Novel marathon benefits area literacy students

(The following Trumpeter column originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on March 28, 2007.)

By Susan Lowe

An eclectic group of writers from across Canada will put fingers to the keyboard or, as in the case last summer, pen to paper, at precisely 8 p.m. on Friday, July 20, thus kicking off the sixth annual Muskoka Novel Marathon.

For the following 72 hours, save for a few breaks to eat and sleep, this committed group of writers will remain mostly sequestered until the closing bell rings at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 23.

Each writer is allowed only a one-page outline going in. What comes out is very often a manuscript well in excess of 100 pages.

What motivates writers to participate in such an ordeal? The opportunity to write uninterrupted by the demands of daily life? To devote an entire weekend to what feeds their souls? To reap the benefits of quality time spent with like-minded individuals? To have their work critiqued by a panel of renowned judges? To win the opportunity to have their manuscript sent directly to a publisher? To support a program that will enable others to enrich their lives through the written word? Likely all of the above, plus some.

Even though the event has been organized by the Muskoka Literacy Council (MLC) for the past three years, it began as the brainchild of writers Martin Avery, Christina Kilbourne and Huntsville’s own Mel Malton.

In her role at the helm of the Muskoka Literacy Council, Susan Lowe is the key organizer of the annual Muskoka Novel Marathon. She is also an active member of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts board of directors.

The marathon has been supported by the Huntsville Festival of the Arts as a “fringe event” of the summer festival for the past five summers. When it began in the old National Bank building on Huntsville’s Main Street in 2002, it had just those three participants. Last year’s group of 23 was the largest to date, a group that swells in number each year.

As a result of these annual marathons, Canadians are the benefactors of at least four new published novels. Mel Malton’s The Drowned Violin was released at the kick-off event to the 2006 marathon. Christina Kilbourne, a two-time winner of the marathon, released her novel The Roads to Go Home Lake at the same event and her marathon-winning novel Dear Jo is being released this spring.

Paula Boone, winner in 2005, is currently in discussion with a publisher and her marathon manuscript Double Take may be in stores as early as this fall. Kim Russel-Brooks’ winning entry in 2006 is in the process of being reviewed by a publisher, while four-year veteran Peter Brandt has also had one of his works published, albeit from another writing marathon.

The students at the MLC are also beneficiaries of this event. Over the past five years, writers have gathered almost $20,000 in pledges to support MLC initiatives. To date, the pledges have gone to improve computer learning opportunities through the purchase of hardware, as well as software resources, to support the many academic and employment-based programs offered at MLC.

Although the agency has been in operation almost 15 years, it is one of Huntsville’s best-kept secrets. Until recently, it was not widely known that adult students can access free upgrading in reading, writing, math and computers from very basic levels up to and including GED preparation and college entry programs.

The new ACE program, a partnership with Georgian College but delivered at the MLC, began in January with communications and numeracy classes on Monday and Tuesday nights respectively.

For registration packages or to find out more about the Muskoka Novel Marathon 2007, contact Susan Lowe at the MLC (789-1850) or e-mail lowes.atthefarm@sympatico.ca.

To find out more about programs or volunteering opportunities at the MLC contact Amy Nadrofsky at the above number or e-mail literacy@vianet.ca.

Bruce Cockburn is coming to Huntsville!

Bruce may not be wearing this particular hat on July 18, when he performs at the Algonquin Theatre.

When thinking about Bruce Cockburn and his music, words like iconic and quintessential spring to mind, as well as more superlatives than would fit on a page of Roget's largest tome. But, I won't dig out my thesaurus to effuse further – I'll simply state the obvious: better buy your tickets early! This concert, on Wednesday, July 18, is one of many in the 2007 Huntsville Festival of the Arts line-up which will surely sell out, and quickly.

Other artists who will be coming to Huntsville for our 15th annual festival include: Jim Cuddy, on July 4; Richard Wood, July 5; Perla Batalla, July 10; Lighthouse, July 13; and John McDermott, July 14. Last Night at the Proms will round out the roster on the Algonquin Theatre stage July 22, officially closing this year's Huntsville Festival of the Arts.

There will be plenty more featured performances and interactive opportunities for fans of the arts before, during and after the festival's primary July season. Details will be posted soon, so keep checking this blog!

Trumpeting the arts,
Jenny

Family fantasy 'Dinosaurs and Dreams' opens March 30

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Wednesday, March 14, 2007.)

