Welcome to the curious world of Ori. The seer and keeper of all fates, Ori tugs on the universal strings that connect us, bringing acute attention to the quickly unraveling story of Lynn and Jim.

Lynn and Jim were happy once, but a manipulative and devising Wolf preys on their happiness, revealing a hard but important lesson for Ori along the way.

Part folktale, part poem, Snout bring elements of contemporary choreography, inclusive set design, projection in the round and a living soundscape to draw the audience into a fully immersive experience. With no separation between audience and stage, theatre-goers can expect a departure from the norm – Ori’s door is open, and he’d like to invite you in for tea and a story.

Azimuth Theatre presents
The 2013 Emerging Company Showcase
featuring Catch the Keys Productions
SNOUT
May 2 – 11
PCL Studio Theatre, ATB Financial Arts Barns
Tickets: tickets.fringetheatre.ca

Show times:
May 2 – 4 at 8pm
Pay what you can May 7 at 8pm
May 8 – 11 at 8pm
May 8 & 10 at 11pm

Written by Megan Dart | Directed by Beth Dart
with Ainsley Hillyard | Steve Pirot | Mat Simpson | Ben Stevens
Choreography by Ainsley Hillyard | Set Design by Sydney Gross
Sound Design by Michael Caron| Projection Design by Matt Schuurman
Stage Managed by Julie Ferguson | Photography by Marc J Chalifoux

Catch the Keys is proud to lend artsScene Edmonton a hand as they storm the Breakfast Television Edmonton studio for second annual Trip the Light. An exclusive bash featuring some of Edmonton’s hottest talent, Trip the Light 2 is a who’s who of Edmonton’s young professional business and arts scenes.

artsScene Edmonton & Breakfast Television Edmonton present

Trip the Light 2
An exclusive after-hours party in the Breakfast Television Studios
featuring performances by
Jay Sparrow | Girls Club | Good Woman Dance Collective
and Digital Projections by Guru Digital Arts College

Friday, May 3, 8:30pm
At the Breakfast Television Studios
10212 Jasper Avenue
Tickets $25

A collision of technical and creative minds, Intersect is a new event that puts geeks and artists on-stage to show off projects that merge the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design and other creative fields. An innovative way for the public to support artists and creators, Intersect aims to inspire constructive conversations and interactions around concepts, demos, samples and prototypes being made in Edmonton.

A full line-up of featured creators and projects will be announced on-line one-week prior to the event. Tickets to Intersect are $10 + service fees.

In collaboration with Startup Edmonton, Catch the Keys is proud to curate the collision of artists and geeks at the inaugural Intersect!

Startup Edmonton is a campus, co-workspace and accelerator that kickstarts and activates local startups. Its role in the local startup ecosystem lies at the earliest stages, as ideas evolve into action, where startups form and gain initial traction. With a vision to make Edmonton a hotbed for creativity and entrepreneurship, Startup Edmonton is committed to empowering 500 creative entrepreneurs over the next five years. For more information on Startup Edmonton, visit Startupedmonton.com.

A part of our everyday lives, the kitchen sink is privy to some our most hilarious, heartbreaking, heartwarming and honest moments. Started four years ago as a simple experiment to encourage friends and family to share their stories, The Kitchen Sink project has gathered more than 100 personal stories from around the world. The Kitchen Sink Project aims to collect multigenerational, multicultural, real-life stories inspired by the kitchen sink that examine the roles we put on and take off in and out of the home.

Please: tell us your Kitchen Sink story.

Stories collected will be translated into an evolving multidiscplinary performance project that uses theatre, dance, music and interactive art to share our collective history. The first installation will be staged at the 2013 Found Festival, June 27 – 30 in the Old Strathcona neighbourhood.

So, send us an email at mdart@catchthekeys.ca, meet us for coffee, record your grandmother telling her kitchen sink story, release your messenger pigeon – however you do it, we want to hear your story.

The Be Moved Cabaret featuring Mark Mills
Friday, March 8 at The New City Legion
$15 advance | $20 at the door | $10 for festival artists

A rollicking night of raucous performance art, The Be Moved Cabaret brings together local performers of all disciplines for an evening of discovery, dancing and drinking. Combining analog electro dance hooks, fused with sex pop flare, Calgary’s Mark Mills lets the beats loose on Expanse. Let’s Dance! Advance tix available through YEGLive.

C.R. Avery featuring Jeni Thai
Saturday, March 9 at The New City Legion
$15 in advance | $20 at the door | $10 for festival artists

His incredible live performances have been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop; colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg. Outlaw Hip-Hop Harmonica Player, Beatbox Poet, Punk Piano Player, Rock & Roll Matador, C.R. Avery is a unique, raw and dynamic performer. He is a one-man band with the rare ability to sing poetic verse while beatboxing simultaneously while pounding the piano and adding harmonica like a plot twist.

