alex.browne@peacearchnews.com
Double exposure
Closing ceremony for Semiahmoo Arts’ exhibit/arts event Double Exposure, is tonight (April 20), 7-9 p.m. at the Turnbull Gallery at South Surrey Recreation and Arts Centre.
Surrey’s first poet laureate, Renee Saklikar, will read winning entries in the exhibition’s Ekphrastic Poetry Project in which writers and poets were challenged to create poetry inspired by the current photo exhibit.
The project was created to honour two annual events, the Capture Photography Festival and Canada’s National Poetry Month.
The South Surrey Recreation and Arts Centre is located at 14601 20 Ave.
Youth talent search
The Roadhouse Live Youth Talent Search returns tonight (April 20) at the eclectically-decorated Roadhouse Grille restaurant on King George Boulevard – not only as recognition of the impressive talents of young Semiahmoo Peninsula musicians, but also as a tribute to one of its most enthusiastic champions, late Roadhouse co-owner Dwayne Jacobson, who succumbed to cancer in February.
Contest semifinals take place at the restaurant every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. until May 25, according to Jacobson’s daughter, Roadhouse manager Lise Houweling, who has taken up the challenge of restaging the contest for 2016 – with the help of long-time organizer, Dennis Peterson, also known as the Peninsula’s ‘King of the Open Mic’.
Semifinalists selected at each Wednesday session will compete for top and runner-up positions at the final concert, June 12 at Blue Frog Studios.
Prizes will include gift certificates for musical equipment from Tapestry Music, studio time, career development sessions, and a chance to appear at both White Rock’s Canada Day and Sea Festival events.
There’s no bottom age for contestants, and, aside from the age limit of 19, the only other requirement is that they live south of 40 Avenue and west of the Surrey-Langley border (at 196 Street).
For more information on the contest and how to book performances, email Peterson at edpeterson@shaw.ca, call 604-728-9334 or visit the Roadhouse Live Facebook page.
White Rock Trad Jazz
The Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch 240 will be jumping to the sound of jazz this Sunday (April 24) as White Rock Traditional Jazz Society’s regular 2 to 5 p.m. session of live Dixieland/Swing returns to the hall (2643 128 St.).
Featured this week are reedman extraordinaire Gerry Green‘s Crescent City Shakers.
Upcoming is a benefit for the WRTJS youth band camp featuring the Faculty Band (May 1) and the Square Pegs Jazz Band (May 8).
Admission (19 and up) is $10 for WRTJS and Legion members, $12 for everybody else).
The venue is located at 2643 128 St.
For more information on upcoming bands visit www.whiterocktradjazz.com or call 604-560-9215.
Verbal Arts Salon
Attention all those interested in new and evolving forms of verbal expression.
Writer, poet and playwright Virginia Gillespie is launching the next phase of her experimental PlayRoom series of artist-led sessions with a continuing Word Studio upstairs at Alexandra Hall (Alexandra Neighborhood House, 2916 McBride Ave., Crescent Beach).
Inaugural event is a Verbal Arts Salon next Monday (April 25) at 8 p.m. in the space, featuring SFU professor/poet/dancer Celeste Snowber, vocalist/choral director/educator Heidi McCurdy (with guitarist Tristan Paxton) and dancer/artist Elizabeth Carefoot, who will present a fabric work that revisits – and sums up – her long and influential career in ethnic dance.
Tickets ($15 in advance, $20 at the door) are available from vgplayroom@gmail.com
Katherine Siemens
South Surrey artist/photographer Katherine Siemens is presenting some of her latest watercolours and acrylics inspired by, and celebrating, the feminine in mythology – including highly stylized bold and delicate images of mermaids and faeries – throughout April at Laura’s Coffee on the Corner, 15202 Pacific Ave.
The show and sale, which includes smaller works and miniatures, also features photographs taken during recent travels in England and France.
Ghosts
White Rock’s Gordon Mantle makes a rare return to acting with Langley Players’ production of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, opening Thursday (April 21).
Well known as stage manager-producer of many Lower Mainland community theatre productions, Mantle plays the supporting role of Engstrand in the 1881 classic – which pioneered theatrical realism and raises issues that are still current today.
