This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
The first round of this year’s Mariposa Folk Festival takes place Saturday April 12 at St. Paul’s Centre when the afternoon is given over to the annual audition concert at 1 p.m.
Nine acts will perform three songs each and when it’s over three acts will get slots to perform at the summer festival July 4, 5 and 6.
Scheduled to play are Basset (duo from Toronto), Evan Rotella (Niagara Falls), Harvey King and the Grindstone (Sudbury), Jessica Person and the East Wind (Ottawa), Matt Bazinet (Kingston), Taming Sari (Ottawa), the Millrights (Kingston), Todd and Robyn (Bracebridge), and York Street Thought Process (Stratford).
It’s free to attend and plan to be there all afternoon.
Roots North
The annual Roots North Festival happens April 24 to 27. The main stage events at St. Paul’s Centre are the 25th and 26th with Nicolina and James Gray joining headliner Royal Wood Friday and Jully Black headlines with Gracie Ella on Saturday. Show times are 7 p.m. with a vendors market in the basement at 6 p.m.
The venue schedule is not out yet, but I do know the Ronnie Douglas Blues Band is at Brewery Bay Food Company on the 26th. Venues shows are free.
You can get tickets online.
Arts Orillia
Arts Orillia held a fundraiser on the main stage at the Opera House a couple weeks ago. It was sold out with about 80 people on hand. It was interesting and atmospheric sitting at tables on the stage, with theater lighting and the workshop behind the stage exposed.
The organization outlined what they do, which aside from producing the Jazz Festival, the Gathering Festival of First Nations Stories, a Black History Month event, and Future Fest, they do a lot of workshops and school programs with artists they bring in (including the Creative Youth Lab at the youth center, a co-op program in arts administration, and a summer art camp). They also have a theatre program for students which has run at the Opera House the last two summers.
Aside from a great meal, patrons were entertained by Bonnie Milne with Alyssa Wright on cello. Bonnie played five original compositions for piano, two of which I know were written with cello accompaniment in mind. That means they added cello parts to the other tunes for this gig. One of the pieces featured dancer Severyn Dahlke. You can hear Bonnie’s music on either her Youtube Channels here or here.
Next was a trio of Twin Lakes Secondary students, who I gather joined up to form an unnamed band (Liam Finney, Lincoln Baragar, Journey Henderson-Herbert) they presented as an Arts Orillia project. Finney and Baragar s witched out between piano and guitar, while Herbert played drums and piano. All of them sang.
Also during the event artistic director Kate Hilliard announced the creation of a writing scholarship to honour one of the founders of Arts Orillia, Fred Larsen.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Mariposa Arts Theatre’s production of a Streetcar named Desire ran out of track the first week of April because as you might have guessed, there was no power. They rescheduled all the performances into this week, starting last Sunday.
This play by Tennesee Williams is somewhat biographical in nature, based on his time living in New Orleans and his sister’s mental infirmity. There really was a streetcar – to this day – in New Orleans, on the Desire Line (they had some interesting names for their streetcar routes), and it is this streetcar that brings Blanche DuBois to the apartment of her sister Stella and husband Stanley.
The play was written in the mid 40s and reflects the temperament of the people and the social norms of the time, not to mention the education levels of Louisiana (maybe still to this day).
I have travelled through the south and know several people from there, or who were transplanted northerners still steeped in their ways, and the strength of this production is of the cast’s (Alyssa LaPlume, Veronica van Muyen and Stephen Dobby) portrayal of their characters.
Blanche (LaPlume) is affecting a station in life she has not attained. That’s not unusual for a southerner, all the girls do it. Of course this creates some dichotomy when the vision of herself, the projection, does not match reality, which of course by story’s end lands her in an institution.
Stella (van Muyen) signed on for the beatings when she got married and accepts her lot in life (though an alternative ending has her leaving Stanley, but not in this production). By getting married she became a second class citizen and her world, as with many of the time, revolves around the man of the house.
Stanley (Dobby) is a Neanderthal. Self-centred, self-absorbed, no wider vision of the world or the people around him than what he can affect, he’s not too smart, but he’s clever in a conniving way and he’s dictatorial (sounds like someone else, doesn’t it?). He’s fixated on what he wants and to heck with what anyone else thinks or wants.
