A play or two by Shakespeare is included in the high school curricula in Canada. Most students get pushed through it and don’t pick up Shakespeare again, unless they go on to study English literature further in their academic careers.
I was an exception to that. I studied commerce as my academic career, but couldn’t deny my love for English literature. So I took a Shakespeare course, a full year of just the Bard. It was for that reason that One Yellow Rabbit’s Taking Shakespeare was so appealing.

The play tells of young twenty four year old Murph (Denise Clarke) who is doing very badly in his university career, and his mother, the president of the university wants him to be mentored by Prof (John Murrell) so that he can ‘do better’.
Murph is by all description a directionless young man, he shows up at Prof’s house, sporting a Smurfs ‘Who is your Papa’ shirt and saying that the titles of Shakespearean plays are too long. Prof sleeps on the couch, loves his coffee and generally forgets what day it is, all the time.

Together, they begin to explore Othello, trying to carve out the meaning behind character motivations and scenes in the play. Murph illustrates the comedy of struggling through Shakespeare’s blank verse, ‘he had a stroke in his youth?’
As the play goes along, the characters on stage begin to fill out. We learn how Prof got attached to Shakespeare and how he feels about teaching. ‘We’re too old to teach it, by the time we’re able to understand it,’ he asserts.

Taking Shakespeare explores how relationships can be formed through literature, how it can dismantle the division between young and old. It questions how we view teachers and educators within society and whether we value them enough. It is well written, full of quick wit and genuine emotion.

Clarke portrays Murph with accurate style. It is quite amazing to see the range that Clarke can play, from last year’s vixen Helen in The Penelopiad to the egotistical mother in Smash Cut Freeze, to this. Fiona Kennedy decided not to adorn her in elaborate costuming, letting Clarke’s mannerisms and expressions depict a careless young man.

Murrell takes on the role as tortured prof nicely, reading the scenes from Othello with vigor.

The set of Prof’s living room is accurately messy. There are book strewed everywhere and the coffeemaker sits on the back table (So the theatre rightly smells like coffee and old books). When Prof gets angry, he dumps coffee on the open laptop.

Given One Yellow Rabbit’s previous work, such as Kawasaki Exit, and Gilgamesh La-Z-Boy, this entry into the 26th Annual High Performance Rodeo won’t blow you away. It isn’t that kind of play. But it is a charming full story about a relationship built through Shakespeare. And has it’s own appeal.

Taking Shakespeare runs tonight and tomorrow only. For more information on this play and more on the High Performance Rodeo go to www.hprodeo.ca

Photo Credit: Benjamin Laird

What are we going to do now that Laurie has left town?  When the multi-media artist took over the artist-in-residence reins of High Performance Rodeo, she brought a dreamy thoughtfulness to the high spirited mid-winter arts festival.

One of the highlights of Laurie Anderson’s residency was her four-night stint at Theatre Junction Grand, performing a different version of her work in progress, Another Day in America, each night.

On the evening I attended, Anderson led us through ninety minutes of anecdotes that were simultaneously quirky, profound, and humourous.  On a darkened stage that was a veritable minefield of lighted candles, she spoke with words measured and chosen with the care of a poet, words at once personal and profound. She has a voice that commands – commands attention, commands belief, commands imagination, commands compassion.

In her bemused, measured voice, she told stories of visits to tent cities, where the inhabitants maintain a tenuous thread to their former lives through the last vestiges of politeness. She related Darwin’s thorny problem with peacocks, how to explain the existence of their tail display in the context of survival of the fittest. In a dreamlike monologue, she reflected on the recent signing of the American National Defense Authorization Act, which transforms American soil into a de facto battleground. These big questions were punctuated with haunting violin solos, allowing time for absorption and reflection.  The reflection itself eventually gave way to personal stories of home life, during which Anderson shed her poet-seer persona, lowered herself into an easy chair, and began to share tales (and video clips) of the life and death of her blind piano-playing rat terrier, Lolabelle.

It was another day in America.

For one splendid week, Laurie Anderson was the toast of the town – performing on stage, leading an interactive tour through the Cantos collection, cooking dinner with a select few at Cookbook Company Cooks, and opening her video installation, The Gray Rabbit at the Glenbow Museum, with an evening of conversation.

Luckily for us, The Gray Rabbit will be at the Glenbow Museum until April 9, to remind us of those few heady days when Laurie Anderson was a Calgarian.

Last year was my first time attending the High Performance Rodeo. I took in BASH’d: A Gay Rap Opera and it was an unexpected highlight in a long hard winter.

This year I am getting excited to see The Ugly One, Lucha Vavoom and the Year of the Dragon +15 Art Parade.

One of my favourite things about the High Performance Rodeo is that it breathes life into places and things that are often unthought-of or over-looked, like the noon-time bells in the Calgary Tower and the Plus 15 walkways. It takes something we take for granted every day and turns it into something special.

