Hopkins Happenings - October 2008

Hi everyone,

Since I'm always involved in a wide variety of events, I figured I would start a monthly newsletter to keep you updated on my activities!

October is a busy month for me, and here's the run-down:

• Les Contes qui déménagent
• R.I.P. - A protest against cuts to arts funding
• The Wrecking Ball
• The Opera Suicide & Scenes from a Revolution
• 2009 High Performance Rodeo Launch
• Blanche: The bittersweet life of a wild prairie dame
  
• Canadian Federal Election
  
• Poetry Bash (WordFest 2008)
• Grave Gala

Les Contes qui déménagent

Saturday, October 4, 8:00 pm
L'Alliance Française de Calgary
1221 2nd St SW
$15 / $12 for members of l'Alliance Française, l'ACFA, le RAFA, La Cité des Rocheuses

Sorry for the super late notice, but this is my French-language theatre début, and I'd love to share it with you! Les Contes qui déménagent is the first show in a French-language theatre season curated by M. Inouk Touzin, and presented by le Regroupement Artistique Francophone de l'Alberta (RAFA). The show features three short plays, written by Inouk Touzin, Gisèle Villeneuve... and me!

Each of the plays has to do with moving (déménagement), and they're performed by Stéphanie Biky, Marcia Mailloux, Stéphane Prévost and Julien Thibeault. The show is in French, but if your language skills are shaky, there will be an English-language summary sheet provided.


R.I.P. - A protest against cuts to arts funding

Monday, October 6, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
steps of Calgary City Hall
316 7th Ave SE

In the days leading up to the Canadian Federal Election, artists and arts supporters need to make their voices heard in the national debate. The current national leadership has made their disdain for artists clear, both in their speech and actions. In light of the recent multi-million dollar cuts to arts funding, and the gloomy future in store for artists if Harper's government wins a majority, R.I.P. is both a protest against recent events, and an attempt to raise awareness about the vital role that the arts play in Canada's culture and identity.

The steps of city hall will become a graveyard, dotted with gravestones that read "R.I.P. - Musicians", "R.I.P. - Actors", etc. Protestors, dressed in black, will lie amidst these gravestones to mourn the impending demise of arts in Canada, if Harper's government is left unchecked. If you'd like to join the protest, show up at City Hall between 9-5 on Monday, dressed in black! I'll be there from about 9-10 am, and 3-5 pm.

For more information, or to get involved, contact Léda Davies (protest coordinator) at 403.680.2621 or leda_davies@hotmail.com


The Wrecking Ball - Calgary

Monday, October 6, 8:00 pm

Jack Singer Concert Hall Lobby
EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts
205 8th Ave SE
pay-what-you-can at the door

In anticipation of the upcoming election and in response to Prime Minister Harper's recent comments about cuts to arts funding, Calgary's theatre community is coming together for a one-night only cabaret of politically-charged theatre that will be part of a nationwide happening. The Wrecking Ball is an evening of short theatrical works written, directed and performed by members of the professional theatre community.

On Monday, The Wrecking Ball events will take place in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

The Calgary event will feature new plays by local writers Ken Cameron, Neil Fleming and Ellen Close, alongside a new piece by two-time Governor General's Award-winning playwright Judith Thompson. The evening will also feature readings of letters and other texts that illuminate the importance of arts and culture in the ongoing election campaign.

An amazing Who's Who of Calgary artists is involved in The Wrecking Ball, including directors Stephen Hair, Stacie Harrison, Kevin McKendrick and Vicki Stroich, and actors that include Trevor Leigh, Doug McKeag, Valerie Planche, Valerie Ann Pearson, Ryan Luhning, Jamie Konchak, Tyrell Crews, Rylan Wilkie, Chantal Perron, Alexander Arsenault, Julie Mortensen, Kathryn Waters, Brieanna Blizzard, Jane MacFarlane and more.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Department of Culture. For more information, please contact Simon Mallett or Stacie Harrison of Downstage at 403.294.7459 or info@downstage.ca.


The Opera Suicide & Scenes from a Revolution

October 7-11, 2008
Performances nightly at 8:00 pm
Saturday matinee, October 11, 2:00 pm

Dancer's Studio West
2007 10th Ave SW
$20 adults, $15 students/seniors
pay-what-you-can preview: October 7

The latest Swallow-a-Bicycle production features two original scripts: The Opera Suicide, by Dust Particle Productions, and Scenes from a Revolution, by Charles Netto.

The Opera Suicide: Peek, the last of the lighthouse keepers, has three loves: Gin, Tyle and Reeve. He is everything to them: refuge, knowledge, hope. But when Peek is confronted by his mechanical replacement, he must decide between his three dark women and the tower's light that he hopes desperately to save. In this original operetta, Dust Particle Productions explores Peek's fatal dilemma through humour and tragedy, music and myth. The Opera Suicide is an epic journey that defies convention and reminds us that, in the end, we must each light our own way.

