats are intentionally capped so that attendees get personalized attention and feedback on their writing.
The Aug. 11 workshop has space for 20 participants, while the Aug. 12 session is capped at 10 participants.
The cost to attend for one day is $85 for P.E.I. Writers’ Guild members and $95 for non-members. To attend both days, the cost is $125 for members and $135 for non-members.
For more information, go to http://www.peiwritersguild. com/membership.