Supporters of the Driftwood Theatre School apparated outside the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt last week to promote a new season of acting classes offered by the non-profit organization.
Before a screening of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the movie’s protagonist and his sandworm sidekick attracted attention to upcoming courses for aspiring and veteran and aspiring performers.
Courses offered for youth include a dramatic production course that will culminate in a staging of The Brave Little Tailor in January. Full details and enrolment instructions are available online at driftwoodplayers.net.
Secret Path reaches Coast
A concert film made by Canadian rocker Gord Downie is set to be screened for the first time on the Sunshine Coast, followed by an interactive sing-along.
Downie — the lead singer and lyricist for the Tragically Hip, who died in 2017 — recorded Secret Path in Concert at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. The concert is an homage to the life of Chanie Wenjack, an Ojibwe First Nation boy who in 1966 fled the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora and died of hunger as he tried to walk to his home on the Marten Falls Reserve.
Downie’s music and the concert film were inspired by a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire.
The public screening has been organized by campaigners for one of the locals running in the upcoming provincial election.
“My day job is essentially opening people’s hearts and getting them to communicate how they feel through music words,” explained Steve Wright, a Sechelt music producer and BC Green Party campaign manager for Chris Hergesheimer. “So together we said: let’s do events and bring people together and open their hearts and inspire them. And if we feel we can do that, then we can leave the voting up to them.”
Wright, who grew up listening to Downie’s music, secured the projection rights for the film because he believes music crosses boundaries and political affiliations. “Instead of using campaign funds for rallies, we want to have an event where dialogue is the focus,” he explained.
The screening, which takes place at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24, will be followed by an audience singalong of Pink Floyd’s 1975 Wish You Were Here album. The interactive sing-along will be led by dozens of local guitarists. “I want to bring young and old musicians together,” said Wright, “and for the young people to say yes, I got to play my first gig in the Heritage Playhouse.”
Tickets for the screening event are free and can be reserved online via heritageplayhouse.com.
By the bay and Off the Page
This weekend’s public reading of an original script by Gibsons resident Peter Hill, 1983 ... (A Merman I should turn to be), had its genesis in real-life Vancouver rock history. Jimi Hendrix’s father was born in Vancouver; Eric Clapton’s father, a Canadian, used to visit the city frequently.
“I had this initial idea of them both meeting up in a bar,” said Hill, “at the point their sons were famous. But it was too much truth-telling. Facts and things like that can be deadly in a play.”
Instead, Hill introduced fantastic elements and set the story on the shores of English Bay. An ex-hippie named Cameron arrives at the seashore to sing Hendrix’s song that gives the play its name. Cameron’s late-night serenade is interrupted by a series of characters (including a punk and a devoted New Age practitioner) who arrive with conflicting agendas.
“The more I started to write it, the more I started to realize we haven’t got rid of these characters yet [in 2024],” added Hill. “We’re still stuck back with the same kind of paradigms as we were back then [in 1983].”
The reading of Hill’s play on Sept. 22 is the season opener for Off the Page, the play-reading series he produces with his wife Pamela Girone.
Later this fall, Off the Page will present Tuxedoes, a script that this spring received Touchstone Theatre’s David King Prize (named for the late playwright and Granthams Landing resident). The monetary award helped playwright and aerial acrobat David Johnston develop his work for performance. Three additional plays will be rendered by dramatic readers in the spring.
Admission to 1983 ... (A Merman I should turn to be) is by donation and stars Melissah Charboneau, Lisa Furfaro, Justin Huston and Steve Schwabl. The show starts at 1 p.m.
Rule of three in Pender Harbour
The new season of the Pender Harbour Music Society starts this weekend, with a Canadian supergroup set to perform at the Pender Harbour School of Music on Sunday, Sept. 22.
Triology features Jodi Proznick on bass, Miles Black on piano, and Bill Coon on guitar, playing music inspired by the early jazz trios of Nat King Cole and Oscar Peterson, including impromptu arrangements of classic standards and original tunes.
The Pender Harbour Music Society season includes nine performances between September and May. Ticket and subscription details are available online at penderharbourmusic.ca.