Script by Ben Charland; Directed by Julia Rigaux; Featuring Sadie Evans, Carol Farrelly, Mandy McKee and Andrew Oberhofer; Music by Allison Lynch and Richard Jackson; Set & Costume Design by Ami Farrow; Composed by Andrea Wettstein; Sound Design by Peter Moller.

Scenes from a Revolution: In a wartorn dystopian future, five characters spiral through each other's lives. A soldier, a prisoner, a general, a rebel, a doctor and a CEO come together on the chessboard of global conflict, where kings are sacrificed as easily as pawns.

Written and Directed by Charles Netto; Featuring Tom Cainer, Devon Dubnyk and Jacqueline Russell.

For more information, contact Charles Netto at 403.397.8559 or swallowabicycle@gmail.com.


2009 High Performance Rodeo Launch

Wednesday, October 8, 12:00 noon
Big Secret Theatre
EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts

I spend five glorious hours a day at One Yellow Rabbit, and right now, we're all up to our necks in planning for this Wednesday's launch of the 23rd Annual High Performance Rodeo. This year's festival has an absolutely kick-ass line-up, but I can't tell you anything about it until Wednesday, so come to the launch!

The event will be attended by His Excellency Jean-Daniel Lafond, Patron of the 2009 Festival, and hosted by Rodeo Curator Michael Green. Afterwards, we'll all head down to the Centini Restaurant & Lounge (160 8th Ave SE) for refreshments and snacks.

Call OYR at 403.264.3224 or visit www.oyr.org for more information.


Blanche: The bittersweet life of a wild prairie dame

Saturday, October 11, 8:00 pm
Sunday, October 12, 2:00 pm
Engineered Air Theatre
EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts
$20 adults, $15 students/seniors
Wheelchair accessible

I'm thrilled to be the publicist for this original creation by Onalea Gilbertson. I've already written a pretty comprehensive press release, so I'll just copy/paste that!

Blanche is a song cycle that lives in the dream state between music and theatre. In her writing debut, Onalea Gilbertson explores the life and stories of her 93-year-old grandmother, Blanche. This original sonic landscape, underscored with Blanche's recorded voice, spans generations to create a poetic family portrait.

In the 1930s, Blanche and her friends embarked on a fantastic photographic journey with an old Brownie Camera. The resulting images, along with other photographs from her long and dramatic life, are carefully woven into the live performance, bringing Blanche's history to life.

This is the Calgary debut of Blanche, and also a release for Onalea's new CD! It features Onalea Gilbertson (vocals/piano/guitar), Jonathan Lewis (violin/clarinet/soundscape) and Morag Northey (cello/backup vocals), directed by Rachel Avery and with lighting design by Terry Gunvordahl.

For tickets and info, call 403.441.6033. Also visit www.onalea.com


Canadian Federal Election

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

It's the Federal Election! Vote! I'd really prefer if you didn't vote Conservative, but just vote, dammit!

The election takes place Tuesday, October 14. For more information about how to vote, visit www.elections.ca. Just type in your postal code, and a wealth of information will be at your fingertips!

If you can't vote on the 14th, advance polls are open today (October 4) and Monday (October 6). You can also vote by special ballet until Tuesday, October 7. Again, all the information you should need is at www.elections.ca. But if you're stumped, call me! And hey, I'm always up for a good political discussion.

Some good resources for artists and arts-supporters, leading up to the election, include the Calgary Professional Arts Alliance and the Department of Culture. Also, Vote For Environment is an interesting read.


Poetry Bash (WordFest 2008)

Friday, October 17, 9:30 pm
Vertigo Studio Theatre
161 - 115 9th Ave SE
$18, $9 students/seniors

By some strange confluence of events, I will be hosting this year's Poetry Bash at WordFest! Promises to be a pretty rockin' evening of poetry, with readings by Coral Bracho, Genni Gunn, Louise Halfe, Patrick Lane, JonArno Lawson and Randall Maggs.

There are a whole stack of other WordFest events to check out, including some featuring my dear friends Claudia Dey, Shane Koyczan, William Neil Scott, Jaspreet Singh, Samantha Warwick, and Sheri-D Wilson.

For more information, visit www.wordfest.com.


Grave Gala 2008

Saturday, October 25, 8:30 pm
Hotel Arts
119 12th Ave SW
$90

By some other strange confluence of events, I will be one of the wandering performers at Grave Gala 2008, the annual fundraiser for Calgary Opera. This year's theme is "What Would You Sell Your Soul For?", and I shall be dressed in an outlandish costume, tempting guests with all kinds of sinful delights.

The price tag's a little steep, but Grave Gala is supposed to be one of the year's most rockin' parties. Hell, I'm excited!

For more information, visit www.calgaryopera.com or call 403.262.7286.

- - -

Phew. Like I said, busy month. Hope to see you at one or several of the above events (especially the election! vote, dammit!). I'll toss out another newsletter in a month, to let you know what's up for November.

