Special Events

DaPoPo continues to create space and time for unique and enjoyable times to share with friends, old and new. Join us for these exciting special and social events!

 THE EVENTS:

Details to follow - under construction

Admission for all events is $10 suggested donation, unless otherwise noted. 

Reservations strongly recommended or required for most events. 

Contact: dapopolivein@gmail.com

Tuesday, October 1, 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
5th Annual Live-In 2013  Open House/Opening Night 
We're throwing open the doors of the Living Room for a drop-in early evening. Mix and mingle, eat some snacks, play some games, enjoy some drinks, and win some prizes. Around 8 pm, we'll kick-off the month with performances by Live-In participants and special guests. Includes introduction of contributing artists and some sneak peeks at what's coming up! Reservations for  performance section recommended! EXCLAMATION POINT!

Friday, October 4 through Sunday, October 6
Special Event: Celebrate the Common 250
Friends of the Halifax Common invite the public to enjoy three days of events commemorating the gift of the Halifax Common "to and for the use of the inhabitants of the Town of Halifax as Commons forever," by King George III in 1763.  Enjoy yoga, lectures, walking tours, art, theatre, performances, music, circus, dance and more just down the street from the Live-In! FREE. Full schedule here

Saturday, October 5, 8:00 pm
Annual PARC Playwrights' Cabaret
Playwrights' Atlantic Resource Centre has invited some of Atlantic Canada's most exciting and well-known playwrights and friends to read selected scenes from their award-winning works. Come hear the works, read by those who wrote them, in an intimate literary encounter. This year's Cabaret features an exciting line-up of artists, including: Beverly Brett, Jacob Martin, Norm Foster, David S. Craig, Don Hannah, Florence MacDonald, Ryan Griffith and Meg Coles. Hosted by Charlie Rhindress. Reservations STRONGLY recommended.
Admission and refreshments by donation. Proceeds in support of the Live-In. 

CHARLIE RHINDRESS (Host) Charlie Rhindress is a cofounder and former Artistic Director of Live Bait Theatre where  he worked on more than eighty shows as an actor, writer and director.  Many of his plays premiered at Live Bait, including Guilty! The Story of the Great Amherst Mystery; The Maritime Way of Life, which was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award, and Flying On Her Own, a musical based on the life of Rita MacNeil, which was subsequently produced at Neptune Theatre.  His latest script, Making Contact, premiered at Ship’s Company Theatre this past summer. Charlie has worked with many theatres including Mulgrave Road, Ship’s Company, Neptune Theatre, Notable Acts, Victoria Playhouse and Nakai Theatre.  He has also acted in a number of films, including Red Rover, Bag of Bones and Copperhead. Charlie is a lifetime member of PARC as well as the former Associate Artist for Neptune Theatre and the current Artistic Producer of Eastern Front Theatre.

BEVERLY BRETT Bev Brett lives and works as a Playwright, Director, and Theatre Educator in the St. Ann’s Bay area of Cape Breton and the people and cultures and communities of Cape Breton is what she writes about. Her first full length play “ The Margaret”, set in St. Ann’s Bay toured to New Zealand.  “Louisbourg Lives” and “The Spirit of Aspy Bay” were written for the Fortress of Louisbourg and  The North Highlands Community Museum. Her modern day play, “Out The Meadow” has had three productions in Nova Scotia with F ORERUNNER THEATRE, SHIP’S COMPANY THEATRE, and THE ST. ANN’S BAY PLAYERS.This summer she wrote and directed OUT OF BLACK COVE, a 20 character play with a 25 member Chorale about the pioneers of St. Ann’s and the Founders of The Gaelic College as the showpiece for their 75^th anniversary. She is currently working on “The Healing Stone”, a recovery play, and a series of short Gaelic plays.

JAKE MARTIN Jake Martin is originally from the Kingston Peninsula, NB but now lives in Fredericton. He is currently the Co-Producer for the Next Folding Theatre Company and has written for two collaborative shows with them: "Henry Moon:Conducts and Mischiefs of the Lunar Rogue" and "Pistols and Petticoats: Shadows of Sarah Emma Edmonds. He has had two short scripts done by Notable Acts and is also one half of Neanderthal Theatre, through which he has done two shows recently performed at Fringe festivals in the Maritimes ( "It Trickles Down" and "God Damn the Mariachi Star"). Jake is also an actor as well and will be appearing in TNB's next season in "The Net".

NORM FOSTER Norm Foster is the most produced playwright in Canadian history with an average of 150 productions around the world each year.  He has over 50 plays to his credit including The Love List, On A First Name Basis, Hilda's Yard, The Melville Boys, Ethan Claymore and The Long Weekend.  His latest play, A Snow White Christmas, will premiere in November at Theatre Orangeville and two more new plays will premiere in 2014.

