ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Confederation Centre of the Arts Sets Summer Season At thCe entre
The Play That Goes Wrong (Photo by Louise Vessey). Featuring Sweeney MacArthur, Jay Davis, Jamie McRoberts, Aaron Reid Ryder, Jeremy Leget.
By Alana Lauren Photos Courtesy of CCOA
Confederation Centre of the Arts is an institution for culture on PEI, and they’re ready to enjoy another jam-packed, successful summer with 2023 programming. Between historic art gallery exhibitions, incredible live shows, guided walking tours, and summer workshops, the Centre runs the gamut of activities for those who grace its doors. Andrew Sprague has been the Director of Marketing & Communications since August 2019, but he didn’t get to work his first Festival until last year due to COVID-19. Now fully back on their feet, the Centre is full of fanciful, incredible programming. Among the pillars of the organization is the Charlottetown Festival, which runs June 14-September 23, 2023. “This is a Centre for convening and having conversations around the Canadian confederation through the arts. We do performing arts, visual arts,
education, and heritage programs,” he says. “We look at the past, present, and future, and focus on reconciliation. We talk about identities in Canada.” Noting The Charlottetown Festival is Atlantic Canada’s largest theatre festival, he loves the venues, including the 1,100-seat Sobey Family Theatre, the 180-capacity cabaret style theatre The Mack, and the Outdoor Amphitheatre for family shows. “We have two new shows in the Sobey Family Theatre, The Play That Goes Wrong , and MAGGIE . The Play That Goes Wrong is from Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. It was developed in London’s in the early 2000s. It’s such a funny show and has a few local cast members like well- known funny man Graham Putnam. It’s a comedy, not a musical. People are used to musicals here, but this one is slapstick and timing based. Everything goes wrong in this hilarious show, and it’s so impressive,” he says. “There is also MAGGIE, the story of a Scottish single mother raising three boys after the death of her husband. It’s set in post-war Scotland. It’s so heartfelt, and the music is fantastic. It’s
co-written by singer-songwriter Johnny Reid, and Matt Murray and loosely based on Reid’s Granny.” Coming to The Mack are The Songs of Johnny & June (based on Johnny Cash and June Carter), and a revue show about female empowerment titled “I’m Every Woman.” TheMi’Kmaq Stories Of Rabbit & His Friends and the Munchables will be at the Outdoor Amphitheatre. There are heritage walking tours, arts education programs in the winter, camps in the summer, an annual Symons Medal Presentation and Lecture, and so much more at the Centre. But one of the crowning pieces is Confederation Centre Art Gallery. Curator Pan Wendt sees a busy, jubilant, and informative time ahead for the Gallery as it enters an ambitious period with breathtaking exhibits. To begin, there’s Conversation Pieces on view in the Frederic S. and Ogden Martin Concourse Gallery. “We have six glass cases out there, and we get lots of viewership and thoroughfare. It’s a modest show, and
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