The BreakFest Blog
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
Heritage Day Celebration
Help celebrate Ottawa’s diverse culture and heritage on Tuesday February 22, 2011! The Cultural & Heritage Services Branch of the City of Ottawa present Heritage Day, an annual event taking place at Ottawa City Hall, located at 110 Laurier Avenue West. Local historical societies, heritage groups, and museums will exhibit tabletop displays; while lively music and entertainment is provided and costumed interpreters greet visitors. Heritage Day Ceremony in Andrew S. Haydon Hall at noon. Light refreshments will be served. Contact Cynthia.smith@ottawa.ca or 613-580-2424 extension 30540 for more information. www.ottawa.ca/heritage
What: Heritage Day
Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Time: 11:30 am to 3 p.m.
Location: Ceremony in Andrew S. Haydon Hall
Reception to follow in Jean Pigott Hall
WANT A GOOD LAUGH? SOCK N’ BUSKIN’S COMEDY FESTIVAL
Sock N‟ Buskin Theatre Company kicks off 2011 with our very own Ottawa Director Adam Smith‟s Comedy Festival – a compilation of one-act comedies at Carleton University‟s Kailash Mital Theatre February 2-5, 2011.
“This festival is an entertaining way to show off Ottawa‟s comedic talent. The exceptionally diverse showcase of acts will leave the audience falling off their chairs with laughter!” – Michelle Blanchard, Artistic Director.
The Festival presents four nights of nine distinct acts ranging from Shel Silverstein‟s 1950‟s cartoon- The Best Daddy to Smith‟s very own Over the Hill. This festival promises to provideentertainment that is funny with a combination that is uniquely original.
“The plays were chosen because of their modern comedy feel. Much like Saturday Night Live or Mad TV, these short 1-acts are quick, in your face, and wickedly funny” – Adam Smith, Director.
When: February 2-5, curtains open at 8pm
Where: Kailash Mital Theatre, Carleton University
Cost: PWYC Wednesday night, $12 General Admission, $8 Student and Senior Admission
Tickets: (613) 520-3770 or snbreservations@gmail.com
Kindness Week February 18-25, 2011
From February 18 to 25, Ottawans will be spreading kindness.
People will be sprucing up the entrance to a downtown seniors’ centre, students will be serving lunch to seniors, others will be dropping off baby clothes to an organization that serves parents with infants and young children – and hundreds more will engage in other acts of kindness in the community, workplace or school.
So, get inspired, join the conversation, pay it forward with a Kindness Card and share your kindness stories. The brainchild of Rabbi Reuven Bulka, Kindness Week is proudly presented by United Way Ottawa. Check it all out @kindottawa.ca.
ATTENTION PLEASE!
If your organization is participating in or hosting a community or charity event / initiative during Kindness Week, PLEASE let us know and your event will be included in the Kindness Week calendar of events and publicized by United Way! Send your info to: Julie Lefrancois at 613-228-6896 or jlefrancois@unitedwayottawa.ca.
Nominate someone today for Forty Under 40
Who are the city’s rising business stars?
Each year, the Ottawa Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Awards answer that question. More than any other, these awards capture the entrepreneurial spirit and dynamic nature of Ottawa’s business community by recognizing individuals under the age of 40 who balance bottom line results with a desire to participate in charitable and community activities.
In January, a call for nominations is issued. These nominations are then judged by a prestigious committee of business leaders. And, in May, the list of recipients is released.
As always, the nominees are evaluated using three criteria: career accomplishments, professional expertise as well as community and charitable involvement.
It all culminates in a fun-filled gala, this year scheduled for June 16 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy.
Do you know someone under the age of 40 who exemplifies leadership, entrepreneurship and community building? If so, click on the link below to use the Review Room submission system.
Click here to nominate someone today!
For more information contact Cheryl Schunk at 613-744-4800 ext. 231 or email cschunk@obj.ca
It’s when the sun goes down that things really light up.
Growing up Canadian means knowing winter. For me, the most thrilling time to explore that crisp world was always at night. Cross-country skiing among B.C.’s towering pines, I would admire the sparkle of tiny snowflakes floating against the backdrop of a jet-black sky. I’d snuggle in the back of a horse-drawn sleigh in the Whistler hills and delight at the unexpected romance of one mittened hand holding another. Across the country, we locals are experts at bundling up to capture the magic of Canadian winter nights, and we’re ready to share our toasty secrets.
Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Skateway
Ottawa’s Rideau Canal is much more than a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the oldest continually operating canal system in North America: Every January, a nearly 8-km (5-mi) stretch of its waters turns into the world’s largest skating rink. Start at Dows Lake Pavilion, where you’ll strap on your rented skates – hockey-style are easiest – and let the canal’s wind tunnel whisk you along its starry stretch, skimming beneath the century-old arches of the Bank Street Bridge.
Read more: msn.ca
Canadian capital lures Chinese tourists
The 33rd annual Ottawa Winterlude Festival (including the 41st season of the Rideau Canal Skateway) will open to the public from 4-21 February 2011. Since the opening falls just two days after the Chinese New Year, Chinese tourists will be welcomed to join in many Chinese-themed activities and spend the Chinese New Year in the “Canadiana” environment. Ice-carvers from Harbin will also participate in the Winterlude ice-carving contest, showing their Chinese-style art to the world.
“Ottawa’s Winterlude festival does not simply provide winter outdoor fun, but also represents the uniqueness of Canada’s capital city and its celebration of multiculturalism,” says the President and CEO of Ottawa Tourism, Noel Buckley.
