Finster Finds

It's July in Edmonton, that means it's time for the Freewill Shakespeare Festival.  Thanks to a ripped canopy at Hawreluk Park, the entertainment has moved to a new, temporary, location and the presentation of a single production but let that not dissuade you from attending, as they serve up an excellently delivered, fun-filled night. This year the performance of Taming of the Shrew is held at the Myer Horowitz Theatre in the University of Alberta Student's Union Building.  Your best bet for parking is in Stadium and they have thoughtfully provided signage to guide you to the theatre around the construction. The company has done their best to retain those familiar things that could be easily transported from the park to this new theatre space - the 50/50 Sellers and FOH staff all looked very familiar. Although Taming of the Shrew is far from my favorite Shakespeare play, there are so many things that made this a delightful evening of theatre.  First of all, the...

This past week I got to experience the magic of Cavalia once again, this time with there new show, Odysseo .  I took Gibson this time, as Oliver got to see it last year and Gibson was quite devastated that he missed out.  Gibson and I got the royal treatment as we experienced the VIP experience which included a lavish buffet supper, haagen-dazs ice cream, champagne, popcorn and a dessert buffet at intermission.  It was truly a VIP experience and Gibson was over the moon to get not one, but two, chocolate chunk ice-creams!  At first we could not find seats, but a lovely couple of women invited us to join their table.  The Buffet is aimed more at adults, but there were enough items for Gibson to enjoy (he's crazy for shrimp and hummus) so we both were well looked after. Our seats were fantastic and looking at the floor map, I would recommend the Red to Gold seats for a great view.  Red, Pink and Purple are all VIP seating, but the Gold is not for those of yo...

Last Friday I took in the final show in Walterdale's 2013/2014 season, Jennie's Story by Betty Lambert, directed by Alex Hawkins.  It tells the story of Jennie McGrane (Heather Brooke), a young married woman in 1938 Alberta who finds herself unable to have children because of a terrible injustice done to her when she was a naive teenager. There is much in the playbill about the reason for how this was allowed to happen, primarily the barbaric Eugenics Laws on the books at the time and the machinations of a trusted Priest (John Trethart) and her mother Edna (Syrell Wilson) who choose to go along with everything. It was a very thought-provoking piece and has stayed with me since.  Although the history of the piece is important in itself, as Lambert was specifically writing about this to draw attention to it, for me it connected strongly to the fact that there are still people and policies determined to control women's reproductive freedom.  A few weeks ago this story abou...

One of the very cool benefits for me of working at the Citadel Theatre is that I right next door to Winston Churchill Square.  I knew the Square was busy in the summer, but until I was walking by it on an almost daily basis I didn't quite get the scope of it.  Last week, The Works was in full force and we even had some art in our lobby, and this week (starting last Friday, July 4th) The International Street Performers Festival is in full swing.  I took some time on Friday to walk around and check out the activity and it brought back for me, many memories of previous visits to the Festival. Years ago ( in the late 1980s ), when I was in University I had a job just North of Downtown and I had a bus transfer right at Edmonton City Centre.  I would hop off the bus with my lunch, take a walk to the Square and enjoy whatever was going on.  My favorite week was the Street Performers Festival.  Coming from a smaller city I had never seen anything like it befo...