This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
In a world where board games have captured the imaginations of some (Monopoly by the entitled rich, Risk and Battleship by certain warmongers, Scrabble (poorly) by some supposed technically inclined AI juveniles – no one is playing Chess or Go) it’s fitting the folks at the Mariposa Arts Theatre are taking a stab at Clue.
The players aren’t going to sit around the table, they found a script laying around and are acting it out, bringing it to life – and unlike the others above, they’re going to make it a bit of fun.
First came the movie in 1985 (yes you are that old). Then Sandy Rustin wrote a theatrical treatment based on the movie. Now Stephen Bainborough is directing a cast who are putting on the show starting April 9 and then doing it a few times this week and next until they run out of clues April 19.
The cast are Adam Brooks as Wadsworth; Kevin Scharf as Colonel Mustard; Alyssa LaPlume as Miss Scarlet; Kris-John (KJ) Kucharik as Professor Plum; Stephen Dobby as Mr. Green; Shannon Howes as Mrs. Peacock; Stephanie Lamb as Mrs. White and Ashley Legedza as Yvette. Additional actors Trevor Mills, Brad Kean, Caitlin Robson, Christine Ryner and Darren Summersby) play various other roles (the cook, the butler, and several other characters.)
You will know who most of the cast members are because their costuming matches their character names. Stephen has been a prominent fixture in Old Dance Hall Players shows and brought an improv philosophy to the production, letting the actors come up with elements of their characters and actions.
The play takes place in several rooms of a mansion and I’m anticipating Brian Halbot has come up with something unique for set design, as he usually does.
The play is running in Gord’s Room and you can get tickets online.
MAT’s next Film Night at the Galaxy is The President’s Cake is April 22 at 4 and 7 p.m. You can get tickets at the door.
Next
Auditions are a pain for those auditioning, especially when the auctioneers hear the word, next. The Mariposa Folk Festival has taken the sting out of the process by scheduling an afternoon of acts hoping to get en invite to perform at the summer festival and it’s only at the end the acts find out their fate. Typically three acts get chosen, but the last few years it’s been four.
This feature of the festival has been happening at least since the festival found its way back home in 2000. I say feature because the invitees were chosen from hundreds of acts, so there is some cache in that and they play to a large audience, so it’s almost like another gig. It sure beats lugging your gear into an empty room and playing to a few people sitting at a table.
There are 10 acts performing at St. Paul’s Centre on Saturday April 11 stating at 1 p.m. They are Piner, from Kingston; Nick Bellingshausen from Moonstone; Emma Lamontagne from Ottawa; Dane Pedersen from Cape Breton; Wreckless Harbour from Hamilton; Lilydipper from Toronto; Hunter James from Bethany, Ontario; For Ernest from St. Catharines; JD Crosstown who opened for Aysanabee at Mariposa’s fall concert; and Vicki Brittle form the Ottawa area.
Admission is free, and each act will play three tunes. The hardest part of the afternoon is waiting around to find out who the judging panel picked to move on.
Roots North
Our other home grown festival has it’s weekend April 16 to 19. The main stage for the Roots North Music Festival is at St. Paul’s Centre on the Friday and Saturday nights. Night one has Bella Frances starting the show with and Doug Paisley and the Doghouse Orchestra following. Saturday night Shawna Caspi opens with Mary Frances and Meredith Moon following.
Weekend passes get you into the main stage shows and the new event (below) online. Both Meredith and Doghouse have performed at Mariposa. You could stick around after the shows and catch Sleepy Jan in the banquet hall downstairs at 10:40 p.m. on Friday, and with Terry Savage on Saturday.
Or, you can venture out and catch Rebekah Hawker at Lone Wolf Cafe on Friday and Danielle Duval on Saturday.
There are other acts to catch. Quayle’s Brewery’s schedule starts Thursday with Cam Galloway playing; Ron Whitman, Stephan Bernard and Mark Gunn follow on successive days.
Sunday
Provenance Wine Bar has Sydney Riley on Thursday, James Campbell on Friday and the Van Kessels on Saturday.
Apple Annie’s Café has B Knox in Friday afternoon and Shawna Caspi Saturday afternoon.
Lot 88 has Stan the Man playing Friday, Cindy Martin is in on Saturday.
Saturday
Mark IV Brothers has Ian McDonnell in over lunch.
Eclectic Café has Cassie Noble in for lunch too.
The Hog and Penny has Todd and Robyn playing the early afternoon.
Kenzington Burger Bar has Mary Simon playing mid afternoon.
The Maker’s Circle has Andrew Woodill plying mid afternoon.
Couchiching Brewery has Brock Mattson playing in the evening.
Rustica has Lincoln Baragar Saturday evening.
Sunday
James Gray is at the Common Stove for Brunch on Sunday.
Mr. Seto has Lincoln Barager at the same time.
Alleycats has Jaclyn Kenyon playing right after lunch.
Creative Nomad Studios is the venue for a new event for Roots. A songwriter’s circle will feature some of the headliners and others for a couple of hours starting at 3 p.m.. Weekend pass holders need to email info@rootsnorthmusic.ca to attend because space is limited.
