Thank you to the loyal visitors and readers of MOTC and I hope that you continue to enjoy the city and its many free and inexpensive activities and events. There are many around – you just have to keep your eyes and ears open.

I wish everyone a good 2012 and that the year treats everyone gently and with kindness, even when obstacles are placed in the way.

Regards,

Marijke Vroomen Durning

On Sundays to Wednesdays, from noon to 6 pm and Thursdays to Saturdays, from noon to 9 pm, you can visit shacks that celebrate the holidays from all over the world. There will be music, food tasting, dancing, and contests. Don’t miss this event in the heart of our old town.

When: December 15, 2011 at 12:30 pm

Where: 1200 Atwater Avenue, Westmount, across from the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

In a pristine world of manicured lawns and two-car garages, a suburban housewife is offered a rare opportunity… Everything in the Garden, a darkly comic morality tale, set in the 1960s, where nothing is exactly as it seems.”

 

Where:

At the  Monument National, 1182 St Laurent

When:

December 13 to 17, 2011. Shows begin at 8:30 pm

Cost: 9$ (A $3.25 handling fee applies to tickets reserved by phone)

This was pulled from the Montreal.com events calendar and I have no more information than what is here.

Danse Danse and the Segal Centre Choreographer-in-Residence Program workshop performance an interactive dance experience that beckons the audience into the intimacy of performance.
Followed by a talkback with the artists

Where: Segal Centre for Performing Arts, 5170 Cote St Catherine

When: December 17 at 8 p.m

This was pulled from the Montreal.com events calendar and I have no more information than what is here.

Danse Danse and the Segal Centre Choreographer-in-Residence Program workshop performance an interactive dance experience that beckons the audience into the intimacy of performance.
Followed by a talkback with the artists

Where: Segal Centre for Performing Arts, 5170 Cote St Catherine

When: December 17 at 8 p.m

I checked and the download is valid in Canada. Remember, although these are called Kindle books, if you can get a free app to download onto your computer (Mac or PC), iPad or iPhone to read these books as well.

the souk @ sat is an annual event that offers montreal artists/creators/designers the opportunity to showcase their recent work to the public in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere organized in sections: living-room, kitchen, bedroom, walk-in, bathroom, etc.

société des arts technologiques [SAT]
1201, boul. saint-laurent
souk @ sat.qc.ca
www.souk.sat.qc.ca

Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10, from noon to 9 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 11, from noon to 5 p.m.

Entrance is Free

In a pristine world of manicured lawns and two-car garages, a suburban housewife is offered a rare opportunity… Everything in the Garden, a darkly comic morality tale, set in the 1960s, where nothing is exactly as it seems.”

 

Where:

At the  Monument National, 1182 St Laurent

When:

December 13 to 17, 2011. Shows begin at 8:30 pm

Cost: 9$ (A $3.25 handling fee applies to tickets reserved by phone)

the pipeline

Infinithéâtre’s annual reading series is back with four new plays

including this year’s winner of  Write-On-Q!

Local creativity lauded Thurs. December 8 – Sun. December 11, 2011

Free event

Every year Infinithéâtre proudly parades Québec’s newest discoveries in The Pipeline, an annual series of free public play readings where the audience takes centre stage. Guy Sprung, Infinithéâtre’s Artistic Director, invites the public to feel the buzz and share their views from Thurs. December 8 – Sun. December 11 at the Bain St-Michel when the theatre company features four new plays, including the winner of the Write-On-Q! play writing competition.

In its ongoing mandate to discover new Québec works to bring to the stage, four years ago Infinithéâtre initiated an annual writing contest, Write-On-Q!, which garners scripts from all corners of the province. The winning script is selected by an independent jury, chaired this year by the esteemed Maureen Labonté (Co-Director of the Banff Playwrights Colony and a highly respected dramaturge, teacher and translator who has chaired the Siminovitch Prize jury three years running). The other two jury members this year were Gerry Lipnowski (CN, Public Affairs) and Laurence Sellyn (Gildan ActiveWear, CFO). In a written citation the jury said, “We were very impressed and moved by the plays were asked to read. There was a broad range of voices, stories, and points of view as well as varying levels of experience. The writing was strong, imaginative and wildly and wonderfully varied.”

