Wellington Oracle

The Ottawa Theatre Network, a newly formed organization that assists in the growth of professional theatre, has come up with an innovative way for theatre lovers in the west end –  and across the city – to support independent theatre in Ottawa.

It’s an online voting exercise sponsored by the insurance firm Aviva, and according to OTN’s Sterling Lynch, if enough Ottawan’s vote for the proposal, the Ottawa Theatre Network and the GCTC could see up to $50,000 in development funding put into the community.

“Most people know that there is no better multiplier of community development investment than arts funding” Lynch says, “and in theatre, whether it is ticket revenue, cultural funding, or private grants, the dollars stay in the community and get spent on producing even more creative work. So whatever we might qualify for, the theatre-going public will definitely see the benefit.”

Oracle readers interested in supporting the campaign can register their vote here.  To read more about why the vote is important to theatre professionals, you see their own personal appeals, which are linked to from the Ottawa Theatre Network blogroll in our right-hand margin.

One further appeal from Sterling:

“People can vote daily and keep an eye on our vote tally for the next few weeks. If we don’t get through to the semi-finals on the first round of voting, there are two more chances coming up.”

Parkdale Market reconstruction: a lost opportunity?

Architect and local resident Ralph Wiesbrock has penned the following open letter to Councilor Christine Leadman about what he saw and heard at a public meeting yesterday over the future look of Parkdale Park.

Dear Councilor Leadman,

I just came back from a brief visit to the public consultation session for the Parkdale Market ‘renewal’ project.

I am shocked and appalled by the failure of vision at the heart of our community.

After months of community engagement to establish a community design plan and visions of a vibrant, diverse, culturally and socially engaged, arts oriented neighbourhood focused around a park and farmer’s market at its core, we are now reduced to setting some of the best design talent in the city loose to manage door knobs and paint colours. (more…)

The construction crews given the task of the long-awaited revamp of the Parkdale Market broke ground this week, and with their reconstruction under way, and a new emphasis on local growers and more space for vendors, the 2010 season is already shaping to be the most anticipated the venerable open-air market has seen in decades.

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. (more…)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Following on a walking tour held earlier in the the month, a community workshop was held this past week at the Urban Element on Parkdale Avenue that brought together local residents and planners from McGill University to come up with ideas to make Parkdale a more pedestrian-friendly and livable street.

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. (more…)

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stewart Matthews (front) and Richard Gélinas in Arabian Night - photo by Tim Ginley

-Theatre review by Lesley Buxton

Roland Shimmelpfennig ‘s Arabian Night is a dreamscape, a symphony of movement and sound. In her director’s notes Natalie Joy Quesnel says that she was drawn to this work because it offers “a glimpse into the sub-conscious and unconscious mind where we can all be the author of our own fairytale.”

Set in a high rise apartment block on the hottest night of the year, this whimsical piece examines the inner lives of five characters all linked through proximity and their imaginings: the apartment’s superintendent, two female roommates, a boyfriend and a voyeuristic neighbor. Unlike conventional plays however, the setting of this piece is almost inconsequential. For as the play progresses and the line between reality and fantasy becomes indistinct we grow more involved in their fantastical surroundings. This is a play in which we are never quite sure where the truth lies. (more…)

About a year ago, author and podcaster Charles Hodgson, was inspired to think about how Gatineau Park is represented on the Internet. The avid cyclist and x-country skier had heard that by 2050, due to climate change, x-country skiing in the park might be no more. The Daniel Street resident decided to take action.

“The National Capital Commission (manager of Gatineau Park) operates a corporate website that’s not very interactive. The focus of XC Ottawa is high performance x-country skiing,” the Champlain Park resident says.

“It seemed to me what was lacking was a focus on the whole other universe of people and activities going on in the Park.”

So, he created Guide Gatineau, a social networking site that he populates with videos about the history of the park, cycling routes, and an open invitation to others to make the site their own.

“I’m really hoping that people will leave their footprints on the site.” The site allows users to set up groups that might meet for walks, for cycling, for bird-watching. Hodgson believes it’s Ottawa and Gatineau people, the “local crowd,” that uses and feels true affection for the Park.

Click on the video to find out what Charles thinks about the future of the Park. He also describes his best day ever in Gatineau Park.

– Oracle restaurant review by Don Chow of foodiePrints

Please don’t mind the title.  I have not made a favourite of a restaurant I have only visited twice.  We at foodiePrints have had many a fine meal at Allium, both lunches and dinners.  I celebrated my 29th birthday there, a surprise party thrown by my better half with many of my closest friends.  We reserve seats there on many special occasions.  We bring out-of-town house guests there.  We drop in spontaneously when it’s quiet.  Though, we were slightly disappointed by our last outing during the New Year.

The Allium restaurant has actually shut its doors to customers twice during our tenure in the Hintonburg/Wellington West neighbourhoods.  The first time was due to an out-of-control grease fire spreading from the kitchen belonging to the upper floor tenant of the building, Les Grillades.  The second was during the month of July when Allium closed its doors for renovations. (more…)

– photo by Richard Ellis

Would it be a pointless tautology, especially in light of Pinter’s own discomfort with the term, to call Third Wall Theatre’s production of Old Times Pinteresque?’

Pinter once famously distinguished between two kinds of silence, one characterized by the absence of speech and one characterized by its obscuring presence, and what makes director James Richardson’s staging Pinteresque is its power to make both kinds of silence speak… with startling force.

The play relentlessly interrogates the relationship between recollection and invention, history and authority. It features only three characters – the married couple Deeley and Kate, and their dinner-guest Anna, and each is persuasively acted (by Richard Gelinas, Kristina Watt and Sophie Goulet respectively). In a couple of instances during Friday night’s performance, both Watts and Goulet fumbled the delivery of their lines, but both recovered adeptly, Goulet in particular able to weave her halting speech into Anna’s mercurial characterization. (more…)

-Theatre review by Michelle Desbarats

Can a floor painted to resemble parched ground transform into the earth and dust of South Africa? Can an illusion of sky become the actual fabric over another place? Can a swing suspended from a branch of only belief be a doorway? As the audience settles into their seats for the opening night of The Syringa Tree, the first play of the GCTC’s 2009/10 season, Robin Fischer’s set design waits, stark and silent with promise.

The award-winning play was inspired by the playwright’s childhood in Johannesburg during the apartheid era. At the heart of the play is the connection between a white child and her black nanny. Because Pamela Gien, the author, has given so deeply of her heart, it is a moving and wondrous piece. (more…)

An update on road reconstruction from Annie Hillis of the Wellington West Business Improvement Area:

Did you ever think you would be so happy to see asphalt??

Wellington St West is now paved with the first layer of asphalt all the way from Parkdale Avenue to Merton Street! We can confirm that both the contractor and the weather are sticking to schedule and the roadway is slated to be paved and open again to two-way traffic by Nov 15th. We’re also happy to report that the c ontractor has been leaving the site with a minimum of three open stretches for parking along Wellington St West, unencumbered by supplies or equipment. (more…)