The 39 Steps
“What are the 39 Steps?”
That’s the famous pivotal question in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller.
But there’s an equally important question posed by Peninsula Productions’ live theatre version of the show, which moves into Coast Capital Playhouse (1532 Johnston Rd.) this Wednesday (July 8) for a brief summer run until July 25, while the White Rock Players Club is on hiatus.
How can just four actors play all 150 roles in the movie?
Answering the question are versatile players Corey Haas, Laura Caswell, Ben Odberg (The Game’s Afoot, Blithe Spirit) and Ashley O’Connell (the Arts Club’s Spamalot) – and director and well-known Vancouver man-of-the-theatre Matthew Bissett – who have joined forces for this perverse exercise in comedic minimalism.
Inspired by a heroic British regional stage production, Patrick Barlow turned The 39 Steps into a London hit 10 years ago, and since then it’s become a hot property around the world.
Using the movie as a starting point, The 39 Steps uses bare-bones props and sets, costumes by Mahara Sinclaire, and the creativity of the actors themselves to cover the script scene by scene – with inevitable hilarity.
The very British plot – itself a loose adaptation of John Buchan’s classic novel – finds suave adventurer Richard Hannay (Haas) framed for murder and forced to flee to the Scottish Highlands to track down the real culprits, a sinister spy organization spiriting aviation secrets from Britain.
Complicating his life are femme fatale Arabella, a forlorn crofter’s wife and heroine Pamela – determined not to see Hannay’s innocence – all played by Caswell, with Odberg and O’Connell determined to play, or suggest, at least, every other role.
Tickets ($25; seniors/children $20) are available from www.peninsulaproductions.org or 604-536-7535.
Ridley Bent
Unconventional country storyteller Ridley Bent will weave his magic this Friday (July 10) on the intimate stage of White Rock’s Blue Frog Studios.
Described in one review as “a beat-poet cowboy that can sing a broken-hearted country song that will make you want to cry,” the seven-time BC Country Music Award-winning writer-performer is sure to entertain with tall tales of hard-drinking, fast-driving, larger-than-life characters.
Opening for Bent are two sweethearts of the local country scene, close-harmony duo Fionn (formerly known as Alanna and Brianne).
The 17-year-old twins have been gaining fame both locally and internationally, following their 2013 Diamond in the Rock contest triumph – their first EP, produced by famed songwriter Steve Dorffand, was recorded in Los Angeles and Nashville last year.
The venue is located at 1328 Johnston Rd. and the music begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets are available at www.bluefrogstudios.ca or by calling 604-542-3055.
10 Variations
A group of 10 members of the South Surrey and White Rock Art Society will hold an exhibition and sale – 10 Variations – on July 11 and 12 at the South Surrey Recreation and Arts Centre, 14601 20 Ave.
The exhibition, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, will feature more than 200 original works.
TD Concerts At The Pier
Things are hopping at the White Rock waterfront on Saturday nights this summer.
In addition to promenade strolling and a lively restaurant patio trade, a live-music series down by the pier is bringing topflight alternative-pop acts to the area at a price that can’t be beaten – free of charge.
The City of White Rock and the White Rock BIA – with assistance from the Peak Performance Project, and major sponsorship from TD Canada Trust – presents the TD Concerts At The Pier series until Aug. 8.
This week’s headliner for the 7-10 p.m. concert will be the Fast Romantics (July 11), with opening acts Tea Petrovic and Sarah Wheeler.
Coming up are The Boom Booms (July 18, with Colleen Rennison and Bend Sinister); Gary Comeau and the Voodoo All Stars (July 25, with Ben Rogers and Lester Quitzau); and The Matinee (Aug. 8, with Tonye Aganaba and Blue Moon Marquee).
The Cooler Kings
Act fast to get tickets for The Cooler Kings’ latest White Rock show, set to turn the intimate venue of the Blue Frog Studios (1328 Johnston Rd.) into a summer dance party of R & B, Funk, Blues and Rock this Saturday (July 11).
The groove masters will play to a standing-and-dancing-only room, with high-top tables and a very limited number of seats on a first-come, first-served basis.
Chances are everyone will be on their feet for the music of this eight-piece show band, which brings together multiple-threat talents Willy Ward (formerly with the R & B All-Stars and The Powder Blues), vocals and trumpet, Renee Dora Cook, vocals and violin, and Elliott Clarkson’s sax in the front line.
