Mainstage 2007
September 24, 2007 - September 30, 2007

September 24, 2007

MAINSTAGE: ON THE EDGE

On the edge—of freedom, madness, understanding, memory, insight. Gil Adamson gives us a heroine on the run, Sidura Ludwig a girl growing toward her freedom. Jim Nason’s characters weigh memory against experience, while Brian Henderson takes us into an unraveling mind. Shauna Singh Baldwin and Dave Margoshes tip their characters out of comfort and into challenge. Great writing takes a character right to that edge, lets us all feel what could unfold.
Click here for more information.

September 25, 2007

MAINSTAGE: REMEMBERING CAROL SHIELDS

Carol Shields had a way with words, and she had a way with people. Eleanor Wachtel, award-winning host of CBC’s “Writers & Company,” gives us an inside look at her new book, Random Illuminations, an intimate portrait of the deep, literary friendship she shared with Carol.
Click here for more information.

September 26, 2007

MAINSTAGE: SURVIVING ADOLESCENCE

Idealism, rebellion, determination, confusion, wonder: the passage to adulthood is both awkward and rich. From established award-winners Janice Kulyk Keefer, Susan Juby, and Paul Yee, to debut novelists Maureen Fergus, Alice Kuipers, and Brendan McLeod, tonight’s writers will move you to laughter, tears, memory—and wisdom.
Click here for more information.

September 27, 2007

MAINSTAGE: WRITING ON THE ROCK

Newfoundland has hijacked the Canadian literary landscape with some of the sharpest and freshest—and often funniest—writing around. We’re thrilled to welcome back Joel Thomas Hynes and Michael Winter, writers who’ve lit up our stages in the last couple of years. They’re joined by Agnes Walsh, the Poet Laureate of St John’s, and relative newcomer Kathleen Winter—it’ll be an evening with some salt in the air.
Click here for more information.

September 28, 2007

MAINSTAGE: ENCOUNTERS

Crossing into new territory, whether it be cultural or linguistic or imaginative, challenges characters and readers to reconsider what they know to be true. Lawrence Hill and Linda Leith move characters through changing landscapes. Brenda Hasiuk, David Chariandy, and Marie-Clair Blais gather intersecting characters in one space. William Gibson hooks those two ends of the spectrum and complicates it with virtual dimensions.
Click here for more information.

September 29, 2007

MAINSTAGE MATINÉE : TRANSIT OF VENUS

How does an award-winning play become an arresting new opera? Join Rory Runnells as he explores the process with playwright/librettist Maureen Hunter, composer Victor Davies, and director Larry Desrochers. Expect to see some bits enacted right in front of your eyes. Get the scoop on the Manitoba Opera’s world premier of The Transit of Venus this fall.
Click here for more information.

September 29, 2007

MAINSTAGE: POETRY BASH!

The poets are back, spinning their linguistic webs to catch us all. Trisha Cull takes us to the west coast, while Alison Calder shows us the prairie. Niels Hav brings us a Danish sensibility, while John Havelda weaves together Hungarian and English and Portuguese. Paul Savoie and George Ellenbogen spin visions from adopted homes. Let the magic begin!
Click here for more information.

September 30, 2007

MATINÉE AT THE RALPH CONNOR HOUSE: THE WRITERS' GALLERY

The writers are here! The historic Ralph Connor House in West Gate transforms into a gallery space to showcase 19 whimsical papier-maché busts of Canadian writers by artist Susan Longmire. Join local writers David Bergen, Lise Gaboury-Diallo, and Chandra Mayor as they read their own work alongside snippets of the work by the Manitobans in the cast: Carol Shields, Gabrielle Roy, and Margaret Laurence. On hand to represent the presiding spirit of the house, the prolific novelist Ralph Connor, is his granddaughter, Toronto writer Alison Gordon.
Click here for more information.