Finster Finds

Last Friday, as part of my job, I took in the Dress Rehearsal for One Man, Two Guvnors at the Citadel.  I loved it when I read the script.  It was so funny.  I loved the read-thru.  Even more funny. The Dress Rehearsal?! To use my current word of effusion - WOWZERS!   So, so, so, so, so funny! I cannot wait to see it again.  It breaks all sort of rules - propriety, the fourth wall, music but not a musical, crazy accents, skewed logic, prat falls, audience participation, improv - and it's ridiculous!  It's hard to pick a favorite part because you can literally go through the cast one by one and list a favorite moment. Get there early because The Craze (performed by the Be Arthurs) starts entertaining the audience for about 10 minutes before the show starts and they are terrific so you don't really want to miss them.  They also play for part of intermission so run out quickly for your ice cream and get back to see and hear them! For this one, I...

Last week I took in The Barber of Seville at the Edmonton Opera.  It was a bright and energetic production with a cool concept, replanting the story in a 1940's Hollywood Movie Studio Backlot. The costumes, set and make-up was bang-on for transporting us to the world of the play and the titular Figaro ( Phillip A ddis ) seemed perfectly situated in this new location.  Afterall, you need someone to look after all the actor's hair needs on a movie set! Addis was a fireball with great comedic skills to compliment his singing skills. When he's onstage your eyes are always drawn to him.  He's most fun when he and Almaviva ( James McLennan ) are  playing  off each other, but it's also fun to watch him get in the mix with all the characters.  As Rosina ( Sylvia Szadovszki ) is lovely and her voice is bright and sunshiny.  Szadovski is delightfully bratty and she plays the diva film star with a sense of fun. This is the bugs bunny opera.  The music...

Sometimes you get yourself so busy seeing things and doing things that you don't have time to write your blog.  That's what the last two weeks have been like for me. I have caught a couple shows that were well done and great examples of the variety of theatre that you can see in Edmonton.  A week and a half ago I took in Happy Toes by Stewart Lemoine at Teatro La Quindicina.  It was a lovely piece which caught me off guard.  I didn't really know what it was about and my presumption that the happy toes were dancing was totally incorrect.  It was more about friendship, relationships and how our expectation and anticipations affect our personal happiness.  It was a subtle piece, set in familiar places and subtly brought to life by a quintet of actors: Ron Pederson, Jeff Haslam, Julien Arnold, Cathy Derkach and Davina Stewart. It's closed now, but the Varscona is moving into the Shadow Theatre season and there are some great shows on the horizons there! La...

My apologies for not getting this out sooner - a rather densely packed life due to the start of both the school year and the theatre season led to a bit of a delay in choosing a book and finding a date for the club.  First, a brief recap of the last book club.  Mid September, we spoke with Marty Chan about Demon Gate, the first book in his Ehrich Weisz Chronicles.  It was a great chat and although it was mostly Marty and myself chatting, I could tell from the retweets and the favorites that there were others following the discussion.  I was pleased to hear hints about what was to come (but with no spoilers!) and it was great to get the insight on Marty's research and inspiration. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series! Here are some snippets... What book next? For our next #yegbookclub we will be reading and chatting about Santa Rosa by Wendy McGrath.  Her sequel, North East has just been released and I thought it might be nice to rea...