ARTS EAST

One of Atlantic Canada’s finest scribes, Elaine McCluskey, launches her latest collection of short-stories tonight. Recently we spoke with her about the challenges and rewards of piecing together Hello Sweetheart. How did this collection come about? Many of these stories had already appeared in literary journals. The opening story placed second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Contest in Ireland, winning me a week at a writer and artists’ retreat in West Cork. Other stories appeared in journals such as The Dalhousie Review and Riddle Fence . My job - with my publisher, Enfield & Wizenty - was to pull them all together. What was the most challenging aspect of piecing it together?  Balancing the dark and the light. Some of the stories deal with grave issues -- death and betrayal -- while others are simply absurd. One story consists only of Rate My Doctor comments for a pot-smoking physician named Dr. Chestnut, who moved to Nova Scotia after losing his license in ...

Starting this week, Neptune Theatre in Halifax presents Norm Foster’s touching and witty drama about the reconciliation between a father and son.   Recently we spoke with one of the production’s principle actors Jack Nicholsen about his role and what audiences can expect during he run. What are your own roots? I guess my roots as an actor can be traced back to afternoons as a kid playing house with my sister and her friends in the back yard, or battling enemies with my friends in the backwoods of Surrey British Columbia. Imagining and re-enacting the struggles of my parents trying to make ends meet and raise us kids or the courage and strife of soldiers dragging their injured comrades to safety under heavy enemy bombardment. When and why did you first become interested in theatre? In school I was always an active participant in drama and in my oral class presentations I would almost always take on a persona and make a performance of it. Anyone, a character from ...

Nova Scotia author, journalist and music aficionado extraordinaire Peter Moreira gives us the spin on his Desert Island Discs! So I picture myself stranded on a desert island, listening to music on an iPod with an eternal battery and headphones made of two coconut halves. And if I had to choose what 10 alliums I would listen to, the only criterion is how enjoyable the music is. There’s no consideration for what’s revolutionary, or what influenced later musicians, or what was covered by others. There would be no tweedy arm-chair critics on the island that I’d have to impress by picking albums that made lists in Rolling Stone.   So strike out some albums that amaze me for their artistic merit such as Abbey Road, Highway 61 Revisited, Dark Side of the Moon, Tapestry, London Calling and dozens of others.   This is simply a list of albums I like to listen to. 1. Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John – Probably my favourite album ever. After listening to my brother’s copy fo...

Music-Chameleon Keith Mullins has been playing music all his life. Raised in Cape Breton, NS, Keith is a multiple award winning songwriter with a degree in classical music and has studied with master drummers in West Africa and Cuba. Recently we spoke with him about his latest release, Island Sol.Cuba.   What are your own roots? I think have an Irish/French background, but I consider myself a Cape Bretoner.  I grew up getting together with a wonderful big family, eating scoffs, telling stories, playing Tarabish and playing tunes all night long. When and why did you start playing music? I remember sitting at the piano for long periods of time at a very early age.  I was always interested in music and spent a lot of time with instruments on my own. From figuring out Twinkle Twinkle and Mary had a Little Lamb at the age of 5 to where I am today.  I don't really know why, I just love it and it comes naturally to me. Are they the same reasons you do it ...

Drawing upon her time and experiences both here at home and in Mexico, Nova Scotia author Barbara McKinley Morrison has penned her first novel, Dangerous Beginnings. Recently we spoke with her about her literary debut. What inspired you to write this story? I had a dream. A dream of writing a book. From that dream came the outline and characters for the story. I started writing it, rather typing it, as soon as I awoke. During my husband's illness, when money was running low, I decided to purchase lower priced online prescription drugs, vitamins and supplies. My doctor advised me not to as the quality was not there. I guess it's the old saying, you get what you pay for.  Did it come together quickly or did you really need to work at it? Once the research was done and my characters found their personalities, the story itself came together rather quickly. What was the most challenging aspect of the process? The difficult part of writing the story was not the w...

Musician, story teller and ‘constant creator,’ folk-popster Ian Sherwood has penned tunes for other artists, theatre, film and television. Here he opens up about his roots and his latest recording Everywhere To Go. What are your own roots? I'm a bit of a mutt. A little Welsh, German, Scott, Irish but mostly English. The name Sherwood comes from Kent. When and why did you start playing music? I suppose I've always played music in some way. I've always loved singing and have been doing it since I could make a sound. Instruments came later. My mom had an old Stella tenor guitar that she to play in nursing school. It was kicking around house while I was growing up and small hands could play easily. My dad's Fender dreadnought was a different story. Much harder to play and usually out of bounds! I picked up the saxophone in junior high to stay involved in music. Choir wasn't cool in my mind (oh, how wrong I was!!) and the ukulele my parents were making me...