What is interesting about the story is how Williams reveals the depth of these traits as the story unfolds. Sure we get a quick read as each is introduced, but the full misery of it all takes two hours to reveal. Their world was like that before they arrived, while they are in it, and sadly continues long after they are gone. Williams crafted a social commentary indictment of the southern mindset.
One other main character, Mitch (Colton Farro) is a sad sack. He is not like the others, but is trapped in their world and knows little else. He falls for Blanche, but is swayed by opinion (which happens to based on fact) and feels mortally wounded by the revelation about her, bowing to unstated peer pressure instead of thinking for himself.
One thing that has bothered me is how Blanche gets carted off to the asylum. In the play the doctor and nurse just show up and take her away, but there is no pivotal event, no one calls for help, no talk of ‘we’ve got to do something about her.’ The doctor is just there and everyone accepts the outcome of his visit.
No one in this story has empathy, or at least enough beyond polite, surface level tolerance of each other.
Congrats to MAT for taking on something beyond comedy or a musical. They have been venturing down this path since the pandemic and it’s refreshing to see a play with some meat to chew on.
All remaining performances are sold out.
The next thing on MAT’s schedule is Film Night April 16 at the Galaxy. See Shepherds at 4 and 7 p.m. Tickets at the door.
Orillia Concert Band
The OCB has a concert May 3 at St. Paul’s Centre. The program is all Canadian music, featuring an arrangement of Hockey Night In Canada by Howard Cable which was originally premiered by the Orillia Wind Ensemble.
Autumn Debassige is their guest performer and the band is encouraging everyone to dress in their best Canadian attire (can I wear my Elbows Up t-shirt? Or my MAGA hat (Make America Go Away)? You can get tickets online.
The Shorts
- Brewery Bay Food Company has their Grand Opening April 12 at their new location (or co-location with Couchiching Craft Brewing). Samantha Windover will be in to play some music from noon to 3 p.m.
- Murray McLauchlan, Cindy Church and Marc Jordan and Ian Thomas, Lunch at Allen’s, are doing their last hurrah Orillia April 16 at the Opera House and you can get tickets online.
- The second anniversary of Gordon Lightfoot’s death is May 1. The Lightfoot Days Festival has an observance at the Golden Leaves monument in Tudhope Park (as they did last year) to mark the occasion at noon on that date. The festival also has a website now. They have a schedule for the fall festival and you can get tickets for the Lightfoot Band’s performance now on that page.
- You can watch the Orillia Silver Band’s performance at the North American Brass Band Association Championships in Ft. Wayne, Indiana last week on Youtube. The Friday performance is here, and Saturday’s here.
- The celebration of life for Suds Sutherland is June 22 at Hawk Ridge Golf Club from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be a graveside service at 11 a.m. at St Andrew’s St. James’ Cemetery the same day.
- The Canada Day committee has updated their website and it’s time to sign on as a volunteer, or apply to be a vendor.
- OMAH has three exhibits – Four Seasons in Orillia , Nathalie Bertin’s Loup Garou and Mocassins, and Heritage in Hues (ends Apr. 19): Perspectives Through Their Eyes (the annual student art show opening April 19 in the small gallery off the foyer); the monthly Speakers Series happens online Apr. 16 with Ted Duncan talking about the history of the Orillia Fish and Game Conservation Club – register here… Streets Alive has been coordinating themed art displays at the demolished lot at Peter and Mississaga Streets; soon new art under the theme Ode To Orillia’s Trees will appear… Cloud Gallery’s Collector’s Corner features works by Julia Veenstra.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Shawn Charlebois playing April 12; Darcy Windover is in Apr. 13; Chris Staig Apr. 18; Jess Bowman (early) and Jamie Drake (late) Apr. 19… the Hog ‘N Penny has an afternoon jam session every Sunday Sean Patrick and others … Classic Lightfoot Live is at the Opera House May 3 (tickets)… Wild Wing will have live music in the early evening every other Wednesday; Chris Lemay plays Apr. 15 and 30.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Bonnie Milne and Alyssa Wright play music at the Arts Orillia fundraiser.
Rants & Raves
