It's a tough choice narrowing down memorable arts and entertainment stories in Peace Arch News for 2024.
As usual, the creative people on the Semiahmoo Peninsula did what they have done for decades 鈥� enlivened the arts scene and the lives of residents with a multitude of visual art exhibitions, concerts, plays and other laudable projects.
While 鈥� of necessity 鈥� picking some half-dozen notable stories and personalities for the year, I'm keenly aware that other worthy individuals have been left out.
All those who brighten our lives with some area of the arts are to be commended for their energy and dedication, but these are the ones that have stuck in my mind while looking back over the past 12 months, in no specific order of importance.
Crimson Crescendo
The "post-modern" classical trio formed by three members of the White Rock City Orchestra burst onto the local scene in September with the debut in its series of Gossamer Glow concerts (still underway) at Peninsula Productions' black box studio theatre in Centennial Park.
Violinist Monica Niedzielko, pianist/composer/arranger Bruce Petherick and bassist/acoustic guitarist/arranger Peter Koyander's concerts practically sold out as soon as announced, forcing the addition of matinee performances at the intimate 60-person venue.
In a post-COVID-19 environment, in which even well-established local musical acts have a struggle to hold onto audiences, it's a notable accomplishment for a new trio 鈥� and a classical one at that.
Their secret is evident to anyone who has attended their first two concerts, a selection of popular and personal classical favourites on Sept. 29, and a collection of pieces evoking personal Christmas memories on Dec. 1 鈥� they're very good.
Possessed of extraordinary credentials in their professional lives prior to settling on the Peninsula, the versatile three are developing a deep musical rapport that enhances the considerable technical skills that each brings to the table 鈥� not only being able to interpret, and in some cases reshape, well and lesser-known pieces in the classical repertoire, but also able to play some very convincing jazz.
Eagerly awaited are their concert spanning just over 100 years of popular music (March 2) and a reimagining of compositions by the Beatles (May 4).
For information, visit peninsulaproductions.org
Nomad Gallery
With no disrespect to other gallery spaces in the community, including the Turnbull at South 性视界传媒 Recreation and Arts Centre, the Landmark Pop-Uptown Gallery at Central Plaza and the White Rock Gallery on Johnston Road 鈥� all of which have held exhibits highlighting notable artists, and intriguing group shows in a variety of media 鈥� Jenny Evans' Nomad Gallery at 1377 Johnston Rd. has become the "little gallery that could."
The diversity of shows, imagination and commitment, not just to provocative art, but community enrichment shown by Evans and her dedicated staff have made the small, narrow space a continuing delight.
It has been the venue for a book signing in April for the memoir Dragonfly by 83 year-old author Margaret Herle; it hosted a multi-artist show, as part of the White Rock and South 性视界传媒 Culture Crawl in October, that celebrated the auspicious 20th anniversary of White Rock artist Chris MacClure's creation of International Artists Day, a world-wide phenomenon now formally embraced by the City of White Rock.
Its ever-changing photography exhibition throughout November, highlighting the diverse work of more than 14 different photographers, was just the latest in a series of shows willing to embrace not only the comfortable and expected florals and landscapes, but also the unexpected and challenging in artistic expression, ranging from portraiture to collage and abstract works.
Last, but not least, Evans 鈥� in partnership with next-door neighbour Ernie Klassen, proprietor of Ashberry and Logan Floral Design 鈥� created a genuine place-making exercise by rescuing an apparently abandoned piano from a nearby alleyway.
Positioned between both storefronts during the spring and summer, it proved irresistible for passersby ranging from music students to seniors reliving past musical glories, adding another dimension to the uptown White Rock landscape.
Alaina Holland
This year, Alaina Holland 鈥� whose previous directing work has been mostly for 性视界传媒 Little Theatre 鈥� became one of the theatre directors to look for on the Semiahmoo Peninsula on the strength of two outstanding productions.
Her version of Kate Hamill's cheeky stage adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in February and March, challenged the familiar norms of White Rock Players Club productions with a wide-open design, a few furnishings and three clever rotating background units.
These, plus lighting cues and the playing of the ensemble through and around them, managed to convey changes of setting and time with no apparent hindrance to the understanding of the audience.
Indeed the crowd responded eagerly to what was intended as a breathlessly fast-paced "comedic romp," employing a small cast, multiple character doubling, a relatable, modern, ironic sensibility, and a generous helping of slapstick and double-entendres.
