Ron James shifts comedy paradigm
Ron James used to be the spokesman for Texas tourism for three years on CNN. “It was during George Bush senior’s term. I can imagine […]
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Don Juan has come to save us
“Don Juan? I love Don Juan,” said my fiancée when I asked her if she wanted to see The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan at
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Pop goes the Hammond B-3
Besides hearing jazz played as tight as only a quartet of professionals can, the Jazz Yukon audience Sunday night will enjoy a spectacle. Have you
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The music of Frank Zappa plays on
I remember where I was when I first heard Frank Zappa. It was 1980 and I was at C.F.B. Borden; Joe’s Garage Act I was
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Painter in the Ditch
I’m painting the road. When I tell people that, they figure I’m painting the yellow line some different colour. What I’m actually doing is stopping
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Beloved Nutcracker Ballet draws audience into the seats … and onto the stage
There is no surer sign of the holiday season than the annual staging of The Nutcracker. The Northern Lights School of Dance is presenting the
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Dedication, Hope and a Hug for Mother Earth
With all it’s going through, the world needs a hug.
That’s one of the messages underlying this year’s Blue Feather Music Festival
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Epstein leaves, stage right
Eric Epstein and I are sitting in the black box — the creative centre of the Guild Theatre — the room that can become anything,
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A Marriage of Minds, Words and Music
For Russell Braun, the accompanist’s role is not to play second fiddle. Figuratively or literally. The Frankfurt-born lyric baritone will share the Yukon Arts Centre
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On His Own, With Lots of Company
Raoul Bhaneja is his own uncle. Which means he’s also his own stepfather. Not to mention his mother, his sort-of girlfriend, the ghost of his
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Maybe we are not alone
Yukon skies could be busier than usual next week as extraterrestrial visitors zoom in on the Yukon Arts Centre. The annual Longest Night celebration is
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Artrepreneur: An Uneasy Wonderland
Valerie Salez gives voice to her mixed feelings about beauty in Fourth Nature up at the Yukon Arts Centre. Italian Renaissance grottoes inspired this show.
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Escaping to Bluegrass
It was bluegrass, as much as anything, that lured Radim Zenkl to slip through the Iron Curtain and become a political refugee in the United
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It Just Kind of Snowballed
Having an instant audience of many millions didn’t really change things much for Shane Koyczan. “I think a lot of people expected that everything was
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Turning Hollywood Upside Down
It’s 6:05 on a Sunday morning, and she has a play opening in only six days. So why is Sarah Rodgers sitting in the airport
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Noh Comes to Town
Whitehorse rare opportunity to experience Noh Theatre, a form of classical Japanese theatre that dates back almost 700 years.
Musical Friends
They’re doing it One More Time. For the fifth year in a row, two of the Yukon’s most popular – certainly most durable – musical
Pop With a Gypsy Touch
Don’t let the name fool you. True, the Québec-based trio, The Lost Fingers, took its name from the two fingers of legendary gypsy guitarist Django
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No Squeaking or Squawking
Young and not-so-young musicians from throughout Whitehorse will perform together in two separate concerts at the Yukon Arts Centre next week. The occasion is the
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Breaking the Silence
Tom Jackson’s words come in a slow, measured cadence when he talks about hunger and poverty. It is the second day of Jackson’s current Christmas
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Tone and Diction Rule
It’s 7: 25 on a Monday evening. Over the past few minutes, 67 members of the Whitehorse Community Choir have arrived at the Whitehorse United
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Voice for the Voiceless
Nakai Theatre’s newest production, The River, promises to shine an unblinking light on Whitehorse by presenting voices that normally go unheard. The “sprawling, episodic” play,
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Keeping the Folk Flame Burning
When you ask Eliza Gilkyson about her early musical influences, the first name she mentions is Joan Baez. So when Baez included two of Gilkyson’s
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Confessions of a Boy Soprano
The Rotary Music Festival – which gets off the ground again next Thursday – has been a masterpiece of logistics since its beginning in 1969.
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Colourful and Varied
It has been called “the clown of the orchestra” and “the burping bedpost”, among other things. But it’s no laughing matter for Nadina Mackie Jackson.
