Eric Peterson stars in Seeds at Theatre Junction Grand
The new year has started with no shortage of things to do and the first on the list is the 28th annual High Performance Rodeo which has managed to turn the month of January into something to look forward to.
One Yellow Rabbit is behind this international festival of the arts but over the years it has partnered with many other Calgary arts organizations (Verb Theatre Lunchbox Theatre ProArts Vertigo Theatre Theatre Calgary Third Street Theatre Alberta Theatre Projects W&M Physical Theatre etc.) to co-present local national and international performances evolving into a citywide celebration of theatre music visual arts comedy and more. But let’s just take it one week at a time. The Rodeo opens on Thursday January 9 and the first seven days include the openings of Verb Theatre’s Of Fighting Age at the Glenbow Museum (see story on this page); Why Not Theatre’s A Brimful of Asha at the Engineered Air Theatre (see story page 14); Northern Light Theatre’s 6.0: How Heap and Pebble Took on the World and Won about a figure skating duo out to save the planet at Lunchbox Theatre; One Yellow Rabbit’s debut of Munich Now (see story page 15); Rick Miller’s solo performance BOOM a Kdoons and Wyrd production about the defining moments of the baby boom generation presented with Theatre Calgary at Max Bell Theatre; Antoine Feval created and performed by comedian Chris Gibbs at Vertigo Theatre; performances by MoMo Dance Theatre and Inside Out Theatre presented with the ProArts Society at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer; and the highly anticipated 10-Minute Play Festival hosted by Downstage Theatre at the Martha Cohen Theatre (see story page 14). Some of those shows will continue into the second week of the festival when more shows will open so check the schedule at hprodeo.ca and plan ahead if you don’t want to miss anything.
And speaking of not missing anything you might want to leave a spot open for Theatre Junction ’s latest offering Seeds which has a four-day run from Wednesday January 15 to Saturday January 18 ( theatrejunction.com ). The award-winning production from Montreal’s Porte Parole company is documentary theatre by Annabel Soutar about what has become known simply as the Monsanto trial in which the company accused a Saskatchewan farmer of growing its patented Round-Up Ready canola seeds on his property without paying the licensing fee. The work is described as “an investigative play that refrains from gravitating toward easy answers raising a host of issues from environmental integrity to food safety corporate hegemony farmers’ rights and our changing agricultural landscape.” On January 17 the performance will be followed by a reception and question-and-answer session with local farmers Tony Marshall (Highwood Crossing Organic Farm) Kris Vester (Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farms) and Rosemary Wotske (Poplar Bluff Organics).
Truck Gallery and The New Gallery are both opening new exhibitions on Friday January 10 at 8 p.m. but if you start early you should have time for both. Truck Gallery’s Resonant Field showcases works by Tanya Rusnak of Calgary Sylvia Matas of Winnipeg and Warren McLachlan of Vancouver who peer into the darkness to find out what’s happening there. The exhibition runs until February 8 ( truck.ca ). At The New Gallery Felix Kalmenson’s immersive visual art installation HLS-F71 explores the way military conflict creates trauma. The exhibition runs until February 22 ( thenewgallery.org) .
