ARTS EAST

The Unlikely Redemption of  John Alexander MacNeil  is a compelling, witty and heart-warming novel by renowned Nova Scotia author Lesley Choyce. Recently we spoke with the scribe about the book and all things literary. When and why did you want to be a writer? When I was thirteen, I decided that I never wanted a real job so, one day sitting in the school library it occurred to me that people made up stories and the stories became books and you could earn a living that way. I liked making up stories and it didn’t seem like work, so I decided to be a writer. Are they the same reasons you do it today? Yes, I write to avoid work if at all possible. How have your grown as a writer over that time? I think I’ve regressed a bit. I once was young, confident and understood everything about the world. Now that I am older (66, I think) I understand very little about the world and don’t have the wonderful smart-alecky confidence I once had. But I continue to write anyw...

Madagascar – A Musical Adventure JR. follows all of your favorite crack-a-lackin’ friends as they escape from their home in New York’s Central Park Zoo and find themselves on an unexpected journey to the madcap world of King Julien’s Madagascar. Mo Duffy Cobb tells us more. At the door, we are greeted a zebra, a giraffe, and 4 bubbly penguins. It is opening day of Dreamworks Madagascar A Musical Adventure Jr. at The Guild in Charlottetown, a show produced and directed by the Lori Linkletter School of Music. My date is 4-year old Ari, dressed in red, and we romp up to our seats, gathered next to parents, friends, grandparents toting toddlers, young boys in ball caps, and girls in flowered, summer dresses. The backdrop is African palms, lush mountains, and full Savannah sky. When the curtain opens, we are in New York’s Central Park Zoo, in the Africa section, where Marty the tap dancing zebra  (Samantha Jenkins / Olivia Bruce) is rapping a few hip hop verses with his...