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A Pan-Northern Performance
It may not have the national audience of a CBC-TV True North concert. And it may not cover as much geography as the cultural events
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A Touch of Brazil
Full disclosure: one of the most treasured albums in my vinyl collection is the 1962 Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd classic, Jazz Samba. Fuller disclosure:
Finding Her New Voice
When Caroline Drury-Márkos last performed at the Yukon Arts Centre, she was a jazz crooner with the popular Peter Drury Trio. When she returns next
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Capturing Canada’s Boreal Forest
Kelly Borgers considers herself a family photographer. Except that her subject matter is not human faces, but Canada’s boreal forest. “I probably have at least
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Documenting Polar Change
Ark Terry sees himself almost as an interpreter. As a filmmaker who has documented rapid changes in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, his goal
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A Tale in Two Tellings
Ten years after Louis Riel was convicted of high treason and hanged, a young Cree warrior shot a cow near Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, where the
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MacHomer Erectus
Somewhere along the line, Rick Miller wandered from Moshe Safdie’s Legoland and the Bauhaus world of Walter Gropius to the raucous playground of William Shakespeare
Practising Fast in Slow Motion
Listen. That’s the word concert pianist Ian Parker expects to use the most while adjudicating the senior piano classes at this week’s Rotary Music Festival
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Adding to His Mileage
Mike Rud has packed a lot of musical mileage into his 44 years. The Edmonton-born jazz guitarist has three CDS to his name, not to
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Conflicting Concepts of Justice
The discovery of long-buried human remains in Dawson City two years ago shone a public spotlight on a little-known chapter in Yukon history. The four
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Matching Timbres and Colours
At the age of three, Heidi Krutzen announced to her non-musical parents that she wanted to play the harp. She had to settle for the
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And the Winner Is …
I was reminded again recently of the role that sharing wine can have in igniting enthusiasm and making new friends. As I mentioned in my
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Unpacking Memory
What is memory? Where does it live? Where can it take you? Who does it belong to? What is it like to live without it?
A Little Off the Top: Saluting an Icon
Anyone who comes to Yukon quickly becomes aware of several things: the vast landscape, the clean air, the soft colours, the friendliness, the compulsion of
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“We’re Going to Make a Party”
Astrid and Otto Røt are two musical orphans from Berlin. Or maybe not. Their parents were killed by a train on her 12th birthday, Astrid
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A Taste for the Arts
Love of (and interest in) wine has opened wonderful doors for me in my life. Tasting wine has been the lens through which I have
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Lots to look at
Each of Meghan Hildebrand’s paintings sets out a rich site within which your imagination can roam. Let me invite you into “The Royal Game of
Confusion and Betrayal
When siblings embark on a new life together in unfamiliar surroundings, it can often result in confusion, conflict, even betrayal. Especially if one is working
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Growing Up to Play Barbie
As a young boy, Nina Arsenault’s desire to be beautiful came from a “deep, deep place.” Now a full-fledged woman with the face and body
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Sharing the Secrets of a Beautiful Craft
If you think those home-tanned moccasins you’ve been eyeing are too expensive, taking one of Shelby Blackjack’s workshops might change your mind. For the past
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Lines of Communication
“Drawing is similar to writing.”Those words are printed in bold black letters upon a stark white wall in the Yukon Arts Centre Public Gallery. And
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The Real Cover Story
Gallery intern Jessica Vellenga stands in the youth grotto at the Yukon Arts Centre, flipping through a handmade accordion-style book.“She’s talking about Vancouver and the
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Taylor Mac wants to shake you up
Taylor Mac would like you to know that he doesn’t want to offend you. If his fantastical makeup and clothes surprise you, then that’s OK
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Photography as big as Canyonlands
“On top of everything else, you are a photographer, too?” Didier Delahaye has a bemused look that I don’t quite understand. As the marketing director
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Mary Bradshaw YAC’s New Director
Mary Bradshaw is the new director of the Yukon Arts Centre Public Art Gallery. This is a new position at the gallery that artists should
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The New Amanda Stott Brings Her New Voice
Five years ago, Amanda Stott was that young, farm girl with the powerful voice. Today, her voice is just as powerful, but it now has more texture and taken new directions as musical influences have reached her beyond the farm.
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Feast at the Yukon Arts Centre
Michelle Moreau and her potter partner Patrick Royle want to assure purchasers of local pottery that no glaze used on Royle’s or any other local
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