Vicki Trask - Page 5

Theatre Calgary has been delighting audiences with A Christmas Carol for 30 years, changing up the adaption, cast, and production every few years to keep audiences coming back for more. This year, director Stafford Arima has taken Geoffrey Simon Brown's adaptation and presented Calgary with a brand new Christmas Carol. With music direction by Allison Lynch, and choreography by Jesse Robb, this was truly a Calgarian collaboration of theatre.

Under direction by Artistic Director Darcy Evans, the story follows four children as they travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia where an eternal winter has been sent by the White Witch, but rumors of a prophecy and the return of the King: Aslan, the Lion, send them on an adventure to save everyone. Set in two acts, the show is filled with plenty of action, magic, and words of wisdom a?" mostly delivered by the two-man puppet Aslan.

Mamma Mia is one of those contemporary classics. It's a guaranteed hit anywhere you play it because the songs as recognizable, the story is fun and playful, and it is at once heartfelt and outlandish. But that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that the dancing is action-packed, the songs have a sincere meaning behind them and Mamma Mia is a well-known musical with expectation in its performance more than most shows.

Much of the character's presence is reliant on the actor's ability to be a combination of regal queen, ruthless warrior, and charming temptress. a?oeI've been relying a lot on her physicality.a?? Said Johnston. a?oeThere's a thing that people assume with 'regality'; it's so reserved and so easy to assume coldness on top of that. And so I've been trying to playing into that feeling of pulling back and living in that world like I'm above everybody.a??

Alberta Theatre Projects welcomes you to the magical world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Based on the classic children's novel by C.S. Lewis, adapted for stage by Joseph Robinette and directed by Alberta Theatre Projects Executive & Artistic Director Darcy Evans, this bigger-than-life adventure runs from Nov. 22 - Dec. 29 at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

From the moment the lights go down in the Southern Jubilee Auditorium, you as an audience are transported into 19th century Paris. A small apartment filled with destitute artists with dreams bigger than their bank accounts. Five acts, three fifteen-minute intermissions, and an aria or two later, the curtain falls and the audience is reeling from journey of love and ambition that was travelled together.

'Cultural Rocketfuel' Vivek Shraya (Vanity Fair), legendary Canadian theatre artist Daniel MacIvor, and the rare return of a One Yellow Rabbit hit to be included in 34th Annual International Festival of the Arts

In addition to choreographing this musical staple, his company, Brown Cow Collections, is putting Sweet Charity where it belongs: in an intimate club. An audience of 40 will be invited to every performance to sit in the Habitat Living Sound club to experience the show up close.

Caleb Gordon, the Artistic Director of Seadreamer, wants to make his audience question their perceptions about their own demons. a?oeSince time immemorial, Anger and Fear have motivated humanity to enact terrible feats,a?? Caleb grandly pronounces. a?oeMacIvor's play questions if there is a method to our collective madness.a??

Iceland, the Governor-General Award-winning play by Nicolas Billon, presents three monologues to tell the same story of greed, desire, and need. First, we meet an escort trying to make a new life and send money back home to her family. Then, a business man who believes that everything and everyone can bought. And finally, a devoutly religious woman whose intentions were more honorable than her actions.

a?oeThere's no prep.a?? That's what Karen Johnson-Diamond told me when I asked her about Dirty Laundry's opening night. Calgary's only long-form improv comedy is celebrating twenty years of joy and fear with the premiere of their newest season by going back to camp.

Dirty Laundry Calgary is our city's only completely live, completely improvised soap opera and was founded in 1999 by Johnson-Diamond and Elinor Holt. The company partnered with the well-loved Lunchbox Theatre in 2008 to perform on their Monday evenings, and have been working with them ever since.

Amir Kapoor is a successful Pakistani-American lawyer living on the Upper East side of Manhattan. He has also turned his back on his Muslim heritage. When he and his wife host a dinner party for Amir's rising African-American colleague and her Jewish husband, the evening gives way to a searing debate about race, privilege, politics and identity, taken on from a variety of cultural perspectives.

For two decades, Sage Theatre has been exploring deep into characters and stories that look into what it means to be alive today. They have created memorable productions, world premieres and given Calgary theatre artists a chance to challenge themselves on powerful work.

Alberta Theatre Projects has opened their 2019/2020 season with a hilarious comedy that reminds us: we don't always have to like our family even if we love them. Written by Kristen Thomson (I, Claudia) and directed by Darcy Evans, The Wedding Party is one not to be missed.

RENT tells the story of six New York artists struggling to survive at the end of the millennium. With a plot so complicated, it could be an opera (Puccini's La Bohéme), RENT is also a classic and one dear to many theatre-lovers' hearts. Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Larson, this 20th Anniversary tour is a story that speaks to audiences young and old.

Calgary's thriving theatre season officially got under way this September with the opening of Stage West's a?oeThere Goes The Bridea??. Broadway World has compiled a list of some of the exciting upcoming shows that Calgarians and visitors can look forward to in this 2019/2020 season.

Alberta Theatre Projects is excited to open this season with The Wedding Party, written by acclaimed Canadian playwright Kristen Thomson and directed by Alberta Theatre Projects' Executive and Artistic Director Darcy Evans. Running Sept. 11-29, this is a hilarious gender-bending comedy about the joining of two very unlikely families.

The Louder We Get (opening on January 28th 2020 at Theatre Calgary's Max Bell Theatre) tells the true story of Marc Hall and the court case that allowed him to take his boyfriend to prom. Premiering for the first time under its new title (previously Prom Queen), the show will be directed by Lonny Price, choreographed by Sean Cheesman, and feature a cast of 40% local artists.