A New Westminster Secondary School alumna has been awarded the Teen Shakespeare Leadership award for her commitment to Carousel Theatre for Young People’s Teen Shakespeare program.
Daisy Hulme, who was onstage as Friar Laurence in the troupe’s recent production of Romeo and Juliet, was given the award, which includes a scholarship, earlier this month.
This was the fifth summer Hulme took part in the teen Shakespeare program, a six-week intensive training session that prepares kids 13 to 18 years old in voice, movement and text analysis, giving them the chance to “enhance their performing abilities,” noted a press release.
Over the years, Hulme has played the Ghost in Hamlet; Nathaniel in Love’s Labour’s Lost; the Duke of Orleans in Henry V; and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing.
Hulme also starred as Paulette in the New Westminster Secondary School’s production of Legally Blonde the Musical last February. She plans to attend the University of British Columbia this fall to study theatre.
Royal City artistic director gets her star
Valerie Easton will soon have her own star on the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame’s Star Walk.
Easton received the honour for the choreography work she’s done in Canadian theatres for the past 20 years – the last 10 have been spent working as the artistic director for Royal City Musical Theatre. She has helped bring beloved shows like 42nd Street, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof to Massey Theatre plus countless other productions to stages across the Lower Mainland.
For her dedication to the craft, she will have her name added to a star on the Walk of Fame on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver.
Congratulations Valerie!
Way Off-Broadway Wednesdays return
The folks behind Way Off-Broadway have your Wednesday nights covered for the foreseeable future.
Every Wednesday, drop by the Heritage Grill’s back room for some fresh, pay-what-you-want theatre featuring storytellers, poets, comics, minstrels and puppeteers.
“Much like Fringe, Way Off-Broadway Wednesday is an easygoing, inclusive space for direct connection between the performer and the audience,” notes a press release.
On Sept. 6 catch The Gigantic, Enormous, Very Large, Unfathomably Sized Painting, brought to you by Vancouver’s Eternal Youth Theatre Collective.
“An ex-couple plots to steal the largest painting (ever) in this absurdist crime dramedy,” notes a press release.
All shows start at 7:30 p.m. For more information about the shows, go to www.facebook.com/wayoffwed.
Arts money up for grab
Have a great idea for an artsy project or activity for Queen’s Park?
Well, the Arts Council of New Westminster is offering its members a chance to receive funding to turn these ideas into reality with its new Arts in Queen’s Park grant program.
Thanks to a successful Canada Day Pick-a-box silent auction, the council has made $700 available to members (organizations and artists) interested in creating an art-based project in Queen’s Park. Eligible projects can take place throughout the year, and, yes, they must take place in the park.
Proposals must be submitted by Friday, Sept. 15. To apply, send the council a one-page letter including your proposal, contact info and projected budget. Send it to [email protected] with the subject “Arts in Queen’s Park – Proposal.”
For more info go to tinyurl.com/QueenArt.
At the gallery
Take a journey through the personas of Tajah Olson in My Face My Canvas, an exhibit coming soon to the Gallery at Queen’s Park.
Olson uses her body as a canvas for her work, which embodies her constructed personas and animas. She transcends “the physical and social constructs of identity, race, ethnicity and gender,” notes a press release.
“I am a queen, a goddess, a warrior, I am a king, I am white, green, black, I am a spirit, a man, a child, a woman, I am a movement, I am feeling, I am celebration and anything that I choose to be, even if it does not exist in this world,” Olson said in the release.
My Face My Canvas opens Sept. 6 with a reception at the Gallery at Queen’s Park from 6 to 8 p.m. It runs until Sept. 30. The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays 1 to 8 p.m. It’s closed Monday and Tuesday.
Steel meets fabric
Hard edges meet a soft medium in archiTEXTURE, a new exhibition on now in the community art space at Anvil Centre.
The show features work by Terry Aske, Judy Villett, Mardell Rampton and Janet Archibald– four local artists who were tasked with capturing the juxtaposition between steel and textiles.
“We are four New Westminster textile artists fascinated with the tactile world. The materials, processes and patterns of the man-made structures around us inspire our art,” notes a press release.
Each artist has come up with their own representation of the Vancouver Biennale sculpture: WOW New Westminster by Jose Resende (four 40-foot shipping containers positioned to form a W located in Westminster Pier Park).
archiTEXTURE is on until Oct. 2 at Anvil Centre, third floor, 777 Columbia St. The centre is open Monday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Go to www.anvilcentre.ca for details.
Early birds get the deals
Want to save some money on your NewWest Film Fest festival pass? Buy them early!
Tickets are already on sale now for the NewWest Film Fest, happening Oct. 19 to 21 at Landmark Cinemas at the New Westminster SkyTrain station, and if you buy them before Sept. 30 you’ll save yourself $10.
The early bird late summer passes are available now on Eventbrite for $40 each. After Sept. 30 they go up to full price, which is $50 plus fees.
So, if you already know you’re going to go, buy them now. just do it. You’ll thank me later.
Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/NWFilm2017. For more info about this year’s film festival, visit http://newwestfilmfest.ca.
Correction
In the Aug. 24 edition of Lively City, I wrote that two New Westminster actors were appearing in Awkward Stage Productions’ A Chorus Line.
Please note, the show is actually being produced by a Fighting Chance Production, a Vancouver theatre company that provides opportunities for young theatre artists to work on their skills and ultimately help them gain on the job experience.
For more info about the company go to www.fightingchanceproductions.ca.
