MTYP hires new artistic director

Rainbow Stage star relates to Elle Woods’ perseverance

Nearly 9,000 aspiring barristers and solicitors cross their fingers and send in their LSAT scores to Harvard University each year, but less than 10 per cent of applicants wind up on campus in Cambridge, Mass.

In Legally Blonde, the musical opening tonight at Rainbow Stage, Elle Woods (Claire Mac Master) defies the undercutting judgment of her blue-blood boyfriend Warner (Duncan Cox) to earn a spot in the Ivy League, leaving her doubters aghast and crimson-faced.

“What?” asked Elle — played by Reese Witherspoon in the 2001 film version — “Like it’s hard?”

The New York-born Mac Master never had any aspirations to pursue a law career, but can relate to her character’s plucky self-determination based on her experience at Toronto Metropolitan University’s undergraduate acting program, which accepts 25 applicants each year from an international pool of hundreds.

Long-awaited supervised drug consumption site opens quietly after months of loud opposition

After three years of planning, delays and constant controversy, Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site quietly opened its doors Tuesday morning.

MTYP hires new artistic director

Manitoba Theatre for Young People has appointed Pablo Felices-Luna as its new artistic director.

Felices-Luna, who since 2007 was artistic director of St. Catharine Ont.’s Carousel Players, will take up his post Nov. 15. He succeeds Derek Aasland, who resigned in early May.

The father of three is an unknown quantity in Winnipeg, although he did serve as an assistant director of three MTYP productions in 2002. Board president Gloria Koop said Felices-Luna was the unanimous choice of the MTYP board of directors.

“He is perfectly placed to lead the ambitious plans that MTYP has for the coming years, and sustain and expand the extraordinary work that we do here,” Koop said in a media release. “Pablo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, particularly as it relates to theatre for young audiences.”

Fun drop-in last chance to mentor grads of inner-city school with excellent track record

Summer break may be in full swing, but Gonzaga Middle School invited graduates back to the building for water balloon fights and academic, employment and support services this week.

Roughly 30 alumni, including teenagers and twentysomethings, stopped by the grades 6-8 school in North Point Douglas on Tuesday afternoon. They were greeted with slime-making kits, ice cream sundaes and staff ready to answer questions.

The initiative — the final grad drop-in organized this summer — is a new extension of the mentorship and holistic programming baked into the funded independent school’s mandate.

“We have 22- and 23-year-olds coming back and checking in and asking for help on their university papers,” principal Rex Ferguson-Baird said.