Drummers wanted for Night of 2004 Lights

Lively City column by Dan Hilborn
Published Sept. 15, 2004


Do you enjoy drumming, thrumming or the other percussionist pursuits? Then the stilt walkers, fire spinners and other organizers of the Night of 2004 Lights lantern procession want your assistance.

Organizers of the fifth annual lantern procession around Deer Lake Park are seeking teen and adult percussionists to help lead the parade of torchbearers on their Sept. 18 walk around the park.

Local drummer Rob McLeod is putting on a clinic tonight (Sept. 15) for percussionists who have their own instruments and want to take part in the most unique night in Burnaby's festival season. The clinic begins at 7 p.m. at the Shadbolt Centre and it is absolutely free.

Then on Saturday, Sept. 18, the Night of 2004 Lights begins with a free lantern building workshop at 3:30 p.m., followed by a drum circle at 6:30 p.m., and the procession at 8:15 p.m.

The Night of 2004 Lights features elaborately costumed characters and 12 separate fire-burning installations courtesy of the Public Dreams Society.

The event is modeled after the highly successful Illuminares Festival which is held each summer in East Vancouver's sprawling John Hendry (Trout Lake) Park.

SHADBOLT SEASON

The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts has announced its fall and winter lineup for the coming season, and the playlist has something for every taste.

The season begins on Oct. 14 to 16 with Marion Bridge, the Daniel McIvor play that looks at three sisters who hold a bitterly comic vigil over their dying mother. The play, which was released as a major motion picture starring Molly Parker, is presented by Shameless Hussy Productions.

One of the Lower Mainland's favourite plays, The Number 14, returns to the Shadbolt for a two-night run on Oct. 18 and 19, featuring a familiar cast of Arts Club Theatre Production regulars.

"This (The Number 14) is a very amazing, high energy show that has superb acting," said Shadbolt programmer Nicola Reddington. "They have six performers doing about 40 parts, and it's just insane how they jump into different characters."

Local artist Susan Bertoia will reprise her collection of solo dance and theatre numbers when Plum and Other Colours is presented at the Shadbolt on Nov. 5 and 6.

Other performances this season include One Man Star Wars (see below) on Nov. 26 and 27, Sexy Laundry on Jan. 24, plus the Martha Carter Project, Leave it to Cleavage, Burnaby Lyric Opera's Marriage of Figaro, Tonight ... Piaf, Faith, Riff, The 'F' Word and Outrageous Women's Cabaret 8.

Shadbolt Centre subscriptions for the 2004/05 theatrical season are six shows for $100, three shows for $60 or a six-ticket variety pack allowing mix and match event tickets for $140. Purchase by calling 604-205-3000.

HE'S SEEING STARS

Charles Ross is going to one very busy man over the next few months.

Ross will be the sole performer on stage tomorrow when the SFU Theatre opens its free noon hour performance series with his much- lauded One Man Star Wars, a fast-paced blast through the first three films of the most successful cinematic series ever produced.

Ross, who will also present One Man Star Wars at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on Nov. 26 and 27, has received rave reviews for this show across the world, at local fringe festivals and through the college circuit.

The show has proven so popular that Lucas Films has asked Ross to perform the piece in Indianopolis at the four-day release party when the final installment of the Star Wars six-movie set is released in theatres in April 2005.

One Man Star Wars is being presented for free at the SFU Theatre on Burnaby Mountain beginning at 12:30 p.m., tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 16.

DREAMING IN BLUE

Bentley Vaughn had a dream come true when he met with Rosanne Cash backstage during the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival last month.

Vaughn, a 38-year-old Vancouver resident who has cerebral palsy, is a past president of the Western Canada division of the Johnny Cash International Fan Club, and has been a longtime correspondent with the Cash family.

"It was great," said the man who was born in Burnaby Hospital. "The folks from the festival treated me with kid gloves."

The meeting, which was arranged in advance by Cash's sister Cathy, was coordinated by the staff at the Shadbolt Centre, who met Bentley at the gates to the Deer Lake amphitheater, helped him get seated in front of the stage and then waited patiently for his idol to finish singing before taking him backstage.

"It was kind of muddy and they (festival staff) had to walk in front of me with flashlights. It was raining pretty bad," Bentley recalled. "Then, out came Rosanne and she said; 'Bentley, finally we meet.' I guess she forgot that we met backstage at the Commodore in 1988, too."

The fan and his idol talked for about 10 minutes, and Bentley got Cash's autograph on a T-shirt and her newest CD single, a remake of the Carter Family classic The Winding Stream. He even asked Rosanne if she wanted a new fan club started up in her honour, but Cash declined.

And the experience has left Bentley absolutely crowing about the Burnaby Blues and Roots festival.

"That festival - I don't know who puts it all together, but they really had some good sounds coming out of there," Bentley said. "That African family (Jaojoby) sounded great, and Buckwheat Zydeco and his band were just knocking the audience dead."

When asked if the record-setting wet weather of the afternoon didn't dampen his mood, Bentley replied: "No way, man. Rain doesn't get in the way of good music. It never does."

THE ALIENS ARE LANDING

Burnaby's matron of science fiction, Eilleen Kernaghan is getting ready to help host one of the biggest events of the year for local sci-fi and fantasy buffs.

VCon 29, the annual science fiction, fantasy and gaming convention, is coming to the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown Hotel in Burnaby from Oct. 8 to 10, and it will features some of the top sci- fi writers in the country, including our own Kernaghan.

"I'm one of the pro guests," Kernaghan told the Burnaby Now. "We sit on panels and do readings."

Special guests include: Dave Duncan, author of 35 different titles in the historical speculation realm; Dr. Jaymie Matthews, head of the science team for Canada's first space telescope, the Microvariability and Oscillation of STars (MOST) device; and Lisa Smedman a regular writer in the Vancouver Courier and author of eight novels, including Extinction, which recently made The New York Times bestseller list.

"The science fiction convention work is a world upon itself," said Kernaghan, who used to operate Neville Books near the corner of Rumble and Royal Oak. "For writers, it's a chance to publicize their works, meet fans and readers and other writers. It's a social occasion as much as anything else."

Kernaghan, who is currently in the final stages of The Alchemist's Daughter, a story set in Elizabethan England, says science fiction is becoming much more difficult to write because so many author's innovative ideas are now turning into science fact.

And she doesn't have any great inspiring words for any aspiring writers. "Don't quit your day job," Kernaghan said. "It's a very difficult field to get into right now."

While it's impossible to say what kind of books will pique a publisher's interest, Kernaghan said most new writers who meet success start off with a trilogy of related stories. "There are new people breaking in, and you never know how happens. It's a crap shoot actually. So you just write the best book you can, and just keep sending it out."

Tickets to VCon are $50 for the entire weekend, and the event's official brochure offers some interesting comments about alternative methods of payment. (Time travel and MonsterCard purchases are not accepted.)

For more information, check out the website www.v-con.ca.