SURREY — Tickets went on sale today for shows to hit the stage at Surrey Arts Centre and city hall’s Centre Stage theatre next fall, winter and spring.
The 19-show Surrey Spectacular Series offers a mix of theatre, music, comedy at the three Surrey Civic Theatres from September 2016 until May 2017.
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Up first in the series is “Baker’s Dozen: 12 Angry Puppets,” (Sept. 23, Centre Stage), a one-man puppet courtroom dramedy in which Adam Francis Proulx transforms one puppet into 12 jurors. The show, along with some others in the series, comes with a warning of “strong language and mature themes.”
On a week-plus run starting Oct. 12 at Surrey Arts Centre is Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery,” first of three Arts Club On Tour plays. The others are “The (Post) Mistress,” Tomson Highway’s “small-town cabaret of sealed secrets” (opening Jan. 11), and “Bittergirl,” a “cathartic and catchy musical (that) charts the romantic breakups of three women and the lively antics that ensue” (opening Feb. 22).
The October calendar also features dates for “Laughs From the Past” (Oct. 22, Centre Stage) and Lorne Elliott’s “Chasing the Big Silly” (Oct. 27, Studio Theatre).
The arts centre’s main stage gets musical on Nov. 4 with bluesman Jim Byrnes (PICTURED) with special guests Pat Chessell Band. That same night, “Comedy Unscripted: Improv With a Twist” is brought to Centre Stage.
Other shows in November are “The Great Canadian Tire Money Caper,” featuring Corin Raymond, and “Call Mr. Robeson: A Life, With Songs,” which stars Tayo Aluko as Paul Robeson, the outspoken actor, singer and civil rights campaigner.
On Dec. 6, Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir returns to the arts centre with its annual “Sounds of Christmas” concert.
In 2017, Canadian country/folk musician Jimmy Rankin gigs on Jan. 27 at the Bear Creek Park theatre, with guest Babe Gurr.
A night later at Centre Stage, Surrey’s Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann perform “Wish You Were Here: The Music of Pink Floyd & more for Two Pianos.”
The Bergmanns are also busy with “Broadway Love Stories: Music from Porgy and Bess & West Side Story” (March 12), and have taken over as hosts of Classical Coffee Concerts, the arts centre’s Thursday-morning series. The latter opens on Oct. 13 with “Beethoven and The Beatles,” featuring guest violinist Mark Ferris, and includes five concerts in all, one with former series host Sarah Hagen (on March 23).
In February, Axis Theatre brings its kid-friendly “Hamelin: A New Fable” comedy-musical to the arts centre’s mainstage.
On March 10 at Centre Stage, Ivan Coyote returns to Surrey with “Tomboy Survival Guide,” in which the writer/storyteller and band “navigate the narrow halls of public washrooms, skirt the treachery of growing up under the threat of being picked to be a flower girl at their aunt’s wedding, triumph over tying a double Windsor knot and discover the power and beauty in realizing they were handsome all along.”
The arts centre’s annual International Women’s Day celebration, “I Am Woman! Hear Me Laugh,” is performed on March 9, and “The Mother of All Comedy Shows” hits Centre Stage on May 13.
Show and ticket information is posted at Tickets.surrey.ca, or call 604-501-5566.
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com
