11 Stations

While Cinco de Mayo was in full effect this past Saturday, those in attendance at the Don Wrigley Carousel Pavillion at Burnaby Village Museum were having a celebration of a different sort, commemorating their opening day as well as the 100th anniversary of the iconic C.W. Parker Carousel #119 and the Interurban Tram 1223. Each person in attendance at the opening reception had their own connections to the carousel, and it was amazing to say in the least to meet these individuals and hear their stories. Each of the horses have a story, and a sponsor behind it. Continue reading →

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Following in the footsteps of Debbie Reynolds and Lee Meriwether, Peggy Ann, the star character in Miss Caledonia, a hilarious one woman show making its western Canadian premiere at the Shadbolt April 20 and 21, wants to be a star. How will she succeed? Why, by winning the local pageant of course. Will farm girl Peggy Ann Douglas have the chops to win over the judges and escape her simple rural life filled with back-breaking labor? You’ll have to see the show to find out. Continue reading →

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In my interview with playwright, performer and lighting designer Itail Erdal, he made it clear that he does not consider himself an actor, rather, he knows himself to be a very good storyteller. Last night, at the opening night of his much lauded one man show “How to Disappear Completely”, I came to fully understand just how true Erdal’s description of himself really is.

While the subject of Erdal’s multi-media play seems morbid to the uninitiated – a family’s last days with their dying mother –he treats the subject with such reverence and charm, it’s hard to see it as anything but a true celebration of life, as opposed to a 70 minute pontification on death and illness. Continue reading →

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How do you commemorate loved ones who have passed on? Every person has their method, but few people choose to memorialize their loved ones through film, and later a much talked about multi-media one man show. This, in a nutshell, is the story of Itai Erdal, his beloved mother and the show sure to make you feel every emotion on the spectrum, “How to Disappear Completely”.

Written by Erdal in collaboration with James Long (Director), Anita Rochon, and Emelia Symington Fedy, “How to Disappear Completely” uses a blend of film footage, translation and lighting (Erdal is a celebrated lighting designer by trade) to tell the story of the final days of his mother, Mery, indeed the story of her entire life, as captured in her final moments in her native Israel. The show opened last year at the Chutzpah! Festival to much acclaim, even garnering the title of “a work of art” by the Georgia Straight. Continue reading →

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For the next few nights only, Confessions of the Other Woman will be running at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and for experimental theatre and dance lovers the world premiere of this independent show is not to be missed.

The presentation of this show marks a banner moment in the Shadbolt Centre’s history, as Cory Philley, Facility and Event Services Coordinator, comments in the playbill and also noted at the opening last night:

“We are pleased as punch to be presenting the World Premiere of Valerie Sing Turner’s Confessions of the Other Woman at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. Valerie and her company Visceral Visions in partnership with urban ink productions were the first Artists-in-Residence to be chosen under the new vision for the residencies that launched at the Shadbolt in 2010 and we could not have chosen more committed partners…”

Continue reading →

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Renée Van Halm’s work has permeated the art world for nearly 40 years, her style ever evolving, her gaze ever shifting. From February 10 – April 8, 2012 Burnaby residents and visitors alike can see a retrospective of Van Halm’s works on paper, in the exhibit “Cross-Cutting/Inside Out”, which will be exhibited at the Burnaby Art Gallery.

Despite a career filled with a great diversity of subjects and mediums – from installation, to collage, to painting – this particular exhibit will focus in on Van Halm’s decades-long interest in the role of architecture in society.

“What we’ve done with this exhibit is we’ve compiled a historical survey of moments in my career”, said Van Halm in a recent phone interview. “As an artist, I reflected on different scenes presented over the course of my career and ultimately myself and the curator, Sophie Brodovitch, decided to focus on my ongoing interest in architecture, which started very early and was part of my practice at different stages in my career”.

Indeed, since her early body of work, Van Halm’s art has been perpetually inspired by the works of other artists, particularly those in the renaissance era. However, while others admired these works on the whole, Van Halm’s gaze and curiosity would continually focus on the background space, the space beyond the central figure. Inevitably, it was this fascination with the negative space that formulated Van Halm’s artistic strategy: to resurrect these backgrounds and bring them to the forefront of her work.

