Muskeg Press

Harbour Theatre is readying itself for a new theatrical season in the wake of a successful UdderFest.

“Now in its 32nd season, Harbour Theatre continues to expand its involvement in community theatre,” says Lyle McNish, past president of the club.

The season features some of the regular aspects of Harbour Theatre’s lineup, as well as some original stuff. The popular Dessert Theatre will run Feb. 16-18 next year, and UdderFest, Northwest B.C.’s only theatre festival, will take place August 8-11.

As well, with a municipal election coming up, Harbour Theatre has decided to have some fun with the campaign and stage “So You Wanna Be Mayor?” on November 18 – the day before the real municipal election. A popular show from UdderFest will also grace the stage over the next few nights – “Hot Judge Sundae,” a courtroom improv show, will be on stage on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, with shows starting at 8 p.m.

Harbour Theatre will also be producing a fall show at the end of November, which may include help from a dramaturge. It will also be producing a spring show in mid-March.

A new addition to the Tom Rooney Playhouse is Unity Theatre, a series of classes on Friday nights for anyone from Grades 4 to 6. Treena Decker, the co-ordinator of Unity Theatre, used to hold the classes at the Civic Centre, and decided to bring them to the local theatre for the new session.

Decker is also busy organizing the spring show – “Gods of Carnage.” A play about two couples meeting each other after their kids had gotten into a playground fight, Decker says the play shows how quickly the veneer of civility can descend into a juvenile breakdown.

“It’s a great piece of theatre,” says Decker, who first saw the play on Broadway in New York. It has also been made into a movie, set to be released this December.

Harbour Theatre will be holding its Annual General Meeting on October 26 at the Tom Rooney Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. “We’re always looking for new members and anyone willing to sit on the executive,” says McNish.

Elementary and middle school students in Prince Rupert will get a treat on Monday, as they may miss a class to attend a performance of Canadiana Musical Theatre’s Explorer Idol at the Lester Centre of the Arts.

Canadiana Musical Theatre creates and performs theatrical musicals drawn from pivotal events in Canadian history that nurture a passion and love for Canadian heritage. With zest, wit, farce, dance and high drama, these musician/actors present key figures from history in a vibrant engaging manner for students and teachers alike.

Artistic Director Allen Desnoyers has a keen interest in the stories of Canadians which inspired him to create a theatre company dedicated to those stories.

“From childhood I’ve loved and played many styles of music: classical, folk, boogie-woogie, ragtime, bluegrass, pop and rock and roll,” said Desnoyers. “With each play I like to find a style of music that I enjoy that also helps tell the story. For ‘The Birth of the CPR,’ boogie-woogie and bluegrass were a nice fit. For ‘The Klondike Rag,’ ragtime and Dixie banjo were another great fit.”

Explorer Idol is a show in which six contestants, Alexander Mackenzie, Sir John Franklin, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Captain Cook and David Thompson, compete for the title of Canada’s Greatest Explorer. It is a life-and-death contest to find out which of them can discover the Northwest Passage first. A final vote will determine Canada’s greatest explorer.

It features music styled after the “British invasion”; William Bligh, James Cook and George Vancouver are the house band. The show was inspired by Desnoyers’ experiences watching and meeting heroes.

“In my lifetime, I watched Neil Armstrong land on the moon and I’ve met Charles Duke, an astronaut who actually drove on the moon,” he said. “I’m inspired by their amazing journeys.

“In my show, I focus on early Canadian explorers, but their journeys were no less amazing in their own era. Explorers were the idols of their age, unlike our era, where mass media can turn people with no particular ability into ‘celebrities,’ explorers risked their lives on incredible journeys and were rightly celebrated for what they added to the knowledge of our world through their experiences, journals, maps and stories. By creating the conceit of a ‘game show’ style competition, I could introduce explorers from a range of centuries who are all trying to find the Northwest Passage, or at least a useable water route across Canada.”

Given the modern premise of the show (i.e. Canadian Idol), Desnoyers figured that pop music would be a good fit for the show and it gave him a chance to travel with his own rock band. He said that as a child he used to listen to Paul Revere and Raiders, a rock and roll band that dressed in American Revolutionary costumes. He though it would be fun to dress in British Navy outfits in the style of the 1790’s. Since Captain Cook, George Vancouver and William Bligh were actually explorers on the first voyage that brought the British to set foot in Canada and Nootka Sound, he made them the house band.