Directed by Helen Embury, the show, which runs until May 21 at Langley Playhouse, also stars Mahara Sinclaire, also well-known in South Surrey and White Rock as acting co-director of Peninsula Productions.
She plays widowed mother Helen Alving, while Dayna Thomas plays her maid Regina, daughter of Engstrand and Tony Loyer plays Oswald, Alving’s son, whose return home – ostensibly for a public tribute to his late father – raises the ‘ghosts’ of past secrets.
Rounding out the cast as a representative of the voice of morality is Andrew Wood, as Pastor Manders.
Langley Playhouse is located at 4307 – 200 St. Curtain is at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Tickets ($15) are available from www.langleyplayers.com/reservations.html
Fiddler on the Roof
Well-known South Surrey performers Kerry O’Donovan (Little Shop of Horrors) and Jonathan Bruce are featured in Royal City Musical Theatre’s production of the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof which runs until Saturday (April 23) at New Westminster’s Massey Theatre.
O’Donovan plays Motel (timid tailor suitor for Tevye and Golde’s daughter Tzeitel) while Bruce plays Lazar Wolf (Tzeitel’s other suitor, a wealthy butcher) in the production of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick-Joseph Stein classic, based on tales by Sholem Aleichem of the persecution and resilience of Jewish villagers in pre-revolutionary Russia.
The show is directed by Valerie Easton, with James Bryson as musical director, and stars Warren Kimmel as Tevye and Jennifer Poole as Golde.
For tickets and information visit ticketsnw.ca
Addams Family
The Broadway musical version of the Addams Family is the latest in a long line of inspiration dating back to Charles Addams’ original New Yorker cartoons of the 1930s and 40s (and including a long-running ’60s series, the hit movies of the early 1990s and a successful series reboot in the late `90s).
With the trademark ghoulish Addams look – and up-to-date pacing – it’s little wonder that, even with a few ‘mature’ references, the 2010 show is proving a favourite for high school producers weary of long-in-the-tooth traditional musicals.
The musical continues this week (April 20-23) on the stage of Earl Marriott Secondary’s Wheelhouse Theatre, where it’s the school’s 40th anniversary production, directed by drama department head Candice Radcliffe, with full orchestra directed by Rodger Owens, vocal direction by Bev and Emma Schellenberg, choregraphy by Carol Seitz and costumes by Linda Weston and Gale Smith.
A solid book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and witty, tuneful score by Andrew Lippa provides gift roles (and numbers) for the inhabitants of the ghoulish Addams mansion – including Morticia and Gomez, Uncle Fester and even Lurch the butler, as well as providing opportunities to shine for some new characters and a whole graveyard’s worth of undead ancestors.
Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. and tickets ($17, $15 seniors and students) can be reserved by emailing emstheatreco@gmail or calling 604-542-2181.
Private Lives
Noel Coward’s classic comedy Private Lives continues at Coast Capital Playhouse until April 30, latest production of the White Rock Players Club, directed by community theatre veteran Mark Hohlbein (Barefoot in the Park).
The ‘master”s celebrated script is a supremely witty, laugh-packed skewering of upper-class aimlessness in the 1930s and, in particular the love-hate-love relationship of Amanda Prynne (Jennifer Lane) and Elyot Chase (Dann Wilhelm).
Making their debuts in White Rock are Lauren Morrow as Elyot’s new wife Sybil and Tomas Gamba as Amanda’s new husband Victor, while popular WRPC regular Krystle Hadlow plays Louise, Amanda’s French maid.
The play runs Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinees.
Coast Capital Playhouse is located at 1532 Johnston Rd.
For tickets, visit http://www.whiterockplayers.ca/tickets or call 604-536-7535.
Santa Lucia
The hot dance sounds of seven-piece band Santa Lucia LFR (the initials stand for Latin-funk-rock) will be showcased Saturday, April 30 at Club 240 (the Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch).
