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Thanks to our 2010 Sponsors!
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Festival by
the Marsh is
an integrated arts festival featuring high
quality theatre and music performances,
fine arts displays
and demonstrations, other forms of artistic expression, and
educational programmes for young people.
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The 2010 Festival
by the Marsh Event Schedule is ready! Download
a pdf.
Our Event Schedule is also online - click
here for the most
up-to-date listing of events. |
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The flagship
event of the 2010 festival will be a two-week run of Shakespeare’s Much
Ado About Nothing. |
Download
information about becoming a Sponsor!
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Writers Fest Day in Sackville July 24
The Fourth Annual Writers Fest Day (presented in collaboration with
Festival by the Marsh) will be held Saturday, July 24 all around
Sackville New Brunswick. The day includes a wide variety of events,
along with a new “Community Reads” initiative presented
in collaboration with Tidewater Books. The fest begins with a “Breakfast
with local Young Writers” event at 9 a.m., featuring author
Kate Inglis, who will read from her work and conduct a workshop.
At 10:30 a.m., there follows a reading by Dr. Kevin O’Brien
of "An Apostle for the Arts – Oscar Wilde in Canada" and
the performance of the play "The Importance of the House Beautiful – Oscar
Wilde in Moncton" by Ron Kelly Spurles at the Boultenhouse Heritage
Centre. At 11:45 a.m., Beth Powning will host a Writer’s Workshop
(for those interested in talking with a published writer about the
art and the trade), and at 1 p.m., Charlie Scobie will read from
his book "Roberts Country: Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and the
Tantramar". Both of these events also take place at the Heritage
Centre. At 4:30 p.m., a “Dining with Writers” event (sponsored
by Mount Allison University) will take place at Cranewood, which
will lead into the readings of Beth Powning and Lisa Moore at the
Heritage Centre at 6 and 7 p.m. respectively. The closing reception
will take place with original music by Landon Braverman at Joey’s
Restaurant at 10 p.m. featuring the Festival Poet-in-Resident Kenzie
Reid.
Kate Inglis, who will host the “Breakfast with local Young
Writers” event, is a writer and photographer and lives on the
far eastern coastline of Nova Scotia where she was born. She aided
in the founding of “Glow in the Woods,” a collaborative
blog for baby-lost parents which has established an affectionate
and embracing online community, and has also been a founding contributor
to “Shutter Sisters.” Her first novel, "The Dread
Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods", was published in November 2009
with a second edition being released earlier this year, and has been
acclaimed as “a spirited tale, gorgeously rendered,” by
January Magazine. It is from this novel for young people that Kate
Inglis will be reading, which will be closely followed by a workshop
for young writers, all taking place at Cranewood on Main St.
Kevin O’Brien, who will read from his work "An Apostle
for the Arts – Oscar Wilde in Canada" at 10:30 a.m., was
an English professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish,
NS, for thirty four years beginning in 1966. With his research interests
in the biographies of literary figures, he has published numerous
biographical studies of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Robert Harborough
Sherard (1861-1943), and Irene Osgood (1869-1922), among others.
The new edition of the work from which he will be reading will be
published in the summer of 2010.
Parallel to this reading will be the performance of "The Importance
of the House Beautiful - Oscar Wilde in Moncton", a new play
written by Festival by the Marsh Artistic Producer Ron Kelly Spurles.
Spurles has based the play on true details from Wilde's 1882 visit
to Canada, creating a comedic love story in the very style of Wilde's
plays. Originally produced for the Capitol Theatre's "Resurgo
Redux" Festival in June, it is now being remounted to be presented
alongside Dr. O'Brien's talk on Wilde's visit to Canada.
At 11:45 a.m., the fest continues with Beth Powning and her writer’s
workshop at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre. Currently living in
Sussex, NB, and considered one of Eastern Canada’s rising literary
stars, Beth Powning is the author of two novels, "The Hatbox
Letters" (2004) and "The Sea Captain’s Wife" (2010),
the memoir, "Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship in Love and Loss" (1999),
and the non-fiction essay "Edge Seasons" (2005), among
other significant works.
Charlie Scobie, who reads at 1 p.m. at the Boultenhouse, is a native
of Scotland, and taught at McGill University in Montreal before taking
up the position of Professor and Head of the Department of Religious
Studies at Mount Allison University beginning in 1972. Retiring in
1998, Scobie has written many books and articles in the field of
Biblical Studies, but has equally contributed several books on Maritime
history, including a study on "The Father of Canadian Literature" entitled "Roberts
Country: Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and the Tantramar", which
was published in 2008.