Keyboardists Bill Brooks and Jim Widdifield round out the sound, augmented by the silky guitar sound of Leonard Bodin, and the driving beat of Paul Sorbara on drums and Paulo Silva on bass.
For ticket information, go to www.bluefrogstudios.ca
Beach House Theatre
Beach House Theatre’s week-long ‘season’ is a not-to-be-missed summer event.
The problem is, it is all too easily missed – by those who don’t act fast enough to reserve their tickets for the usually sold-out shows in Crescent Beach.
On offer this year is Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece 1895 comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest (Aug. 11-16), augmented by the family-oriented morning show, Munsch Upon A Time (Aug. 12-15), at Beach House’s state-of-the-art tent auditorium, next to the beach on Blackie Spit.
The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Beach House founders Candace Radcliffe and Rick Harmon, is an elaborately-costumed, farcical comedy of dalliance among the British upper classes, featuring Tom Gage, Patrick Dodd, Bethany Stanley, Marika Stanger, Michelle Collier, Carol Mann, James Walker, Paul Richardson and Paul Rancourt.
Munsch Upon A Time, directed by Elgin Park Players alumnus Courtney Shields, is another delightful collage of stories by popular children’s author Robert Munsch, featuring Aaron Holt, Claire Pollock and Matt Falletta.
For tickets and more information on events, call 604-594-5888, visit beachhousetheatre.org or email tickets@beachhousetheatre.org
Blues Challenge
Get ready for a day-long combination of wailing blues and red-hot barbecue (by Memphis Mike’s) July 26 at Semiahmoo Park.
The music threatens to be as hot as the steaks, as the White Rock Blues Society presents its sixth annual Blues Challenge, featuring evening headliner – and Chicago blues legend – Jimmy D. Lane.
Throughout the day, some 13 acts will vie to represent White Rock at this year’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn.
Competitors include such bands and leaders as Harpdog Brown, the Jim Black Band, Arsen Shomakov, the Hell’s Gate Blues Band, McKinley Wolf, Gary Preston and Jimmy Zee, while solo/duo finalists include Jesse Roper, Lonnie Glass, The Blues Baron, Nash Mcinnes and Murray Porter.
The unmatched, family-friendly waterfront park venue is courtesy of the Semiahmoo First Nation.
Tickets are $15 in advance (until July 22) and $20 at the gate; children 12 and under, accompanied by an adult, can get in free.
Tickets are available at tickets.surrey.ca, www.whiterockblues.com, Tapestry Music, Surfside Music, or by calling 604-542-6515.
Trad jazz for dancing
It’s an afternoon of low-pressure, high-enjoyment fun.
Classic live Dixieland and retro jazz sets the easy-going tempos for dancers of all age groups (19 and up) every Sunday afternoon – barring a few holidays and special events – at the Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch 240 (2643 128 St.).
Until regular sessions of the White Rock Traditional Jazz Society return in the fall, the society’s house band – Red Beans & Rice, usually led by trumpeter and vocalist Rice Honeywell Sr. – is filling in with regular 2 to 5 p.m. performances each Sunday (except Aug. 2). Admission is $10 for WRTJS and legion members; $12 for everybody else.
Fans of Red Beans & Rice can also catch the band at Porter’s Bistro, 21611 48 Ave., in Langley’s historic Murrayville, in a 7 p.m. performance Friday (July 10). For reservations, call 604-530-5297.
Trad jazz enthusiasts should also note that tickets are now available for the Jazz Band Ball festival – this year hosted by the WRTJS – at Pacific Inn and Resort Centre, Sept. 25-27.
For more information, visit www.whiterocktradjazz.com
Acrylics for tweens/teens
Tweens and teens will get a fine introduction to acrylic technique – and some of the secrets of composition and individual expression – in a painting class offered at Chris and Marilyn McClure’s Golden Cactus Fine Art Studio July 27-31 (10 a.m. to noon each day).
Class fee ($220) includes canvas paints and use of studio brushes.
Well-known White Rock artist Chris McClure – romantic realist painter and creator of International Artist Day, and the city’s annual IAD Festival – says he plans to work directly with each student as well as demonstrating ideas to the group. Students can expect to produce two canvases over the course of the class, he said.
“First day we will work on drawings of ideas to paint,” McClure said. “Over the next few days I will show them a few different ways to express themselves on canvas. I can tell by how they draw where to point them for their own voice.”