DAVID S. CRAIG David S. Craig is an award winning, internationally produced playwright with over twenty produced plays including the international hit comedy Having Hope at Home, soon to be seen on stage at Neptune.   His adaptation of The Neverending Story recently played to rave reviews in Toronto and New York.   For Roseneath Theatre he has written the internationally acclaimed Danny, King of the Basement as well as  Tough Case, Smokescreen and Rocket and the Queen of Dreams.  With Robert Morgan he has written  such Chalmers and Dora awarding winning plays as; Morgan’s Journey, Head à Tête, The Book of Miracles, Health Class and Dib and Dob and the Journey Home.  His one-man show Napalm the Magnificent (Dora Nominee – Outstanding Production & Performance Nominee) was performed extensively in Canada and at the John Houseman Theatre Centre on Theatre Row in Manhattan.   

MEG COLES Megan Coles is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and the National Theatre School of Canada. She is co-founder and c-artistic director of Poverty Cove Theatre Company. Megan is currently working on a trilogy of plays examining resource exploitation in Newfoundland and Labrador titled Falling Trees, Building Houses and Wasting Paper. She is a member of the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador, Playwrights' Guild of Canada, Playwrights' Atlantic Resource Centre (NL Rep on the Board) and Playwrights' Workshop Montreal. Her completed plays include Our Eliza, The Battery and Bound. Megan, originally from Savage Cove on the Great Northern Peninsula, currently resides in St. John's, NL.

FLORENCE MACDONALD Florence MacDonald is the author of several award-winning plays including Belle, Home is My Road, Missing, and How Do I Love Thee? She is also co-creator with Shawn Byfield of the innovative, Dora-award winning tap dance show, i think i can, which was remounted and toured in 2011. Works-in-progress include Augury and her one woman show, Love Handles. 

DON HANNAH Don Hannah is an award winning playwright and novelist. His pair of one person shows, The Cave Painter & The Woodcutter, were recently published by Playwrights Canada Press, and Cave Painter received the 2012 Carol Bolt Award. He has worked as a dramaturge at Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Banff Playwrights Colony, and Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, of which he is a founding member. His books include Shoreline, a collection of his plays, and the novels, The Wise and Foolish Virgins, and Ragged Islands, both published by Knopf. Ragged Islands was awarded the Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

RYAN GRIFFITH Ryan Grittith is originally from just outside Woodstock, New Brunswick. He began writing plays during his time at St. Thomas University, in 1999. Ryan is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and is currently the Artistic Director of The Next Folding Theatre Company in Fredericton, NB. His plays include Demolotics and Lutz, which is published by Playwrights Canada Press

Panel Discussion Live-In 2012

Saturday, October 12, 8:00 pm
Panel Discussion: The Personal is Political?
A provocative discussion with Sky Gilbert, Mary Lou Martin, Dustin Harvey, Annie Valentina, Kathryn MacLellan and Thom Fitzgerald. Moderated by Karen Bassett.

Dustin Harvey

Dustin Harvey has led theatre based work in Halifax since 2003. The projects span place-based and site-responsive performance, plays, installations, meeting events, and short-run publications. Each production is about the theatrical while engaging viewers intimately. He has created Departure, Farewell, Folkloremobile, The Common, (We) Are Here, Another City, Best Wishes: Letters To A Young Practitioner, Cowboy Show, and Winding Up Godot for Secret Theatre, productions that have been seen in Ireland, Denmark, Wales, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, Calgary and St. John’s. His writing about performance has been published in Canadian Theatre Review (Issues 126, 134). He has a BA in Theatre from Acadia University, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (UK). Upcoming projects include Landline with Adrienne Wong (Vancouver/Ottawa), and City In Stereo with Nick Bottomley (Halifax).  His chapter entitled 'Temporary Spaces' is also being published in the book 'Why Theatre Now' by University of Toronto Press in 2014.

Thom Fitzgerald

Thom Fitzgerald is a writer, director and producer of film, theatre and television. Works include Forgive Me,  Cloudburst, 3 Needles, and The Hanging Garden.  He has won awards from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and the US Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In Canada he has won awards from the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival, Sudbury Cinefest, and Atlantic Film Festival. Internationally he has won awards from the Berlin Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Troia International Film Festival, and dozens more. He is a three-time premiere guest of Sundance Film Festival. He is the Artistic Director of Plutonium Playhouse Society, which has produced or presented over two dozen plays since 2010. Since 2011 Thom has been the Director of the Atlantic Fringe Festival. 

