Saige Carlson, a local young lady is well known in the Okanagan music circles. Saige is excited to be entering her second year at the University of Toronto, where she is working towards a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Music Performance.

Saige has often performed in competitions both regional and provincial winning many prestigious awards. Saige finds competitions inspiring, due in part to the performing experience and because of the privilege hearing and meeting many talented singers.

Saige has been singing since she was thirteen and is soon to become twenty-one. Piano teacher Dennis Nordlund and voice teacher Lynne Leydier in Penticton have encouraged her to reach the goals of her dreams. Please come out to hear this incredible young singer.

Fairview Cellars Winery presents
OPERA AND WINE
Wednesday August 12 

7 p.m.

Fairview Cellars Winery

Admission by donation $10.00 minimum.
Bring chairs and evening wraps.
Wine available by the glass.

Photo Credit: Leza Macdonald

Partners Pitch in for “Species at Risk” Exhibition Open Day

The Species at Risk Exhibition Open Day at the Oliver Museum is getting even more exciting. That’s because on August 3^rd, B.C. Day, from 10 am – 4 pm, the Oliver & District Heritage Society is teaming up with various environmental and wildlife organizations to present an information fair with fun activities, interesting displays, and fascinating experts. There will even be a visit from a real Burrowing Owl!

Whether you want to see owl pellets and eggs, learn about bird migration, identify an invasive weed, preserve animal habitat, or help bats in your backyard, the exhibition and info fair is the perfect event for you. Knowledgeable interpreters from the Royal B.C. Museum will be answering questions at the Species at Risk exhibition outside the Museum, while inside the Museum organizations will be showing visitors how to get involved. Then guests can sit and enjoy a nature-themed film in air-conditioned comfort at the Museum.

The Oliver-Osoyoos Naturalist Club, the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC, the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society, and the B.C. Community Bat Program will be set up in the Museum with displays and information about what their organizations do. Information and pamphlets from the Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society and the South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls will also be available. Then at 1:30 pm, the Museum will be visited by the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society’s new education owl.

Families are welcome, and both the outdoor exhibition and admission to the Museum are free.

For more information, please call 778-439-3100 or email the Oliver & District Heritage Society at  info @ oliverheritage.ca  Information is also available on the Society’s Facebook page and on their website at www.oliverheritage.ca

Formed in 2005, LEFTY is an original hard rock band from Kelowna, BC. LEFTY is a mix of many styles but the end result is always high energy, and punch in each song and performance. LEFTY finds it’s influence from all genres of music. Pop to indie, punk to country, airy and light to hard and heavy. The members of LEFTY have diverse tastes and a passion for music. As a result we often bring our own tastes into the writing process and end up with something that is new and unique. We hope you will join us at an upcoming show, and please share our music with everyone you know, as that is what makes it all worthwhile.

From Kelowna, BC, Canada, Lefty has been bringing their version of high energy rock to venues across the Southern Interior BC. With help from the release of their first EP in 2014 they were pleasantly surprised to win multiple nominations for best band and best musical group and were featured on CBC Radio and Shaw TV. Regulars around the Okanagan and Festival scene, Lefty looks to introduce their music to as many ears as possible.

The band started in 2005 when guitarist Moge Thompson and drummer Marc Gobeil met to jam and realized there was a like-minded desire to create new music. The band picked up bass player Greg Beloin in 2010 and things really changed direction in 2011 when lead vocalist Paul Gervais joined the band. Paul added an image and sound that really complimented the band.

A primarily original band until 2012, Lefty introduced covers into their show in 2013 which introduced them to a new audience and new venues. Lefty takes familiar multi-generational covers from many genres and ages and adds a modern twist that appeals to a broad audience.

Guitarist Moge is the driving force behind the band’s original music and his influences span the spectrum of hard rock and punk. “Our original music has often been compared to Queens of the Stone Age, Pearl Jam and Three Days Grace,” states the band. Excited as they are about laying down new tracks and recording, Lefty never anticipated the enthusiasm which critics and fans alike found for their music and were thrilled to twice take the people’s choice award for original music and critic’s choice award for best original band in 2015.

