Something New

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Artistic License - a look at the Arts in Edmonton

By: J Smeraka

Something New

Ah, Summer.  The time of year when theatre troupes boost their productions and spread live entertainment around the city, bringing in hundreds, if not thousands of visitors to this fair city.  Everyone knows of the Fringe.  How many have gone to NeXtFest? Think of NeXtFest as the annual tribute to young artists.  The general rule of thumb for this annual festival is the participants are generally under the age of 25.  NeXfFest also is a main-stage event for local theatre and dance.  Fringe of every age, every culture.  Both are equally good.  NeXtFest comes first.

This year’s line up is fantastic.  A series of short pieces being performed entitled, this year anyway, “Freshly Squeezed Shorts”.  With a name like that – I have to go see it.  Directors across the city are brining material from local writers into what is a fantastic piece of local culture.  Robin Whitaker, Michael Cowie, Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey, Elizabeth Day, Marie Jones… and the list goes on and on.  Big talent. Big hearts. Big Drive.  Head out this week and see some great work.  Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey is putting on an interpretive dance piece that mixes dancers and fresh paint… hmm.  Michael Cowie and Robin Whitaker are tackling new pieces written by them selves as ‘readers theatre’ at the SugarBowl near the Roxy on 124^th street. Check ‘em out.

To hell with reading what I’m plugging – go and see.

Contact Theatre Network For Tickets – call 453-2440

(note, many events are FREE!!)

Something Old

‘Return with me now to those trilling day’s of yesteryear when…

How many of you remember old time radio theatre?  The Man Called X?  How about The Charlie McCarthy program?  No, lets try Jack Benny, or Burns & Allen?  What, no one remembers what evil lurked in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knew and brought listeners returning to the airwaves every week, listening to the most recent broadcast of a show that lasted 35 years.  I find old time radio far better than film.  And at par with live stage performance as the listening audience must do just that – listen.  Using the Theatre of the Imagination, radio theatre allows the audience to see a world as they chose.  Why allow someone else to show you when you can dream it up yourself?

Luckily, 630 CHED and the WICK radio network bring old time radio to today’s audiences every night of the week from 11pm-1am

Now, how about something new?  CKUA Radio Network with a whole cornucopia of local Edmonton talent are returning to the airwaves with a brand new live-to-air adventure once a month:  The Series is entitled Guy Faulkrand, Private Eye!  Set in the 1930’s this detective has a twist.  An immortal for 600 years his realm if investigation is the supernatural. You read that correct.  Guy Faulkrand is a man who sets out to solve murders, mysteries and thefts and always ends up in the middle of some supernatural case.  Set ‘in all the unique and treacherous places of the world’ Guy’s home base is Castle Le Roi hidden away in the mountain range near Banff National Park. Not your average detective stories.  Allied with root healers, grounded into reality by his ‘assistant’ Geneva la Roi, Guy Faulkrand is about to bring live audiences back to the amazing 1930’s with his debut performance on 4 August, 2003.

Executive Produced by CKUA’s Christopher Allen, Edmonton actors Douglas Tokaryk, Kisa Mortenson, Steve Weller, Junetta Jamerson, Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey and Randy Brososky combine their talents with well-known Edmonton Playwright Rick Kiebiech, and script writer’s Jase Smeraka, Scott C. Bourgois and Allan Chambers – to name a few.  Directed By Jase Smeraka, the series is using Foley artists David Chapman and Brandon Williford to produce live sound effects on the radio during the 28-minute broadcasts.  Once a month on the CKUA radio network, the series will continue for as long as listeners are keen.

So, settle into your chairs, pour a cup of coffee, close your eyes and let your imagination to work! 

Oh, yes.  Don’t forget to turn out your lights!

And if you don’t think radio is for you, try it out once and then decide.  That’s why you have your own… artistic license.