Tag Archives: Charlottetown Festival 2014

Letting Out Scribbling Skeletons: Island Fringe Festival Opener

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What was supposed to be a 2-hour evening stretched out to nearly 3 full hours as an appreciative audience applauded one reader after another at the opening show for the 2014 Island Fringe Festival. Marc’s Lounge on Sydney St. was filled to bursting by the time the show began. True to its advertising, Scribbler Skeletons brought forth some well-preserved diaries, scribblers, and school papers that selected Islanders and Island Fringers had unearthed from the closets where they kept their skeletons. The audience was regaled with a couple of ‘Dear Diary’ running stories of unrequited love, several sophomoric poems, amusing journal entries, and quite a few school writing assignments.

If I enjoyed the evening and found so much of it entertaining and priceless, I can only imagine how much more hysterically funny it was to those who grew up with the readers, knew them personally, or  had seen them growing up. As a teacher, I wonder how many of my students have kept all their journals, how many kept diaries, and how many more dabbled in out-of-class writing that they have preserved.

I must congratulate the Island Fringe Team, of whom three-fourths (unless I didn’t quite hear the fourth one, in which case I owe apologies to her) also shared some sophomoric writing that was very well-received: Festival Director Sarah Segal-Lazar, Festival Coordinator Megan Stewart, Volunteer Coordinator Andy Reddin, and Assistant Volunteer Coordinator Emma Russell Louder.  I’m looking forward to attending another one (or two, or more!) by the time this weekend is over.

I know that, at quite a few points in my life, I was so sure I did not want any of my earlier scribblings ever to surface later in life because they already embarrassed me then–what more when I was grown up and quite possibly famous (which has always been a dream and still is)? That brought about a moment when (horror of horrors!) I burnt two full notebooks (not just your 30-leaf scribblers, mind you, but those thick 100-leaf red-and-blue lined notebooks) of poetry I had written until I was 10 years old. I had locked myself in the bathroom with a box of matches to complete the dastardly deed. Another time saw me methodically and meticulously shredding to bits (by hand, mind you) my grade school diaries–or at least those pages that had entries in them. I thought that they could still be put to good use because the entries were so sporadic and some quite far between. I might have completely obliterated a few other incriminating pieces of evidence that would, I’m sure, bring about a lot of cringing and embarrassing laughter–mostly from myself–if any of it got out. I’m certain there are some things I can still dredge up somewhere–I’ve kept most of my poetry since 7th grade–that will be amusingly entertaining if not worthy of a few laughs at next year’s Island Fringe Festival!

 

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They Rock! Canada Rocks! The Hits Musical Revue: A Review

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 2014-06-20 03.21.48

by Cindy Lapeña

It might have been a preview night, but the Company of Canada Rocks! The Hits Musical Revue 2014 show delivered a performance that rocked the rafters of the newly-reopened Homburg Theatre in the Confederation Centre of the Arts. A 26-member cast, 14-member orchestra, and 4-man rock band regaled a full house with 74 songs spanning several decades of Canadian hits from the 60s all the way to Paper Lions, PEI’s rock band-winner of the 2014 Independent Music Award for Best EP – Pop (Pop/Adult Contemporary;See more at: http://awardsandwinners.com/ceremonies/12th-independent-music-awards/#sthash.Tvoi3GMH.dpuf).

Musical Director and Arranger Craig Fair led the orchestra and band in an almost non-stop score with only the intermission as a break, showing off not only great musical panache but the excellent new sound system as well. Renée Brode’s lighting design, sometimes intense and emotional, most of the time playful and spectacular, likewise exploited the extensive capabilities of the new lighting system—something I would want to play with myself. I only wish that the two spotlights set in the back of the stage were not so blinding when they were bare—a result of their being set so high on the raised stage they were pointing directly at the audience at the start. The production design by Charlotte Dean was enhanced by 23 screens, on which video images were projected—sometimes to create a single gigantic image, sometimes displaying 23 different images that were entertaining on their own; kudos to projection designer James Nesbitt.