SKY GILBERT is a writer, director, teacher, and drag queen extraordinaire. He was co-founder and artistic

Sky Gilbert

director of Toronto’s Buddies in Bad Times Theatre  for 17 years. He has had nearly 40 plays produced, and has written 6 critically acclaimed novels, and three award winning poetry collections. He has received three Dora Mavor Moore Awards (including one for his recent play THE SITUATIONISTS) and the Pauline McGibbon Award for theatre directing. He was also the recipient of The Margo Bindhardt Award (from the Toronto Arts Foundation), The Silver Ticket Award (from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts), and the ReLit Award (for his fourth novel AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, 2004). Dr. Gilbert is an Associate Professor and holds a University Research Chair in Creative Writing and Theatre Studies at The School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. His 6th novel COME BACK published last year by ECW Press, and his new poetry collection THE MOMMIAD was published last year by Playwrights Canada Press. His play about growing up gay in the country, ST. FRANCIS OF MILLBROOK will be published soon, also by Playwrights Canada Press.

Ms. MacLellan is a Haligonian actor,producer,teacher and figure skating choreographer.  She is the founder and Artistic Director of KAZAN CO-OP. (sister Janet is the ZAN) Two time Actra Nominee for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in feature films PAST PERFECT and A STONES THROW. Robert Merritt nominee for THE GIRL IN THE GOLDFISH BOWL and A BEAUTIFUL VIEW. This past year the KAZAN productions of “COMMUNION” and “I,ANIMAL”  received three Merritt awards and were nominated for a total of eight. MacLellan played the role of “Carolyn” (COMMUNION- Neptune/National Arts Center)) and “Woman in Prada” (I,ANIMAL- Supernova/Summerworks).  She recently directed and produced ALONE with Sherry Lee Hunter at the Atlantic Fringe Festival. Most recently Kathryn performed “Red Rabbit,White Rabbit” with DMV productions. 

Mary Lou Martin

Mary Lou Martin is a theatre director, choreographer and arts educator who has worked professionally in both the theatre and dance worlds for more than 25 years. She has worked at theatres all over the region and beyond.
Mary Lou has been Artistic Director for the Chester Playhouse Summer Theatre Festival since 2008. Favourites at the Playhouse include The Fantasticks (2005), Berlin to Broadway (2006), Musical of Musicals - The Musical! (2008), and Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well... (2011). All of these productions garnered Merritt Award nominations. 

Annie Valentina

Annie Valentina is a Halifax-based theatre artist and producer. She came to Canada from Norway in 2000, got a BA from Dal Theatre four years later, and has only rarely looked back since. In 2010, she co-founded local company The Doppler Effect to pursue staging provocative new works of drama - her own and others'. The company has since then mounted six productions, the latest of which - 'Heartwood' by Laura Burke, directed by Annie Valentina - is touring to Ontario this month and getting a Halifax remount in the new year. As an actor and playwright, Annie is fresh off her autobiographical one-woman show 'Alien', which debuted in the 2013 Atlantic Fringe and received the festival award for Best Female Performer. She also wrote and starred in 'Touch', a Doppler Effect production for Queer Acts 2012; and co-wrote and starred in 'CU2morrow', a 2011 play which has been adapted to a feature film and will go to camera in 2014 under the title 'Lure'. Other notable acting credits include 'Bone Boy' (Frankie Productions, 2012) and 'Pluto's Playthings' (Plutonium Playhouse 2012), as well as appearances in locally filmed TV series Sex & Violence (2013) and Haven (2012). Annie is thrilled to be involved in the Live-In this year, having last kicked it with DaPoPo in 2009 as part of the creative team/touring company of 'Four Actors in Search 

of a Nation' and 'Apocalypse'. Annie's also a member of the very wonderful Playwright's Atlantic Resource Centre, and has recently turned out to be married to her partner in life and art, Michael McPhee.

Thanksgiving 2012

Monday, October 14, 5:00 pm
Thanksgiving Potluck
Bring food and fun to share with friends, new and old, around our big table of thankfulness.

Admission: Something yummy.
Reservations not required, but email us if you're planning to come so we have enough plates!

Friday, October 25, 7:30 pm
"30 Cameras" Art Exhibit Opening
An evening celebrating the culmination of an artistic project by Zach Faye in which he gave 30 disposable cameras to 30 different people - some friends, some strangers - with the instructions to shoot what they wanted. This photo exhibit will collect from those photographs. Exhibit will be open for the remainder of the month during other Live-in events.

Sunday, October 27, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Fun and Games Day

In this afternoon of competitive play, you will be challenged intellectually, physically and emotionally. From the Surprise Lip Synch Competition to the Cryptic Clue Scavenger Hunt, this is an absolute DaPoPo Live-In must! Join Zach and Garry for a day of ridicule, humiliation, and injury. But don't worry. It's all fun & games…right? 

Thursday, October 31, 7:00 pm
Hallowords Closing Night Celebration
On All Hallows' Evening, gather with us to close out The Live-In 2013 with a celebration of words through poetry, song and text. We'll also give a nod to the ninth anniversary of the very first Hallowords gathering, conceived in October 2004 by DaPoPo as a fundraiser for the first production by the company. A time for reflecting on what has been, what is to come and to enjoy being together right here.