“We just really love making music and sharing it with others,” the band was quoted as saying, “our goal as a band is to put out another EP within a year and the fact that people are really digging what we’re putting out there makes us love doing this even more.”

The Ripoff Artists will kick up their heels this summer with Toulouse-Lautrec! One of the best-known and well-loved artists of the 19^th century, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is famous for being short, consorting with characters of ill-repute such as prostitutes, performers and artists, and for creating many beloved images of dancers, clowns, and musicians in his brief career.

Eldest son of a French nobleman, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) suffered from a congenital illness that caused his legs to stop growing and he was never taller than 4’ 8″. Unable to engage in the expected activities of aristocratic life, he turned to art. As a young man he moved to Paris and became a major figure in the art scene there. His paintings were received eagerly in galleries and exhibitions, and he made prints and posters for clubs. His name is linked forever with the can-can and the Moulin Rouge.

One friend said Toulouse-Lautrec felt cut off from normal life, and “found an affinity between his own condition and the moral penury of the prostitute”. His paintings of brothels and clubs do not glamourize prostitution or night life, nor do they incite activism. He wanted to show the tender, sometimes boring, reality of life in the underworld of Paris. He produced a prodigious amount of work in only 20 years, and died of complications from alcoholism and syphilis at the age of 36.

Yet his work lives on. His images of dancers and musicians capture the mood of the music and the glow of the footlights, his scenes of prostitutes in ordinary moments are touching and human, while his bored drinkers seem like people we might know.

The Ripoff Artists will jump in with both feet and create their own versions of Toulouse-Lautrec’s poster of Jane Avril at the Jardins de Paris. The Quail’s Nest Arts Centre at 5840 Airport Road will be transformed into an artist’s studio from the 1880s, or perhaps a den of iniquity. . . Come to the opening reception between 6 and 8 pm on Monday evening, July 20 to find out which!

The artists will be hard at work from 9 am to 3 pm Tuesday July 21 to Saturday July 25 at the Quail’s Nest, so come and experience the demi-monde of Oliver’s art scene!

Summer Shades

South Okanagan-Similkameen Chapter of Federation of Canadian Artists
Exhibition at Shatford Centre, Penticton,

June 15 -July 31 2015

Members of the local Chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists
present “Summer Shades”, a group show of fine art at Shatford Centre in
Penticton. The exhibition will be on view June 15 through to July 31,
offering plenty of opportunity for local residents and summer visitors alike
to explore the wide range of work on display in “Summer Shades”.
Shatford Centre hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.

Info: 250-497-7806 or carol @ carolmunro.ca

The Quail’s Nest was swinging last night, June 11, when eighteen amazing jazz musicians from the Thursday Night Jazz Band filled the air with toe tapping, body swaying music.

The audience, camped out on chairs they carried to the venue, spilled out the big doors into the warmth of a perfect Spring night.  It was a mellow mood.   Walls were hung with African fabrics.  Tables with a variety of African and local handicrafts and even homemade cookies were manned by Oliver Grandmothers for Africa wearing their distinctive lemon yellow shirts with the black logo of mother and child plastered on the front.  It was a time for fun but for a serious cause.

Before the night was out over a thousand dollars was raised to support Grandmothers in Africa.   They are the strong, capable agents of change at the grassroots the Stephen Lewis Foundation champions.

“We are standing hand in hand.  We are marching step by step.  We are singing heart to heart.  We are grandmother sisters.”   So be it.

Photo Credit: Leza Macdonald

Audition dates have been set for next January’s production of the hilarious backstage farce Noises Off produced by the South Okanagan Amateur Players.

Noises Off is a play within a play. It is about an ambitious director and his troupe of mediocre actors. The cast and crew are putting together a silly sex comedy titled, Nothing On – a single-set farce in which lovers frolic, doors slam, clothes are tossed away, and embarrassing hi-jinks ensue.

Playwright Michael Frayn created Noises Off in the early 1980s. It is a love letter and an inside joke to those familiar with the thrilling and unpredictable nature of the stage. The title refers to a common stage direction calling for noises to occur offstage as part of the plot. In this case, the “noises offstage” include the chaos of a production gone horribly wrong.

Each of the three acts of Noises Off contains a performance of the first act of Nothing On.

