And Shakespeare Said Let It Be Pink?

"Oh my God, oh my God you guys"... Legally Blonde the musical is playing at Hamilton's Theatre Aquarius! I ventured out in the drizzly evening with my mother and my grandmother. I really wanted to stay dry indoors, wrapped up in my blanket with a tea and my book but I powered through and I am glad I did! It was the best production I have seen at Theatre Aquarius to date, and I've seen quite a few. This (and my "THEATRE" friend Amanda who suggested it) have lead me to this post. Community theater VS. Professional theater in good old Hamont!

Bruiser

Here is where "blonde" Elle Woods decides to go to Harvard Law!

I am lucky enough to have many friends in the theatre community and therefore have been to lots and lots...and lots of performances. I also just plain old love theatre. I was in a couple of plays in high school and I swear to God I still have dreams about it. It was such an amazing experience. The lights, the costumes...sigghhh...

Aquarius usually can be depended upon to put on some great plays, but I've seen a couple that weren't AH-mazing, but usually those were non-musicals and seemed how many would think "community theatre" is. Slow, boring, abstract. Luckily I can honestly say I have yet to encounter a community theatre production in Hamilton that has met any of the stereotypes.

To me there is such a small divide in Hamilton theatre. Everything is pretty top notch, even the low budget shows have been so full of life with talent that it rings through. The last "community" show I saw was Hamilton Theatre Inc's Godspell. I had never seen Godspell but was very intrigued (and scared) by it. I'm not religious by most accounts but I know the bible stories and Jesus Christ Superstar is actually my favourite musical. Still, I was nervous that I would be somewhat out of the loop with this one.

I recognized many performers from other community theatre shows and was blown away by the amount of talent in the room. Small stage, tiny set, home made costumes but overall an incredible production. Although it was about Jesus and his disciples it never got too "God-y". It was fun and had lots of great voices. It was nice to see almost everybody in the cast get some kind of solo and they really worked well with the small space they had.

Jesus is my homeboy...

Wonderful cast of "clowns" aka. disciples!

Other than musicals a couple of my favourite community shows have been Black Box Fire's Pride and Prejudice (HUGE Austen fan right here)  which took place at HTI's space and Black Box Fire`s awesome production of Dracula (also a big vampire fan :P). They were both SO good. Dracula played at The Staircase Theatre and had a very small cast but nothing about it looked cheap. The actors were great and it was a wonderful version of Dracula.

I guess to sum up I would just like to say that there is so much talent in this town that you can't really go wrong when choosing which theatre productions to attend. Just remember more expensive doesn't always mean better. There are great shows for every budget. Even some high school productions (ahem...like Hill Park's 2002 production of OLIVER...) are captivating.

Here is a list of some amazing theatre companies in the Hammer where you could potentially go see some stellar shows:

Theatre Aquarius
Hamilton Place
Hamilton Theatre Inc.
Black Box Fire
Shooting Star Theatrics
Hammer Entertainment
The Players' Guild of Hamilton
Theatre Ancaster


Also Legally Blonde: The Musical is playing at Theatre Aquarius until April 27th, 2013! Click here to go see it!

Out With The Old

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I know, I know it's about 18 days too late. I do apologize for that but I have been busy. Like actually busy. I'm not just saying that. Heck you were probably busy as well so I don't know why I'm explaining myself to you.

December was a great month. It flew by without giving me a chance to write about exciting things that took place.

Let's see, there was Christmas but really what's more important than that? My birthday of course! It just so happens to fall on the same day as Christmas. Way to take the spotlight away from me baby Jesus. Real nice.

Of course I had to celebrate my birthday before my actual birthday and it was great! It all started in the morning when I looked at Twitter and saw that the Arkells had Tweeted that they were going to be shooting a music video at This Ain't Hollywood on James St. N and they were looking for fans to be extras. Obviously I had to do it. Laura was in as well and we headed on down to go be in a music video! How exciting!

It was very interesting to watch it all and I must say that I really respect the band for sticking with their home town. They've definitely had enough success to film music videos elsewhere but they continue to pay homage to the Hammer and to their roots. It's great to see that their feet are safely on the ground.

The video hasn't been released yet but I'm excited to see if Laura and I made the cut. Maybe we'll be on your teeeeveeee some day, maybe not. Either way it was a lot of fun. Here's an older video from Arkells.

Here's a picture of me "on set"...I'm such a nerd.

That's one of the directors in the background. Hollywooood!! :P

After our day of pretending to be important, glamorous film stars it was time to head to the most important red carpet event of the day. My birthday party. Now I won't divulge how old I turned because a lady never reveals her age. Wait a second...I'm not a lady! Okay I turned 28. Egads! That was harder than I thought.

I celebrated my old age with a low key celebration at the neighbourhood pub, Ye Olde Squires. I really love the atmosphere there, plus their food is pretty awesome as well. It was all very nice and once again my friends made me feel very special and loved.

This is not the whole party. Some of them had left already but this is most of the gang!

My friends like to make me act a fool. I will admit that it was pretty yummy :P

It's my party and I'll lie on the floor of a pub with my best friend if I want to.

After the epicness that was my birthday (thanks Squires staff btw) Christmas kind of paled in comparison so I will just move right along to New Years Eve.

My friends and I kind of failed to come to a cohesive decision about what to do. Apparently you have to plan this one evening months in advance and as a group that is made up of some couples and some singles it's hard to find something that won't make people feel left out. Anyways we ended up all kind of splitting off and that is fine. I think everybody got to do what they wanted and had a good new years.

My little group went to Milestones. They had a special NYE evening going on and the menu was delicious! It was only my second time there but boy do they have some yummy food. After dinner My friends Erin and Amanda and her boyfriend Gary came back to my place. My family was having a NYE board game extravaganza. Unfortunately we took so long at dinner that we only made it back juuust in time to drink some champagne and ring in 2013.

I have pretty, pretty friends! <3

My lovely little niece was my kiss at midnight! She promptly passed out right after the ball drop!

That seems to bring us to January. I got a job doing communications consulting for the Community Centre for Media Arts (CCMA). It is part time and a contract position BUT it is definitely a step in the right direction. I started last week and am happy to report that so far I'm really enjoying it! It's a bit of a relief after stressing for so long about ever finding a job in my field, especially one in Hamilton. I think it is going to be really good for me.

Aside from that January has allowed me to make some great memories with friends. Karaoke at The Staircase Theatre (go check this place out, you'll thank me) is just one of those great memories. That was such a fun night and Amanda even convinced me to sing (to the absolute shock and horror of all others in the room).

Olivia Newton John...eat your heart out.

If January is any indicator 2013 may just be my year. I have so much to look forward to. My sister will have her baby (so soon I can't wait!), I get to do some cool things in my volunteer role at the CNIB, there are a couple travel opportunities which I am so excited for and who knows, maybe even doors opening for me in the career corridor of my life.

Bring it on 2013. Bring it on!