The Write-On-Q! winner of the $1000 Pamela Dunn Prize is first-time playwright Alyson Grant, Chair of the English department at Dawson College, for her entry Trench Patterns. Another of this year’s Write-On-Q! submissions included Mike Czuba’s The Reprise, which was so noteworthy that the jury felt it merited a runner-up prize of $500, a first for this competition. The other three scripts in this year’s four-day reading marathon are: Triplex Nervosa by novelist, journalist and playwright Marianne Ackerman, The Book of Bob by actor/playwright Arthur Holden, a regular at these readings having earned a place for four consecutive years, and A Song for Québec by Gazette journalist and Infinithéâtre’s playwright-in-residence, David Sherman. Infinithéâtre received a grant from the Cole Foundation to develop Sherman’s play, which will receive its first public reading through The Pipeline with Alexis Martin, renowned throughout the French theatre community, directing. Please see below for details about each play and its author.

INFO:

Bain St-Michel

5300, rue St-Dominique (corner Maguire)

Admission: Pay-What-You-Can (Suggested $10 donation)

 

For more information: www.infinitheatre.com or call 514 987–1774

Thurs. December 8, 2011, 7pm

Directed by Alexis Martin

A Song for Quebec – Politics, culture and morality collide in a boîte à chanson in Old Montreal in the early 60s, the beginning of the Quiet Revolution and the birth of true Quebecois music. Here, patrons try to come to grips with the radical changes sweeping through the province and themselves as we see and hear some of the great songs of the era performed. 

The Pipeline gives the public a unique opportunity to voice their opinions and directly influence Montréal’s cultural landscape through lively talkback discussions, an important part of any play development, following each reading.  Providing invaluable input for the playwrights, talkbacks also allow the audience to address questions or issues that the texts generated in a relaxed, open forum with the authors, directors and actors.

Fri. December 9, 2011, 7pm

Directed by Guy Sprung

Triplex Nervosa – a condition affecting property speculators in trendy neighbourhoods during a recession – is a comedy about gentrification and art. Set in Mile End, circa now, it follows the struggles of a young woman who has set aside her music career and maxed out on credit cards to buy a beautiful triplex. Paralyzed by her tenants’ personal problems, she risks losing everything.

David Sherman

David is Infinithéâtre’s playwright-in-residence. Plays for the company include Joe Louis: An American Romance and The Daily Miracle.  David is also a singer/songwriter who performs regularly in Montréal, a journalist whose work appears in The Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen and is producing a documentary film on new tango music in Buenos Aires with his partner Francine Pelletier. A Song for Québec is his homage to the miracle and the magic that is Québec. “Infinithéâtre and Guy believe in theatre as an instrument to invigorate dialogue and ideas. They believe theatre can be, and ideally is, a force for change and engagement, rather than simple entertainment and spectacle. A Song for Québec celebrates the diversity and the uniqueness of the province; it posits Québec as an extraordinary place to live.”

Sat. December 10, 201, 7pm (Write-On-Q! winner)

Directed by Guy Sprung

Trench Patterns – Jacqueline is a Canadian combat officer returned from Afghanistan feeling, and wanting to be, dead. She is angry, intelligent and funny, traits she uses to keep her mind from the violent events of the day that broke her. Solace comes in the ghostlike visitations from her great grandfather, a Montrealer conscripted into World War One and executed for desertion and cowardice. As she recedes into his haunted world, we see her slowly move closer to her own.

 

Alyson Grant

Alyson has taught English Literature at Dawson College for the past 13 years and has worked as a general assignment and freelance writer for the Montreal Gazette. Trench Patterns is her first play. “I deeply respect Infinithéâtre’s mandate and repertoire and feel I’ve been given a gift to be able to work with them. I’d like the audience to come away feeling they’ve been brought somewhere worth going.”

Sun. December 11, 2011, 2pm

Directed by Guy Sprung

The Book of Bob

A middle-aged man stands alone on the stage. This is Bob. A woman stands on a platform behind him. This is God. As Bob’s orderly, upright existence comes under assault from a host of misfortunes; he will reluctantly confront God – a God in whose existence he doesn’t even believe. The Book of Bob is a contemporary retelling of the biblical story of Job. It’s a darkly comic examination of anger, precarious faith and the quiet redemption of love.

Arthur Holden

Arthur Holden is a Montréal actor and writer. He was last seen on stage in Infinithéâtre’s hit production of David Sherman’s The Daily Miracle. His own comedy, Ars Poetica, will be produced by Infinithéâtre this winter, running from January 17 to February 12 at the Bain St-Michel, with an all-Montréal cast under Guy Sprung’s direction. “I hope the play will get people thinking about faith, despair and love in a world which, even today, is less secular than some of us like to think.”