What’s up: Vampire Circus, Ken Dryden, Gordon Lightfoot tribute, French film, jazz-listening lessons

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This article was published 19/10/2023 (785 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Vampire Circus sinks its teeth into the Burt

Saturday, Oct. 21, 8 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre

Tickets $29.50 to $79 plus fees at Ticketmaster

Halloween comes early with the Vampire Circus, a 90-minute fusion of circus cabaret and immersive theatre, featuring acrobats, contortionists, jugglers and clowns — and a truly wild backstory involving Count Dracula’s plot to take over the world.

The Vampire Circus was created by veteran Cirque du Soleil performer Francisco Javier Santos, and has toured all over the world. The macabre travelling show is currently creepy-crawling its way across Canada, including Winnipeg for the first time.

There are few tickets left. Recommended for ages 13 and over.

— Jen Zoratti

An Evening with Ken Dryden

Monday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m.

McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park, YouTube

Free

Ken Dryden’s list of accomplishments is impressive — his work between the pipes for the Montreal Canadiens earned him loads of hardware and a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, while his work in politics landed him cabinet-minister roles in the House of Commons.

Dryden has chronicled both roles and much more in a range of bestselling books; his 1983 memoir The Game is still considered to be one of the seminal works about hockey and his role on the Habs’ dynastic team of the 1970s.

Dryden returns to Winnipeg on Monday, not in net or with a government announcement, but with a new book. The Class: A Memoir of a Place, a Time, and Us, published on Oct. 17 by McClelland & Stewart, chronicles a group of 35 fellow classmates in 1960s Toronto known as the “Selected Class.” The students, most from working-class backgrounds, spent nearly all their time together throughout their stint at Etobicoke Collegiate; in his new book Dryden recalls those days while exploring his attempts to reconnect with members of the class.

The Class launches Monday at 7 p.m. at McNally, where Dryden will be joined in conversation by Free Press editor Paul Samyn. The launch will also be streamed to McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

City artists pay tribute to Gordon Lightfoot

Friday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m.

West End Cultural Centre

Tickets: $32 at wecc.ca, eventbrite.ca

When Gordon Lightfoot died May 1 in Toronto, the 84-year-old left a trove of songs that helped build the foundation of folk music.

Songs such as Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Sundown and If You Could Read My Mind were among the many highlights of the songwriter’s career, which Winnipeg musicians will honour at Carefree Highway: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot, Friday at the West End Cultural Centre.

City producer Lloyd Peterson leads a group of artists, including Andrina Turenne, Cara Luft, Sam Baardman, Mark Reeves, Adam Warner and Gilles Fournier, who will perform Lightfoot’s songs.

“If you go deep into the catalogue, there are some incredible gems that often don’t make it to radio,” Peterson says in a release. “We’re going to celebrate some of those alongside the better-known hits.”

— Alan Small

Cinémental gathers best of French-language film

Friday,Oct. 20, through Sunday, Oct. 22, at various times

Pauline Boutal Hall at Centre culturel franco-manitobain, 340 Provencher Ave.

Adult/teen tickets $10; five-film pass $40 at en.cinemental.com, 204-233-2556

For the 32nd year, audiences will have the chance to take in the wide-ranging world of French-language film at the Cinémental festival this weekend and next at the CCFM.

Among the 23 films scheduled to screen are 10 French-Canadian productions, including festival opener Victoire, a prestige period romance about Québécois cobbler Victoire Du Sault, and Billie Blue, a coming-of-age comedy adapted from the novel by Québécois author Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, who is currently at work on the script for a sequel, according to Le Devoir.

Two films made by Manitoba directors will have their Manitoba premières at the fest: documentarian Alice Teufack’s Big Brother, which explores African immigration to Manitoba, and Ryan McKenna’s short film Four Mile Creek, a dramatization of his own family’s journey to rural Manitoba from Quebec in the 19th century. Those films screen next weekend.

A full schedule is available at en.cinemental.com.

— Ben Waldman

Jazzy education sessions

Wednesday, Oct. 25, 6:30 p.m.

Fort Garry Hotel, 222 Broadway

Tickets $15 plus fees at jazzwinnipeg.com

Learn about the rich history of jazz from some of the city’s top practitioners with Jazz Winnipeg’s new educational concert series, How to Listen to Jazz.

The two-hour events, which run every second week, are part history lesson and part performance, with each focusing on a specific musical style and time period.

Swing is king during Wednesday’s session with contemporary jazz musicians Karly Epp and Karl Kohut. The University of Manitoba faculty members and frequent collaborators will discuss the big band and dance hall eras of the Roaring ‘20s and Dirty ‘30s, and their impact on the Great American Songbook.

Epp is a jazz vocalist, vocal instructor and choral director. Kohut is an assistant professor of jazz bass and member of the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. Both have spent stints in New York City playing with celebrated musicians in some of the city’s historic jazz venues.

Future instalments of How to Listen to Jazz include seminars on bebop, free and contemporary jazz.

— Eva Wasney

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