Written by Stina Nyquist, the play is meant for children but with parents in mind.

Stina Nyquist’s latest offering has it all: a good story with a humanitarian message, beautiful costumes and an enthusiastic cast.

Rehearsals are well underway for Dinosaurs and Dreams, which plays at the Algonquin Theatre March 30 and 31 at 7 p.m. and April 1 at 2 p.m.

HARNESSING FELIX: Rex the dinosaur (Richard Watling) attempts to tie up Felix (Nicholas Carpenter) in the rehearsal scene of Dinosaurs and Dreams, a new family play from Stina Nyquist and the North Muskoka Players.

“It’s a crazy story, a fantasy, but the bottom line is that it’s about the environment and the dangers we are facing on that score. I didn’t plan on it, but it happened,” said Nyquist, during a dress rehearsal at the theatre on Saturday.

The costume designers, namely Celia Finley, Lynn Fletcher, Pam Smyth, Diane Bickley, Rosemarie Robertson, Pat Babb and their crew have outdone themselves with this production. The costumes are colourful and imaginative, especially the dragon suit worn by Richard Watling.

Dinosaurs and Dreams is a one-act play that tells the story of Felix, who lives in a perfect Utopian world, but he is bored after 1,000 years of sameness and yearns for something different.

Thanks to a 9,000-year-old woman’s magic, he is instantly transported to the Other Country where life is miserable and on the brink of extinction.

When the prime minister learns that the newcomer is from Happy Valley he demands a share of that happiness, but Felix can’t help him since

happiness can’t be touched or seen. Alternately the young stranger is regarded as a hero and a villain. Rex, the dinosaur and sole survivor of the Jurassic age, serves as the prime minister’s guard, but he also feels that he is an outsider and nostalgically sings:

We ate our prey and had our day, million ages long,

I’m living in a legend, surviving in a song.

The play features a cast of 16 characters, many of whom are well-known members of the area’s thespian community. Sherisse Stevens is Big Sister, Gregg Evans the prime minister and Richard Watling plays the dinosaur Rex.

Felix is played by Nicholas Carpenter and the prime minister’s daughter is Taryn Christy. Derek Shelly plays the minister of fresh air, Eyan Wheatley is Pierre, a French chef, and Suzanne Riverin, is the toothless Very Old Woman.

Dinosaurs and Dreams, with its unreal, outrageous and hilarious happenings and characters, aims to amuse but also has a humanitarian message, said Nyquist.

“Inside the story of conflict, crazy fantasy and even a little romance, there is the somber message that unless nations realize that the world is one unit and all of us, in our search for comfort and security, have to work together for the common good, humankind will not survive,” Nyquist said.

“So, at the end of the play, the two countries come together and become one in the realization that Happy Valley was only a dream because the ideal world is not possible, but striving together in that direction is the only feasible policy.”

Concluding, Nyquist quoted an old Cree saying: “When the last tree is cut down and the rivers are empty, then we will know that money cannot be eaten.”

Tickets for Dinosaurs and Dreams are $15 for adults, $10 for children and $45 for a family (2+2). They are available from the Algonquin Theatre box office, 789-4975, or online at www.algonquintheatre.ca.

The following images are some of the photographs taken by Jon Snelson during a performance of Dinosaurs and Dreams.

Festival of Arts gets $20,000 from heritage ministry

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.)

By Gillian Brunette

The Huntsville Festival of the Arts is once again $20,000 richer thanks to a grant from the Arts Presentation Canada program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The funding will support the group’s 2007 summer programming.

“Our government is pleased to invest in the Huntsville Festival of the Arts,” said Beverley J. Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women. “Festivals like this enrich the cultural and community life of the region by offering a platform for artistic experiences that allow us to celebrate our rich cultural diversity.”

Every year, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts presents an array of programming including a variety of musical genres, theatre, and dance. The summer festival takes place in July at several venues including the town dock and the Algonquin Theatre. The festival attracts both tourists and residents and is well attended by youth audiences.

“The Canadian Heritage Ministry has been a consistent supporter of the Huntsville Festival since its first season,” said festival general manager Rob Saunders.

“As we celebrate our 15th season in 2007 we can reflect on how this funding has allowed us to present and create programming that has been culturally diverse, has involved emerging artists and has brought artists from across this country to our Huntsville stage. Without the support of the Canadian Heritage funding we would not be where we are today.”

