Category: Performing Arts

For people of a certain vintage, anyway, the definitive version of this heart-warming story about a good-hearted man who is befriended by an Irish spirit called a pooka which, in his instance, resembles a six-foot tall rabbit, is the 1950 movie starring James Stewart.

The movie itself, though, is based on a 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by American playwright Mary Chase.

Starting Wednesday, Regina Little Theatre will be presenting a production of Harvey at the Performing Arts Centre at 1077 Angus St. June 8-10, curtain for the play will be at 7:30 p.m., with two performances on Saturday June 11 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. For more information visit the RLT website.

Here’s a bit of a trailer for the 1950 movie

Years ago I did a preview article for a performance by two dudes from Australia who were part of a touring company that went under the title Puppetry of the Penis. I’m not sure how I got roped into doing it, but at the press conference I attended the performers demonstrated a couple of the tricks they did during their act — which involved stretching, folding and otherwise manipulating their penises and scrotums to form various objects in the style of genital origami.

I don’t think any origami is involved in this touring act, which hits Conexus Arts Centre on Monday June 6. But The Naked Magic Show does come with a R-rating, and apparently involves two male magicians who perform a variety of magic tricks while sans clothing.

“Nothing up my sleeve” is a standard magician’s disclaimer, and in this instance that’s definitely true. The curtain for The Naked Magic Show is at 7 p.m., and you can get ticket information on the CAC website. Here’s a little G-rated sample of what to expect:

Charles Atlas Sheppard did a preview of this clown-based show in our mammoth May 26 Best of Food & Drink issue. As Charles noted, the lead performer, Mooky Cornish, has worked in the past with Cirque du Soleil, and studied the concept of clown as it exists in a number of different cultures.

Glories of Gloria Revue co-stars Cal McCrystal, who has has an extensive background in clown and other types of physical comedy. The performance involves a twist on an old trope, where instead of a person running away from a humdrum life to join the circus, a circus artist abandons the big top to try to make it big in a smallish Saskatchewan city.

Glories of Gloria Revue will be held at the Artesian tonight and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15, with children 12 and under admitted for $7.

Written by Heather Morrison, this play is presented Sum Theatre as part of the Globe Theatre’s Shumiatcher Sandbox Series. The play opens Wednesday, and runs until June 11, with performances Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The central character in Thicker Than Water is a 29-year-old woman named Laura (played by Judy Wensel). As the play opens, she’s waiting in her apartment for a phone call. From there, additional characters appear representing three generations women, which puts Laura in a position of having to confront her mother’s past and her own future through a broader exploration of issues related to mental health, motherhood and the age-old question of nature vs. nurture.

Again, Thicker Than Water runs at the Globe Theatre Wednesday through Saturday from June 2-11 at 7:30 p.m. You can get ticket information here.

This is last main stage play of the Globe Theatre’s 2015-16 season. It’s by Canadian playwright Norm Foster, who has drawn comparisons to American playwright Neil Simon in terms of his popularity and the frequency with which his work is produced by Canadian theatres.

The Ladies Foursome concerns a group of three golfing buddies who hit the course following the death of a woman who used to round out their foursome. While on the course they are joined by a woman they’ve never met before, and the play unfolds from there.

Max Reimer is the director, and the women are played by Deborah Drakeford, Melanie Janzen, Elana Post and Jamie Lee Shebelski.

The Ladies Foursome runs from May 25-June 12, and you can find ticket information on the Globe website.

The Addams Family started out as a one-panel cartoon series by Charles Addams that was meant to satirize the ideal American family. Addams began the cartoon in 1938, and the New Yorker magazine was one of the popular publishing venues.

From there, the Addams Family morphed into a TV sitcom which ran from 1964-66 on ABC. Then in the 1990s there were three feature length films released featuring the eccentric family, and finally in 2010 a full-fledged musical hit Broadway.

Three guesses as to which incarnation of the Addams Family narrative Regina Lyric Musical Theatre will be tackling? If you guessed the Broadway musical, you’d be right. The production is being directed by Robert Ursan, and will run at the University of Regina Theatre from May 25-27 at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday May 28.