Act One is set at the dress rehearsal the night before opening with the cast still fumbling with entrances and exits, missed cues, misspoken lines, and bothersome props, most notably several plates of sardines.

In Act Two, the play is seen from backstage, providing a view that reveals the deteriorating personal relationships among the cast that have led to offstage shenanigans and onstage bedlam.

In Act Three, we see a performance near the end of the ten-week run when personal friction has continued to increase and everyone is bored and anxious to be done with the play. The actors attempt to cover up a series of mishaps but only compound the problems and draw attention to the bungling performance.

Much of the comedy emerges from the subtle variations in each version as off-stage chaos affects on-stage performance, with a great deal of slapstick. The contrast between players’ on-stage and off-stage personalities is also a source of comic dissonance.

SOAP plans to produce this play at the Frank Venables Theatre in Oliver in late January, 2016. Auditions will be held on Sunday June 21 in the upstairs board room of the Osoyoos Art Gallery on Main Street, Osoyoos and on Monday June 22 in Big Blue at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre on Airport Road in Oliver. Both will start at 7 pm. Although auditions are being held this month, there are no plans to have rehearsals during through July and August.

Director Ted Osborne has been involved in many SOAP productions as an actor and director. He was most recently involved in The Long Weekend and Lend Me A Tenor. He will be looking for a cast of five men and four women. More information on the characters can be viewed at www.soplayers.ca. The Director can be contacted at elosborne @ yahoo.com

Copies of the script can be viewed at http://www.paololandi.it/theater/testi/Noises%20off.pdf

LLOYD DALLAS The director of Nothing On, Lloyd is passionate, suave, and extremely harried. He has a hot temper which he barely manages to keep in check, most of the time, as he watches his production go from bad to worse to disaster. He is carrying on affairs with both Brooke and Poppy which leads to very much trouble.

DOTTY OTLEY – A (rather) aging prima donna. Her money is funding the production. She has a great deal of trouble remembering her lines, blocking, and props. Capable of using spite or self-pity to get her way… Is having an affair with the much younger Garry. Plays the part of Mrs. Clackett a cockney housekeeper for the Brent’s home in England; hospitable, though slow.

GARRY LEJEUNE – Means well. Believes in The theatre. Tries to keep the show going and everyone’s morale up, but often has trouble finishing his sentences. His good nature is replaced with jealously when he believes Dotty has begun carrying on with Frederick. Plays the part of Roger, a real estate agent who is attempting to rent the house, but uses it for a place to have an affair with Vicki.

BROOK ASHTON – Young and sexy, but a terrible actress. Incapable of taking direction. Spacey and tuned-out – whether onstage or off. Blind as a bat without her contacts, which have a tendency to pop out at bad times. Carrying on with Lloyd, which is how she got her part in the show . . . She plays the part of Vicki who secretly works for Inland Revenue and is trying to woo Roger.

POPPY NORTON-TAYLOR – The assistant stage manager of Nothing On. Overworked and often on the verge of tears. Works frantically to keep the show from completely falling apart, a hopeless (and thankless) task. Her affair with Lloyd leads to a surprise announcement.

FREDERICK FELLOWES – A neurotic, bumbling actor who is filled with self doubt. A sweet man. Not the brightest bulb in the box. Always has a thousand questions about his lines and blocking. Violence and blood upset him, causing him to faint or get nosebleeds. He plays the part of Phillip Brent who is currently living in Spain with his wife Flavia to avoid paying taxes. He enters the country knowing that if he is caught by Inland Revenue, he will lose most of the year’s income. He also plays the part of Sheikh who is interested in renting the home and is the spitting image of Phillip.

BELINDA BLAIR – An experienced actress who is positive, reliable, and charming. A goodhearted busybody, who knows all the gossip about the company. She attempts to keep the show going as it unravels. She plays the part of Flavia, who is Phillip’s dependable wife opposed to household duties.

TIM ALLGOOD – The company’s long-suffering stage manager who is completely exhausted and sleep-deprived. He’s responsible for an inhuman number of tasks and forced to understudy everybody.

SELSDON MOWBRAY – A cheerful, elderly, alcoholic who forgets his lines and misses his entrances. The entire cast attempts to keep him from getting his hands on a bottle. Panic reigns when he cannot be found at all. He plays the part of an elderly burglar breaking into the Brent’s home.

