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B6 TH E OAKVILLE BEAVER W ednesday, May 10, 2000 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Students gain gallery experience at annual OAC art exhibition Karen Robbins SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER OAC students at several schools in Oakville are show ing off their finest at Abboz zo Gallery from May 12th to 17th. This annual show and sale will feature student art projects, which are selected by each school's art teacher. Margaret Kirwin, administrator at Abbozzo Gallery, said different types of art will be on dis play, including paintings, drawings, computer generated artwork, photography, pencil work, pottery and sculpture. The exhibit started four years ago when a teacher from T.A Blakelock approached the gallery and suggested a student exhibit. "We saw this as a good way o f being involved with the school system, and it gives the kids a real educational opportunity," Kirwin said. "Some of the kids want to go on in art and it gives them a chance to deal with a commercial gallery and to see what it would be like and what's expected of them. They can offer their work for sale and set the price just like they would at a regular gallery." Kirwin expects to have about seven schools involved in this year's exhibition. For more information, call Abbozzo at 8444481. Photo by Peter C. McCusker Jessica Trzoch, left, with her Harm ony o f Leaves and Katie Crown with Im agine are students from T. A. Blakelock who are part o f the annual OAC art exhibition at Abboz zo Gallery. ! Much Ado'offers last year' s actors a unique opportunity (C ontinued from p a g e B7) but it's got darker elements certainly than L o ve' s L abour' s he explained. "I was excited about it because a lot of scholars and Shakespearean spe cialists believe that Berowne and Rosaline are the models for Benedick and Beatrice (the lovers in Much Ado). They're very different, but there are certainly those skirmishes of wit in both plays." Hence, the re-hiring of actors John Jarvis and Gina W ilkinson, who played Berowne and Ros aline last year, to play this year's dynamic duo. "I've never known of any two actors who have done L o v e ' s Labour's and then gone on to do Much Ado," explained Shamata. "Finding a Berowne and Rosaline is difficult and finding a Benedick and Beatrice is difficult. It just seemed like a wonderful opportunity for those two actors." Shamata, the first Festival of Classics' director to return for a second year, said he's delighted to be working on the outdoor stage once again. "Last year was the first time I'd directed out side and there's something about this particular setting. It's unusual in that there's no stage floor," he said, adding, "There's something wonderful about the actors actually standing on the earth. And there's the 100-year-old oak tree and Lake O ntario...It was a joy last year." those roles and because Festival o f Classics has He did, however, admit that directing the lin such a good reputation." guistically challenging Love's Labour' s Lost last Perhaps that is why so many actors return, as summer did provide a few stressful moments. Shamata did, for more than one year to present a "It was a challenge, and it was frightening at Shakespearean play in Coronation Park. Along times to think that we were with Jarvis and Wilkinson, going to be outdoors with O akville actor Brandon all that language. But the M cGibbon, a Ryerson "Youget wonderful actors setting was so intimate, I graduate who played a because they want to play felt that the audience got variety of small roles in As those rotes and because it," he said. "But there was You Like It (1997), will Festivalof Classics has such that scary part when I return as the young lord thought, `Do I make the Claudio in this year's pro a goodreputation." actors start getting loud and duction. lose all the subtlety?' But I And a new O akville felt they were able to speak actor will be added to the the way they would speak in an indoor theatre. earthen stage in the park by the lake. Kim Bubbs, Assuming that it was the festival's policy to a recent graduate of Ryerson's Theatre School, hire a different director each year, Shamata said will assume the role of Margaret, an attendant of he was pleasantly surprised when he was asked Hero, the governor's daughter. back for a second year. And part of that pleasure The costumes, said Shamata, will reflect the comes from his enjoyment of the outdoor theatre 1940s, since Much Ado begins with soldiers as well as his passion for Shakespeare. returning from war and the Second World War is "And actors are desperate to play those roles, the most recent armed conflict in which Canadi so there is a really high level of commitment on ans were involved. the part of the actors involved," he added. "You However, in Much Ado About Nothing it is get wonderful actors because they want to play Don Pedro, prince of Aragon, who returns home to M essina with his comrades-in-arms, Claudio and Benedick and his "bastard brother" Don John. Rom ance blossom s betw een Claudio and Hero, the daughter of M essina's governor Leonato. However, H ero's cousin Beatrice, prefers matching wits to Courting and finds a willing partner in Benedick, a confirmed bachelor. In his director's statement, Shamata said this play is one of facades in which almost every character is concerned with the way in which he or she is perceived. The arc o f the play, he wrote, is the characters' gradual movement away from deluding others, and themselves, towards