At 4:30 p.m. the “Dining with Writers” event takes place
at Cranewood. At this event members of the public will have the chance
to interact with the featured authors and other book literary enthusiasts.
Beth Powning will follow the dining with a reading at the Boultenhouse
Heritage Centre at 6 p.m. from her novel "The Ship Captain’s
Wife".
This reading will then be followed by another
at 7 p.m. at the same location by author Lisa Moore. Moore, who
lives in St.John’s
Newfoundland, has published several collections of work, her second
of which, a collection of stories, "Open" (2002), was nominated
for the Giller Prize. Her first novel, "Alligator" (2005),
was also nominated for the Giller Prize, was long-listed for the
2007 IMPAC Award, and won the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best
Book Award for the Caribbean and Canada Region. Her most recent work,
the novel "February" (2009), draws on the story of the
oil rig Ocean Ranger which sank off the coast of Newfoundland during
the Valentine's Day storm of 1982.
The Writer’s Fest Day closes with a reception at Joey’s
Restaurant at 10 p.m. which will feature the Festival Poet-in-Residence
Kenzie Reid. Kenzie is a nineteen-year-old writer from Sackville,
NB, who currently studies at the University of Waterloo and who has
often drawn inspiration for her poems, in one way or another, from
the Tantramar Marsh, She has participated in several youth poetry
events in both Sackville and Moncton. The reception will be accompanied
with original music by Mount Allison University music student Landon
Braverman, who is gaining a reputation as one the regions top up
and coming songwriter/singers.
Writers Fest Day is sponsored by Sackville SaveEasy and is presented
in collaboration with Festival by the Marsh. For more details please
phone (506) 364-2179, toll free 1-866-890-6329 or visit www.festivalbythemarsh.ca.
Press Release
For Immediate Release
The Tantramar Heritage Trust presents “The
Sundays and Tuesdays Under the Sky Festival”
The second expanded edition of the Sackville
Tantramar Heritage Trust’s “Sundays and Tuesdays Under
the Sky Festival” includes numerous exciting events scheduled
on July 25th and 27th, and August 1st, 8th, 10th, 15th, and 17th.
Taking place at the Campbell Carriage Factory Museum, all events
are “pay what you can” and are outdoors in the Carriage
Factory Compound (rain location is indoors - limited to 60 people,
first come first served). Each week will highlight either heritage
music, literature, fine arts or theatre.
At 7 p.m. on Sunday, July 25th, Sackville musician Fred Squire
will be playing in concert presenting “pre-1950s music”,
which will be followed by an outdoor screening of the movie “Oklahoma” – with
a surrey in attendance! Some critiques claim that “Squire's
voice and subtle, distorted guitar should have pushed him to the
top of the Can-Indie rock list by now.” In his most recent
record, featuring tracks such as “What's That Over There,
a Dead Rainbow?,” “We Are All The Middle Child,” and
the acoustic and piano ballad “You Sing High, We Will Sing
Low,” Fred “walks [the listener] down moments of his
life, never letting the pace or volume distract...from his words.”
Adapted into a musical film in 1955, the film “Oklahoma” was
originally based on a 1943 musical play and was the first musical
directed by the renowned Fred Zinnemann. “Oklahoma,” an
instant classic, won two Academy Awards, including Best Music and
Best Sound, and was nominated for two others, namely, for best
cinematography and best film editing. In 2007, the film was selected
by the Library of Congress for preservation in the US National
Film Registry as a culturally and historically significant work.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27th, celebrated singer/folklorist/songwriter
Clary Croft will perform music gathered by Helen Crieghton (with
narration and original materials). Living today in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Clary Croft is an author, performer, folklore researcher,
recording artist and producer. The Encyclopaedia of Music in Canada
has recognized Clary’s, “. . . contribution to Maritime
folklore studies and his ongoing research into the traditional
music of the Maritime provinces.” He is best known for his
work with the collection of Dr. Helen Creighton, the internationally
renowned and Nova Scotia born folklore pioneer.
The focus of Sunday, August 1st, will be the literature of Sackville,
beginning with Dr. Rob Summerby-Murray’s talk at 1 p.m. on "Diaries
as Local literature: the family dynamics of Alice Bulmer and Ella
Anderson in the 1920s and 30s" - a presentation on the diaries
of these two Sackville area women. Born in New Zealand, Robert
Summerby-Murray studied geography at the University of Canterbury
beginning in 1981, before completing doctoral work at the University
of Toronto. Since graduating with a PhD in 1992, he has taught
economic, cultural and historical geography at Mount Allison University
and is currently Dean of Social Sciences.
