What’s up: Bill Nye, Big Sugar, Slow Leaves, MTYP, NAfro

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This article was published 29/02/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The End is Nye: An Evening with Bill Nye the Science Guy

• Sunday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.
• Centennial Concert Hall
• Tickets: $84-$105 (including fees and taxes) at centennialconcerthall.com

He made science accessible for the MTV generation during his multiple Emmy-winning run as Bill Nye the Science Guy in the 1990s.

Now, Bill Nye is back — and good thing, too. In the age of misinformation, disinformation and denialism, we need guys like Nye who can get people thinking by letting curiosity and humour lead the way.

Nye is an engineer, comedian, author and inventor — but he’s also an optimist. He believes it’s not too late for us to author a different future for ourselves in the face of climate catastrophe, so long as we have science on our side.

That’s the foundation of his new live show, The End is Nye — based on the series of the same name that debuted on the American streaming service Peacock in 2022 — which comes to Winnipeg this weekend. Tickets to Sunday’s show are still available; use code BN10 for a 10 per cent discount (excludes VIP).

The Free Press also has a pair of tickets to give away. First to email arts@freepress.mb.ca gets ‘em.

— Jen Zoratti

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Big Sugar celebrates seminal album at the Burt

• Monday, March 4, 8 p.m.
• Burton Cummings Theatre
• Tickets from $29.50 at Ticketmaster

When Big Sugar’s sophomore album Five Hundred Pounds dropped in late 1993, the Toronto-based trio quickly garnered a loyal following thanks in part to their electric club shows, where they’d roll up decked out in Hugo Boss suits and rip through their brand of distortion-heavy, guitar-driven blues rock.

On Monday the band — led by Winnipeg-born singer-guitarist Gordie Johnson — celebrates the deluxe U.S. vinyl release of Five Hundred Pounds (now dubbed 500 Pounds, for what it’s worth) with a two-set show that will lean both on tunes from the album (including breakout hit Ride Like Hell) as well as the rest of its catalogue, which saw the group infuse roots and reggae influences into their sound.

The album 500 Pounds was reissued on Feb. 16 by Jack White’s Third Man Records — White is a vocal fan of Big Sugar, and in a recent video called the album “the best blues-based record to ever come out of Canada.” (He’s also covered Ride Like Hell in live shows, including at a 2022 gig in Toronto.) The vinyl release of 500 Pounds also includes a bonus seven-inch single.

— Ben Sigurdson

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Meantime in the spotlight for Slow Leaves show

• Friday, March 1, 8 p.m.
• West End Cultural Centre
• Tickets: $24.34 at wecc.ca and reallovewpg.com

Slow Leaves released Meantime last June, and in the meantime, Grant Davidson’s folk-pop project has toured the album across Canada and the United Kingdom, from Nanaimo to Nottingham.

The waiting has been the hardest part for fans of the Winnipeg artist, which might be appropriate, since some of the tracks in Meantime have a Tom Petty vibe.

The delay ends Friday night at the West End Cultural Centre, when Slow Leaves gives Meantime its official Winnipeg debut.

Besides hints of roots-rock, the record also features Davidson’s tender vocals, intricate guitar-playing and songs about waiting for love to happen.

Dominique Adams, who moved to Winnipeg last year from Edmonton, opens the evening with a set of folk music, accompanied by Austin Parachoniak.

— Alan Small

A fiery show from MTYP’s Young Company

• Friday, March 1, and Saturday, March 2, 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 at mtyp.ca

Somebody call the fire department — The Arsonists are running amok at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

Set in a town with a tendency to burn, The Arsonists stars the budding performers in MTYP’s Young Company, the starting ground for many of the city’s best theatre artists. Who knows where this talented group — Ally Baydock, Jaxon German, Preston Harrison, Kayden Jackson, OJ Jeffery, Sophia Leveque, Oliver Levere, Teagan Lucking, Isabel Nagle, Kai Philpot and Scout Simkulet — will go next?

Directed by Anika Dowsett, the show was written in 1953 by the Swiss playwright Max Frisch, and has been presented under a handful of names, according to the British Theatre Guide: first, Biedermann und die Brandstifter, then The Fireraisers, then The Firebugs, and finally, upon its translation by Alistair Beaton, The Arsonists.

The young company — a pre-professional program at MTYP — started rehearsing the dark comedy in September. Cyan Gargol is assistant director, Kate George is costume and prop designer, Ksenia Broda-Milian is set designer, Willow Harvey is stage manager, and Eric Bosse is lighting designer. Recommended for audiences 12 and up,

Get your tickets while they’re hot.

— Ben Waldman

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NAfro presents works of the African diaspora

• Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
• Gas Station Arts Centre, 445 River Ave.

Tickets: $25 general admission; $20 seniors, students and artists; $10 for under 12s at nafrodance.com/tickets/

Winnipeg-based African dance company NAfro Dance Production has teamed up with Toronto’s KasheDance to present a new program featuring two pieces of choreography.

Until Then Now by KasheDance’s Kevin A. Ormsby showcases his investigations into movement, kinetic play and physicality.

NAfro founder Casimiro Nhussi’s Wakati, is the second piece, which explores how we can find and build inner strength in difficult times.

NAfro Dance Productions was started in 2002 and is the only African contemporary dance company in Western Canada. The company’s goal is to encourage and assist the development of both African and African-Canadian dancers and choreographers by giving them a place to explore and realize their thoughts and goals.

— AV Kitching

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