Arts scene flourishing
The tundra might be frozen solid, but stuff still grows in November. Just not crops. At the Dome, the hockey heroes are fielding a team of emerging NHLers, who alternate between flashes of brilliance (Monahan on the shootout against the Jets) and brutality (blowing a 2-0 lead against the hapless Oilers).
In the same way, the city’s emerging arts scene is alive and well beyond the fortress that is Epcor Centre, where thousands of patrons flock every weekend. Consider the following.
The University of Calgary, where Dance Montage 2013 opens Thursday night and then U of C again next Tuesday, when the one-act play Comrades opens.
Dance Montage features 10 choreographers, ranging from hip hop (Pulse Studios) to dancers of mixed abilities (MoMo Dance) to contemporary choreographers, such as 02 artistic director Sarah Dolan, who has a long history of working with the So You Think You Can Dance TV series.
“That’s by design in its original spirit,” says U of C dance faculty member Michele Moss, “which was, Let’s get everybody and anybody who wants to be engaged in the creative process with regards to dance, making dancing, watching dance — let’s bring them all together in one place.”
It’s the 44th year for the Montage, where there will also be an announcement connecting the dance department to kinesiology: the creation of a five year, bachelor of arts in dance and science in kinesiology, bringing together both sides of the brain inside one vibrant academic body.
“It’s so exciting when dance is used,” says Moss, “is profited from, is employed, is used as a jumping-off place, is used as a spark.” It also tends to sell out. Nov. 21-23, University Theatre, U of C. Tickets: www.ucalgary.ca/ tickets or 403- 220- 7202.
Meanwhile, University of Calgary drama prof Val Campbell was reading The Drowning Girls, Beth Graham and Daniela Vlaskalic’s Betty Award-winning drama of a few years back, when she discovered Comrades by the same two playwrights.
It explored the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a pair of early 20th-century Italian immigrants who found themselves involved in the Trial of the (Early) 20th Century, almost 100 years ago.
Sacco and Vanzetti, anarchists who lobbied for workers’ rights, were part of a kind of Occupy 1920 movement, at least until they found themselves accused of murder.
That resulted in a seven-yearlong Boston courtroom battle that resulted in both men being found guilty and executed, despite a worldwide protest that they were being railroaded because of their political beliefs. (Woody Guthrie recorded an album about them. Fifty years later, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis exonerated them).
The play takes place in prison, where the two flash back in time to the events that led to their imprisonment, on a set designed by MFA student Leon Schwesinger.
“These were real people, dealing with real things,” says Allen, “and one of the reasons I was so attracted to the play was because there’s lines in the play that are so topical and current, like ‘Not every immigrant is carrying a bomb’ — lines like that — or ‘civil liberties are at stake here.’ All these things that people were going through at the time still ex- ist.” Reeve Theatre, U of C, Nov. 26 through Dec. 7.
And speaking of courtroom battles and civil liberties, Theatre Transit is holding an unconventional season opener in a uniquely beautiful venue.
They’re holding a staged reading of 8, Oscar-winning screenwriter (for Milk) Dustin Lance Black’s docu-drama about the courtroom battle that overturned California’s Proposition 8 forbidding gay marriage.
It takes place Nov. 30 at Hillhurst United Church, an affirming church that supports the LGBTQ community and conducts gay weddings.
“We came across the script about a year ago,” says Theatre Transit artistic director Valmai Goggin, “and were really struck by it. It’s an engaging and incredible story — and the fact that the story and dialogue are all pulled from court transcripts gives it this really authentic feel.”
The show features a cast of 20, including professional and emerging Calgary actors, members of Calgary’s LGBTQ community and even a few members of the congregation. For tickets and more info, visit theatretransit.ca.
Thursday through Saturday, Theatre Junction’s Resident Company of Artists are throwing open the doors to Theatre Junction Grand to invite the community in to see a lab presentation of their latest work-in-progress.
It’s an extension of some of the themes they explored in 2013’s Somewhere Between Now and When the Sun Goes Supernova, says artistic director Mark Lawes — “the accelerated culture and in particular, this kind of left-brain, right brain separation we have in our culture today — the creative brain side and the rational, logical brain.”
(Unless, that is, you study dance and kinesiology at the University of Calgary!)
Lawes says to think media guru Marshall McLuhan mixed in with Red Deer art star Kim Dorland’s surreal landscapes, and some compelling contemporary dance as well, and you get the left side of the idea. Or is it the right?
There will be a talk back after the show. $15 suggested paywhat-you-can. For more info: theatrejunction.com or call 403205-2922.
And Friday night, all the way from Glasgow, Visible Fictions will present Jason and the Argonauts, a highly unique, irreverent retelling of the Greek myth, not the under-loved CFL football franchise. It’s an adventure story that features monsters, romance, heroic action, revenge — and action figures. Its being brought to town by Y Stage and runs through Nov. 30. For more info: www.vertigotheatre.com
Epcor’s not going anywhere, but it’s entirely possible some of the city’s emerging young artists and arts groups will, one day, so catch them while you can.