The 33rd Winterlude festival includes activities at four major sites: go skating and taste traditional Canadian food on the Rideau Canal (the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, the world’s largest naturally frozen skating rink); see ice sculptures take shape at the Crystal Garden in Confederation Park; take sleigh-rides or enjoy ice-slides at Jacques Cartier Park; and experience the special lighting effects and performances at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
There are several multicultural activities specially arranged for local Chinese residents and Chinese tourists, in order to allow them to celebrate their Chinese New Year in Ottawa with a feeling of “home.” The Crystal Garden in Confederation Park will collaborate with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Canada, celebrating the Chinese New Year together with various Chinese-style activities including a Chinese lantern show, dance performances, a photo exhibit and tea ceremonies in an Asian yurt. Two teams of Ice-cavers from the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China will participate in the Ice-carving Contest, competing with ice-carving artists from all over the world.
Mr. Buckley adds, “The year of 2011 is the first year after the 40th anniversary of Canada-China relations. The ‘China features’ in this year’s Winterlude will be a significant step in advancing the friendship between the two countries. I strongly believe this event will be a wonderful start to lead the Canada-China relations to a new era.”
For events, restaurant listings, maps, hotel packages and more, visit www.ottawatourism.ca
Undercurrents festival shows edgy Ottawa plays
The Great Canadian Theatre Company starts its first ever Undercurrents theatre festival Wednesday.
The festival will focus on six small, edgy shows that don’t fit the Holland Avenue theatre’s biggest stage, said the GCTC’s artistic associate Patrick Gauthier.
Three of the plays are local productions, and Gauthier said the festival is a great chance to expose local audiences to something different.
“We can say, these are shows we think you might like, whereas if it was in the [Ottawa Fringe Festival] or at Arts Court, they might not take the risk,” Gauthier said.
“But it’s in our building, so why not take the risk?”
It’s also a chance for local producers to use a studio space they may not have been able to afford, Gauthier said.
“This is huge for new creation in Ottawa,” said Kevin Orr, whose play Bifurcate Me will play during the first week of the festival.
“This opportunity is really going to jumpstart the community.”
In Orr’s play the two main actors are subjects in a scientific experiment. In a rehearsal this week both wore kneepads, as their characters fall more than 200 times in the play which runs less than an hour.
Orr said the play examines what drives people to get back up after they’ve been beaten down.
Other plays set to play at the Undercurrents festival include shows about men having babies and the financial meltdown.
The festival runs from Jan. 26 – Feb. 6.
STARTUPS TO WATCH: FaveQuest
After all, the firm launched its first major product – a “Viewtube” application that includes modules clients can drop into a website, Facebook applications and a social iPhone app – to the thunderous beats of 2009’s Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. It received rave reviews in the media soon after and was such a hit, founder Allan Isfan said Bluesfest signed the firm to help showcase 2010 and 2011’s events.
It’s all part of Mr. Isfan’s grand strategy of being a market leader in the major festivals market. Indeed, the company has also recently signed deals with Canada’s Walk of Fame Festival in Toronto, Winterlude, the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and a number of Rochester, N.Y.-based events.
The product’s design is geared to engage visitors and encourage them to share what they’ve discovered – from who’s playing the Bank of America stage on Saturday to which beer tent has the shortest lineups – with friends.
read more at obj.ca
Greed, pregnant brothers and the art of falling down: expect original work at Ottawa’s newest festival
If Johanna Nutter’s brother hadn’t got pregnant, she might never have written a play. But he did, and she did, and we get to see the results thanks to undercurrents, Ottawa’s newest festival.
The two-week festival starting Jan. 26 is a Great Canadian Theatre Company endeavour. It features original, edgy works by six independent Canadian theatre companies. Three of them are from Ottawa, and the balance are companies touring the country. Each show runs four times in the cozy Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre Studio, with half the plays running the first week and the other half the second week.
Nutter’s production, My Pregnant Brother, is rooted in a true story. Her younger brother, who was born female but now lives as man, became pregnant before the world had even heard of Thomas Beatie, the former Hawaiian beauty queen who gave birth to three children after changing genders.
Nutter’s brother had a girl as well, but his substance abuse problems caused a less happy outcome, a twist that is explored in the play.
“I tried not to write the play because I was afraid I’d be tarred and feathered and run out of town,” says Nutter. “It seemed like a story from another planet. Three years in a row, I applied to the Montreal Fringe Festival, thinking, ‘If I get picked, then I’ll write it.’ I prayed that I wouldn’t get picked.”
Eventually she did and wound up winning Montreal’s best of fringe award for 2009.
Read more: www.ottawacitizen.com
Hot Date: Brand New Theatre Fest
Jan. 26 to Feb. 6. If you like your theatre with a bit of edge, then the undercurrents festival by the Great Canadian Theatre Company is for you. Six original plays with a limited four-show run are on the bill, all by some of Canada’s most boundary-pushing theatre creators. From the story of a 1930s stage queen to the tale of a pregnant man, these plays offer sharp commentary, moving narrative, and offbeat protagonists in a fest that’s anything but mainstream.
This new festival is described as “theatre below the mainstream.” See original plays by some of Ottawa’s (and Canada’s) most exciting and boundary-pushing theatre creators, including dynamic, up-and-coming artists who will share the stage with the hottest independent shows touring the country. Each of the six productions in the festival will have a limited four-show run. Jan. 26 to Feb. 6. $15; three show pass: $40; six show pass: $60.
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