Semiahmoo Strings
The Semiahmoo Strings, directed by Carla Birston, will present a concert of Classics and Classic Jazz with special guests Miles Black (piano), Jodi Proznick (bass) and Crag Scott (drums), Friday, June 8, 7:30 p.m. at Peace Portal Alliance Church, 15128 27B Ave.
The program will feature classics by Mozart, Handel and Copland, and classic jazz by Duke Ellington, Jean-Luc Ponty and Stephane Grappelli, as well as premiere performances of new pieces by Black, and by Semiahmoo Strings cellist/instructor Harold Birston.
For tickets and info, call 604-538-1460.
Red Beans and Rice
The White Rock Traditional Jazz Society’s regular season of Sunday afternoon live hot jazz music and dance sessions (usually 3-6 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch 240, 2643 128 St.) have wound down for the summer but that doesn’t mean doing without the sounds of vintage jazz.
House band Red Beans and Rice, led by trumpeter Rice Honeywell Sr., will continue to play most Sundays through the summer, 3-6 p.m. at the legion.
But there’s also another chance to enjoy the local favourites, On Friday nights, 7-10 p.m. they play at Porter’s Bistro, 21611 48 Ave. in Langley’s historic Murrayville (reservations 604-530-5297).
Arts Umbrella
The Expressions Festival 2012 comes to Arts Umbrella’s Morgan Crossing location (116 – 15850 26 Ave.) on June 9.
A showcase of work by Semiahmoo Peninsula Arts Umbrella students will start at 1 p.m. and will feature a theatre presentation by the Granville Island-based Act One pre-professional youth group.
The showcase runs until 4 p.m.
For more information, call 604-535-1127.
Much Mo’
Emerging Peninsula Motown and rhythm and blues specialists Much Mo’ (Diane Cadieux-Rey, Rosie Flanagan, Peter Tennant, Ched Miller) will bring their danceable, feel-good music to the Royal Canadian Legion Crescent Branch 240 (2643 128 St.)
June 9 (doors open 7:30 p.m.) with special guests Mike Fergusen (drums), James Martin (sax), Mickey Hovan (guitar) and vocalists Lois Stewart, Philip Q. Davey and Frisco Read.
Tickets ($12, $15 at the door) are available from the legion. For more information, call 604-536-1490.
Blue Frog
Next live concert at White Rock’s Blue Frog Studios (1328 Johnston Rd.), will feature blues-rock guitarist David Gogo, with his special guest, singer-songwriter Bobbi Schram, Saturday, June 9, at 7:30 p.m.
One of Canada’s hardest working musicians, Gogo has won three Juno nominations, received the Saturday Night Blues Great Canadian Blues Award for a lifetime contribution to blues music, and has twice been named Maple Blues guitarist of the year.
He’s also played with such blues and rock legends as B.B. King, Bo Diddley, George Thorogood, ZZ Top, and toured with Johnny Winter.
Former White Rock resident Schram (she had her first concert at the Semiahmoo Park bandshell when she was 16) has performed in many venues throughout B.C., and as far afield as the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
Her ‘telling a story in song’ folk style is relaxed, but with a touch of the blues.
For information, reservations, call 604-542-3055 or visit www.bluefrogstudios.ca
Starchild
Well-known Peninsula singer-songwriters-multi-instrumentalists Fanny Starchild and Vegari Cendar, and their band The Mystiques, are currently appearing in a series of live events to promote their new album Liberte (available in both a French language and bilingual CD).
Upcoming events featuring Starchild, Cendar and the Mystiques (Victor Smith, piano and accordion; Ron Stelting, drums and percussion; Randy Schultz, guitar; and Ena, aka Catherine McLellan, backup vocals) include a concert at Ocean Park Community Hall (1577 128 St.) June 9, 8 p.m.
For tickets ($10) and more information, visit www.starchild.ca
Coast Capital Playhouse
Tickets are available now for a very lively spring and summer of entertainment at Coast Capital Playhouse (1532 Johnston Rd.)
From June 13 to 30 the scheduled White Rock Players Club show will be Ken Ludwig’s farce Lend Me A Tenor, directed by Ryan Mooney (who helmed last year’s Nunsense, a notable collaboration of Mooney’s Fighting Chance Productions and the Players Club).
Set at Cleveland’s opera house in 1934, the show depicts the mayhem when famed tenor Tito Merelli, known as ‘Il Stupendo,’ receives an accidental double-dose of tranquilizers, and Saunders, the company manager has to find a substitute.
Following Peninsula Productions’ production of the classic British whodunnit, The Mousetrap (July 11-28), the Coast Capital Playhouse will be home to a new collaboration between Fighting Chance and the Players Club, the popular musical Little Shop of Horrors.
For tickets and show time information, visit www.whiterockplayers.ca or call 604-536-7535.
Golden Cactus
Chris MacClure and Marilyn Hurst’s Golden Cactus Studio is now open at 15177 Russell Ave. (across from the whale mural).