“By adopting that process, I was able to kind of create snapshots of a period in time, but not in a literal way”, Van Halm explained, “They look familiar, but they’re not. They’re parts of photographs or paintings that not one ever really looks at: the background. But, background has a huge impact on how one reads these images. If you put a model in front of a white wall, instead of something more evocative, your reading of it is very different. I’m interested in that context.”

Since the Burnaby Art Gallery has been committed to exclusively showing works that are only presented on paper, the retrospective of Van Halm’s art will focus solely on items presented in this medium, yet this focus hardly limits the viewer from experiencing Van Halm’s talents at their fullest.

Among more polished and finished works of art, the exhibit will include preparatory drawings and sketches that conceptualize ideas for Van Halm’s paintings and installations, an aspect of the artists’ work that is rarely exhibited or shown to the general public. The exhibit will also feature Van Halm’s more recent forays into collage, which often serve as her source material for paintings.

With such a large body of work, Van Halm and curator Sophie Brodovitch had to find a meaningful way to focus the viewer’s gaze and ultimately shape their experience of Van Halm’s art and of the artist herself, which is why “the exhibit has been hung not chronologically but thematically, forming a juxtaposition of past and present to see how an idea or compositional strategy was developed.”

The “Cross-Cutting/Inside Out” exhibit is sure to be a transformative experience for art lovers, as both the pieces presented and the manner in which they will be presented will allow the viewer a more intimate experience of the artist at work.

Watch for a preview of the art exhibit on Friday! For more events and art exhibits around Burnaby, visit the Tourism Burnaby events calendar.

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For the next few nights, Hotel Bethlehem takes the stage at the Shadbolt Centre.  And while the play bills itself as a Christmas farce – which, of course, makes it an extremely timely play for the holiday season – it’s so much more than that.  I would go so far as to say it’s more of a Christmas force to be seriously reckoned with.  Not that it’s serious; by and large, it’s not.  It’s silly and extremely smart, with a fair amount of contemplation, depth and soul. All of which makes Hotel Bethlehem… well, kind of genius really. Continue reading →

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In about a week’s time, the highly anticipated Hotel Bethlehem will open at the Shadbolt Centre.  Produced by Ruby Slippers Theatre, this entertaining Christmas farce is set 2,000 years ago – and offers its share of unexpected twists and turns of some unusual events that transpired on a certain fateful night at The Inn thousands of years ago.

Multi-award winning actor and director Diane Brown directs Hotel Bethlehem – which opens on Dec. 14^th at the Shadbolt Centre.  Diane is also a co-founder and artistic director at Ruby Slippers Theatre, which – over the past six years alone – has garnered some 31 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations, including two for “Outstanding Direction” and “Outstanding Production,” along with 12 awards. Continue reading →

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For more than six decades, renowned BC artist Takao Tanabe has offered his own unique artistic expressions of the Canadian landscape, from drawings and watercolours to intricate sketches.

Now, in a rare opportunity, the Burnaby Art Gallery (BAG) features a sweeping retrospective of Tanabe’s works in Chronicles of Form and Place: Works on Paper, showcasing the evolution of Tanabe’s creativity and signature style.  Featuring numerous selections from the artist’s personal collection, the exhibition is a rare glimpse into the creative practice of one of Canada’s most esteemed artists.

Dating from the late 1940s to present day, many of the more than 60 works in this exhibit have never before been displayed publicly. Continue reading →

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Image Credit: John Murphy by Tim Matheson

What really happened at the Inn more than 2,000 years ago?  Here’s your chance to find out in Hotel Bethlehem – a new (and very timely) Christmas farce by award-winning playwright Drew McCreadie.

Hotel Bethlehem is the untold Christmas story.  And trust me, you’ll want it told.  I recently had the opportunity to catch the cast during rehearsals – and though I only saw a few scenes, they were enough for me to appreciate the genius of this extremely funny and well written script. Continue reading →

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