According to calgaryplus15.com, Calgary has the world’s most extensive pedestrian walkway system with over 59 Plus 15’s tallying 16 kilometres. Coming from a place where it rains ¾ of the year, these puppies would have made my life so much easier if they had them back home, and most definitely do here.

Why people don’t write songs and name their first born children after them is beyond me. I feel a bumper sticker coming on, “Moved to Calgary for love, stayed for the Plus 15’s.” Okay, clearly I’m a fan…and a major nerd.

I really appreciate the fact that HPR will be jazzing them up yet again with their 2nd Annual +15 Art Parade on January 20th, which is in celebration of the Year of Dragon. You’ve got to love the ability to host a warm (and dry) parade in the thick of winter.

What to expect?

The Plus 15’s will host a colourful surprise for commuters as dozens of costumed performers parade through its hallways. It will be a multicultural celebration of the Chinese New Year (Year of the Dragon) featuring musicians, dragon dancers, traditional Chinese costumes and more.

Mark your calendar for Friday, January 20th at 4:00 pm, and catch this one-of-a-kind event as it starts winding its way from Bankers Hall over to Sun Life Plaza.

Katherine Chi is a world-renowned pianist who gave her debut recital at the young age of nine.  Since her early beginnings, this local Calgarian has performed throughout Europe and North America and was the first Canadian, as well as the first woman, to win Canada’s Honens International Piano Competition in 2000.

Last Thursday, Katherine gave a special live performance on the Calgary Tower’s carillon (the unique keyboard instrument whose bell voices can be heard atop towers).  Her performance, featuring a selection of music composed by various Canadians, was part of the High Performance Rodeo’s Calgary Carillon Celebration and from noon until 1:00 pm her melodies could be heard in the tower’s lobby and throughout the downtown core.

Below is a video of one of her performances:

If you missed her special live performance last week, don’t fret!  Every weekday at noon from now until January 27th, an hour of carillon song will ring through the streets of Downtown Calgary.

For more information on the High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts, check out hprodeo.ca.

It’s only fitting that a performance artist as diverse and as revered as Laurie Anderson should be the 2012 High Performance Rodeo artist-in-residence, stepping into the shoes vacated most recently by Brian Eno.  Like Eno, Anderson is a pioneer of electronic music, a highly influential innovator, a visionary artist.  Like Eno, Anderson is sure to draw crowds of superfans, breathless with excitement over being in the presence of musical genius.

For those less familiar with Laurie Anderson’s hefty pedigree, here’s a little primer:

Laurie Anderson was NASA’s first artist-in-residence.  The experience inspired her performance piece The End of the Moon, which she performed the last time she was in Calgary, in 2005.

Laurie Anderson invents instruments.  Predating Harry Potter’s custom-made wand by 30 years, she devised a tape-bow violin, which uses recorded magnetic tape in place of the traditional horsehair in the bow and a magnetic tape head in the bridge.  This was followed by a six-foot talking stick, which breaks sound into grains and rearranges the fragments into strings or clusters.  And then, of course, there are the infamous audio drag voice filters that Anderson developed, which spawned the recurring character of The Voice of Authority.

Laurie Anderson knows everybody.  She has collaborated with William S. Burroughs, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Andy Kaufman, Lou Reed, John Giorno, Peter Gabriel, John Michel Jarre, Bobby McFerrin, David Sylvian, Colin Stetson, and on and on.

Laurie Anderson is married to Lou Reed.  Can you imagine the conversations they must have while washing up the dishes together?

Laurie Anderson has a really long resume.  In addition to the accomplishments already mentioned, Anderson holds an MFA in sculpture, has illustrated children’s books, has drawn comics, has written books, has starred in and directed films, has written for the Encyclopaedia Britannica,  has visited the Russian Space Programme, has been part of a team that created the opening ceremony for the Athens Olympics, has written film soundtracks (including Swimming to Cambodia), has performed PSAs, and was awarded the 2007 Gish Prize for “outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to humankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life”.

One suspects Ms Anderson never forgets to take her vitamins.

During her stint as High Performance Rodeo’s 2012 artist-in-residence, you have loads of opportunities to see Laurie Anderson being her usual diverse self:

Wednesday, Jan 11 – Saturday, Jan 14, 8:00 pm
Theatre Junction GRAND
608 – 1st St SW
Another Day in America  (performance)

Sunday, Jan 15, 4:00 pm
Cantos Music Foundation
134 – 11th Ave SE
Interactive Performance Tour
 

Sun, Jan 15, 7:00 pm (sold out)
Cookbook Company Cooks
722 – 11th Ave SW
A Beginning, Middle and an End:  Dinner with Laurie Anderson

Tues, Jan 17, 7:30 pm
Glenbow Museum
130 – 9th Ave SE
In Conversation with Laurie Anderson

Wed, Jan 18 – Mon, Apr 9
Glenbow Museum
130 – 9th Ave SE
The Gray Rabbit (video installation)

Would you believe that I’m a born-and-raised Calgarian, but never in its 25 years of existence, have I ever attended the High Performance Rodeo?

