Canadian Comedy Award winner and 20-time Best-of-Fest winner Aaron Malkin gets raw and vulnerable in Thunderfoot, A One-Man Autobiographical Fairy Tale. Thunderfoot is an adventure into the wondrous imagination of a child detective, on stage Friday and Saturday, April 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Each show includes a post-show talk-back with performer-creator Malkin, best known for his role as James in renowned British comedy duo James and Jamesy. He was four years old when his mother disappeared. The adults in his life told him all sorts of stories to explain what happened. But the stories didn’t add up, so Aaron made up his own story. As an adult, he learned the truth – his mother died from a drug overdose. “I don’t take what happened lightly,” Malkin said, “but by channeling my personal history into this story, I hope to redefine traditional storytelling in a way that lets each audience appreciate and delight in this young child’s strategy to make sense of the unexplainable.” It was nominated Best Comedy by Just for Laughs and Best English Production (Centaur Theatre, Montreal) and is directed by award-winning comedian Alastair Knowles (James and Jamesy) and Chloe Ziner (Mind of a Snail Puppet Co.). Ticket prices: adults $20, youth (18 and under) $15. Order online: JamesandJamesy.com/tickets or buy at Strait Music (Sechelt), Laedeli Gifts (Gibsons) or MELOmania (Roberts Creek).
Richardson speaks
Bill Richardson is perhaps best known as a longtime broadcaster with the CBC, hosting a variety of programmes: Sounds Like Canada, Canada Reads and Richardson’s Roundup. A music lover, he hosted Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. He is also a prolific author of prose and poetry, writing for both adults and children and specialising in a wry, ironic, self-deprecating humour. His book Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast won the Stephen Leacock Humour Medal in 1994. His latest book is The First Little Bastard to Call Me Gramps: Poems of the Late Middle Ages. In an interview, the author said that he is rarely asked to read. Here is an opportunity to hear him and meet him on Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m. (doors at 7:30 p.m.) at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre (Trail and Medusa, Sechelt). Admission is by donation. Refreshments will be served.
Butler in the Hey
On Saturday, April 7 at the Roberts Creek Legion local favourites Butler in the Hey will be laying down funky tropical grooves. Starts at 9 p.m. Members pay $6, guests $12.
Toastmasters
The Toastmasters Area Spring Coast contest is this Saturday, April 7 at the Davis Bay Community Hall from 2 to 4 p.m. The four area Toastmasters clubs are encouraging members to bring guests to watch the speech competition. For more information, call Johanna Rzepa at 604-886-3157.
Twin Fiddles
The Coast String Fiddlers and associates 3G and Fiddlecats open the show with music at the Twin Fiddles Concert, featuring Gordon Stobbe and JJ Guy on Sunday, April 8 at St. Bart’s Anglican Church (North Road and Hwy. 101, Gibsons) at 7 p.m. Tickets are at the door for $20, free for 12 and under with an adult.
Namibia Fundraiser
On Sunday, April 8 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., a house concert fundraiser for the Children’s Sanctuary Namibia Society, Song as a Living Prayer, is offered by Jill Shatford, singer/song-writer, with Natania Rogers on flute and percussion and Lindsay Johnson on percussion. The concert is at 288 Central Ave., Grantham’s Landing (park on Fisher Avenue). Admission is by donation ($20 minimum). RSVP to: Judy Dunbar [email protected] or call: 604-886-2821 (Judy)or 604-886-3385 (Jeanne). All funds raised go to the Children’s Sanctuary. Seating is limited.
This Weekend
The Source Dance Company comes to the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt on April 7 for two shows at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets at sunshine
coastdance.com
Theatre
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a classic play by Tennessee Williams. This radical update is performed by the National Theatre of London and broadcast to the Raven’s Cry Theatre, Sechelt, on Sunday, April 8 at 2 p.m. Colm Meaney plays Big Daddy with Sienna Miller as Maggie. Tickets are $15 adult; $10 for 17 and under. Call 604-885-4597 to reserve.
