Comedian chronicles path to adult ADHD diagnosis and its surprising rewards

Like many adult women struggling to find answers in the medical system, Kristen Einarson was first “diagnosed” with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, by TikTok.

The Winnipeg comedian and improviser’s social-media algorithm “knew her a little too well,” she says. But she brushed off the idea that her struggles might be related to ADHD. A lot of people have trouble with being late or being emotional or being overstimulated or being very interested in something for a little while and then finding a new interest, she reasoned.

But then, Einarson received an official ADHD diagnosis from her doctor at the age of 29, and everything — from childhood hyperfixations to adult overwhelm — clicked into place.

Now, she’s telling all in Oversharer, the solo standup-meets-storytelling show she’s remounting at the Park Theatre Wednesday after a successful run at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival in July. Einarson sold out five of her seven shows, and received a four-star review from the Free Press praising Oversharer as funny and sincere.

Arts and culture industries create 20,000 jobs, study finds

Art and culture are key components of Manitoba’s identity and economy, according to new data released by the Manitoba Arts Council on Monday.

Prominent totem pole returning to family after nearly 60 years due to deterioration

VICTORIA - The Greater Vancouver Harbour Authority says a carved cedar totem pole that has stood between the ocean and British Columbia's Parliament buildings since 1966 will be returned to the family of the artist due to its deterioration.

A statement from the authority says the Kwakiutl Bear Pole carved by Kwakwaka'wakw artist Henry Hunt was repaired and repainted in 2014, but further deterioration has prompted its move to Fort Rupert on the northern coast of Vancouver Island.

It says the pole will rest at the home of Hunt's son.

His son, Stan Hunt, says it was "amazing to think about how many people from around the world have learned about First Nations' art and culture through this totem pole."

Blue Rodeo guitarist’s bike stolen

In back-to-back social media posts, Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy posted a video praising Winnipeg as “a special city” — and a photo of a band member’s bike that was stolen at The Forks.

Guitarist Jimmy Bowskill’s bicycle — a red compact Dahon folding bike — was stolen sometime on Friday, Oct. 17. The veteran Toronto roots band performed at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Oct. 16 and 17.

“If you see it around or come across anyone selling a Dahon bike that seems suspicious, please reach out to us. It’s very distinctive and holds a lot of personal value. Please share — any help getting it back would mean a lot,” the band posted to Facebook and Instagram.

If the theft soured the band on Winnipeg, it didn’t show. On the same day as the stolen bike post, Cuddy posted a video of himself walking through the Exchange, admiring the city’s stock of heritage buildings.

Charlottetown Film Festival rebrands as Anchor Fest, expanding into TV, comedy and music

The Charlottetown Film Festival is getting a new name and a broader scope.

For its 12th year, the Prince Edward Island-based event will relaunch as Anchor Fest, expanding beyond film to include television, comedy, music and podcasts.

Organizers say the change was inspired by multi-arts festivals such as South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, with the goal of connecting emerging and established artists with industry professionals across Canada.

The first edition is set to run Oct. 14–18, 2026.

Broadway actors and producers reach tentative labor deal, but musicians still threaten a strike

NEW YORK (AP) — The union representing thousands of Broadway actors reached a tentative new labor agreement over the weekend with commercial producers, leaving just the musicians' union still negotiating.

Actors’ Equity Association — which represents over 51,000 members, including singers, actors, dancers and stage managers — announced a new three-year agreement on such issues as health care, scheduling and physical therapy. The tentative agreement next goes to members for ratification.

“We’re pleased to have a reached a tentative agreement on terms both parties are comfortable with,” said Jason Laks, president of The Broadway League, which represents producers. “Our focus has been negotiating in good faith at the bargaining table to reach a fair contract and we thank our mediators for their diligent work bringing us together.”

The League and American Federation of Musicians Local 802 — which represents 1,200 musicians — haven't reached a deal yet. They have voted in favor of a strike authorization as they bargain.

Halloween attraction Six Pines a horrific experience for scream queens

Before we go any further, let me just unequivocally state: Six Pines is not for the weak.

Event celebrates legacy of late local arts booster

Carolyn Basha, a behind-the-scenes superstar of the Manitoba arts world, will be celebrated by her family and friends at a memorial concert on Friday at the Desautels Concert Hall — a University of Manitoba venue Basha helped will into existence.