This will be the fourth show Desnoyers has brought to the Lester Centre over the years. They often perform in schools, however he said they are comfortable on any kind of stage since they have all been performers at Barkerville’s Theatre Royal.

According to Dawn Quast, cultural co-ordinator for School District 52, this is not a public performance, it is part of a program of presenting cultural performances for the students. As part of the curriculum, teachers prepare their students for the performance and do follow-up afterwards.

There will be three shows, at 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and at 2:00 PM. Although it is not open to the general public, members of the media are welcome to attend.

-Written by Gina Clark

September is well underway in Prince Rupert, which means that people are back to their fall routines of school and work and looking forward to Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en. It also means the beginning of the fall arts season, including at the Tom Rooney Playhouse, which will be hosting a performance by B.C. singer/songwriter Mark Perry on Saturday.

Perry was born and raised in Smithers, and his musical career began in school bands, then moved onto weekend bands and finally culminated in hitting the road in the early 1980s where he eventually began to focus more on writing and performing original material. He said that living in this region has a strong influence on his songwriting.

“I think we get to know people in all walks of life in the North because we have to,” he said. “Here the bikers know the farmers who get the hipper type people to watch their farms when they leave.”

Perry has a love of both hockey and guitars, and the former has made its way into a couple of his songs, “On Frozen Lakes” and “Breakaway.” He feels that both music and hockey are difficult ways to make a living and there are only a few succeed in each endeavour. Most people do not ever make a living doing either.

His interest in music was piqued at the age of 6 or 7 when he played, or tried to play, a Sears guitar with a Mountie on it. The connection with audience is what inspires his love for music and performing.

“Some nights I come home after a gig and the connection I make with people is amazing,” he said. “If the people are with you it is amazing. There’s this zany energy transfer back and forth and everybody goes home happy. I mean, how good is that?”

Perry describes his music as roots, country, folk, people music, which can be heard on his new album “West,” that he is currently touring to promote. The album was recorded in Victoria with producer Joby Baker and features the legendary multi-instrumentalist Steve Dawson, accordion player Tobin Frank from Spirit of the West, bassist Rick May and Joby Baker. He said that they enjoy performing live and that songs and music from your own backyard can be good. He said that life inspired the album.

“It’s a pretty ‘up’ album and with time my perspective and how I look at things has changed a bit” he said. “I think song to song, not the album as a whole.”

Perry will be bringing a couple of good players with him to the Prince Rupert show, Scott Atchison, a multi-instrumentalist and Ian Olmstead, a young bassist who has toured in Spain.

“Usually people have a laugh or two at the shows and connect with the songs,” he said. “Live is still very real and revealing.”

The show is presented by the Northcoast Performer’s Society and begins at 8 p.m. on September 17. Doors open at 7:30 and tickets are $15, available at Teddy’s.

~Written by Gina Clark. Image of Mark Perry used with permission.

For something different from the usual box-office blockbusters, the Prince Rupert Arts Council presents Thursday Night at the Movies, whose fall season begins next Thursday.

It is an eclectic line-up, beginning with Midnight in Paris, a romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen about a family traveling to Paris for business, and a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.

October 13 will feature a showing of The Debt, an espionage thriller about retired Mossad secret agents and a mission they undertook back in 1966. Suspense builds across two different time periods.

On October 27, the Arts Council will be showing Life, Above All, a South African movie about a young girl who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her community.

The fall season will end with Beginners on November 10, a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. It explores the hilarity, confusion and surprises of love.

Mariana Hulsen, president of the Prince Rupert Arts Council, said there is no particular theme, they just try to offer a well-balanced variety of quality films that will be attractive to a wide audience.

“Midnight in Paris is an intelligent comedy directed by Woody Allen, with great dialogue and wonderful views of Paris” she said. “The Debt and Beginners combine big names (Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer) with plots that may leave you thinking after you leave the theatre. Life, Above All is a more poignant, serious film, that hopes to raise awareness about the current AIDS epidemic in Africa, and its consequences in the social fabric.”

The event was originally created by David Smook, one of the Arts Council’s former board members and movie lover. Hulsen said it has become very popular because it offers the local audience access to films local theatre may not necessarily bring. It does that through Film Circuit, a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group. It was founded in 1989 and provides a transformative experience to filmgoers in under-served communities through access to Canadian and International Films.