I mean, I had heard of it, obviously. One Yellow Rabbit is an institution of sorts in Calgary, and when you’ve been around for a couple of decades, one tends to cement a place in Calgary’s cultural scene.

But because, other than a couple of theatre shows I caught as a kid, theatre in general was never really a big part of my upbringing (low-to-middle class family, entertainment dollars had to be spent wisely), I was never really conditioned to check out local theatre as a form of entertainment, a mindset that has stuck with me even today, where I’m self-sufficient and successful enough to have a little disposable income to play with.

Now, it’s not because I’m adverse to theatre in general. On the contrary, the shows I saw as a child (for example, a production of Into the Woods that took place at Theatre Calgary) I really enjoyed, and ironically, I enjoyed watching theatrical productions on television (especially musicals; I love musicals!). I took Drama class in junior-high where I was cast as the lead in my school’s production of Aladdin, had a blast doing it, and would have continued on if not for a quirk in Grade 10 class scheduling that forced me to drop Drama as an option. It’s just that local theatre as an entertainment activity has just never, ever entered my mind.

After some insistence from friends, I was persuaded to catch Catalyst Theatre’s production of Nevermore. I had heard good things about it, although I didn’t know much other than it had something to do with Edgar Allan Poe.

I didn’t know what to expect and did no research prior to attending so I was able to watch it with an open mind. I had heard it was a biography of sorts. In fact, as showtime approached, “musical biography” was a term I had heard thrown around a lot.

I’ll admit: I was intrigued.

What I saw amazed me.

It was a full-on musical production about the life of Poe. Surreal at times, relatable even by today’s standards at others, without reading a synopsis on the life of Poe beforehand, I couldn’t tell what was based on real-life fact and what was creatively interpreted, but the performance grabbed me in the sense that I couldn’t help but feel sorry about the difficulty and tragedy that Poe the child must have went through growing up. It made me revisit that age-old question about “Nature vs. Nurture” and made me wonder if Poe had a different upbringing, would his life have been different? If I had a different upbringing, how different would I be right now? Pretty heavy stuff, right there. Didn’t expect to be thinking about those sorts of things by the end of the night.

And what I learned about the production astounded me. There are over 200 lighting and sound cues and 25 costume changes that the cast and crew have to contend with. The vast majority of the costumes and props are made of masking tape and tissue paper, which requires an obscene amount of maintenance after every performance to ensure they’re always ready for the next show. There is so much pride and passion put into this production on-stage and behind-the-scenes by the cast and crew, and every loving bit shines through in the performance.

Suffice it to say, I was hooked. As soon as I got home, I hit my computer looking for the next show to see. I managed to catch the last showing of Billy Bishop Goes to War, a two-man act portraying some of the exploits of the legendary Canadian war hero. I was thrilled to see there were musical elements involved in the performance, and having studied Canadian military history in school, proud that they were able to come up with a performance that wasn’t just entertaining, but a fitting tribute to our Canadian war heroes as well.

My first-ever experience at the High Performance Rodeo was a good one, and I have to say that I’m now a fan. As I was exposed to the Rodeo rather late in the festival, I realize that I’ve missed a lot of performances, and missed a few shows that I’d probably enjoy.

However, when next year rolls around, I’ll definitely make time for the 26th annual High Performance Rodeo and plan accordingly.

There’s still some time to catch Nevermore at the Vertigo Mystery Theatre. It runs until Sunday, February 6, 2011.

Craddock and Cuckow bring BASH’d: A Gay Rap Opera back to Calgary as part of the High Performance Rodeo (their first run in 2008 sold out) and I’m glad they did.

It was just a typical Wednesday night in the city; worked a bit late, stopped at Murrieta’s for a glass of wine and quick bite, and then I was off to the opera.  The gay rap opera!

Maybe it’s just me, but a rap opera would have been unusual enough to pique my interest, then you add a couple of white homo’s to it and you have BASH’d:  A Gay Rap Opera starring Feminem & T-Bag.

It is fast-paced, brilliantly clever and while both my roommate and I laughed our way through most of it, this “Romeo meets Romeo” love story touches on some very important issues like gay marriage, personal rights and freedoms, and gay bashing.

This star-crossed opera carries a number of strong messages, but the one that spoke the loudest is that love is love.  No matter who you are.  No matter where you are.  No matter what you are.  And everyone deserves the basic human right to feel it without judgment.