the embracing of real emotions and real needs. In fact, he said, the title represents the central theme. Both Claudio's rejection o f Hero and the matchmaking of Beatrice and Benedick are based on lies - things that don't exist - nothings. Much Ado About Nothing, will open on July 19th in Coronation Park and will continue M on days through Saturdays at 8 p.m. until August 12th. Tickets, which are $15 ($13 for Big Ticket members and $12 for Big Ticket Plus members), are available at the Oakville Centre box office at 130 Navy St., 815-2021. Big names head festival lineup M oist, Leahy, Chantal Kreviazuk, Pavlo and Elvis impersonator Stephen Kabakos are ju st some of the enter tainers who will headline this y ear's Waterfront Festival. The songs on M oist's third CD, Mercedes Five and Dime, hint of a mythical dichotomy and of a fictional place where listeners can daydream o f other, preferred places. "I think Mercedes Five and Dime is more of a collective and organic album," says David Usher, singer for the M ontreal-based, five-piece band. "Our first disc Silver, was done independently, and we had no clue what we were doing. We definitely felt the pressure during the recording and touring o f Creature (M oist's second C D )...W e also started getting used to the band being successful, which was a strange thing." Keyboardist Kevin Young says the third CD still man ages to be moody. "It's a different mood. It's even playful in places," he says. "W ith this album, the songs are going to wind up being a lot more aggressive live...T here are some elements that we can jam on, and we look forward to taking things a little further live than we have in the past." Leahy, a family of dancers, singers and musicians with members, aged 33 to 19, play primarily country and tradi tional Celtic music on everything from fiddle to saxophone. The group's album, Leahy, has gone platinum and their music video The Call to Dance has achieved number-one on a number of charts. The liner notes on The Call to Dance album describes their view of stepdancing as "music - an instrument ju st like the fiddle, piano, or drums." Chantal Kreviazuk has had a special affinity for the piano since age 3, but it w asn't until she was recovering from a serious accident in 1994 that she began to write what would become her first album. Her second CD, Colour Moving and Still, followed a heavy schedule o f Canadian and international touring and includes songs that are introspective, candid and evocative. Pavlo, the W aterfront Festival's Latin headliner, is a composer/guitarist who performs songs that blend the mys tical sounds o f eastern Europe with the rhythmically com plex music of the Western World. Pavlo, who has been influenced by flamenco, Latin, classical and Mediterranean music, has a new CD titled Fantasia. Elvis will com e back to life in Oakville this summer as Stephen Kabakos presents the rock 'n' roll king's career from his early Sun Studio recordings through his stint in the army and on to his movie and explosive concert years. Kabakos' performances placed him among the top five Elvis tribute artists in the world at the 1999 and the 1998 Images o f Elvis World Competition in Memphis. These top W aterfront headliners will be joined by a num ber o f other well-known musicians, including the Oakville Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto All-Star Big Band (an orchestra of musicians aged 14 to 20), and the award-winning Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir (southern gospel/blues). This year's W aterfront Festival buttons will include a chance to win a one-week Caribbean cruise for two aboard Costa Cruise Lines. Each button is numbered and will be automatically entered into a draw, which will take place on the main stage before Sunday afternoon's concert. Buttons are $8 prior to the festival or $12 at the gate for an all-weekend rate, $10 for a one-day bracelet. Children under age five are free. Buttons go on sale this week at all Oakville area banks, M cD onald's restaurants, Rainbow Gas Bar, Canada Post and participating Petro Canada sta tions in Oakville, Burlington and M ississauga. The grand prize winner o f the Oakville Waterfront Fes tival's $10,000 Raffle will receive a holiday, a new car, and an in-ground pool. Tickets are $5 each, three for $10, and go on sale this week by community groups around town. A maximum o f 10,000 tickets will be sold. Trade stocks, review shocks, order socks?' hiw ufte pop Arts Searching for an easy way to get things done? COGECO@Home high speed Internet access over cable is a real find. Monitor your portfolio and trade stocks, read product reviews, order clothes online, and more. Best of all you can get to all this cool stuff right from the home page. COGECO@Home. It's the break everyone can use. Give yourself a break fo r only $39.95* a m onth. Come in and check out COGECO@Home this weekend, and get a special limited-time offer! Compucentre Oakville Place · Canadian Computer 414 Speers Rd · Select RadioShack locations (CO))C O O I: C Q ® H o m e High speed Internet access over cable Call 8 7 7 -8 -A T H O M E www. cogeco. ca/home *Cable m odem rental $ 10 /m on th credited fo r C0GEC0 Cable customers. Regular price o f $49 .95 /m o n th fo r non-basic cable custom ers ($ 3 9 .9 5 /m o n th a n d $ 10 /m o n th cable m odem rental). Does not inclu d e installa tion charge. Not available in all areas. Some restrictions m ay apply. A d d itio n al charges w ill a pp ly fo r non-standard installations. O ffer va lid May 12-14,2000.