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Gargoyle Theatre refuses to let massive snowfall end recovery from pandemic

After starring in Sonja and Richard last February, Marina Stephenson-Kerr and Steven Ratzlaff earned the distinction of being the first actors to take the stage at the Gargoyle Theatre.

An unforgiving Winnipeg winter threatened to also make them the last.

Under the weight of the historic snowfall of 2022, the Ellice Avenue theatre’s roof was compromised, with water seeping into the newly refurbished, repainted and renovated interior.

“It pretty much immediately shut us down,” says Andrew Davidson, the local author who purchased the Mac building in 2019 and funded its rejuvenation.

Play explores fallout from graduate wanting same-sex date at celebration

Megan Fry’s Grade 12 grad story is pretty standard: her cousin did her makeup, she did her own hair, and after slipping on a dress she found on sale for only $50, she met up to take pictures with a platonic friend she brought along as her date.

Ho-hum.

“I went to grad with a guy, and it was so easy because that’s what everyone expected to happen,” says Fry, 24, an alumna of Kelvin High School and a rising musical theatre professional in Winnipeg. Even though they weren’t romantically involved, nobody batted an eye when they posed arm-in-arm or exchanged corsages.

“There’s a lot of privilege in that,” adds Fry, who appeared in Winnipeg Studio Theatre’s recent production of Fame.

Métis Superstar Designs creates one-of-a-kind ribbon skirts to reflect Indigenous pride and resilience

SELKIRK — Marlena Muir knew it was customary for women to wear a ribbon skirt to sweat lodge ceremonies, when she attended her first sweat at age 18, but, lacking one of her own, she arrived sporting a grey tank top and black maxi-skirt, instead.

Ahead of entering the lodge, Muir was pulled aside by a friend who whispered, “here, put this on,” as she handed over a patterned garment adorned with strips of brightly coloured silk.

“Slipping into it, I felt so… included. I’d never worn a ribbon skirt before, and it made me feel like I was being seen as an Indigenous woman, in a way I’d never experienced before,” Muir says, noting she also received her spirit name, Osâwi-Pinêsiw Iskwew (Yellow Thunderbird Woman), that day.

Close to a decade later, Muir, 27, is the proud owner of Métis Superstar Designs, a home-based venture that turns out contemporary versions of ribbon skirts, an article of clothing oft-described as being a symbol of identity and survival for Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people. Online reviews for her handiwork are glowing; her funky, functional pieces have been called, “beautiful,” “gorgeous” and, in the case of one done with pumpkin-orange jacquard fabric, “dedli.” (We think they mean “deadly.”)

Love of woodworking takes edge off exit from hockey career

During his first shift of an American Hockey League game between the Iowa Wild and the Grand Rapids Griffins on March 11, 2020, Wild forward Mike Liambas was skating toward a Griffins player preparing to fire the puck into the Wild zone. Liambas thrust his stick out, in an attempt to block or deflect his opponent’s pass, at which point his world changed, in a heartbeat.

“I’m only telling you what I’ve been told, or what I know from watching the video, because not only don’t I remember getting hit, I don’t recall that day’s morning skate, putting on my equipment, taking warm-ups… zilch,” says Liambas, who, during his professional career, spent 10 seasons bouncing around the International, East Coast and American hockey leagues, in addition to having “a cup of coffee” in the NHL, where he dressed for one game with the Nashville Predators and seven with the Anaheim Ducks.

“When I reached out with my stick, I left my face exposed,” he continues, getting out of his chair, to demonstrate what he understands to have occurred. “He thought I was going to finish my check, which is fair, so he raised his arms, catching me square on the chin.”

Liambas rose to his feet following the collision, only to crumple back to the ice. That occurred again, before he was escorted to the bench, by two of his teammates.

Exhibition celebrates life stories of COVID’s earliest, most isolated victims

In the spring of 2020, Megan Davies was confronted by a terrifying number: 82 per cent of Canada’s first-wave COVID-19 deaths were residents of long-term care facilities.