FibreShed
The Sunshine Coast Spinners and Weavers Guild and local fibre producers present FibreShed Day at the yurts, the FibreWorks Studio and Gallery, 12887 SC Hwy., Madeira Park. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 8 visitors are invited to view sheep shearing, wool preparation, spinning, carding, weaving, hands-on activities and sales of raw wool, plus refreshments. For more info: see sunshine
coastfibreshed.ca
Finnish Film
The Other Side of Hope is a Finnish comedy/drama screening at the Heritage Playhouse on Monday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. brought to you by the Sunshine Coast Film Society. This compassionate, wryly funny and deeply humane film centres on a Finnish shirt salesman who leaves his alcoholic wife and buys a failing restaurant, and Khaled, a Syrian refugee. Tickets at the door: members $5; single event $9. See: www.scfs.ca for more.
Slice of Life
From April 4 to 29, the Life Drawing Group will hold an exhibition, Slice of Life, showing drawings done during the 2015-2018 Tuesday Life Drawing Group held in the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre. The exhibition marks the 33rd anniversary of the group. The drawings are in various mediums: pencil, pen, conte, charcoal and on iPad. They have a spontaneity, freshness and immediacy ordinarily not seen in exhibitions of art, where the usual criteria include finish, polish and tidy coherence. The drawings are selected by the artists who bring their best to hang unframed. The artists represented in this show range from professional to beginners. Exhibiting artists include: Devon Blean, Patricia Bowers, Nena Braathen, Leonard Brett, Julie Eyers, Katherine Johnston, Vickie Marshall, Janice McFegan, Paula O’Brien, Cindy Riach, Evelyn Sloboda, Maurice Spira, Russ Tkachuk, Kevin Wells and Victor Wong. They are drawn together by respect for the time-honoured discipline of drawing from life and by a respect for the beauty and complexity of the human body. The opening reception is on Sunday, April 8 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Arts Centre, 5714 Medusa (at Trail) in Sechelt. For more info see: www.sunshinecoast
artscouncil.com
Library Contests
Sechelt Library’s second annual Poetry Contest theme is A Happy Moment in Time. Describe a happy moment in your past, at the present time or one for the future. Registration forms are available at the library or on the website. Deadline is Wednesday, April 11. Also coming up: the Facebook Book Spine Poetry contest (for over 18 years) starts April 3 and ends Monday, April 16. Winner will be announced Tuesday, April 17. Enter on the Sechelt Library Facebook page. The prize is a $50 gift certificate to Talewind Books.
Wilderness Series
Artist Jen Drysdale is showing work from her Into the Wilderness series at the Gibsons Public Market from April 3 onward, alongside artist Inez Tancré. Stop by and have a look.
GPAG Show
From Thursday, April 12 to Sunday, May 6 see New Directions, an exhibition by Kevin McEvoy at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery with an opening reception on Saturday, April 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. Canadian born Kevin McEvoy is both an artist and educator, but it was teaching that brought him to the Sunshine Coast in 1984. “I was on a field trip with the school I was teaching for at the time, and I thought this was the most beautiful place – the ocean and the mountains – an artist’s paradise, really.” He now balances his time between maintaining his own personal practice and teaching art at the Sunshine Coast Alternative School. “I have always tried to keep busy with my own work, even bringing paintings into the classroom to demonstrate how art can be done and how it can be a job.” Taking cues from his students, McEvoy continues with his aim to discover nature’s truth through art. McEvoy’s process of manipulating photos digitally before painting them is reflective of the constant growth and flux of both the natural and digital world use of bold colours, high contrast and texture. For those interested in learning new techniques, McEvoy will lead a hands-on stone lithography workshop at the Gallery on Sunday, April 22 from 2 to 4 p.m. For further information: Michael Aze: 604-886-0531.
Message Me
My new phone number is 604-741-9360. You can send notice of your arts and entertainment events to my email: [email protected]. Items go into the ArtBeat column one day to one week ahead only, depending on space. Deadline is Tuesday noon for Friday’s paper.