For those who have not been able to make it to the theatre for previous seasons, Hulsen said that past Thursday night movies are now available at the Prince Rupert Public Library. The Arts Council has bought the DVD versions of some of the movies and donated them to the library for everyone to enjoy.

All Thursday night movies begin at 7 p.m. and tickets to individual shows cost $8, cash only. Movie passes for all four movies are also available at a cost of $25 for non-members and $20 for members. They can be bought in advance at Homework or at the first movie.

~Written by Gina Clark

Although violence against women is an important issue, one that should be discussed openly and honestly, it can be hard to do that, especially for men. To try and make the discussion a bit less difficult, the North Coast Transition Society is presenting the second annual Mz Judged pageant in November, in which local men dress up as women and compete in a beauty pageant. The first pageant was held in 2009.

The idea for the pageant was inspired by the White Ribbon Campaign that takes place from November 26, the International Day for the Eradication of Violence Against Women, until December 6, Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It was started in 1991 by a handful of men in Canada who decided they had a responsibility to urge men to speak out about violence against women.

It is the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. In over 50 countries, campaigns are led by both men and women, even though the focus is on educating men and boys. The main goal is to end violence against women in all its forms.

“It can be hard to get men to speak out sometimes” said Grainne Barthe, with the North Coast Transition Society. “We needed to do a fundraiser, and by competing, the men are speaking out.”

She said that some men took the previous pageant very seriously when it came to the talent portion. Barthe said she liked that they took it so seriously.

This year’s show will be in pageant format again, there will be an evening gown portion, a talent portion and a bathing suit portion. Men will be eliminated and then five will remain to answer questions. There will be three judges again, although they do not know yet who they will be. There will be minor differences from 2009’s show and all but one contestant will be different from last time.

There will be 20 contestants again, and they already have those contestants lined up. The last show was a huge success, raising $18,000 and selling out the Lester Centre of the Arts.

This year’s show will take place on November 4 at 7 p.m. Tickets go on sale on October 3 at the Lester Centre and Cook’s Jewellers. Tickets cost $20.00 and all the money goes to Hope Haven Transition House.

~Written by Gina Clark

Over the last few months, Cowpuccino’s has featured a myriad of performers, and the latest installment features a local performer, folk musician Dylan Thomas Rysstad, onstage tonight.

Rysstad was born in Prince Rupert to a musician father and writer mother, and called a boat and a hotel home. At age 16 he moved to Vancouver, and then last year headed east to Toronto, which he sees as a great place for his music, and which allows him to tour the east more easily and frequently. He came back to Prince Rupert two months ago and this will be his first time performing at Cowpuccino’s.

“It will be different for sure, I didn’t really plan on playing,” says Rysstad. “I will probably see some old friends I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Rysstad said that since his father is a musician, and there were always musical instruments in the house, he did not really have a choice in the matter when it came to being a musician. He started playing at the age of 17 in local bars on Vancouver’s downtown eastside, originally playing punk music. He recorded his first album in 2005 and has since recorded four more. His most recent album features everything from outright rockers to ballads.

That range showcases his musical influences, which run the gamut from the Beatles and Bob Dylan, to Simon & Garfunkel, Woody Guthrie and David Bowie, to Hank Williams, the Pixies and the Ramones.

Rysstad plays a variety of instruments, but in his show at Cowpuccino’s he will be playing acoustic guitar and harmonica. He says the show will feature all original material with a mix of newer stuff with tunes from his last four albums. He will be playing two sets, 17 or 18 songs in total.

After this show, it could be awhile before the people of Prince Rupert see Rysstad in concert again because he said he probably will not play again until he can put a band together. He has been performing solo since early this year but he can put a band together with little notice. According to his website profile, the ability to perform and tour with different members and lineups allows him to follow his own path and keep moving forward.

Rysstad’s show begins on Friday at 7 p.m., admission is free.

~Written by Gina Clark

With the exception of UdderFest, and other events here and there, this summer has been fairly slow when it comes to events in the arts community. That lull is expected to change come fall as a number of arts organizations are ready to provide a variety of entertainment to the people of Prince Rupert in the next few months.