From 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Marilyn Lerch will lead a workshop on
memoir writing (please register in advance by contacting the Trust).
Growing up in north-western Indiana and attending Indiana University,
Lerch earned degrees in English and Education while also attaining
a Masters Degree from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
in California. “Beginning in the late sixties in Washington,
D.C., she taught high school English and participated in several
movements for social change, including the Vietnam Antiwar Movement,
Women's Liberation and Gay Rights.” Retiring from teaching
in 1995, Lerch became a permanent resident of Sackville in 2001.
Her poetry has appeared in journals both in Canada and in the U.S.,
including "Lambs & Llamas, Ewes & Me," a handset
cycle of poems about shepherding in Alberta, and Moon Loves Its
Light, published in March, 2004, which was her first collection
of poetry.
On Tuesday, August 3, at 8:45 p.m., Historian Dr. Hannah Lane will
speak on "The historian, the diarist, and their times," including
details from the history of midwifery in the area, and will be
followed by the showing of the film “A Midwife’s Tale” with
several of its actors present (Ron Kelly Spurles and others). Dr.
Hannah Lane teaches several courses at Mount Allison University,
including courses on the history of the Atlantic Region, Colonial
America, and early Canadian history.
Following these events will be the Fine Arts/Crafts week with a
vintage tool show presented by the Atlantic Tool Collectors Association
on Sunday, August 8th, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Formed in 1994,
the Atlantic Tool Collectors Association, with currently over sixty
members from across Canada and the United States, was founded with
a view to promote public interest in the history and preservation
of antique hand tools in the Atlantic Provinces. Its semi-annual
meetings, for instance, offer an opportunity for its members to
display their collections in public.
On Tuesday, August 10, conservator Michelle Gallinger will hold
a talk at 7 p.m. on the “Caring for Paintings” – learn
how the Trust is working to conserve some of our art work (including
a “Victorian pin-up”, originally from the Campbell
Carriage Factory) and how to conserve your valuable paintings and
art work – bring it along if you’d like! With an undergraduate
degree in Art History in 1990, and later a Bachelor of Fine Arts
with Distinction in printmaking, Gallinger attained a Master in
Art Conservation in paintings from Queen's University in 1997.
Today, she works with a variety of materials, offering services
in the conservation of murals, frames and soapstone sculpture,
with a specialization in paintings and painted objects.
Finally, the “Festival Under the Sky” will be concluded
with a theatre week beginning on Sunday, August 15th at 2 p.m.
until 4 p.m., with a workshop on performing historical texts -
both gathered and written by the Tantramar Heritage Trust. The
workshop is intended for ages 10 and above. The following Tuesday,
August 17th at 7 p.m., short plays will be presented featuring
Van Horne and Hammond – the story of how railroad boss William
Cornelius Van Horne and Sackville artist John Hammond came to be
working partners. Scenes will also be developed during the Sunday
workshop, and short scenes about historical figures from the area.
More information about all Festival activities, including a schedule
of events with locations and ticket information (most activities
are “pay what you can”) can be found by visiting heritage.tantramar.com
or phoning 536-2541.
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Festival by the Marsh Moves to
Tent in Bandstand Park, Adds KIDSFEST
The sixth edition of Sackville’s Festival by the Marsh will
be held July 9 to 25. This year, many of the Festival’s events
will take place in a large tent at Bandstand Park on Main St. in
Sackville, NB. This year’s Festival includes perennial favourites
such as a fully produced Shakespeare production (this year features
the comedy “Much
Ado About Nothing”), several concerts in many genres of music
(the Marsh Music Fest), an opening night “Gallery Hop”,
Fine Arts Exhibits, Writers Fest Day, and workshops for young people.
A new edition to this year’s Festival line up is a two day “Kids
Fest” on July 16 and 17.
“The Festival has really exploded this year,” said Artistic
Producer Ron Kelly Spurles. “Over our first five editions,
we’ve tried a wide variety of events and activities. Some have
stuck with us, and others have been retired. With the addition of
this year’s Kids Fest, I’d say we now have a supercharged
Festival that will definitely provide something for everyone to enjoy”.
