ARTS EAST

Mack Theatre (Confederation Centre of the Arts) Show dates have been extended into the first two weeks of September ! $25.00-$30.00 Directed by Jac Gautreau  Review and photos by Mo Duffy Cobb When I arrive for the show, the stage is full of instruments. Celtic bodhráns , a piano, drum cases, and five guitars all line up in restless enthusiasm. A red accordion awaits. And suddenly the crowd explodes in a vibrant burst of energy-- roars and claps and whistles-- as Lennie Gallant and his band take the stage at Confederation Centre of the Arts’ Mac Theatre. Welcome to Searching for Abegweit: The Island Songs & Stories of Lennie Gallant , the show that everyone's been talking about on P.E.I. this summer. As Gallant erupts into song in “Cradled on the Waves,” my island roots begin to tingle. The Mi’kmaq legend about the character of Glooscap, the creator, and how he keeps Prince Edward Island for his pillow resonates with me. The PEI reveri...

Story  is  presented at The Guild in Charlottetown through August. Review by Mo Duffy Cobb Welcome to the magic of Story . Creators Colin Buchanan and David Weale offer a soulful feast of story and song, and the audience ingests the Prince Edward Island stories as ravenously as any juicy bit of gossip. In Story , we're invited to look a little closer at the things that make up our stories of home: farming, wakes, politics, and what it means to be an islander.  I loved the concept for this show. Storytelling shows have long been a mainstay of Island stages, yet this one is different. Mike Walker plays the wonderful character of Story, a simple yet richly philosophical character that some have likened to the Willy Wonka of the production, with dark stormy curls, ponderous declarative statements and provocative questions. “We are human,” he says, “We reach out for milk, we reach out for love, and we reach out for story.” Story, in his red vest and tail...

Photographer Pedro Guynot de Boismenu was born in Uruguay in 1966, and renamed Pierre by the French consulate. He came to Canada in 2004, relocating to Halifax in September, 2013, where he continues to explore the world through a lens. When and why did you become interested in the visual arts? I was always attracted to arts, since very young, but it took me a long time to find a way that I can truly feel I could express myself. As teenager I had a short period playing drums; years later completed a degree on recording arts and tried playing guitar, bass and the Stick (stick.com). Except for drumming I was never 100% happy and it wasn’t until I picked up photography that it finally felt right. An art piece is the result of a person’s idea or vision transferred into some sort of media. An artist is a person that has the desire to express those ideas to the world. There are many vehicles to make this possible, music instruments, brushes and paint, pen and paper, etc. But what all...