Together with their studio partner, glass and multi-media artist Trish Pollock, the painters look forward to meeting with the public and fellow artists at the new studio, which they’d like to see become a hub of White Rock’s evolving uptown arts scene.
As part of ongoing activities they will hold a weekly drop-in for artists every Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the studio, with a standing invitation to “come by and share ideas, inspiration and camaraderie.”
Musical theatre intensive
There may still be a few places for young performers (ages 12 to 16) with a passion for singing, dancing and acting in the Arts Club Musical Theatre Intensive at Surrey Arts Centre.
In the program, which runs July 3 to 13, performers at a beginner to intermediate level learn from industry professionals, gaining skills, confidence and contacts necessary to pursue a musical theatre education and ultimately pursue a career in professional theatre.
Participants don’t have to be equally accomplished in singing dancing and acting,
according to program director and founder Peter Jorgensen – himself a critically acclaimed musical theatre performer – as classes aim to build on existing talents to set young artists on a path to becoming accomplished triple-threats.
Applicants must have any two out of the following background credits: two years dance training, one year of private voice training, one year singing with a school or community choir, one year of acting/drama classes, and experience performing in a school or community musical.
Late registration price is $525.
For more information, call 604-501-5566 or visit www.surrey.ca/arts
White Rock Blues
John Lee Sanders will serve up a helping of what he advertises as “New Orleans deep-fried funk in a bucket full of blues” Saturday, June 16, 8 p.m. at the Rhumba Room of the Pacific Inn Resort, 1160 King George Blvd., presented by the White Rock Blues Society.
The White Rock-based musician’s growing years and musical career in the U.S. steeped him in the best traditions of pop, jazz, country, gospel, New Orleans street rhythm, funk, soul and rhythm and blues.
He’s shared the stage with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Page, Starship, Chuck Berry, Dr. John, The meters, Willie Nelson, Tower of Power and Jimmy Witherspoon, as well as being an Emmy-nominated composer and winner of three 2009 Canadian Music Awards.
The result is a sound that is the real thing. In the words of White Rock Blues Society president Rod Dranfield, Sanders can “sit in front of a piano and bring the smoke from a Texas barbecue, the spirit of a New Orleans street parade and the soul of the Mississippi Delta, all in one set.”
Tickets ($20 advance, $25 at the door) are available at www.whiterockblues.com, or by calling 604-542-6515.
Senior stars
The next local Senior Star contest, on June 21, will be hosted by Crescent Gardens Retirement Community, 1222 King George Blvd.
Now in its sixth year, the national Senior Star event is Canada’s largest talent competition dedicated to seniors. A singing and musical competition, it’s open to anyone over 65 who is a Canadian resident.
Contestants will each be given a maximum of five minutes to sing, or play an instrument – or do both – and the performances will be recorded on video (musical accompaniment is provided to singers if required).
A panel of three judges will select the top three local contestants, each of whom will receive a Senior Star trophy.
The videos of the first and second place winners from all local contests across Canada will then go on to a panel of celebrity judges, who will narrow down the field to nine finalists. These will then be invited to compete at the Senior Star National Finals in Niagara Falls, Ont. in November.
Registration forms are available from Crescent Gardens, or, for more details, call Victoria Jackson at 604-541-6712.
The Mousetrap
Peninsula Productions summer production of Agatha Christie’s celebrated 1952 thriller The Mousetrap runs July 11 to 28 at the Coast Capital Playhouse.
“We have brought together an amazing cast of seasoned actors and fresh faces,” said artistic director Wendy Bollard, who helmed last year’s popular production of Waiting For The Parade.
“The spirit of this play is indomitable. As with every great play it is all about the characters and the story.”
The very British show – which at times resembles a live version of Clue – takes place at historic Monkswell Manor, recently renovated as a guest house by young couple Mollie and Giles Ralston.
Their first guests include the erratic Christopher Wren, the hypercritical Mrs. Boyle, retired military man Major Metcalf, the mannish Miss Casewell, and mysterious foreigner Mr. Paravicini – all of whom are promptly stranded at Monkswell by a snowstorm, just as news arrives of a murder in London…with the distressing addendum that the manor house may be next on the murderer’s itinerary.
The local production of The Mousetrap is part of the 60th anniversary celebrations worldwide for the venerable whodunit – which has broken all records by running continuously in London since it first opened.
“Many people have seen The Mousetrap over the years but they keep coming back,” Bollard said. “One of its endearing qualities is that at the end of every performance the audience is asked to become part of its success by keeping the secret of who the murderer really is.”
Tickets are $18 and $22 and can be purchased at www.whiterockplayers.ca or in person at The Coast Capital Playhouse, 1532 Johnston Road.
For more information, visit peninsulaproductions.org
Shakespeare production
The Beachhouse Theatre Society will present an eagerly awaited production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Crescent Beach this summer.
Directors Candace Radcliffe and Rick Harmon are set to start rehearsals in June, with the show itself to be held Aug. 15-19 under a tent near Blackie Spit.
For more information, visit www.beachhousetheatre.org
