The team behind last summer’s smash hit “Countries Shaped Like Stars” at the Ottawa Fringe are set to take scenes from their next project — “Tales from the Belly of a Whale” — to  Hintonburg this upcoming Saturday as part of a salon evening at Cube Gallery on Hamilton Avenue.

We’ve discussed the amazing creative force of MiCasa Theatre before in these pages; and this time around we’ve got audio from both of the MiCasas –Emily Pearlman and Nick Di Gaetano – as they discuss the  the way the take artistic inspiration from the concept of “not being wasteful”.

The evening will also feature music from Ottawa songwriter John Gillies and spoken voice artist Kel Parsons.

Image by Johnathan Marshall

Paolo Copelli is the new market manager for the city, and in the audio link below he takes us through the time line for the physical changes we can expect to see over the next few months, culminating in a much larger L-shaped market area, with more room for shoppers better facilities for vendors.

In an understandably  jubilant mood over all the work underway is Annie Hillis from the Wellington West Business Improvement Area, who sent the following out earlier in the week. You want to read to the end of it, because she includes valuable information about how you can give your input to exciting new plans for Parkdale Park as well – a separate reconstruction that is coming far sooner than most people realize.

Parkdale Market is getting a much needed facelift. New canopies, lamp posts, street trees and a wider sidewalk are all part of the Parkdale Market redesign. And not only is the Parkdale Market getting refurbished, but the adjacent Parkdale Park is also about to undergo significant renovations. Taken together, these two initiatives represent a substantial capital investment in one of our area’s key landmarks and commercial hubs.

Among the improvements to the Parkdale Market, one of the most significant is the renovation of the fieldhouse to include storage area for foodsellers, including refrigeration. This is a very vendor-friendly development and one that will help ensure that the Parkdale Market attracts and retains the best vendors in the city. In addition, visitors to the Market next spring will notice upgraded canopies for the stalls. And though they might be less noticeable, the new electrical and water services that are being installed will be of great value to the vendors too.

The excavation work to dig out catch basins and storm sewers beneath the Market has already begun. The contractor, Ottawa Greenbelt, is hoping to complete most of the work before winter. Whatever is left over will be completed in springtime. All the more reason to hope that winter is slow in coming!

Please note that vendors in the temporary row of new stalls along Armstrong St. are still open. They will be selling pumpkins, barrels of apples and other seasonal foods until the severe weather hits. Christmas trees will be arriving for sale between November 24 and December 24, 2009.

In addition to the work on the Market, Parkdale Park is also getting a new look, courtesy of federal infrastructure funding. Please come to the public consultation to view and comment on the park redesign this Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at Connaught Public School Library, 7pm – 9pm. City of Ottawa park planners intend to put the design out to tender this Fall so now’s the time to comment on the new design.

In the 1980s Parkdale was treated by regional road planners as little more than an off ramp for the Queensway, and the legacy of that mindset is a two-lane neighbourhood street choked with heavy traffic especially in the area between Scott and the Queensway.

Longtime residents of the street were in attendance at the workshop, and told of their frustrations in trying to get the city to implement traffic diversion schemes  that would ease  pressure on the notorious bottleneck.

In one of the planning exercises, participants were asked to mark a map of the area with their “problem hotspots” spots using red dots. The off-ramp at Westmount was the clear winner in this contest but the green dots for “favourite places” were more widely distributed, with the Carleton Tavern, the old fire station, and the NCC trails at the north end of Parkdale in the running for best locations.

Another activity saw the group tackle questions like: “what is the street missing”, “how do want the street to look and feel” and “what kind of activities do you like to or want to do on Parkdale”.

The McGill planning team recorded data from both large and small group sessions and will present their preliminary response a follow-up meeting in November, with details to be announced soon.

In the accompanying audio (link below) Michel Frojmovic from Creative Neighbourhoods, sponsor of the event, stresses that exercise is strictly a community planning initiative with no commercial interests behind it. He expects that the process will produce a plan that local residents can use as a point of reference in the years to come as the problems with Parkdale become more acute and the call for solutions becomes louder.

But the quiet acceptance of ever-more-invasive security measures as we travel is precisely what a local theatre company will be running its own scanner over, starting with a public workshopping of a challenging new production called, appropriately, “Airport Security”.

Well-known actor Kris Joseph has been part of the project from the outset, and we caught up with him between rehearsals of summer Shakespeare in Prescott.

Check the audio link below to hear Kris reveal just what kind of experience audiences can expect to be part of at the Irving Greenberg next week.

A workshop performance of “Airport Security” will be performed by Gruppo Rubato in the studio of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre on July 19 at 7.30 p.m; admission is on a “pay what you can” basis.

Photo: Hintonburg Park will hosting two theatre productions in early July

And how did you get to be who you are?

The nature/nurture debate has been going for decades but after this upcoming Tuesday you just might come around to a new point of view; playwright and performer Eleanor Crowder claims that we are each the sum total of all the stories we have been told, starting with the ones we hear about our own families as we grew up.

That’s the premise of “Family Album” a performance booked to take place in Hintonburg Park on July 7, at 7.00 P.M. Click on the audio link below to hear Eleanor describe the kind of story that just might be revealed from her own past.

The show starts with stories from the performers’s own background using a “rehearsed improv” format and in the second, the stories are suggested by  audience members themselves. Perfect for children 6 and up, the play is the first of two coming to Hintonburg Park in the next fortnight. Company of Fools will be presenting their “Shakespeare in the Park” experience  with Much Ado about Nothing on the 15th, again at 7.00 P.M.

Both shows are free at the gate, but a hat is passed after the performance.

UPDATE: “Family Album” will also be featured in a backyard theatre performance on July 26, at 244 Northwestern Avenue, in Champlain Park. The show starts at 2.00 P.M. Tickets are available on-site at $10 for adults and $5 for children; proceeds go to the local charity “Achillea Endeavours”