Note – many parts are not “age specific” except for Selsdon, Brooke, and Dotty. The other actors are experienced and in their “prime” so to speak.

Heritage Society Partners with Royal BC Museum to Offer “Species at Risk Summer Day Camp”

Calling all kids who love science and nature! The Oliver & District Heritage Society is hosting a brand new four day summer camp for kids ages 7 – 12. The Species at Risk Summer Day Camp will run from August 4 – 8, 2015 and will focus on British Columbia’s vanishing and threatened animal, plant, and insect species. Campers can expect four full days of fun, hands-on learning about animals and plants, exciting field trips, talks with biologists and animal experts, chances to create art and comics about species at risk, and more!

The summer camp is a pilot project of the Royal British Columbia Museum, which is running the program as part of its 2015 Species at Risk exhibit. Much of the camp is housed in a custom-made trailer full to the brim with different animal and plant specimens, information, and interactive activities. Camp activities will take place both in this trailer and on the Oliver & District Museum’s lawns.

The goal of the Species at Risk Camp is to create awareness about vanishing species, especially species that live close by in the Oliver area, and to help young people discover ways to protect those creatures who are at risk due to human activity. Knowledgeable interpreters will offer fun and inspiring ways to become a champion for local species and to create change. Campers will leave having learned that they truly can make a difference.

Registration for the Species at Risk Summer Day Camp is $60 for four full days, including field trips. Spaces are limited, so please register early to avoid disappointment. To register or for more information, please contact the Oliver & District Heritage Society at 778-439-3100 Calling all kids who love science and nature! The Oliver & District Heritage Society is hosting a brand new four day summer camp for kids ages 7 – 12. The Species at Risk Summer Day Camp will run from August 4 – 8, 2015 and will focus on British Columbia’s vanishing and threatened animal, plant, and insect species. Campers can expect four full days of fun, hands-on learning about animals and plants, exciting field trips, talks with biologists and animal experts, chances to create art and comics about species at risk, and more!

The summer camp is a pilot project of the Royal British Columbia Museum, which is running the program as part of its 2015 Species at Risk exhibit. Much of the camp is housed in a custom-made trailer full to the brim with different animal and plant specimens, information, and interactive activities. Camp activities will take place both in this trailer and on the Oliver & District Museum’s lawns.

The goal of the Species at Risk Camp is to create awareness about vanishing species, especially species that live close by in the Oliver area, and to help young people discover ways to protect those creatures who are at risk due to human activity. Knowledgeable interpreters will offer fun and inspiring ways to become a champion for local species and to create change. Campers will leave having learned that they truly can make a difference.

Registration for the Species at Risk Summer Day Camp is $60 for four full days, including field trips. Spaces are limited, so please register early to avoid disappointment. To register or for more information, please contact the Oliver & District Heritage Society at 778-439-3100 or info @ oliverheritage.ca. Information about the camp is also available on the Society’s website at www.oliverheritage.ca, as well as on its Facebook page. We hope to see you there!

Again this summer, the Oliver and District Heritage Society [ODHS] will be hosting Guided Historical Walking tours of downtown Oliver. With a revised tour route and new additions along the way, these tours are a great time for the whole family, tourists and local alike. Learn about the enormous water project that that created the town, local mining, what was here before and what makes Oliver a great place now.

From June to August regular one hour tours will be go every Thursday at 10:00 am and Friday at 12:30 p.m. In addition, a special new hour and a half long extended tour will also run on Fridays at 10:00 am. These extended tours will provide you with an inside look at the history of the Oliver Chronicle Newspaper and the Oliver Theatre.

The tours will be lead by ODHS summer students Isaac Nazaroff and Shannon Tan and will start at the Oliver Visitor Centre (6431 Station Street). Make sure to bring your hat, walking shoes, water bottle and a sense of adventure! We look forward to seeing you this summer.

Yours, Pamela Woolner

Community Heritage Manager

Oliver and District Heritage Society

Box 847, Oliver, BC V0H 1T0

250-498-4027
info @ oliverheritage.ca

www.oliverheritage.ca