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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, February 26, 2016 | 22 Oakville high school productions featured in Halton District Sears Drama Festival Five Oakville high schools will be competing in the 2016 Halton District Sears Drama Festival next week. Part of the over-arching Sears Ontario Drama Festival -- which is celebrating its 70th year -- locally, 13 productions from 11 schools from Oakville, Burlington, Georgetown and Acton will be staged over four nights (March 1-4). Each performance starts at 7 p.m. and will be staged at Nelson High School, 4181 New St., in Burlington. Oakville schools participating this year include: T.A. Blakelock High School, which is entering two productions; St. Ignatius of Loyola Secondary School; White Oaks Secondary School, and Garth Webb Secondary School. An awards banquet will be held Saturday, March 5 where the "outstanding productions" will be named, said Marty Chenette, press liaison for the Halton District Sears Drama Festival and Drama and English teacher at Burlington Central High School. Awards are also given for individual performances, stage management and technical achievement, as well as awards of excellence and merit. The Sears Ontario Drama Festival is broken down into district festivals, and regional and provincial showcases. District finalists are invited to one of the six regional festivals, each running three to six nights. Two "outstanding productions" from each regional festival are then invited to perform at the Ontario Showcase, which is held at various venues across the province. The Ontario Showcase is non-competitive and awards are given by an adjudicator. The prizes include: writing and technical skills (at $500 each); as well as, $3,000 scholarships and $500 bursaries to help recipients pursue a career in the performing arts. For more information on the festival, visit searsdramafestival.com. · · · One of T.A. Blakelock's shows is titled Somewhere in Between, written by students Heather Brudlo, Kate Byrne, Natalie Skov and Meghan Teague. It is directed by drama teacher Sylvia Goncalves, with assistance from student Emma Torgonrud. The play centres around two protagonists who have written children's books reflecting gender and sexual diversity, and the authors are in the process of trying to have these books made into a children's cartoon series. While the production had its main performance at the school Thursday, it will also be staged for the festival competition on March 3. Tickets for any of the festival productions can be purchased at the door. Steve Levinson Selected Works on display Selected Works by Steve Levinson will be on display at the Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre starting today (Friday). The show is a retrospective of some of the professional fine art photographer's most popular works from the last 15 years. "In a world of technology, Steve Levinson believes there is still a place for simplicity and natural beauty in photographs," stated a media release. "Represented in more than 200 private and corporate collections, Steve's photographs were all taken candidly, and were printed without extensive digital manipulation. His photographs are spontaneous, impressionistic, and paintinglike, and have been called `atmospheric, romantic, and abstract.'" Levinson originally took up photography in the 1970s and won awards in his first two competitions. He later produced and exhibited several multimedia photo presentations, but then put his camera aside to follow other artistic pursuits. Levinson would return to photography in 2001 and since then, his images have been on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Gallery at First Canadian Place, Painted City Gallery, the Art Gallery of Northumberland, the ARTA Gallery, Roche Bobois Gallery, and the Left Bank, Michel Thomas, A.K. Collings and Engine Galleries in Port Hope, Ont. His work is represented in more than 200 private collections and has been selected for private and corporate clients by a number of prominent designers, such as Brian GluckSteve Levinson stein, Roche-Bobois Paris Design, Michael Doyle and Judith Copeland, among others. The exhibit at Joshua Creek will be Levinson's seventh solo show and will be followed by an eighth in June at the Engine Gallery in Port Hope. An opening reception for the upcoming Oakville exhibit will be held at the 1086 Burnhamthorpe Rd. E. art centre Sunday (Feb. 28) from 2-5 p.m., while a special speaking engagement with Levinson, open to the public, takes place on Friday, March 18 at 1 p.m. The show runs until March 27. For more information, visit www. joshuacreekarts.com or email info@ joshuacreekarts.com. Congratulations to the 2015 Nominees for business excellence OakvilleAwards Wednesday, March 23, 2016 21st annual dinner gala Presented by The Oakville Chamber of Commerce and The Rotary Club of Oakville West Oakville Conference & Banquet Centre 2515 Wyecroft Road, Oakville $125 per person. Tables of 8 available To purchase tickets visit www.oakvillechamber.com or email jad@oakvillechamber.com (905) 845-6613