|
|
Theatrical Extravaganza Daily Arts Alert ... by Cathleen Bond Tuesday, Jan. 16
The festival is "a stellar slate of local, national and international work including: top international performers Ken Campbell from London, Australia's William Yang, and Theatre Clipa of Tel-Aviv. Jaw-dropping entertainment from Quebec choreographer Marie Chouinard; new work from Toronto's favorite creators, da da kamera; wickedly wild W.E.T. (Women's Experimental Theatre) from the Yukon; plus local stars Ghost River Theatre, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop and One Yellow Rabbit."
And that's the Rodeo's mandate. They want to assemble the world's most creative performers (from Canada and around the globe) and let them do their most outrageous and creative things. It's meant to be a collection of "the funniest, sexiest, weirdest, most beautiful performances to be found anywhere." You can grab your tickets at TicketMaster. The prices run between $5 and $20 and there's even a series of "Pay What You Can" performances. You've got to like that.
A Festival of New and Experimental Theatre until Jan. 28 - Calgary Calgary Performing Arts Centre (403) 299-8888
Coach House Books, which has its origins in the 1960s hippie era, has become the only publisher in Canada - and perhaps the world - to publish its full list online, as well as in print. According to the company's website: "We believe in "full" (rather than semi) publishing, and as such see electronic publishing not as a marketing gimmick but as a reality and a necessity. After all, publishing means to make public, and the Internet has become an important public "space". Coach House has instituted an online "tipping" system, in which pleased readers can offer a nominal tip to its authors, in return for the pleasure of reading their works. It's hoping this voluntary system will help support the efforts, and lay the foundation of a new kind of cultural exchange: "If you're a regular visitor to this site, and you haven't tipped any of our authors yet (you cheap bastard), please consider doing so. ... We hope that this pioneering work will allow us to have some say in the discussions that determine when and how authors are compensated for digital publishing. Wouldn't it be nice, for once, if the criteria came up from the grass roots, instead of down from the top?" They've also got some pretty cool e-postcards to choose from, if you want something classier and lighter to send to friends than the usual Shlockwave download monsters ... they're totally free, and good advertising for a Canadian company that's quickly becoming a Internet pioneer.
|
 Updated each weekday by Cathleen Bond ... bookmark this page and come back for the latest news, reviews and gossip on the Canadian arts scene. RECENT FEATURES: More from our year-end review: >> Public Art >> Film >> Digital >> Visual Art >> Literature >> Dance >> Architecture >> Music and Opera >> TV or not TV
>> Kid Stuff: Toy displays for Christmas at Canada's museums >> Bruce Mau: Big designs in LifeStyle >> Robert Service: Musical tribute to a Canadian hero >> Circle of Trees: Art and nature come full circle >> Atwood: The critics and The Blind Assassin >> Public Art: Who decides what art will fill our civic spaces and expand our imagination? >> Public Art: Who decides what art will fill our civic spaces and expand our imagination? >> Mags & Zines: A review of the best in Canadian arts publications. >> Digital Art: Clickable Cancon, a quick tour of the latest in digital art. >>
Cancon Quiz >> Iron Road: The Arts & Culture forum follows the creation of a new Canadian opera >> Interview: Carole McDowell tells us how she and artist Helen Lucas made the transition from gallery walls to the www gallery. >> Public Library in Peril How should libraries be transformed to meet future needs of Canadians? >> Culture
at the Crossroads >> Web
Wizard
|
It's day two of our theatre round up and there's an incredibly interesting
revue on in Calgary called High Performance Rodeo, A Festival of New and
Experimental Theatre. 
This theatrical rodeo has been bucking in the stall for 15 years now. It
began as a simple event called the Secret Elevator Experimental Performance
Festival. Doesn't that sound strange? Apparently it was. Groups huddled in a
"secret" location to see an unknown show. A full house was 25 max. According
to the founders "it felt furtive, daring, even criminal, no wonder: it was
all sublimely illegal. But that didn't stop us from turning loose, to their
own devices, the likes of Sky Gilbert and Sheri-D Wilson, artists who have
since become leaders in their respective fields of experimental theatre and
performance poetry."
Canadian Publisher Gets Cyber Savvy: Just by accident, while surfing around the web one night, I discovered the
most innovative publisher in Canada -- a company that's hip to the
possibilities of digital publishing over the Internet, but not enslaved to
the over-hyped ecommerce business model being laid out all over the wobbly
wide web these days.
Meanwhile, Coach House is still pluging on with the old-fashioned, over-the-counter book biz, and tonight is
hosting the launch party for two new books of Canadian poetry. A House of
White Rooms, by Helen Tsiriotakis, who is described as " a new voice in
Toronto poetry." The other book is a first volume of poetry from novelist
Natalee Caple.
Twenty clicks through Canadian culture: Test your memory, from Anne
of Green Gables to Shift.