“Pre-festival” activities take place on July 9 with an
abbreviated performance of “You’re A Good Man Charlie
Brown” by the high school musical theatre camp, and a concert
by Lurrie Bell. The Fine Arts opening night is on Wednesday, July
14, and features an artist’s talk by Kitty Mykka and Lance
Belanger (site-specific artists with an environmental conscience),
visits to all local galleries, a first look at Rob Lyon’s new
gallery on Weldon Street, and a free concert (with refreshments)
at Cranewood (sponsored by Mount Allison University) featuring folk/roots
independent guitarist Brian Gladstone. On July 15, there is a concert
by the Jim Blewett Trio (swing music) in Bandstand Park, and the
production of “Much Ado About Nothing” opens (and runs
to July 25).
Kids Fest on July 16 and 17 features a wide variety of events for
young people, including performances of “The Paperbag Princess”,
a clown show, and concerts for young people. Elizabeth Shepard also
performs on the 16th at Joey’s.
The second week of the Festival is also a very busy one, with more
music (including fingerstyle guitarist Don Ross at Joey’s on
the 23rd), a very busy Writers Fest Day on July 24 (featuring readings
by Charlie Scobie, Beth Powning, Lisa Moore and others, as well as
a talk and a play about Oscar Wilde in Moncton), and more performances
of “Much Ado About Nothing”.
More information about all Festival activities, including a schedule
of events with locations and ticket information (most activities
are “pay what you can”) can be found by phoning 364-2179
or 1-866-890-6329.
Festival by the Marsh Fine Arts Opening Gallery Hop
The sixth edition of Sackville’s Festival by the Marsh includes
an exciting Fine Arts opening “Gallery Hop” evening to
take place on July 14th. The program features a talk by the distinguished
artists Kitty Mykka and Lance Belanger at 6 p.m. at the Owens Gallery
(with opening remarks by Mount Allison President Robert Campbell, Mayor
Pat Estabrooks, and MLA Mike Olscamp), to be followed by a visit to
a special exhibition of artworks from throughout Atlantic Canada at
the Fog Forest Gallery at 6:45 p.m. The evening continues at the Struts
Gallery with an exhibition by Stephen Williams and Vanessa Yu at 7:00
p.m., followed by a first look opportunity at Rob Lyon’s new
gallery on Weldon Street at 7:30 p.m. The program concludes with a
free concert with refreshments at Cranewood (sponsored by Mount Allison
University) featuring folk independent guitarist Brian Gladstone.
Kitty Mykka, a one time resident of Sackville and cofounder of the
Community Arts Centre from which later Struts emerged, currently lives
in Vancouver with Lance Belanger. Working as an artist team since 1998,
the two artists have many years of experience creating installations
and undertaking site specific work internationally. Their exhibitions
in past years have taken place in centers ranging from the MacLaren
Arts Center in Barrie, Ontario, to the Brandts Klaedefabrik in Odense,
Denmark, while in 2006, Kitty Mykka furnished a site for publication
for Abrams Publishing in Morocco. “This process,” Mykka
and Belanger describe, “weaves together observable elements with
creative instinct and defines art-making as an engagement with environments...reveal[ing]
layers of meaning,” whether physical, cultural, environmental,
or social. In their talk at 6 p.m., they will present the nature of
their site specific art, their creation of temporal and permanent sculptures,
and the ways in which they artistically engage sites. Visit their web
site at: http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~seventeendegrees.
For its part, the Fog Forest Gallery, located at 14 Bridge Street in
Sackville, is pleased to be included in this year's Gallery Crawl at
6:45 pm., and for this occasion has designed an exhibition of original
artworks by some of Atlantic Canada's finest visual artists and artisans.
This exhibition includes paintings, handmade art prints, photography,
pottery and jewellery by such artists as Tom Forrestall, Susan Paterson,
Hans Durstling, David Silverberg and Peter Thomas - to name but a few.
Visit their web site at: www.fogforestgallery.ca.
Struts Gallery equally features a special exhibition by Stephen Williams
and Vanessa Yu at 7:00 p.m. Visit their web site at: http://strutsgallery.ca/exhibitions.htm.
At 7:30 p.m., visitors will have a chance for a “first look” at
Rob Lyon’s new gallery/shop at 8 Weldon St. Rob is a very well
known Sackville artist, whose artwork, appearing in several prestigious
shows such as the “Atlantic Waterfowl Celebration” and
the “Birds in the Environment” show, have marked him as
an active naturalist. This art has been on demand by such organizations
as Environment Canada, The Nature Conservancy and Fundy National Park,
who have each commissioned work from him. He has recently bought and
substantially renovated/added to a building near the waterfowl park
in which he maintains his permanent working studio. Visitors to this
new home of his annual work exhibition will be impressed by both its
size and its ambiance. Visit his web site at: http://www.robertlyongraphics.ca
Completing the “crawl” at 8:15 p.m. at Cranewood is Brian
Gladstone, a veteran Toronto folk musician, inspired by the 60s peace
movement, and cofounder and organizer of numerous events and charities
that have encouraged peace activism and environmental and social awareness.
