Culture Days has come and gone. I hope everyone had a wonderful, wonder-filled time exploring the incredible array of local arts and culture that is ongoing in our fabulous communities.
Perhaps you even saw the first of the Films Up North (FUN.) movies, American Boychoir, shown on Sunday evening. There are six films in this series each year, brought to you by the North Central Canada Film Group and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The films are shown at Hapnot Collegiate’s Dorothy Ash Theatre on the third Thursday of the month, except the September movie, which ends Culture Days.
This season the dates and films include:
Oct. 22: Red Army, a film about the boys of the Russian national hockey team who faced off against Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series (yes, THAT series, with our very own Bobby Clarke).
Nov. 19: Learning To Drive, starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley, about a Manhattan writer whose marriage is breaking down. She decides to take driving lessons with a Sikh man who has his own marriage difficulties.
The January 21, February 18 and March 17, 2016 films will not be announced until after the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Colin Davis, Thomas Heine and Margie Gibson are primary movers and shakers in FUN, so chat with one of them next time you see them to find out what’s coming up.
Colin also offers Friday night movies on a particular theme. The dates for those are not quite set yet, but watch this space for them.
The movies are usually out of Colin’s own collection and last season’s theme of Great Movies You Might Have Missed really was great!
The Flin Flon Arts Council has set its season and as you might anticipate, there us a wide variety of excellent performers coming north to entertain us.
After the Manitoba Arts Network Manitoba Showcase, which will be featured in my next column, the season kicks off with Jesse Peters’s Christmas Special, featuring the Flin Flon Community Choir, on Saturday, Nov. 21.
The show will be at the RH Channing Auditorium and tickets are available at the usual outlets (Northern Rainbow’s End and the Arts Council office) for $25.
Jesse Peters is a high-energy performer who plays jazz- and piano-based rock and roll a la Ray Charles and Billy Joel. He is also a great singer.
He will be bringing his band for the Flin Flon stop of his Christmas show and will have the best backup singers anywhere.
This will be worth the price of admission just to see Crystal Kolt’s bangles fly off in all directions (again).
On Dec. 12 and 13, Ham Sandwich will present Harvey, a family-friendly play about a giant, imaginary rabbit! It has a serious theme, however, that will shine through the comedy.
Director Thomas Heine has not chosen his cast as of this writing, but you can look forward to a mix of well-known and new talents to come through.
The January offering is likely to be a cabaret-style show to celebrate the birthday of Scotland’s greatest poet, Robert Burns. The performance will draw on the talents of our local singers and musicians as well as spoken-word enthusiasts, cooks and consumers of Scotch whisky.
Feb. 21, 2016 is the date for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s touring production; this year it’s Hound of the Baskervilles.
This brilliant comedic reworking of the classic Sherlock Holmes story is directed by the amazing Ann Hodges, who will be lovingly remembered by Flin Flon audiences for captaining the ship (or is that ocean liner?) that was Les Misérables.
March 12, 2016 will bring the Newfoundland folk duo Fortunate Ones to the RH Channing Auditorium for a show that will be filled with East Coast sounds, both traditional and original, from a delightful pair of young performers.
Andrew O’Brien met Catherine Allen in 2010 in St. John’s after growing up on opposite side of the island. Both were pursuing musical careers in their own ways, but when Andrew heard Catherine sing, he knew he had to sing with her. As they say, sometimes you just say YES, and the rest is history.
The final show will be a performance of Lux aeterna by Morten Lauridsen. This is the piece the Flin Flon Community Choir has been invited back to New York to perform.
In 2007 Lauridsen, who is the most frequently performed American choral composer in history, received the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony.
We can’t say the date for this show just yet, as the Community Choir is still working on some very exciting possibilities. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you informed.
