| Another new performing arts space is about to make take flight in Calgary.
Named Birds and Stone, it doesn’t have the corporate sponsors or multi-million-dollar budget of the Vertigo venue, but it may prove to be one of the more welcome developments for emerging performers looking for a place where they can take creative risks.
Birds and Stone is located in the basement of the Unitarian Church of Calgary (1703 First St. N.W.) – a space that was previously occupied by the Calgary Young People’s Theatre. The venue includes two main spaces. The first is a small theatre with a 14-by-16-foot stage and seating for 45 on soft chairs discarded by a movie theatre. The second, smaller room is set apart from the main space and will serve as an art gallery.
The Birds and Stone project is the brainchild of Bubonic Tourist, the company that runs Mutton Busting, a mini-festival for emerging artists presented annually as part of One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo. Eric Moschopedis, curator of Mutton Busting, says the new venue is open to all kinds of art forms.
"There will be music, performance, poetry and visual arts," says Moschopedis while taking a break from putting fresh paint on the walls of the theatre. "We’re in the business to present anything and everything."
To help celebrate the opening of Birds and Stone, there is an open house and performance event scheduled for Friday, October 3. It promises to reflect the kind of experimental work the venue hopes to attract, with performers such as musician Eric Bumstead, a fourth-year music student at the University of Calgary.
"My music spans the gap between edgy, gritty timbres to long, tranquil passages," says Bumstead. "My plan for the evening is to do a solo improvisation with computer-processed vibraphone and eight-speaker diffusion."
Also appearing for the inaugural performance is writer-filmmaker Andre Rodrigues, who will be reading from works that he terms "absurd realism."
"My short fiction carries the same fantastic-ness (as absurdism) and tends to be satirical and comical," he says. "My poetry is in its infancy and, as such, currently revolves around my childhood and childhood fantasia."
Rounding out the evening is another writer, Frances Kruk, who was recently named as one of three winners in CBC’s Alberta Anthology Contest in the amateur poetry category. She will read several poems from her anthology Strawberry Jam Slobber, with musical accompaniment.
In the future, organizers of Birds and Stone also hope to attract dancers that otherwise would not have the opportunity to perform new works in front of an audience. To accommodate those plans, a padded floor is already in place and steps are being taken to raise enough funds for high-quality theatre lights to be installed.
For information on Birds and Stone, call 276-1657. |
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