I’ve lived in the “sunny” Okanagan almost my entire life. It’s a built-in feature of this picturesque valley: Sunshine!
We bask in it on our beaches, we have festivals just to celebrate it, and we spend a small fortune on sunscreen every year to protect ourselves from it. So, with summer solstice having come and gone this past week, I have just one question: Where’d the sunshine go?
Whether the next four weeks find you seeking reprieve from a giant yellow orb making up for lost time, or shelter from more of this particularly unseasonal rainfall, you’ll find plenty of events in the great indoors.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started:
Wrapping up the spring recital season, the En Avant School of Dance presents An Afternoon of Magic today at the Performing Arts Centre. A range of dance genres including ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre and contemporary will be performed by students ages preschool to adult. This year’s program is rounded out with a special performance by Taryn Sweeney, a former En Avant student who is now a student of the National Ballet of Canada.
Showtime starts at 2 p.m. this afternoon, and tickets are still available at the door within one hour of the show, or online at www.ticketseller.ca.
Your source for fresh local comedy, Full Frontal Improv is hosting a night of theatre improv this Wednesday.
It’s an on-the-spot, raw performance that is entirely unrehearsed and unpredictable as a series of comical games and parameters come into play.
Opening for the group is The Hub’s ambitious Teen Prov group. It’ll be an evening of laughter, audience participation and fun and it starts at 8 p.m. at The Hub Arts Collective. Tickets are on sale through The Hub or by calling the Ticket Seller at 549-SHOW (7469).
And comedian Tim Nutt is on stage at the Performing Arts Centre on Thursday night for Comedy 4 A Cause.
Nutt brings a simplistic down to earth stand-up routine that has entertained such audiences as Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival, and more recently the Halifax Comedy Festival. Showtime is at 8 p.m. and tickets are on sale through the Ticket Seller by calling 549-SHOW (7469).
Powerhouse Theatre is remounting its spine-chilling ghost story from earlier this year, The Woman In Black. It’s a production that pocketed best production, best director, best actors and best sound in the Okanagan Zone festival, and it’s now on its way to the Mainstage competition in Kamloops in July.
The remount at the Powerhouse Theatre is a fundraising presentation for two nights only: July 3 and 4 starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale through the Ticket Seller at 549-SHOW (7469).
Missoula Children’s Theatre (Snow White, Robinson Crusoe, Pinocchio) is back at the Performing Arts Centre this summer for their production of Hansel and Gretel. The cast consists of up and coming local talent and two performances on July 14 are the culmination of a week-long musical theatre camp. Two actor/directors supply the sets, costumes, makeup, and everything else needed to put on the production and they’ll have 60 local participants ready to take on the big stage at the Performing Arts Centre for the big show.
Music, laughter, thrills and chills, and packed with fun for the whole family, the performances start at 3:30 and 5:30 p.m. and you can buy your tickets through the Ticket Seller at 549-SHOW (7469).
And let’s hope for some clear skies by July 18 as the 26th annual Midsummer’s Eve of the Arts is set to take place in Cenotaph Park that evening. It’s a garden party featuring fabulous art, refreshments, and live music in the heart of downtown Vernon.
This fundraiser for the Vernon Public Art Gallery starts at 6:30 p.m. with the live and silent auctions starting at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the art gallery or by calling the Ticket Seller box office at 549-SHOW (7469).
Enjoy the shows!
–– Brian van Wensem is the audience development coordinator with the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre.
