It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We are moving into celebration season (though that seems to be all year round in Flin Flon, Creighton, and Denare Beach) with two holiday performances coming up from the Flin Flon Arts Council.
The first one is the Flin Flon Community Choir’s presentation of Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas. This program will have loads of surprises with performances from some of our favorite ensembles, like Imrianna Jones and Ukes Ahoy, a brand new ensemble that is very intriguing, with Mikylo Odut, John Taylor and Courtney Campbell, and of course, some of your favorite Christmas tunes courtesy of the choir.
Choir director Crystal Kolt has enlisted the help of four other conductors – Courtney Campbell, Anna Harrison, Kim Jones and Tim Spencer.
Get prepared for the holidays and get your tickets to this wonderful event. It is one night only this year (there is an awesome Hockey Day with the Montreal Canadiens Alumni at the Whitney Forum on Sunday afternoon) and that night is Dec. 2 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at Northern Rainbow’s End and the Flin Flon Arts Council appreciates Leona Kemp and her staff for serving as the box office for their events.
The second show is Ham Sandwich Theatre’s presentation of The Christmas Spirit by Frederick Stroppel. This play riffs on classics like Death Takes A Holiday and even A Christmas Carol (a little bit!) as Julia Dowling invites a special guest to a family Christmas party at her home on Long Island. As family and friends arrive, along with the parish priest, carols are sung and eggnog is consumed. The arguments start and high farce, drama and romance ensue.
This play is a little different from the more child-friendly fare we have had, as the first time (for Ham Sandwich Theatre) director, Mark McDonald feels the company is ready for the challenge. Mark was born and grew up in Flin Flon and like many others, moved away to attend university, where he studied theatre. At age 22 he moved to Vancouver to pursue his career in film. He studied acting at the William B. Davis School of Acting (yes, he was the smoking man in TV’s X-Files) and then moved into film post-production work.
McDonald worked for 15 years as a dailies colourist and sound engineer on such television programs as Stargate SG1 and films like The Watchmen. What does a dailies colourist do? Don’t worry, I had to ask too. He or she colour-corrects the film and transfers it to video, all on computer. Then they have to synchronize the sound, the actual dialogue, to the movement of the actors’ lips. Film and tape run separately (who knew?) with a time code on the audio that must be synchronized with the clap on that little black and white striped clapper board that accompanies every shot that gets a call of, “Action!” in every movie. It sounds quite complicated.
McDonald moved back to Flin Flon six years ago to spend more time with his parents and immediately auditioned for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, where he played Tree Number 5. He loved the experience and is now firmly entrenched in Ham Sandwich Theatre. He says he feels lucky to work with the talented folks in Flin Flon and loves that he has such a creative outlet after a long career on the technical side of the film industry.
The cast consists of Leslie Fernandes as Julia Dowling along with Cheryl Feszczyn, Aline Nasselquist, Laurence Gillespie, Raphael Saray, Susan Gunn, John Nichol, John Taylor, Evan Quick and Wendy Cordon. The play will be presented at the R.H. Channing Auditorium in the community hall on the weekend of Dec. 8 and 9. Tickets are at Northern Rainbow’s End.
The final event of the same weekend is a concert in celebration of C.C. Trubiak’s brand new album, McBain. This is billed as the CD release party but it has to happen over two days because lots of people will want to come. It is at Johnny’s Social Club and C.C. will be backed by members of the Antisocial Band and guests. Get your tickets at the Orange Toad, then stroll along Main Street and get tickets for the other night for Ham Sandwich. In the immortal words of Keith Reed, “I can’t believe we live here!”