In recent years, Gladstone has received airplay and awards on as wide-ranging
stations as the Australian and New Zealand “Prime Time Rotation” where
Brian was designated the “Feature Artist of the Month in August
2004,” to his music being used in an episode of the BBC’s
2006 prime time TV series “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” Gladstone’s
other achievements include being president for the “Association
of Artists for a Better World,” and having organized projects
such as the “Concerts for Earth Day Canada” and the “Concert
for Tsunami victims.”
Sackville “Community Reads Programme” A
Fun Way to Encourage Adults and Children to Read
The Fourth Annual Writers Fest Day (presented in collaboration with
Festival by the Marsh) will be held Saturday, July 24 all around Sackville
New Brunswick. The day includes a wide variety of events, including
workshops, readings by authors, Dining with Writers, and this year
a new “Community Reads” initiative presented in collaboration
with Tidewater Books.
The Community Reads program will encourage members of the community
to read books by two of the Writers Fest Day authors, one book for
adults, the other for young people. The books can be purchased from
Tidewater Books. Tidewater will make a contribution from the proceeds
from each book sold to a local charity – for the adult book it
will be the Rotary Club literacy programs, and for the children’s
book it will be the Tantramar Family Resource centre. Everyone reads
the books (along with the general public) will have a chance to see
the authors read and speak to them live at Writers Fest day, and to
interact directly with them at either workshops or the “Dining
With Writers” event, or both.
The two writers chosen for this programme are Beth Powning (who will
be reading from her novel The Ship captain’s Wife) and and Kate
Inglis, who will be reading from her novel for young people, The Dread
Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods.
Beth Powning is the author of two novels,
The Hatbox Letters (2004) and The Sea Captain's Wife (2010); the memoir,
Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship in Love and Loss (1999); and the essay/
non-fiction works Edge Seasons (2005) and Seeds of Another Summer:
Finding the Spirit of Home in Nature (also published as Home: Chronicle
of a North Country Life (1996). She lives in Sussex, New Brunswick,
and is one of Eastern Canada’s
rising literary stars.
Kate Inglis, a writer and photographer,
lives on the edge of a meat-grinder sea on the far eastern coastline
of Nova Scotia where she was born. Since 2004, her personal blog, sweet
| salty, has chronicled a journey that's been equal parts joy, blessings
and unexpected bumps. She founded a collaborative blog for babylost
parents called Glow in the Woods, a warm, embracing and entirely cherub-free
community. She spends a lot of time with her camera in-hand, chasing
light, and writes for Shutter Sisters as a founding contributor. In
November 2009 her first novel was published — The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods,
a book January Magazine calls it “a spirited tale, gorgeously
rendered.” The second edition lands in Canada and the U.S. in
mid-April 2010.
People who participate in the “Community Reads” program
will also be offered discounts to various events in Sackville during
the summer, and will be given a special discount advance offer to buy
tickets for the “Dining With Writers” event.
Writers Fest Day is sponsored by Sackville SaveEasy and is presented
in collaboration with Festival by the Marsh. For more details please
phone 364-2179
Summer 2010 Musical
Theatre Workshop
Middle School Age – July 19 – 24, 2010
High School Age and Over - July 5 – 9, 2010 (please note,
there will also likely be a performance (or performances) of
the final play
for this section during the Festival by the Marsh on July 16, 17
and/or 18)
The Power of Musical Theatre
Instructor: Stacey Merrigan and others TBA
Registration
Early bird before March 1, 2010 - $100
March 1 - May 1, 2010 - $125, after
May 1 $150
To register contact festival@mta.ca or phone 364-2179. REGISTRATION
IS LIMITED
(also keep a lookout for our musical theatre workshop for ages 5
- 12 in collaboration with the Town of Sackville)
The acts of singing and of acting are as natural as breathing and
being alive - and they bring joy and fulfillment to people of all
ages,
all around the world. We invite you to join us this summer for a
week of musical theatre skill learning and performance, geared to
performers of high school age and older. Learn about healthy vocal
technique, acting and dancing, and perform a role in a reduced version
of (a Broadway Musical) in period costume onstage, to be presented
as part of the Festival by the Marsh. Share your joy in musical theatre
with us this summer!
For further information or details, you may also contact festival@mta.ca or 364-2179
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