You can find out more information on the RLMT website. To give you a sense of what to expect, here’s the Broadway cast performing “When You’re Addams” on Late Night With Letterman in 2010

Earlier this season, the Globe Theatre presented a main stage play called The Secret Mask about a man long estranged from his father who must make the difficult decision to care for him in his old age after he’s suffered a stroke.

This play by Saskatchewan playwright Greg Ochitwa, which is being presented as part of the Globe’s Shumiatcher Sandbox Series, has a similar dynamic. In the first instance, though, the dad had abandoned the man’s family when the latter was just a boy, while here the elderly person in need of assistance is a grandmother who served as the sole caregiver for a girl named JP after she lost her parents at a very young age.

In addition to writing G-Ram, Ochitwa is also directing the production. Marianne Woods stars as the grandmother, with Jenna-Lee Hyde as the girl JP, while Mark Claxton plays the role of a nurse.

G-Ram runs at the Globe Theatre from May 19-28, with curtain at 7:30 p.m. Ticket information can be found on the Globe website.

Twice a month from fall through spring the local troupe Hitchhikers Improv presents shows at the Artesian in the Cathedral District. This year, the troupe is winding up its season with a three-day festival that will run at the Artesian from May 17-19.

Details were still being firmed up last time I checked, but I know guest improv artists from Winnipeg and Edmonton are on the festival bill, and $10 gets you into both the 8 and the 10 p.m. shows. You can find out more information on the Hitchhikers Improv website.

Every year, the Saskatchewan Playwright’s Centre presents a festival of new plays that alternates between Regina and Saskatoon. The plays aren’t actually being mounted in a theatrical sense, but there is a dramaturge (in 2016 it’s Nina Lee Aquino) and four directors who work with the playwrights to polish their plays, which are then give staged readings.

The 2016 Saskatchewan Festival of New Plays is being held May 9-14 at Neutral Ground Art Centre (1856 Scarth St.). You can find out more on the SPC website,  but one highlight promises to be an opening night reception at the gallery on May 9 at 8 p.m. which will feature five collaborations between five dancers/choreographers and five playwrights/theatre artists.

The Moulin Rouge, of course, is a famous cabaret that has been part of Paris’ bohemian night-life since it opened in 1889. On the outside, it’s distinguished by a red windmill atop the building, while inside it’s regarded as the birthplace of the famous French dance the can-can.

The Moulin Rouge has been immortalized in a variety of European/Hollywood films, books and even music videos. In 2010, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet did a full-scale ballet set in turn of the 19th century Paris that celebrated the club’s bohemian spirit.

This tribute to the Moulin Rouge is being presented by three local dance troupes: Bottoms Up Burlesque Club, Zarifah Dance Troupe and Jala Idzahar Belly Dance Troupe. It goes at the Artesian on Saturday April 30 at 7:30 p.m. Ticket information can be found on the Artesian website, and to whet your appetite here’s the trailer for the RWB production.

The Globe Theatre describes this production of English playwright William Shakespeare’s famous romantic tragedy as an “interpretation”.

I don’t have any details yet on what form that interpretation will take, although there’s certainly been no shortage of adaptations that have been done over the years that have been set in different time periods and involved different set-ups for the rival Montague and Capulet clans

This Globe version of Romeo and Juliet is being directed by Anita Rochon, and as it happens, the play’s run coincides with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death which occurred on April 23, 1616.

Romeo & Juliet opens tonight at the Globe Theatre, and continues until May 1. For ticket information you can visit the Globe Theatre website.

New Dance Horizons is wrapping up its three-month residency at the MacKenzie Art Gallery with a pair of performances.

The first performance is called Solitudes Solo (publicity shot above) and it is being held at the MacKenzie Thursday April 7 and Friday April 8 at 8 p.m. The work is being presented by the Montreal contemporary dance company Daniel Léveillé Nouvelle Danse, and consists of a series of demanding solos set to violin sonatas composed by Bach. Tickets are Adult $30, Student/Senior $20, 13 and under $10, and you can find more information on the NDH website.

I don’t have a ton of information on the second performance, but do know that the title is End of Winter. It’s a collaborative work between NDH artistic director Robin Poitras and visual artist Edward Poitras that features dancer Ben Kamino. It is being held at the MacKenzie Gallery on Sunday April 10 at 2 p.m., and admission is free,