The show was directed and choreographed by none other than long-time Charlottetown Festival Artistic Director Anne Allan, who, along with Doug Gallant, Terry Hatty, Wade Lynch, and Hank Stinson, wrote and conceived the whole musical revue, which took the audience on an East-bound journey from BC to PEI. Overheard from the audience was a desire to see a more consistent story line, with the train-trip theme more evident. That might have made the performance more theatrical than revue-ish, but it could not matter less to me. In fact, I had to look away from certain video footage because they induced a touch of motion sickness. Nonetheless, the projections enhanced the story of Canada’s music industry, creating a more synaesthetic and memorable experience in a way that the songs and narration alone cannot.

While I enjoy a wide variety of musical genres and avoid really loud music and wild concerts, I have to say that the loudness of the sound system was within tolerable levels and not deafening—something I really appreciated. Much more than that, however, is the way Canada Rocks! The Hits Musical Revue is my first real lesson in Canadian music. Not having been born here, I was quite unaware of the who’s who of Canadian music, thinking all the music I heard growing up on the late Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 was American—such was our exposure to the Western world. I was pleasantly surprised to discover, in the few years I have lived on this Island but mostly through this Musical Revue, that so many songs I was familiar with and learned to love are actually Canadian; and so many musicians I liked—both singers and songwriters alike—are Canadian. This knowledge made the show not only enjoyable and educational—it made the show more personal: Canada Rocks! made me feel that I have truly come home.

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Banquet: Art as Music and Dance

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by Cindy Lapeña

Banquet may be the most fleeting of art installations, lasting all of 30 minutes, but delivering an impact achievable only by that delicate balance between music and dance. It is the first extended composition choreographed by PEI’s Mark Sampson, who made us proud in 2013 when he made the cut and was accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School of Dance in New York.

He collaborated with island violinist Christine Bouey, who graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 2013 to produce a unique art installation interpreting the birth of the Confederation in music and dance, to commemorate 150 years since the 1864 Charlottetown Conference.

Bringing together three of his American Juilliard peers, Daniel Ching, Zoe MacNeil, and Cleo Person, the young and very talented Mark Sampson forged an expressive work executed with mastery that won the admiration of their gala audience, a fitting way to start the Charlottetown Festival sesquicentennial celebration.

Amid a stark set of four chairs and four tables in the centre of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery’s third floor gallery, the piece wove dancers and musician in a web depicting the interactions and conflicts among confederation delegates as they experienced feelings of alienation, homesickness and loss before finally achieving harmony that led to building a community in agreement. The whole piece made effective use of the intimate space corralled by limited seats. The proximity of the performers to the audience treated spectators to a stark view of the raw power and control exercised by the artists. All together, the space, sets, music, and movements brought to light a facet of confederation that has not been explored in other performances.

Bouey‘s music is as passionate and powerful as Sampson‘s choreography, and equally groundbreaking. She matches the energy of the dancers with her dexterity and mastery. Her composition conveys as much range of emotion as that depicted by the dancers so that one cannot imagine the dance without the music. That is how intricately and ingenuously the two arts are woven together; the audience is constantly reminded of this as musician and dancers rotate around the four corners of the performance space and, at other times, weave among themselves and the sets. In fact, Bouey‘s blocking throughout the performance is as intrinsic to the performance as the sets are; this juxtaposition is intensified in the end, emphasizing the attainment of unity.

These young artists represent the future of dance and music and bring with them enthusiasm, talent, and passion for their craft. It is they who will keep art and culture alive and thriving, along with the support of organizations that make such creativity possible. Thanks to PEI Energy Systems, PEI audiences will be able to enjoy this truly innovative artistic experience.

Banquet runs at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery until June 26, 2014 with show time at 7:30 p.m.

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