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Darren Arsenault & Ryan Hupman (& Professor Pete) rocked Paddy's Open Mic tonight. # FISHING by Jeremy Webb
In Fishing, Jeremy Webb plays Paul Fisher; a 40-something, single, newspaper cartoonist. He has a failed marriage behind him and a history of ‘going-nowhere’ relationships. Although he assumes there is no hope; he is not alone. He is persuaded by his boss to join the global internet dating site ‘Gone-Fishing.net’.
Somehow Paul manages to get seven “nibbles” and arranges seven ‘dates’ in seven days. FISHING is about a week in the bizarre world of internet dating. One in five relationships now start on the internet, but every date arranged over cyberspace is potentially hazardous to your health.
At the end of his seven days, Paul Fisher will definitely never be the same again; but will he have landed the fish of his dreams? Fishing also stars Stacy Smith and is directed by Alexis Milligan.
The play is touring the Maritimes with performances at The Evergreen Theatre (Margaretsville, on May 25) and The Al Whittle Theatre (Wolfville, on May 26, 27, 29 & 30).
www.offtheleash.ca/fishing
Rose Harden Workshop/Show
I met Rose Harden about 7 years on Salt Spring Island, BC. Rose had traveled there from San Fran- cisco to visit her cousin, Andrea, who was one of my belly dance students & troupe members. I didn’t know much about Rose at the time but, after we met for coffee, was overjoyed to learn she had been a very active member of “Ultra Gypsy”, a very innovative troupe who had inspired me to be more creative in my music & costume choices.
It is interesting that San Fran- cisco is the current hotbed of belly dance as a performance
art. Tribal Fusion belly dance has been a strong force there for over a decade & many of us travel there to work with the best teachers.
Rose is fast becoming a sought- after performer & teacher. Per- haps one of her biggest successes is her work as a guest dancer with the very popular Beats Antique, whose music is a blend of electronica & Middle Eastern rhythms.
On Friday, April 27th, she, along with belly dancers from all around the Maritimes, will be performing at the “Rose Hips Belly Dance Show” at 7 pm at the Wolfville Farmer’s Market. Tickets are $12 at the door. On April 28th & 29th, the workshops will be held at “The Coop” at 945 Church St., Port Williams. It will be catered by “The Hip Rose Catering Company” (notice all the “rose” energy!!!) For more info: sisterlotus.com.
~Angie Oriana Jenkins
So Good To Be Home
Album Review by Laura MacDonald
Andy and Ariana have cooked up yet another charming extension of themselves: a multilingual, poly-instrumental, über-sweet-sounding musical stew. Their new album, Good to Be Home, is their 8th album recorded together, and with the groove co-op of Chris Robison and Adam Bazinet providing a meaty backbone on most of the tracks, serves up eleven songs of homey goodness, warm and savory until the last note.
Eight of the songs on the album are brand new, and provide the listener with a glimpse of what Andy and Ariana have been up to in the past year. For one, they’ve got a woodstove, immortalized in the first track; ‘The Woodstove’ riffs on an extended metaphor of their fire-powered house as a ship, and has a wickedly dark sound, like a mischief-ridden secret. ‘Oh Baby!’ is maybe the best song on the album, so tender and melodic, about all the new little lives that have popped out around them lately. Ariana lays down an excellent old-timey fiddle performance on this one too.
As a special treat, the album includes a re-release of crowd-pleasers ‘Water’ and ‘Mara Manzoor.’ Newly recorded with all the benefits of Andy’s meticulous studio engineering, these hits never sounded better. They also dusted off an old recording by obscure 1980s Swiss band Chinook; ‘Sweetheart of Stone’ is a solid, awesome song, and has been a wonderful addition to their setlist, with the added bonus of getting to hear Andy sing the lead. We get more of Andy on lead vocals in ‘Uncle Sam’ — a reggae-infused rant showcasing his political bent, as well as in the title track ‘Good to Be Home’, in which he and Ariana trade the lead. This song is fun and heart-warming, and along with their always dead on vocal harmonies, shows off what they do best. It embodies the exuberance of the album and them as a whole.
Like their last album, Good to Be Home is a studio recording. But as an improvement on the quality sound they can produce in that setting, this album achieves more of a band feel, and so provides more of the live energy we love so much about them. The album is quintessentially Andy and Ariana: it contains their signature jazzy elements, Andy’s beat-boxing, Ariana’s woodwinds and mind-blowing vocal prowess — a lyrical blend of funky, folky, world-musicy tunes, with the pleasing addition of more country overtones this time around.
Come hear the new album performed live, and get your copy, at the release concert this weekend. In their own endearing, musical, quirky way, Andy and Ariana make it so great to be home. They are the local music scene’s steadfast rudder and have every reason to rhyme.
The CD release concert is Saturday, April 14th, 8pm at the Al Whittle Theatre. Tickets are available in advance at the Rolled Oat Café for $12, or $15 at the door, if there are any left.
~ Laura MacDonald
Ballet Jörgen Canada’s Anastasia
The Acadia Performing Arts Series is pleased to present Ballet Jörgen Canada’s original, full-length production of Anastasia. Ballet Jörgen Canada, recently recognized by the National Arts Centre for its distinguished contribution to touring, is bringing the production to fourteen communities across Canada.
Anastasia is an historical drama told through the vibrant choreography of the award-winning BJC Artistic Director, Bengt Jörgen. Hailed by The Globe and Mail’s Paula Citron as “…lyrical, attractive and accessible…a crowd pleaser…a what’s-not-to-like ballet performed by a company that brings high professional standards to its craft,” Anastasia is the mystical story of the seventeen-year-old Russian Grand Duchess as she grows from a playful tomboy to a poised young woman, against the backdrop of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution. This lavish production takes place over the four fateful years that transformed the Russian Empire and ultimately the world.
“The mystique that still surrounds the fate of the Russian Romanov Grand Duchess Anastasia more than 90 years after her disappearance in July, 1918, is a fascinating story to explore. The fact that her family was closely associated with the evolution of ballet as an art form through their personal patronage of the Imperial Ballet adds particular poignancy to telling this story through the medium of ballet,” explains Bengt Jörgen.
An original, full-sized symphony score was commissioned from the Russian-Canadian composer Ivan Barbotin, who also created the scores for Ballet Jörgen Canada’s The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Velveteen Rabbit, with choreography by Bengt Jörgen. Award-winning Canadian designers Sue LePage and Bonnie Beecher made their Ballet Jörgen Canada debut with the original production. Bonnie Beecher’s lights illuminate the costumes and sets by Sue LePage that are reminiscent of the Russian Empire at the turn of the 20th century.
Anastasia is on stage Saturday, April 7 at 2 pm at the Festival Theatre on the Acadia University campus in Wolfville. Tickets are $32 ($22 students) and are available at the Acadia Box Office or by calling 1-800-542-8425 or 542-5500.
Associated with Ballet Jörgen’s visit to the Valley is a full program of workshops on April 6. For more information about these educational opportunities, go to go.acadiau.ca/APA_BJW/info.htm
Contact: Peter 585-1282 / peter.smith@acadiau.ca