The Prince Rupert Concert Society offers an eclectic mix, beginning on September 23 as folk singer Garnet Rogers takes the stage at the Lester Centre of the Arts. Things continue in October with Pavlo, a musican of Greek descent who plays his own brand of Mediterranean music and the fall season will end with Company Jump, a comedic Andrews Sisters tribute show, and Jill Barber, a chanteuse in the vein of Ella Fitzgerald and others like her.

The Harbour Theatre Society also intends to have regular events this fall, although nothing specific has been confirmed yet. Vice-president Treena Decker said they may have shows that are improv based, or they may have readings or variety show activities.

Decker said Harbour Theatre has also moved the Friday night drop-in theatre activities from the Civic Centre to the Tom Rooney Playhouse so improv-based shows can be ready for the Christmas season.

Along with the Prince Rupert Concert Society shows, The Lester Centre of the Arts will also feature other acts on stage. General manager Crystal Lorette said that they have a lot of things going on in the fall, and among them is the Canadiana Musical Theatre Explorer Idol on September 26. It features historical figures Alexander Mackenzie, Sir John Franklin, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Captain Cook, and David Thompson with music styled after “The British Invasion.” William Bligh, James Cook and George Vancouver play in the “house band.” There is a final vote at the end to see which one is Canada’s greatest explorer. Another installment of the Mz Judged pageant will also take place in November.

So as the weather starts to get cooler and the days start to get shorter, there will be plenty of entertainment options, with a little something for everyone, to say good-bye to summer and usher in autumn.

~Written by Gina Clark. File photo

UdderFest got under way this week on a beautiful Wednesday evening, and like most theatre festivals, it offers something for everyone. Although all the plays are funny and they all have adult themes, each show offers something different for the audience.

The show that opened the festival is Bus Stop Confidential. Written by Prince Rupert’s Stephen Huddlestone, the play opens with Huddlestone’s character telling the audience about his recent break-up with a girl, which then veers off into discussions about religion, drinking, and how much people hate their jobs. Eventually he leaves to catch a bus and at the bus stop he meets a young woman, who is at first annoyed by him and is uninterested in his attempts to make initiate conversation. Through his persistence, and the lack of anything better to do, she eventually softens and participates in the attempt to get to know each other better.

What follows is a modern-day philosophical discussion in which each of them shares their individual perspectives on a variety of subjects, from racial stereotypes, to alcoholism to education. So what begins as a slightly awkward attempt to make small-talk, is translated into a mutual understanding between two disparate people whose circumstances have drawn them together, if only for a moment. Through his subtle use of humour, Huddlestone reveals the human need for connection, and the moments we find those connections, however fleeting, in places we do not always expect.

The second performance of opening night, performed to a nearly full house, was Twi-Lite II: Eclipse of the New Moon, the second instalment of Rudy Kelly’s hilarious spoof of the Twilight films. In Kelly’s version, Bella is still torn between her feelings for Edward (known as Deadwood in this version), and Jacob, and Victoria still wants to kill her. However the similarities end there, as the blatant sexual innuendo and local humour take Kelly’s show to a place that the actual Twilight series will never go.

Bella, played by Heather MacRae, has a permanently blank expression on her face for most of the show, while her beau Deadwood, played by Matt Murray, spends most of his time wondering why she seems to have no understanding of what is actually happening, and that she never seems to show any actual emotion. Brian Payne plays Jacob, part of a proud Tsimshian clan.

The other usual suspects are here as well, such as Deadwood’s sister Alice, played by Megan MacRae, and her boyfriend Jasper, played by Dan Bubas, who in this version happens to be really into recycling. Bubas also plays Riley, the naïve kid from Prince Rupert who Victoria converts to her new army. Rudy Kelly even makes an appearance as an aboriginal chief with an Italian accent. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and while the people involved in the production of the Twilight movies may never see this production, the Prince Rupert audience will be treated to an exciting show full of energy and laughs.

A fairly large audience remained to watch the third show of opening night, Boom Jr. a variety show which offered both comedy and music. It featured very funny stand-up by Rob Shearer, sketch comedy featuring Shearer, Lyle McNish, Michael Gurney and Andy Enns and musical performances by the Trombone Trio, made up of Enns, Chris Colussi and Alex Hembroff.