“…he’s blowin’ my mind” – Tom Waits

Opening act: Edmonton’s soulful songstress Jenie Thai with her hot keys and electric blues-infused vocals.

Advance tix available through YEGLive.

On February 24, Edmontonians will have their first chance to experience a Calgary-based community-building event that has gained national attention: We Should Know Each Other (WSKEO).

The concept is straightforward: Edmonton residents of every age, culture, profession, sexuality, etc. are invited to gather at The Artery… to meet each other. Facilitated with nametags and friendly hosts, attendees from diverse communities will enjoy surprising conversations in a welcoming environment, all for the simple pleasure of meeting someone new.

Mark Hopkins hosted the first WSKEO event in his Calgary apartment on February 24, 2008; its debut in Edmonton will mark the initiative’s five-year anniversary. While the vast majority of WSKEO events have taken place in Hopkins’ apartment, larger-scale versions have occurred in art galleries, warehouses, a C-Train station, a hot dog restaurant, a cohousing complex, a bookstore and Calgary City Hall. Its largest event – WSKEO #100 – took place in the King Edward Arts Hub & Incubator, a 100-year-old, four-storey school building. The two-day event included more than fifty participating groups and attracted more than 2,500 attendees.

Since its founding, WSKEO has been featured in Maclean’s Magazine, CBC’s Definitely Not the Opera, Breakfast Television, Avenue Magazine and more. It was also the topic of a TEDxCalgary talk, and was featured in Erin McManus’ documentary, Crave Calgary, and in the Canada West Foundation’s book, A Place to Call Home: Building Community, Inspiration and Creativity in Western Canada.

WHAT: We Should Know Each Other (a community-building event)
FREE – visit www.wskeo.com for details
WHEN: Sunday, February 24, 2013 – 7:00-11:00 pm
WHERE: The Artery, 9535 Jasper Ave, Edmonton, AB

**

naked ladies dance
as the fat king whacks it off
towards the light now

The Tudor Queens, a remount of the Fringe hit by Send in the Girls Burlesque is nothing short of theatre brilliance. Sassy, fun, sexy on the one hand, poignant, polished, and dramatic on the other, Tudor Queens is a great blend of theatre, dance, politics and history. Each character is carefully developed. The story a great blend of history, engaging dialogue and sensual sauciness. The Tudor Queens is a play that should not be missed. It hits every emotional level and leaves you just wanting more.

On a scale of one to the Queen of England Tudor Queens is the Edge of Glory.

**

About Mike:

Mike Hudema is a long time member of the Canadian progressive scene. He was part of a motley band of activists that took to the streets of Quebec City for the FTAA protests, slept on the steps of the legislature to protest rising tuition rates when he was President of the University of Alberta Students’ Union, and occupied Anne McLellan’s office to defeat Canada’s anti-terrorism legislation. In his spare time he used to co-host CJSR’s alternative news program Rise Up: Radio Free Edmonton and co-wrote books like the recently published “An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away.”

Mike worked in San Francisco for 3 years for the Peace and Human Right organization Global Exchange on a corporate campaign with the Ruckus Society and the Rainforest Action Network targeting the auto industry. He currently works for Greenpeace as the Climate and Energy Campaigner focusing on stopping the tar sands, the largest industrial project on the face of the planet and bringing about a green job future. He is also a climb trainer with the Ruckus Society.

**

My intrigue in the name of this performance was only enhanced when I walked in the theatre and saw both performers face-down on the ground, booze in hand. The Supertramp theme music added to the awesome, as did the trombone, guitar, tickle trunk, and disco ball on set. Then the snoring began. But it wasn’t just any snoring, it was synchronized clown snoring.

Little did I know, the simplicity of the set was entirely deceptive. As the show progressed, more and more elements of insanity joined the stage, not to mention the audience.

The form of the show was brilliant. It ended as it began, as they completed the difficult task they set out at the beginning of their journey and then both fell asleep. Their comedy style was intense! Like Shakespeare, their comedy scenes were immediately and cruelly followed by intense emotional moments of reflection, but the shifts were far more pronounced. They were often so immediate and blurred that you found yourself wanting to laugh at a mourning son and his widower father, unsure if you should feel guilty for doing so.

The language heartless buffoons spoke was a brilliant blend of English, Eastern European, I think some Scandinavian, and a little franglais for good measure. They are so good at speaking this gibberish that the audience is even able to learn some of the frequently-used words, and anticipate new words. Brilliant.