The Golden Cactus studio is located at the corner of 152 Street and Thrift Avenue (Hillcrest Mall).
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/GoldenCactusStudio
White Rock Community Centre
The Art On Display summer series at White Rock Community Centre (15154 Russell Ave.) continues to feature visual artist Joyce Ozier’s abstract exhibit ‘Marked Panels. Panels. Panels.’ until July 17.
A remount of a show first presented at Vancouver’s Zack Gallery in October, most of the show consists of groupings of large panels (in excess of six-feet-by-six-feet).
The size of each painting, Ozier says, “allows the viewer to be involved physically, rather than being solely an observer… it allows for simplicity, dynamic gesture, playfulness and indeterminacy.”
A second show, opening July 23, is Being Human, by Langley artist Gina Kling.
Her large, imposing canvases convey images of life, love and hope in a way that harks back to the work of old-world masters.
Whether painting in watercolour, or drawing free-hand on cotton stretched canvas, and investing her painting with richness and detail through her skill with oils, the Emily Carr-trained, Federation of Canadian Artists member is clearly travelling the same paths as the masters.
Drawing inspiration from lesser-known biblical verses, she seeks to depict and evoke the human spirit and all our flaws – and perfections.
The show will run at White Rock Community Centre until Aug. 28.
Voja Morosan
Belgrade,Yugoslavia-born artist Vojislav (Voja) Morosan adopted White Rock and the Semiahmoo Peninsula area as a second home in the 1990s and became one of its most dedicated chroniclers, through meticulously accurate and highly evocative plein-air paintings.
A special summer retrospective of the late artist’s work at Seventh Heaven Art and Beauty Salon (12185 Beecher St., Crescent Beach) brings home vividly his skill at capturing the topography, mood and characteristic heritage architecture of the Peninsula – much of which has since fallen to redevelopment pressure.
For the nostalgic, Morosan’s glowing colours and architectural details – also the focus of a Tourism White Rock calendar last year and preserved among White Rock Museum and Archives’ collection – offer a compelling legacy.
The paintings can be viewed Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to Aug. 30, by appointment.
For more information, call 778-292-0687, or visit the Vojislav Morosan Facebook page.
White Rock Players’ Club
White Rock Players Club, on summer hiatus while independent shows like Peninsula Production’s The 39 Steps take over the Coast Capital Playhouse, is hatching an ambitious season to start its seventh decade of home-grown little theatre in the city.
The first show announced for the 2015-16 season will be a bold attempt to stage a theatrical legend – Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman (Oct. 7-24), a tragic study of the unravelling of tired commercial traveller Willy Loman in the late 1940s.
The club’s annual audience-pleaser, the Christmas pantomime, will return Dec. 4 to Jan. 2, updating Charlotte Johnson’s 1960 script of Cinderella under the guidance of director Lisa Pavilionis.
Marc Camoletti’s 1960s door-slammer farce Boeing, Boeing is set to hit the stage March 2-19 followed by Noel Coward’s 1930s comedy of manners Private Lives (April 13-30).
The announced season-closer will offer two versions of a classic comedy – a staging, on alternate nights, of both the male and female versions of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.
Coast Capital Playhouse is located at 1532 Johnston Rd. Individual tickets are $18 for adults; $16 for students and seniors.
To inquire about season-ticket options, call 604-536-7535.
Symphonists sought
Now celebrating its 30th concert season, the Fraser Valley Symphony is seeking new members in the violin, viola and percussion sections, but also welcomes inquiries from other interested professional-calibre musicians.
Performing alongside world-class instrumental and vocal soloists, the orchestra provides an opportunity for auditioned musicians to present a variety of music to audiences throughout the region.
Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings, in Abbotsford.
Contact info@fraservalleysymphony.org or call 604-859-3877.
Singers wanted
Pacific Showtime Men’s Chorus, based in Ocean Park, rehearses Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s Church, 12953 20 Ave.
The small community chorus of experienced singers is currently seeking new members for all vocal ranges: lead, tenor, baritone and bass.
Offering a big sound in a variety of musical styles, Pacific Showtime has been featured at a many different Lower Mainland events, including show productions, concerts and private functions.
The repertoire is designed to include songs and a singing style that appeal to a wide variety of music preferences, with emphasis on entertainment value, and chance to develop singing skills while having fun and enjoying camaraderie.
Male singers are invited to attend rehearsals to check out the group and, hopefully, join in.
For more information, call 604-536-5292 or email leighand@shaw.ca