Both the stand-up and sketch comedy featured a lot of inside jokes that the people of Prince Rupert will appreciate, such as a sketch about the Snowbirds, and an adult-oriented preview of the kids’ camp show, Wizard of Cow Bay. It features a cat named Toto who is addicted to Coca Cola, and along with numerous jokes about drug use, there are also jokes that poke fun at city council members and other Prince Rupert people and places. The Trombone Trio played well-known pop songs such as “Mrs. Robinson.” “Stand By Me,” and “Eye of the Tiger.”

A rainy Thursday saw the second night of Udderfest begin, and a good crowd turned out for the last performance of the evening, Hot Judge Sundae, in which David Smook and Jeff Bill held court. It tells the tale of two judges and how they got into that particular line of work, and then turns into a comedic courtroom caper in which they decide a case.

Being improv, it of course involves a lot of audience participation, from choosing the name of the case they will decide, to shouting out various words they then need to incorporate into their performances. It makes for an interesting evening of comedy, as you never know what the audience will suggest and how the actors will incorporate those suggestions. In this case, they deftly volleyed the suggestions back and forth, which made for a wickedly funny evening.

There is something to be said for an audience feeling like they are truly involved in the performance, like they helped create the action that unfolds on stage. It makes the success of the show seem almost personal, and involves the audience in a more profound way.

Udderfest continues until Sunday, with more performances of the shows that were featured over the last couple of days, and two matinees of the kids’ camp show over the weekend.

~Written by Gina Clark

The weather outside may not say summer, but next week’s UdderFest is a sure sign that it is indeed that time of year. Although there will be only six plays this year, the festival is still expected to be as entertaining as ever.

Treena Decker, vice president of Harbour Theatre Society, said that traditionally, UdderFest shows are defined as comedy or dark comedy and tend to have adult themes, with this year promising more of the same. The line-up will feature: Bus Stop Confidential, written by Stephen Huddlestone and telling the story of secrets among strangers; Twi-Lite II: The Eclipse of the New Moon, the second installment of Rudy Kelly’s vampire spoof franchise; Boom Jr. which features sketch comedy by Rob Shearer; Hot Judge Sunday, which features improv by David Smook and Jeff Bill; a comedic debate called War of Wits; the kid’s camp presentation of The Wizard of Cow Bay; and a night of music, appropriately titled Two Girls Singing.

Decker said UdderFest is the only fringe theatre festival west of Prince George. The definition of fringe theatre is “not of the mainstream,” and she said that Udderfest definitely features some great theatre that fits that definition.

“We are pleased to say that even with the struggles faced by Harbour Theatre this year, the Udder Theatre Festival will showcase six shows that are being produced for the first time, with most of them being locally written,” said Decker. “The smaller pieces of theatre also mean we often see new performers on stage because the time commitment to being involved in a one act for UdderFest is often more manageable for those being introduced to performing.”

An important component of UdderFest is the kid’s camp, which has been offered by Harbour Theatre for a decade and is what Decker considers a vibrant part of August. The program has grown from an original theatre piece created by Harbour Theatre veterans, featuring one youth participant and made for youth audiences, to a program that has two camps a week for five weeks, with over 40 youth participating. The kids camp will perform The Wizard of Cow Bay which is an improvisational play that the team created during the ten camp days that lead up to UdderFest. The kid’s camp show will be performed on the Lester Centre Stage thanks to the great partnership between Harbour Theatre and the Lester Centre of the Arts and due to the volume of children involved and the cramped backstage area at the Tom Rooney Theatre.

“The kids camp is a tool that allows Harbour Theatre to be partners in a community that constantly fosters creativity and skill-building for children and which we are thrilled to be a part of,” said Decker.

A new addition to this year’s UdderFest is the War of Wits, where contestants battle for being master debaters. While War of Wits has appeared on the stage of the Tom Rooney before, this is its first inclusion at UdderFest. All the proceeds from this show will be going to the Rod McNish Memorial Theatre Fund. McNish, a huge advocate for youth within the theatre community, passed away two years ago after a battle with brain cancer. Harbour Theatre hopes to use the Fund to set up a scholarship or bursary for high school students going into post-secondary studies in the performing arts.

Udderfest begins on Wednesday at 7:00 PM and all shows are $8.00 at the door. Udderfest patrons may also choose to purchase a four pass for $25. Available at the door, Homework & Teddy’s. For a full schedule, click here.

~Written by Gina Clark