Featuring German Cantillo (vocals and guitar), Byron Russell (alto sax), Jeremy Vint (trumpet), Kevin Tang (trombone), Luis Garzon (bass), Stefan Grabowsky (drums) and Luis Aulestia (latin percussion), Santa Lucia LFR evokes the excitement of Santana and War-era latin rock while adding their own blend of funk grooves, and powerhouse horns and bass.
The venue is located at 2643 128 St.
Tickets ($20) are available from the branch at 604-535-1080.
Blue Frog
Coming up April 30 at 8 p.m. at White Rock’s busy performance venue Blue Frog Studios, is the highly distinctive music of vocalist Glenda Rae and vocalist-guitarist Brett Wade.
Rae, brought up in a gospel environment, but with a long attachment to soul and blues, has established a strong reputation as a vocalist and writer of power and refinement, while West Coast music veteran Wade (guitar soloist on Valdy’s famed original version of Play Me A Rock and Roll Song) is well known as a backup musician on countless recordings, as well as a vocal stylist in his own right.
Joining them will be two equally well-regarded veterans: Miles Black on piano and Phil Robertson on drums.
Check www.bluefrogstudios.ca for details and other information on Blue Frog’s upcoming concert line-up.
The venue is located at 1328 Johnston Rd.; tickets are available at 604-542-3055 or through the website.
Volunteers needed
Outside the Box, ‘A Celebration of Fibre – Plus‘ is commencing preparations for its 2016 city-wide festival. Artistic director Alicia Ballard says OTB is looking forward to expanding the experience this year to all forms of artistic expression – including mixed-media, 3D and food.
To accomplish this organizers are extending an invitation to all local eateries, cafes, and other businesses in the city to get involved, and encouraging new participants, as well as offering a number of volunteer opportunities.
New volunteers are needed for positions in public relations and marketing, acquisitions and sponsorships, media and information technology and videography, as well as volunteers at large.
Those with enthusiasm and appropriate qualifications are asked to contact Ballard at studiogaleria@gmail.com
Sunshine at night
There’s something special about open mic evenings – not only are you likely to hear a variety of music that most venue programmers can’t present, but you might just catch an early performance by a rising star, or a surprise appearance by an established performer trying some new material.
Semiahmoo Peninsula open mic king Dennis Peterson – a man with a good eye for White Rock and South Surrey’s growing pool of experienced and developing talents – is offering a regular show, 6-9 p.m. most Saturdays at The Good Day Sunshine Cafe, #100-2950 King George Hwy.
With dinner, drinks and dessert also on the menu, it’s a good venue to settle in for an evening of unexpected musical treats.
Morrison Music Nights
Morrison Cafe in Ocean Park is hosting a regular monthly dinner/concert series in which professional acts are coupled with a three-course fine dining experience in the licensed venue.
Billed as Morrison Music Nights, the series is being coordinated by well-known musician Randy Schultz, who said it fits in with his long-standing objective of developing local venues capable of providing viable showcases for chronically under-valued professional musicians, rather than simply offering the more usual ‘open mic’ opportunities.
“Although of some value to developing musicians, these are not appropriate for established players who have years of hard work and practice behind their performances,” Schultz said, noting that low compensation in Metro Vancouver is driving local bands and musicians out on the road, returning home only as part of a tour.
“Morrison Cafe had been wanting to offer entertainment for a while to add to their dinner experience – in conversation with them, they realized that what I was suggesting was the way that their objective could be achieved,” Schultz said.
On music nights, dinner is served from 5 p.m., followed by the concert, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Tickets for the monthly presentations ($35) are available at the cafe, at 12855-16th Ave.
For more information, call 604-531-3636 or 604-721-0872.
Young actors sought
There’s still a chance for young actors to audition for a highly-regarded theatre company’s 18th season.
Susan Pendleton‘s Young People’s Theatre Company of Surrey (SYTCO) has opened up a few spots for boys and girls in grades 7-10.
Contact sytco@shaw.ca for audition information.
Orchestral recruits
The White Rock Community Orchestra has openings for double bass players and string players – especially violinists and violists. New woodwind and brass players are also welcome. For details, call Don Miller at 604-807-0560 or email papadon1812@hotmail.com, or visit http://whiterockcommunityorchestra.org
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