New for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts in 2007 is a town-wide jazz festival in August. Saunders is currently awaiting word on a request for additional funding through the provincial initiative Celebrate Ontario.

Festival of Arts sponsors outreach program

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Wednesday, March 21, 2007.)

Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre will play to 800 youth at the Algonquin Theatre

By Gillian Brunette

Elementary school students from across Muskoka will be exposed to the rudiments of modern dance, thanks to the Huntsville Festival of the Arts and a dance school in Toronto.

The Canadian Children's Dance Theatre (CCDT) is a modern dance repertory company of 12 to 18-year-old dancers, founded in 1983 by artistic director Deborah Lundmark.

One of the festival's mandates is education, and in keeping with offering educational opportunities to the area's youth, the CCDT will be at the 408-seat Algonquin Theatre on Monday, March 26, for two performances. Both shows are already full.

“The response from the schools was overwhelming,” said festival general manager Rob Saunders. “Within 20 minutes of sending out e-mails we heard from Gravenhurst and Bracebridge schools committing 400 students. Within a few days 800 seats were committed from local schools. This proves there is a need for this sort of program.”

The dance troupe will arrive in Huntsville on Sunday. “It’s quite an extensive setup. They bring their own floor, so they’ll be setting up and rehearsing all Sunday afternoon,” Saunders said.

The Toronto contingent are staying overnight at Tawingo College. It was Tia Pearse of Tawingo (also a festival board member and dance enthusiast) who first made contact with CCDT managing director Michael deConinck Smith in early January, with a view to bringing dance workshops to the area as part of the education initiative.

“The festival board had a full plate working with Cadence [an a cappella quartet which in addition to their show in February at the Algonquin Theatre also hosted a workshop at Huntsville High School], Slam Poetry [another workshop for HHS English and drama students in April] and a year-end arts program in June so we thought it would be something which would work in the fall,” said Saunders.

“Then we learned that the CCDT had some specific funding support to allow busing for the schools which was set to expire, so we said we should do it now.”

Teacher Suzanne Riverin, who works with the Trillium Lakelands District School Board, put together a memo for the schools.

The festival has guaranteed the costs of the theatre and CCDT. To offset those costs each student will pay $5 for the one-hour program, which is titled Teasing Gravity. Lundmark introduces each of the five pieces with a brief description and the performances are followed by a question-and-answer session.

Teasing Gravity is a thrilling adventure in movement that features dances by some of Canada’s leading choreographers. The program includes dances that are fun and whimsical and others that address more serious themes and subjects.

Platform Blues choreographer Deborah Lundmark places six people and a musician on the waiting platform of a train station. The audience watch estheir relationships develop as they interact with each other to the accompaniment of blues harmonica player Jerome Godboo.

Attack of the Small Ones is choreographer Holly Small’s humourous answer to the age-old problem of the schoolyard bully who spoils the fun of an innocent (and very comical) group of playmates. Everyone – except the bully – cheers the surprise ending that the “small ones” have in store.

Nine-Person Precision Ball Passing is a dazzling “dance of the hands” created by New Yorker Charles Moulton. The choreographer challenges nine dancers to pass brightly coloured balls in a kaleidoscope of musical patterns – a one-of-a-kind feat of hand-eye co-ordination and perfect team timing.

Oh Mary Don’t You Weep was created by New York choreographer Keith Lee for five young women in Lexington, Kentucky. He was inspired by the music of Aretha Franklin and the strong characters of his dancers. Lee parallels their strength with that of four monumental Marys from history, who, through the power of their belief, raise Lazarus from the dead.

Musical Chairs is choreographer Gerry Trentham’s comic takeoff on the popular children’s game where too many characters chasing too few chairs make for some of the funniest moments in dance. As if such worldly problems were not enough, the choreographer gives the chairs a mischievous personality of their own. The bizarre result, while not so funny for the players, is a great delight for audiences everywhere.

Since the CCDT began its Ontario residency initiative in 2002, the company has toured across the province, performing for over 60,000 students by offering a series of matinee shows in each community, as well as in-school workshops to expand on the impact of the performance.

“Some of the schools in the area are currently investigating the possibility of bringing these workshops in,” concluded Saunders.