Reviews
In no particular order. So, the Free Label played St. Paul’s as part of the Mariposa Folk Fest’s winter series. Wow. These guys have played here a number of times, but there is no amount of touring, especially off the continent as they have a few times, to turn a group into great performers. They played at a level few bands get to. From start to finish they worked their way through a well put together show, not just a bunch of tunes. It was a production from the beginning. The musicianship was off the charts.
Each member played like seasoned pros, which they are. After the show, I had to tell guitarist Malik Mungo thanks for playing something different and new in one of the intros to a tune.
Their music is funk and soul. The first tune sounded like they had a horn section on stage. Jacob Thompson on keytar was responsible for that (all night) which was sweetened by Josh Tsakas playing sax as well. He played sax on several tunes, and I have to say seeing him playing it was new to me because he is the band’s singer.
Now keyboardists have covered horn parts before, but my issue has been they often don’t understand how to play the parts as a horn section would, getting the articulation correct. It’s hard to do and many try but fail (to my ears). Jacob seems to have overcome that, aided by arrangements that rely on shorter notes like a band like Tower of Power or Earth Wind and fire would do.
At the end, the audience went wild. Really, they did.
Jacob Thompson, the new guy, who really isn’t any longer, and Cole Mendez pulled a fast one on the audience as the only members of the band to come back on stage for the encore. They did one of the best covers of Gord’s If You Could Read My Mind I think I’ve ever heard. That could be because both of them were students of Blair Bailey and spent a lot of time at St. Pal’s and the feeling for the song came to them by osmosis. Then the band joined them and played a couple more tunes.
Evan Rotella opened the show. He passed the Mariposa audition last year and played at the festival. I liked his songs and how he played them. He will be at the audition concert on Saturday and they are giving him time to talk about the experience of doing the audition and what making the cut has done for his music career.
The Orillia Silver Band’s spring concert. I know, they were jumping the gun on the spring part, even though spring happened officially the day before (nobody at the weather desk got the memo). The program was made up of music from the highlands, with a little Irish music thrown in.
The major work of the first half, actually the whole first half and part of the second, was Philip Sparke’s Hymn of the Highlands. It really seven songs connected by the theme of a musical tour of Scotland. Each section could stand alone as a complete work without the context of the other six.
Then came a spectacular rendition of Peter Graham’s Gaelforce. All together the program might not have been familiar music to many, but the audience really enjoyed how the Silver Band performed them.
Earlier in March, the Orillia Concert Band had their concert, billed as Around The World In 80 Minutes, it featured music one could easily say, ‘oh, that’s from…’
The highlight was having Alex Teske on hand to sing some tunes in both halves. She did Ave Maria up front, which was good, because, it’s Alex. But her turn in the second half with Time To Say Goodbye was exceptional. She burned the house down. The audience erupted with a standing ovation that lasted for minutes.
Interestingly, the band played Don’t Cry For Me Argentina next, which I would have thought, based on the audience response to the preceding, might have served as an immediate encore for Alex has she sung that one too. The band also played English Folksong Suite, always nice to hear, and Malaguena. Most band arrangers follow the standard set by Stan Kenton, but in this case the arrangement reached back to Ernesto Lecuona’s original version.
Your next opportunity to hear Alex is when she performs with mezzo soprano Lillian Brooks and pianist Anna Ronai a the next Orillia Concert Association gig May 3 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church.
The Youth Centre had a year-late, couple of concerts in March. Same lineup, two shows, different venues. I went to the one at Creative Nomad.
So this concert was to happen last year on the last weekend of March. Anyone here remember what we were all doing that weekend? Yeah, so Nixon Boyd, Skye Wallace and Tim Barry made it this time and delivered a great show.
This is the, I don’t know, 118th appearance for Skye in Orillia, or something like that, but the first for her 8-month-old son, Gordon (named for her grandfather). He came complete with a massive factory grade set of ear protection; clapped in all the right places too.
It’s getting so I am recognizing Nixon’s tunes as he’s playing the intros. Hearing Skye is always fantastic. Kevin Gangloff keeps bringing in musicians like Tim Barry who are not household names (except to their fans) and scores points with the new audience in Orillia. People loved his set.
Kevin has another doozy lined up for June. The Weber Brothers along with the Ronnie Douglas Band and Andrew Alli & Josh Small have concert on the 13th. The venue has been confirmed yet, but you can get tickets online.
Arts Orillia had the 2nd iteration of its Forever Young showcase of young musicians concert in March. The bands performing were Still Deciding, Hoperfilly, Sleepy Jan, Lincoln Baragar, and Domicile. As expected, each are feeling their way as performers and each had a different approach to the kind of music they played. Sleepy Jan is more of an experimental band, Still Deciding is on its way as distinctive performers and Domicile was the most experienced of the lot.
One of the persistent things I noticed is they all have problems with cleaning up their sound. Too many people playing their instruments in the same sonic place, which too often is the space occupied by vocals. This is especially a problem when there are two guitars in the mix. It requires musicians to figure out their tone and EQ relative to the other voices so that each can be discerned in the mix of sound – before anything is sent to the house PA. It also means not being louder than the singer. Working those things out in rehearsal is maybe the most important thing a band can do for itself.
Arts Orillia has their 2nd annual Showcase happening at the Opera House April 24. The event involves dinner and some music, and an update on their youth programs, set on the stage in Gord’s Room. You can get tickets online.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: The cast of Mariposa Arts Theatre’s Clue (photo by Deb Halbot).