BASH’d is a witty, fun, and strangely fascinating peek into life as a gay man and it will definitely entertain you if you have an open mind and a high tolerance for strong language.

Interested?  BASH’d is here as part of the High Performance Rodeo from January 26-29th at the Vertigo Theatre.

Tom Waits has never come to Calgary. Until now.

Last night, all the way from Quebec City, L’orchestre D’hommes-Orchestre came to Calgary to perform their sold out shows at the Theatre Junction Grand.

Performing on a stage cluttered with odd objects, LODHO presents music in a way no one has seen before. Using spaghetti, bottles, teacups, megaphones, even each others bodies, LODHO let their imaginations run wild to capture the bizarreness of Tom Waits. Their voices are gritty and rough and as the light shines through the crooked ceiling fan, you can’t help but be absolutely fascinated by their performance.

They climb over each other, wear bags on their head, put on lipstick to kiss the television screen, and use dominoes to maintain the beat in the song. But they also play guitars, harmonicas, banjos and accordions. They smoke cigarettes, drink martinis and interweave covers of Wait’s songs.

The second act outshone the first, as the performances got more complex. A highlight was when they all put safety helmets on, one with a golf club on it. In a complicated sequence, they high five, ring a bell and have the golf club hit a frying pan. It would be quite a bit easier to have each individual play one instrument, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. And this show is about fun. If the audience wasn’t tapping their feet to the beat they were doubled over in laughter at the comedy put on by LODHO.

In the final act, four of the band members play one accordion while they get showered by confetti and silly string. Even before the last note was stuck the audience was already on their feet. If you walked into the theatre as a stranger to Tom Waits and his work you walked out finding that ‘you weren’t really strangers anymore’.

L’orchestre D’hommes-Orchestre performs Tom Waits,  plays at Theatre Junction tonight.  Buy tickets at hprodeo.ca

Downstage Theatre presents In the Wake, a theatre piece with no props or stage, just four people on a box. Oh, and two people play the chairs on occasion.

Delving into the issue of climate change and its effect on ocean waters, the cast explores every twist and turn of the topic, making sure to demonstrate the political complexities of the problem. Dealing with geo-engineering and eco terrorism, the play features a community off the west coast of Canada that has a dead zone in their waters. An oxygen deprived part of the ocean that isn’t allowing for any wildlife. Showcasing many characters within the community, the story covers different points of view without being preachy, presenting the audience with the ideas and problems surrounding the issue.

The play is physically demanding on the ensemble, as not only does each cast member plays several characters at a time, they also play the props and the set. Each character twists their bodies to be a barnacle for example, or two people come together to be the computer. Dealing with the dark, politically charged subject matter is eased with this comedic aspect. The audience starts to look forward to what they will create next. (The audience favourite was a vespa)

Set to live music, composed and performed by Ethan Cole, In the Wake is a thoughtful, innovative and challenging piece of creative work and is a must see within the High Performance Rodeo.

In the Wake plays it’s last show at High Performance Theatre on Sunday, January 16, 2011 at Lunchbox Theatre. Buy tickets at hprodeo.ca.

Not your typical rodeo, the High Performance Rodeo is a month-long performance festival in January that has a great mix of shows where you never know quite what to expect. I’ve been looking forward to it all year.

My night begins at the office, bleary-eyed. Can I handle another night of Rodeo? How Michael Green and his team do it, I can’t imagine, it must come with 25 years of training (that’s right, this is their 25th anniversary).

First, dinner. Tonight is the night to introduce J to the Palomino. I’ve been for lunch, but J’s never been and he’ll love it (there’s meat after all). The server recommends the dry ribs. They don’t disappoint, these aren’t your typical pub dry ribs with barely any meat. Next, the two meat platter (brisket and pulled pork) with sides of garlic fries, Jack Daniel’s apples and bacon-wrapped corn. Everything was delicious! The brisket and the pulled pork are very tender and especially good in this terrible weather (-25C) when BBQing at home is impossible. Regular corn on the cob is no longer an option, there must be bacon wrapped around it. The garlic fries are very garlicky (don’t forget your gum) and the apples are the perfect finish.

But the night’s not over!

Now it’s time for Compagnie Drift’s Sound Machine: A Theatrical Concert. They have traveled all the way from Switzerland to do this show for the High Performance Rodeo. As usual with the Rodeo, I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I haven’t been disappointed yet. The show features a sound machine that allows you to hear inaudible sounds, like a tomato ripening. Part of the charm of the show is the surprise of each sound and the audience’s laughter. But I think you’ll particularly enjoy the fish.

A quick taxi home to escape the cold and that’s a great night.

Sound Machine: A Theatrical Concert plays at the Vertigo Studio Theatre at 8:00pm on Friday, January 14 and Saturday January 15, 2011. Visit hprodeo.ca to buy tickets.