Harmonica player to blow in May 19

The Huntsville Festival of the Arts will be bringing Carlos del Junco to the Algonquin Theatre on Saturday, May 19. I'll be there but I may not be able to sit through the entire concert; I'm gonna want to dance.

Carlos del Junco (pronounced del HUNKo) is a deservedly lauded harmonica player and singer who has gained international acclaim for bending and blending the blues, melding it with jazz, folk, bluegrass, bebop and Latin rhythms to create his own innovative and invigorating musical style. His music makes you want to move – sometimes just to tap your toes or sway in your seat and, other times, to boogie about the room. Whether he's leading a richly textured instrumental number or belting out some solid blues, his performance is always top notch.

Loosely translated, "del Junco" means "of the reeds," suggesting an appropriate harmonic convergence, if you will, of man and musical career. Born in Havana, Cuba, he immigrated at the tender age of one and grew up in Ontario, bending his first note on the harmonica at 14 and giving his first public performance in high school. He majored in sculpture at the Ontario College of Art and sees much similarity between music and the visual arts, noting that "Music is just a different way of creating textures and shapes."


Del Junco has put out six CDs, most of which have the strum-prints of monster guitarist Kevin Breit all over them. His Big Boy CD earned a Juno nomination in '98 and, upon the release of Blues Mongrel in 2005, he was given the "Best Blues" award by Toronto's NOW Magazine. He also took home Jazz Report Magazine's "Blues Musician of the Year" award in '96, he earned the title of "Harmonica Player of the Year" seven times in the 10-year history of Canadian Maple Blues Awards (1997-2006) and, back in '93, he got the honours rolling with two gold medals (in diatonic blues and diatonic jazz) at the Hohner World Harmonica Championships in Trossingen, Germany.

If you want to hear a tasty sample of his music or view a video clip, visit his website: www.carlosdeljunco.com. The site has more detailed information about his musical style and history, among other things – such as reviews. Here are some excerpts of what music critics had to say about del Junco's most recent release, Blues Mongrel:

"Havana-born, Ontario raised del Junco has over the course of his six-CD, 15-year career elevated the status of the humble 10-hole diatonic mouth harp to the equivalent of a Stradivarius violin. Del Junco, a world champion harp player and winner of several national and international awards, has perfected Levy's difficult 'overblow' technique, which gives the simple folk instrument full chromatic range and allows the musician to bend notes right out of shape, to find the dissonant tones and textures required in progressive blues and jazz, and to harmonize expressively with infinitely more sophisticated instruments. He's a marvel to listen to, a freak of nature who does to the harp what Bela Fleck does to the banjo, and, assisted by a crack band (including guitarist Kevin Breit, who composed many of the pieces, Denis Keldie on organ, bassist Henry Heillig, drummer Jorn Andersen, and percussionist Arturo Avalos), del Junco achieves an astonishingly complex yet seamless fusion of blues, country, funk, jazz and swampy roots rock. This one's a classic, a ground breaker of a record that serious harp players will be studying for years to come." – Greg Quill (The Toronto Star, February 10, 2005)

"Blues Mongrel pulls off the difficult trick of proving that music can be simultaneously sophisticated and raw, technically adept and highly emotional, serious as a heart attack and as much fun as a circus clown. Thanks to artists like Carlos del Junco and Kevin Breit, the blues will continue to live and breathe for the foreseeable future." – Michael Ross

"Blues Mongrel...transcends categorization and the surprises come fast and furious....There's a kaleidoscopic of musical ideas and shapes: much like Bela Fleck, Carlos del Junco effortlessly blends numerous genres (blues, Latin, bluegrass, jazz, bebop, country, classical, R&B) into a coherent whole....instrumental treats include 'Let's Mambo,' emblematic of the sensuous Latin rhythms that ripple so effortlessly throughout Blues Mongrel. Every one of these 12 glorious tracks is deserving of lavish praise, but 'Plain Old (Down Home) Blues' blazes a special trail by stretching the blues to its outer edge. Sonny Boy Williamson's 'Nine Below Zero' is given an absolutely spine-tingling updating by dint of the dazzling virtuosity of Mr. del Junco. An extraordinary talent like Carlos del Junco (or Kevin Breit for that matter) would be a household name in most other countries. Blues Mongrel by Carlos del Junco is a triumph, and it merits my highest recommendation." – Gary Tate

Trumpeting the arts,
Jenny Cressman