It’s a new year, and with the dawning of 2008 comes one of the highlights of Calgary’s theatre season, One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo. Truly a “something-for-everyone” event, the Rodeo is one of the most eclectic theatre events in Calgary.

“The High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts, is dedicated to entertaining as wide an audience as imaginable, while remaining fertile ground for the progressive and the wild. That’s why you will find Gryphon Trio, the 10-Minute Play Festival, spanking new work from Alberta Ballet and the queer hip-hop music theatre smash hit BASH’d side by side on the same playbill,” said Rodeo curator Michael Green in a statement on the OYR website.

With 30 different shows on the Calendar, there is lots to choose from. In addition to BASH’d!, (see article page 12) here are some of the other shows that may be of interest to GayCalgary readers.

Sylvia Plath Must Not Die – January 8th to 12th

One Yellow Rabbit’s newest original work presents a seductive look at the poetry and passions of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, two intense souls who attempted to escape the straitjacketed social norms of their time through a cathartic flow of ink and emotion. Sylvia Plath Must Not Die offers a compelling glimpse into the lives of two of the 20th century’s most prolific and complex literary figures, conflicted women whose sexual and intellectual appetites were often at odds with their prescribed roles as mothers and wives. Despite enjoying remarkable success in their field, both would eventually succumb to their demons and commit suicide; Plath in 1963 and Sexton in 1974.

Garden Cities of Tomorrow – January 15th to 16th

Dolores loves dirty dishes, and her husband, Morton “Showstopper” Calhoun, can’t dirty them fast enough. She solicits neighbours’ dishes, strangers’ mail-in dishes, even adopts dish-dirtying orphans to quench her domestic addiction – but is it enough? This eccentric portrait of Kansas City matrimony is built around the music of Lullaby Baxter’s two critically-acclaimed albums, Capable Egg and Garden Cities of To-morrow, with songs like Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox and Cardboard Armoured Car. Part three-penny Opera, part urban fable, this world-premiere musical play tosses the term ‘kitchen-sink drama’ on its ear–and fills yours with sultry-smooth folk-jazz.

Luckyburden – January 22nd to 23rd

For over 70 years, Keno City was the epicentre of Yukon silver mining. People flocked there from around the world to live and work, building a flourishing community in the Gustavus Range, four hundred kilometres north of Whitehorse. Then, in 1989, the mines closed.

A heartbreakingly beautiful documentary by filmmaker Andrew Connors combines rarely-seen footage of Keno City’s boom time with contemporary images of the derelict mines. With the film as a backdrop, Juno-nominated musician Kim Barlow performs live, crafting an exquisite portrait of Keno’s 20 remaining denizens in a folk-music soundscape of mixed blessings and rugged eccentricity.

Tubular Bells – January 18th to 19th

In 1972, a 22 year-old record-store owner, Richard Branson, met a 19 year-old musician, Mike Oldfield. Branson wanted to start a record label; Oldfield wanted to record an album. After a one-week session in Branson’s Manor House, both wishes were granted. The label: Virgin Records. The album: Tubular Bells. Oldfield’s album was an explosion of sound and style, featuring more than 20 layered instruments. The music leaps across genres, from an eerie piano opening (made famous as the theme from The Exorcist) to a gently resonating glockenspiel to a bluesy electric guitar shuffle. It stayed on the UK charts for 279 weeks, sold over 15 million copies worldwide, went gold in the USA and received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.

Fast-forward to the present: acclaimed Calgary composer and concert pianist Marcel Bergmann, fuelled by his teenage passion for the album, arranges the first side of Tubular Bells into a dynamic four-piano composition. Now, in a massive collaboration commissioned by One Yellow Rabbit, Bergmann’s arrangement will sound out on four Steinway grand pianos, performed by The Bergmann Duo and special guests Jeroen Van Veen and Hong Xu – and, in the Tubular Bells spirit of daring juxtaposition, four company dancers from Alberta Ballet, choreographed by Yukichi Hattori, will perform a startling contemporary ballet synchronized to the pianos’ innovative harmonies.

Midway: Carnival of the Macabre – January 10th to 12th

Duck under the Big Top to feast your eyes and ears on the freaky, creepy and carnivalesque. Step into the darker side of strange, as the Centre Court is transformed into a high-flying carnival. Chomp on a gourmet hot dog and steal a smooch at the kissing booth while testing your ick-factor with extreme piercers and contortionists. Daily scheduled events turn a spotlight on the bizarre, with sword-swallowers, tarot card readers and aerial acrobats, and the Midway Stage features circus musicians, spoken-word artists and dancers that delve into the twisted depths of your imagination. No single tent can contain the boiling chaos of a circus, and that’s where Freak Show comes in (8pm-10pm). The Swallow-a-Bicycle Performance Co-op hosts a cavalcade of Calgary’s freakiest emerging artists in an interactive tour through the bowels of the EPCOR Centre, from the Ledge to the Hall of Pillars.

Ground Zero Theatre’s 10-Minute Play Festival – January 5th

For the ninth year, Calgary’s rising theatre stars dive headfirst into 24 hours of caffeine-crazed, adrenaline-charged performance creation, emerging dazed but triumphant with ten minutes of theatrical mayhem. The intrepid artists start with a single prop and a line of dialogue, and fold them into snapshots of pathos and hilarity. Anything goes in this test of artistic masochism. The festival is hosted by Doug McKeag and featuring the mad talents of the Downstage Performance Society, Ground Zero Theatre, Obscene But Not Heard, the Swallow-a-Bicycle Performance Co-op and more! Brought to you by the company that brought you Urinetown, The Full Monty, and CockTales!

One Yellow Rabbit

High Performance Rodeo

January 2008

www.oyr.org