In an attempt to avoid the inevitable audience participation of a show run by 2 actors raised in a town of street performers (why isn’t it called busking here, anyway?), I sat back a couple rows and off to the side. It was in vain, because Fozby needed an opponent in the sword fight, and Tonk spotted me. It was a blast!

While I would have been happy to see the show without so much crude humour, it was a riot, and I’m glad I went. These are brilliant performers with lots of career ahead of them. They even announced the sequel, Vice Reversa, which is sure to be a great show. Watch for it at Nextfest and the Fringe. And if you see clowns as passé or irrelevant, you have obviously never seen a show like this. It boldly goes where no clown has gone before.

**
About Jerry:

Jerry Aulenbach has been involved in live theatre from an early age. His mother put him in puppetry workshops at Mermaid Theatre in his hometown of Windsor, Nova Scotia as a young boy, and that led to an immediate love of the arts. He has performed with André Tahon’s troupe of marottes
http://youtu.be/ZQX5Z1PvlFg and, in grade 11, played Pharaoh in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” He and his wife Kelly-Dawn have 4 children, and he makes a living selling real estate, but his friends think he is addicted to twitter and restaurant hopping.

**

Death can be hilarious. It’s hard to believe but it is true. Think about the time you chuckled when you heard about some poor soul getting crushed by 2 tonnes of marshmallows or when an action hero delivers a hilarious line before dispatching one of his many on-screen foes. Even in my own life, when I lost my grandfather as a child, my family and I were spreading his ashes when a large gust of wind picked up and blew his remains right into my face and I went running around screaming “I’VE GOT GRANDPA IN MY EYE, I’VE GOT GRANDPA IN MY EYE!”

Death can be hilarious, it just takes the right people to show you the comedy in it. This is where Tonk and Fozby, the two heroes in the hilarious clown show Vice Versa come in. The play is about this father and son duo are trying to come to terms with the loss of their wife and mother respectively. Throughout the show we are treated to all different sorts of coping mechanisms and ways to deal with finality. Whether it be through drink (a beer bong extravaganza), food (HOT DOGS!), romance (a dinner date with a blow up doll), music (Supertramp!) or sheer feats of strength (Sword fight!) we find Tonk and Fozby navigating all different sorts of emotions and finding many different ways to laugh in the face of death. Death is never easy, not by a long shot, but the people behind this hilarious work show us that at the very least it can be good for a laugh.

19 stars! Great work! Now beer bong me!

**

About Jon:

Jon Mick is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He can do these things all at once or one at a time, it’s really up to you. He has performed at various festivals, including NXNE, Sled Island and Improvaganza, and has opened for the likes of Maria Bamford, Neil Hamburger, Tig Notaro and Brody Stevens. Jon has two stand up albums entitled “Who Knew?” and “Beardmilk”. He has written and acted in/for a nationally broadcast sketch show, can be found in puppet form in the Felt Up! webseries and is often putting on over the top extravaganzas at the Garneau Theatre. Really, Jon is just a funny guy who wants you to have fun with him. He also love perogies, The Bob Newhart show and was the Northern Alberta Connect 4 champion circa 1997, 98, 99.

**

A Western Haiku:

This is the old west
Imagination ketchup
The blood on your hands

Walking into New City one hardly knows what to expect from two theatre artists from England and their play known simply as ‘A Western.’ The audience sits scattered throughout the dankly lit bar. On the stage sits a table and a bottle of ketchup. Next to the bar sits a small mountain bike. And with that the play begins.

The play is composed of a series of well-crafted vignettes. Each one taking the audience through the stereotyped scenes that comprise almost every western ever made. The audience is not immune to this romp but instead is an integral part of it. The play is shaped by their reaction and participation and by the end all shall have blood on their hands.

On a scale of one to John Wayne, A Western is a big YEEEEEEEEEEE-HAWWWW!

**

About Mike:

Mike Hudema is a long time member of the Canadian progressive scene. He was part of a motley band of activists that took to the streets of Quebec City for the FTAA protests, slept on the steps of the legislature to protest rising tuition rates when he was President of the University of Alberta Students’ Union, and occupied Anne McLellan’s office to defeat Canada’s anti-terrorism legislation. In his spare time he used to co-host CJSR’s alternative news program Rise Up: Radio Free Edmonton and co-wrote books like the recently published “An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away”.

Mike worked in San Francisco for 3 years for the Peace and Human Right organization Global Exchange on a corporate campaign with the Ruckus Society and the Rainforest Action Network targeting the auto industry. He currently works for Greenpeace as the Climate and Energy Campaigner focusing on stopping the tar sands, the largest industrial project on the face of the planet and bringing about a green job future. He is also a climb trainer with the Ruckus Society.