Arts

Stephen Menold dropped out of Camosun’s Jazz Studies program in April 2013 with just one credit standing between him and a diploma, but he felt the pull of a city—Montreal—with a stronger arts culture than Victoria’s, and he just couldn’t resist any longer.  “I just had to expand my universe,” says Menold. “My idea was […]

In Our Footsteps is not like any other play you know. Director Taiwo Afolabi, who is also a PhD candidate in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria, defines it as “interactive performance.” “The idea of the play is really to communicate and recreate a safe and positive space to have conversations around lived experiences […]

Sunday, June 17 Ditch your car Douglas Street will be closed to vehicles and open to street vendors on June 17 to celebrate the fourth annual Car Free YYJ. This event takes place from 11 am to 6 pm and will feature music, activities, food and retail vendors, and more. Admission is free; see downtownvictoria.ca/events/car-free-yyj […]

Director Wendy Merk admits that Langham Court Theatre’s A Chorus of Disapproval has provided many unique challenges for the amateur theatre company, not the least of which is figuring out how to define the play. “This play is kind of what you’d call a semi-musical,” says Merk. “It’s mostly a comedy. There are musical numbers […]

As someone who grew up fishing on the west coast of Vancouver Island, I often felt like I was reading about my own childhood in Tofino-based author Joanna Streetly’s Wild Fierce Life: Dangerous Moments on the Outer Coast (Caitlin Press). But the book isn’t about fishing. Streetly writes about the antagonist—nature—in this collection of short […]

Greater Victoria Shakespeare Festival attendees may notice something different in an old classic this year as director Chelsea Haberlin takes The Tempest in a new direction, looking at the play through a modern feminist lens.  “The treatment of women, our perspective on colonialism, and our perspective on race are different,” says Haberlin. “I definitely bring […]