Before her death in July 2024 following a brief and sudden bout of cancer, the university’s director of major gifts — a trained classical pianist and longtime arts volunteer — ensured the school’s newest performance facility got as much financial support as possible, raising millions of dollars toward its construction.

Stephanie Levene, the university’s associate vice-president of alumni and donor relations says that though Basha didn’t live to see the venue’s opening last September, the concert hall’s existence is a testament to her late colleague’s commitment to the project.

“Her fingerprints are all over every aspect of it,” Levene says.

Esoteric hair works meant to muss up mores

Sandra Klowak likes playing with hair, though not all of it is hers.

Every day she twists and pulls, deftly twirling and looping strands into intricate shapes.

Petals bloom beneath her fingers, lank locks and wavy curls coil into tightly furled roses and wide-open blossoms with buttons for pistils.

The artist weaves and sculpts body matter into art for clients who want to memorialize loved ones in an intimate and profoundly personal manner.

Peguis star shooting for interstellar acclaim

The songs started small, but when it came time to record his fifth full-length album, William Prince wanted each track to reach beyond his universe in every direction.

Stunning Life of Pi stage show brings award-winning novel to vibrant life

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s season opener is one of its most fantastical productions, in which all lines between fact and fiction blur and wash away.

Theatre review: Stellar cast doubles down on hilarity in PTE's Liars at a Funeral

Dearly beloved and decidedly estranged gather for overdue hellos and forced goodbyes in Liars at a Funeral, a genial comedy about changing characters that’s carried by a perfectly selected cast faithfully committed to the undertaking.

PTE gets $100-K donation from theatre co-founder

Colin Jackson gave the Prairie Theatre Exchange audience reason to cheer before the show began Wednesday when he announced a $100,000 donation to the downtown arts organization, located since 1989 in Portage Place mall.

What’s up: Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, By Divine Right, poetry tour, improv fest, send + receive festival

Sarah McLachlanCanada Life Centre, 300 PortageWednesday, 7:30 p.m.Tickets $52-$238 at Ticketmaster 

Paula Cole & Sophie B. HawkinsClub Regent Event Centre, 1425 Regent Ave. WWednesday, 7 p.m.Tickets $46-$71 at TicketmasterLilith Fair, the pioneering all-women music festival co-founded by Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan that took place in the late ’90s, is having a major cultural moment right now thanks to Ally Pankiw’s documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery — and, as it happens, two Lilith Fair alums/’90s icons will be performing in Winnipeg next week on the same night at different venues. (Wah wah.)

McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 30th Anniversary Tour is finally coming to Canada Life Centre on Wednesday after being postponed for nearly a year owing to laryngitis and subsequent vocal rest. She’s commemorating her landmark album of the same name with a 17-date Canadian make-up tour that began this week in Victoria, but she also just released her first new album in nine years, Better Broken, in September. The Better Broken tour begins in the U.S. in November.

American singer/songwriter Paula Cole, whose 1996 hits Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? and I Don’t Want to Wait (which later was used as the theme song for the teen drama Dawson’s Creek) made her a household name and a Lilith Fair headliner, is currently on tour with Sophie B. Hawkins (Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover) that swings by Club Regent Event Centre, also on Wednesday.

Life of Pi's magnificent puppet menagerie ready for adventure at RMTC

The orangutan, the hyena and the Bengal tiger took millions of years of evolution to reach their modern forms. Their zoological counterparts that take the stage in Life of Pi came to life after about 3,500 hours of 3D printing.

Earlier this year, Calgary studio Puppet Stuff Canada began recreating the anthropomorphic characters that populate Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel and Lolita Chakrabarti’s Olivier Award-winning theatrical adaptation, which opens at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre tonight.

But the four-person team had strict instructions: its menagerie couldn’t replicate the originals used in England or during its Broadway run. From tooth to claw, each creature had to be designed, printed and assembled from scratch.

“When these Broadway shows become available for other theatres to produce, there’s two ways the rights holder will go about it. The rights holder for Little Shop of Horrors, for instance, will say this is how we built the Audrey II. Go ahead — do it. Go build the plant. In this case, the rights holder said, ‘We don’t want you to copy what we did for the first show. We want you to put your own spin on it,’” Puppet Stuff co-founder Brendan James Boyd says.