“A lavish production of The Nutcracker will once again be provided,” promises Kathleen Holmes, artistic director of Coast Along Theatre Society, which produces the iconic Christmas-season ballet at Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt. Ticket sales open Saturday Nov. 17 for this, the society’s seventh annual presentation. There will be six performances in the four-day run, starting with opening night Saturday, Dec. 15 through Tuesday Dec. 19.
Tickets are $29 for adults, $19 for children 10 and under, and there are senior matinée specials, $25 for the Monday and Tuesday 2 p.m. performances. The Nutcracker box office – open Monday to Friday, 12 to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. – is located at the Sechelt branch of the Sunshine Coast Credit Union. Tickets can also be ordered by phone, at 604-989-6050.
Christmas crafts
It’s also Christmas fair season, and among them this weekend will be Deck the Halls, the annual arts and crafts fair by the Sunshine Coast Arts Council. It runs Saturday and Sunday Nov. 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, at the corner of Trail and Medusa in Sechelt. It’s a juried event so the items on offer should all be a bit special, plus there’s live music and snacks. Admission is $2, kids under 12 are free with an accompanying adult.
Meanwhile, Sunnycrest Mall in Gibsons is holding its Weekend Christmas Artisan Market, promising “a myriad of arts, crafts, foods, drinks, music, community, fun and surprises,” Saturday and Sunday Nov. 17 and 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the mall on Gibsons Way. Free.
Rotary Annual Christmas Auction
Watch it live on location or on TV. It’s always entertaining, even if you don’t intend to bid on anything – and that’s the challenge: “I’m not going to buy anything, just watch.” Good luck! Matt Morris is emcee with the delightfully persuasive Ed Hill conducting the live auction. Go to the Gibsons Rotary website if you want to pre-bid. Saturday Nov. 17 at 101 Brewhouse, 1009 Gibsons Way ($25), or on Coast Cable channels 10 or 610. Doors open and broadcast starts at 6 p.m., live auction is 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Early Spirit and Bad to the Bow
Vancouver’s four-man Celtic-jazz fusion group Early Spirit is performing a CD-release concert on Saturday Nov. 17 at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. The Sunshine Coast youth fiddle group Bad to the Bow will open. Show starts at 6:30 p.m., doors at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20, students $10, from Laedeli Gifts or online at Brown Paper Tickets.
Black Boot, Ruby Slipper
Also on Saturday, Nov. 17, the annual Black Boot fundraiser will feature two great groups, the So Tight Band and Playback, 7 p.m. at the Sechelt Legion. The proceeds go to the Ruby Slipper Fund supporting people living with cancer. Appies by Greg Petula and Smitty's Oyster House. Tickets are $40 at Daily Roast and Palmeros in Sechelt.
They always come back
Former Sunshine Coast resident and blues/roots musician Mark Crissinger will be doing a solo acoustic show at the 101 Brewhouse on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. and has his full band along for a show at Coopers Green Hall in Halfmoon Bay on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. Tickets for the Saturday show are $20, at Halfmoon Bay General Store, Welcome Woods Market and Pastimes.
Live mic
Part of the month-long Coast Creatives show at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery is a series of live-mic events. You can catch the next one on Saturday Nov. 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. and again on Tuesday Nov. 20, 7 to 9 p.m. Each poet, musician, artist, raconteur or motivated newbie gets five minutes to show “their funny, weird and woolly sides.” Admission is free at 431 Marine Dr.
Off the Page
The play-reading series continues Sunday Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. featuring the Dorothy Dittrich play, The Dissociates, described as “a darkly comic look at life and death, memory and healing.” We meet Alex, a 50-ish woman, “bravely working in her garden, following the advice of her well-meaning psychiatrist, as she tries to assess and reassess, sometimes with heart-breaking clarity, often with broad strokes of gallows humour, how she got where she is.” The actor/readers include Rae Lynn Carson, Frank Crudele, Janet Hodgkinson, Amy King, Wanda Nowicki, Mardel Vestad and Sally Williams. At the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Admission by donation.
Oil painting workshop
Painter Carmelo Sortino has recently returned from Giverny in France, Claude Monet’s home and inspirational milieu. Carmelo is offering a two-day workshop, using his 40-plus years of expertise to help you create a 12”x16” painting. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17 and 18, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. $200 at Create, 5677 Cowrie St., Sechelt.
Submissions
If you have an event you’d like considered for Art Beat, please let Rik know at [email protected] by 11 a.m. Tuesday. Space is limited.