And, of course, I also have my regular We Should Know Each Other parties, and Le Salon de la conversation is still rolling, with French conversation over beer or whatever at the Kensington Pub (almost) every Monday, 8:00 pm. If you want more information about either, drop me a line!

Hope you're having a fabulous month so far!

Mark Hopkins
403.710.0093

New York Journal - Part Seven

Here we are: the last edition of my New York Journal. This means I'll have to actually, like, generate new content for this blog. Horrors!

Ah, but that's not until tomorrow. For now, let's travel back in time, back to...


September 23, 2008

Back in Calgary! In the good ol' Bear and Kilt, about to have a good ol' Grasshopper. Nice to be home, though apparently I absorbed my New York experience quite thoroughly, because I'm experiencing the mildest of culture shock. Calgary, as a city, is short! And fat! And nobody jaywalks!

Anyway, back to the Neo-Futurists and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (TMLMtBGB?).

In many ways, it's structured like a sketch show, and several of the "plays" were sketch-like: a frenzied re-enactment of the Large Hadron Collider being fired, or Joey realizing that, by association, he too is a loser. But even in these bits, the humour was a little more subtle and sophisticated than most sketch material I've seen.

There were a few "plays", though, that definitely set the Neo-Futurists apart from typical sketch comedy, and won me over.

For example, "403+", a play that initially excited me because I thought it might be based on the Calgary area code. The performers - not actors, as I was later corrected - sat on the stage with a series of hats, each with a photo of a loved one inside. They explained who was in each photo - a parent, a child, a sibling, a lover - and then revealed text explaining that emergency workers now keep photos of loved ones in their helmets. The play was dedicated to emergency workers who died in 9/11, and to those they left behind.

In another, we pre-purchasers and those who rolled a '6' were called up on stage. We received additional nametags, proclaiming "I am better than everyone else", and we shouted phrases to that effect, because we had paid more to be there than anyone else.

Erica, my stage crush for the evening, came on-stage and started washing her face, explaining that her grandmother takes amazing care of her skin, that she's 80-something and looks 65. She explains that, last week, her grandmother fell while leaving the bathroom, and fractured several vertebrae, and couldn't get up. She fell asleep and woke up and still couldn't move. She lay there for over 24 hours before she was found.

Erica lay on her stomach at the edge of the stage until another performer tagged her out, and took her place. And for the rest of the show, there was always someone lying there, waiting to be tagged out.

Damn.

From what I understand of the Neo-Futurists, they try not to play characters. They try to portray themselves as people, and examine real, day-to-day existence, as much as possible. They believe in random chance and chaos.

I dig it.

Earlier in the week, after seeing L'Image, I came to the obvious but shattering discovery that, in New York City, I'm not Mark Fucking Hopkins. I'm just Canadian Tourist #163. I really wanted to meet the performers. I worked my way up the line. I chatted with the front-of-house staff, the festival director, the gallery curator, and finally the musician herself. But I couldn't score an easy, comfortable access point to the post-show drinks, so I left toward other adventures.

I really wanted post-show drinks with the Neo-Futurists.

I hovered around the theatre, chatted briefly with some performers ("Good show!"), bought some chapbooks. I hovered in the lobby, met alumni from the Neo-Futurist mentorship program, ascertained the drink location, invited myself along.

It was awesome. I spent most of my time with Jacquelyn and Erica, but met most of the group, and they were all incredibly welcoming and friendly and generous, and we had a fabulous alcohol-drenched evening. It was a lovely reminder that, no matter how big the metropolis, no matter where in the world, people are generally awesome. If you put yourself out there, they will reciprocate.

On a less joyful note, when I first arrived at the Bear and Kilt, there was a loud group of white dudes, enthusiastically celebrating some kind of Hooters-sponsored bikini competition. They were yelling crude and mysoginistic phrases toward each other and the TV, and nobody - including me - challenged them, or expressed discomfort or disgust.

Fuckin' people, man.

One thing I dug about New York was that I could discuss politics openly and without hesitation. For one thing, everyone I met was very liberal, terrified of the prospect of McCain/Palin. For another, everyone had an opinion. Here, nobody's even paying attention. Harper, Dion, Layton, you hardly overhear any of those names in everyday conversation. Even the artistic community can't muster anything more convincing than "not Harper", which - don't get me wrong - I heartily endorse. But wouldn't it be nice to vote for a vision that impassions us, rather than against a nightmare?

But on a brighter note: the last time I was here, two guys, young, nerdy, were at a table talking about movies and life. Today, we're all back, in exactly the same seats. They appear to be doing math homework over beers. On the left, an overweight white dude with glasses and a soft whine to his voice. To the right, a small Asian dude who uses words like "essentially" and listens intently. I hope they're a couple, or best friends.

I hope they vote.

Gotta drink up. Off to see GRAND Ideas, with SITI Company from - you guessed it - New York City.