As impressive as this production was, Holland, who also contributed a stand-out set design to WRPC's Proof, followed it with an even more extraordinary display of theatrical virtuosity with Peninsula Productions' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in July.
Edward Albee's acerbic 1962 drama was brought to life to stunning effect at Peninsula's studio theatre in Centennial Park, the intimate space providing an almost fly-on-the-wall experience for the audience, witnessing a marathon drinking session by two university academics and their spouses that devolves into a frightening sequence of mind-games.
The virtually flawless production brought out the best in Damon Calderwood as associate history professor George and Tamara Prescott as his wife Martha, whose alcohol-fuelled, abusive relationship seemed very real. Matching them every step of the way in this truly memorable show were Harrison Macdonald as Nick, George's ambitious younger faculty rival, and Alexandra Quispe as his neurotic wife Honey.
Sam Wiebe
Although now a resident of New Westminster, crime novelist Sam Wiebe grew up in White Rock and attended Semiahmoo Secondary, where he graduated in 2000.
Author of the popular Vancouver-set Wakeland series of private detective novels, Wiebe turned his attention to his former home community with a standalone 2024 novel Ocean Drive.
Offering a darker view of 鈥極ur City by the Sea鈥� than civic boosters might care for, it's a hard-boiled narrative of gang warfare, violence and murder that focuses on 29 year-old Cameron Shaw, recently paroled after serving seven years for manslaughter.
Although convicted in the beating death of wealthy White Rock resident Roger Garrick, there's much more to the crime than it first appears 鈥� Cameron had been provoked by the older man, who, spouting drunken accusations, had attacked him first.
Nor is his parole everything that it seems 鈥� there are forces both inside the law and outside the law that seem to want him to infiltrate a drug dealing gang whose territory includes everything from the North 性视界传媒 docks to Semiahmoo Bay.
It's clear the prolific Wiebe 鈥� whose most recent Wakeland novel, Sunset and Jericho, was shortlisted for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing 鈥� is interested in more than simply posing whodunnit puzzles. Rather, he has a penchant for exploring the social realities of his subject communities and the notion of dark things happening in places that can seem very nice on the surface.
Described by the Toronto Star as 鈥淰ancouver鈥檚 terse poet of a city in decline,鈥� Wiebe turns out, in person to be a large but gentle and soft-spoken man, who confesses to living a a very quiet life with his wife, Carly, also an aficionado of classic pulp fiction.
鈥淚鈥檓 just an ordinary guy who has a cat and drives a Civic,鈥� he told Peace Arch News.
Natalie and David Peters
Local theatre productions can often involve several members of the same family 鈥� particularly during pantomime season, when moms and daughters and fathers and sons often tread the same boards.
But how often are an actual father and daughter cast in the roles of father and daughter?
Yet that's just what happened when Natalie Peters and her dad David Peters were cast in WRPC's Proof, by David Auburn, which appeared at Oceana PARC Playhouse in April and early May.
The outstanding production, very surely directed by well-known actor Lori Tych, was memorable for excellent acting 鈥� most notably by Natalie Peters, as Catherine and David Peters as her father Robert, a once-brilliant mathematics professor who has been sidetracked by increasing mental instability.
It was a profoundly touching drama in which Catherine 鈥� brilliant in her own right 鈥� has been hamstrung by fear that she is prey to the same instability. It has coloured her relationship to her sister Claire, and made her mistrust a would-be suitor Hal (good supporting performances by Aurora Chan and Santiago Henao).
But helping to spark the production was the genuine father-daughter chemistry of the two leads, which added realism to the playful interplay that is also a key part of Catherine and Robert's relationship in the play.
Natalie Peters told PAN that being able to act in Proof with her own father was an "awesome opportunity."
She said she had long wanted to do the show with her dad since she first worked on a monologue from it in college, but that he had long resisted it, fearing that a play involving mental illness and death would simply be depressing for an audience.
鈥淭丑别谤别&苍产蝉辫;is a lot of sadness in the story 鈥� that Catherine gave up her life to care for her father and threw away the chance of becoming a mathematician, and that Robert was losing his mind,鈥� she acknowledged.
鈥淏ut my dad is so full of joy, and so light, and so easy to be around, that he brings something else to Robert, something I鈥檇 call both unusual and contagious.
鈥淗e has a huge, humongous heart and he鈥檚 very spontaneous, so he brings that newness to everything 鈥� but he鈥檚 also very thoughtful at the same time.鈥�
