Get ready for the bare-knuckle round — Debaters returns to Winnipeg Comedy Festival

Is Big Oil a good thing for Canada? Do butter tarts beat Nanaimo bars? Should Canada become the 51st state? Is Velcro better than laces?

It may sound like you’re overhearing snatches of conversation from both the kids and adult tables of a family party, rather than questions posed on the CBC Radio One program The Debaters.

However, the weekly family-friendly program on CBC’s primary radio news service has always been a little more fun than factual, a little more whimsy than weighty.

“I prefer when it’s got a little bit of meat to it,” says Steve Patterson, the Ontario comedian who has hosted the show since 2007.

Sewing studio offers classes for crafty folks

Make it Sew is made to feel like a living room. Handmade quilts and crafts are displayed throughout the cosy Sherbrook Street sewing studio. A vintage couch sits next to a tall credenza filled with kitschy teapots and refreshments for “mandatory cookie breaks.”

The homey vibes are an intentional nod to the business’s early days, when owner Brittany Karbonik was teaching students how to sew in her Transcona abode.

“I wanted it to feel inviting, like a home,” she says.

Karbonik opened Make it Sew (156 Sherbrook St.) last fall as haven for fibre art enthusiasts of all skill levels and ages. The shop offers private and group classes in sewing, crocheting, knitting and weaving, as well as equipment rentals and special crafting events. The space also has a retail section stocked with items made by local craftspeople.

Figaro delivers high notes, high emotion amid the hijinks

You’d be hard pressed to find a more madcap opera than Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the closing production of Manitoba Opera’s 2025/26 season, with the beloved opera buffa chronicling one crazy day in the lives of its love/lust-struck characters.

The three-plus-hour production (including one intermission) — originally created by Pacific Opera Victoria in 2024 and stage directed locally by Winnipeg’s Robert Herriot — opened Saturday night and runs through Friday.

It’s the final work presented by MO’s outgoing artistic director, Larry Desrochers, stepping down after 25 years at the helm, and it’s a final curtain call that leaves us laughing at the preposterous imponderables of life.

Last presented here in November 2015, the four-act comedy sung in Italian (with English surtitles) and based on Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto is listed among the top 10 operas performed worldwide.

Real-life partners Brady Oliveira, Alex Blumberg join forces to save dogs in new docuseries

Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira and realtor/rescue influencer Alex Blumberg may be the charismatic couple at the heart of Must Love Dogs, a new half-hour docuseries steaming on CBC Gem, but the stars of the show are the dogs they rescue.

Opera season finale offers a fresh take on Figaro

Unlike their characters, the cast members of The Marriage of Figaro have been getting along famously.

“We’ve had way too much fun during rehearsals because everybody’s so talented and funny,” says Alberta-born soprano Caitlin Wood, who makes her Manitoba Opera debut Saturday night during the company’s season finale.

The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s beloved ensemble comedy, was last presented locally in 2015.

A sequel to The Barber of Seville, the opera unfolds during the fraught wedding day of Figaro (Robert Mellon), the former barber-turned-valet, and Susanna, a fellow servant to the Count (Phillip Addis) and Countess (Miriam Khalil) Almaviva.

Winnipeg-born author-illustrator wins Swedish prize

Canadian picture book author-illustrator Jon Klassen has won the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, presented annually by the Swedish Arts Council and considered one of the richest literary prizes in the world.

The award — named after the late Swedish children’s author and is presented to “a person or organization for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature” — is worth five million Swedish krona, or about $749,000.

Klassen was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Niagara Falls, Ont., and now lives in Los Angeles and is the bestselling author/illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, The Skull, The Rock From the Sky and others. He has previously won the Caldecott and Kate Greenaway medals, and in 2018 was appointed to the Order of Canada.

The Swedish-based administrators of the prize and organizers of Italy’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair announced Klassen as the winner of the prize on April 14. Klassen will receive the award from Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm on May 25.

Story of first women to cycle around the world a freewheeling, perilous trek

In Ride, the musical that closes the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre season, a Latvian-born American woman with an unmistakably Jewish surname attempts to circumnavigate the globe on two wheels in 15 months or less just before the sharp turn of the 20th century.

But as she speeds toward renown on her Columbia bicycle, pedalling her way toward becoming a proto-feminist model for women’s independence, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky — born in 1870, died in 1947 — faces a fork in the road: to retain her heritage, or to ease her passage across borders through the all-too-common sacrifice of acceptance through anglicization.

For director-choreographer Lisa Stevens, the production is relevant in 2026 for the same reasons that the story of “Annie Londonderry” was captivating in 1894.

“We’re still asking the same questions: who gets to be seen, who gets to be heard, who gets to be believed and how one needs to reinvent themselves, or hide, to be able to survive,” says Stevens. “Who has to change their persona in order to thrive?” As the rider asks, “How far do I have to go in order to move forward?”

Two plights unfold, two stories told in new Yann Martel novel

It’s been 10 years since Yann Martel’s last book, The High Mountains of Portugal, hit bookstore shelves, and 25 since Life of Pi, his breakout novel which sold millions of copies and was made into an Oscar-winning film (and stage production).

Actor/writer Vardalos offers readers a little sugar

In honour of the local debut of Tiny Beautiful Things — her stage adaptation of the popular Dear Sugar advice column — Winnipeg actress/writer Nia Vardalos agreed to take on the role of agony aunt for readers of the Free Press Applause newsletter.

Below, the My Big Fat Greek Wedding star tackles some tough questions in the empathetic style of Wild author Cheryl Strayed, who collected her originally anonymous columns in the 2012 book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar.

Prairie Theatre Exchange presents Tiny Beautiful Things, directed by Ann Hodges and starring Laura Olafson as Sugar, to April 19.

Studies reveal inequalities in music-biz leadership roles

Nelly Furtado, Joni Mitchell, Begonia and Tate McRae — the most visible honorees and notable winners at this year’s Juno Awards seemed to be mostly women.

But look into the annual awards categories that celebrate key decision-makers behind the scenes and a less female-centric image of the Canadian music industry’s favoured leaders emerges.

For years, categories such as Engineer of the Year, Producer of the Year and the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, which often celebrates music managers and executives, have skewed toward male recipients, and this year wasn’t much different.

Before anyone makes strong accusations against the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and its hundreds of Juno jurors, it’s worth noting the number of studies that reflect macro gender disparities within the music industry.

Nia Vardalos’s Tiny Beautiful Things stage adaptation finds the beauty in book of advice columns

When she dials a 204 phone number for an interview about her latest venture in Canadian theatre, Nia Vardalos is on the move.

Manitoban Patrick Friesen returns home with new collection of poetry

Patrick Friesen’s new book of poetry, Sightings, feels like a return to familiar ground for Winnipeg readers who have followed his career from the beginning.

Though he has lived in Victoria, B.C., for many years, his creative roots run deep in Manitoba, where he first began shaping the voice that has carried him through 50 years of writing.

Our interview was conducted via email, but previous chats with the poet, at a time when The Shunning — the 1980 book that would become his breakthrough and would go on to become a play produced by Prairie Theatre Exchange and Manitoba Theatre Centre — was still a work in progress, took place in the third floor loft of his house just off River Avenue and Osborne Street.

The space was crowded with books, drafts and the quiet intensity of a writer at work. On the table beside him sat a half-filled bottle of whisky.

This year’s jazz festival trumpeted as worldly journey of discovery

Jazz Winnipeg knows how to cast (and bask in) the spotlight.

After teasing audiences with headliner announcements since late last year, Jazz Winnipeg announced the full lineup — including 50 artists from eight countries — for the 2026 TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, which runs June 16-21, at a press conference on Wednesday.

“This year’s festival is all about discovery,” said Jazz Winnipeg’s artistic director Zachary Rushing. “It’s about bringing world-class artists to Winnipeg … and giving audiences something unforgettable.”

The festival’s marquee shows include, on the international side, members of the famous Australian funk-jazz band the Cat Empire (Thurs., June 18, at the West End Cultural Centre), as well as American jazz royalty Miles Electric Band (Sun., June 21, at The Burton Cummings Theatre) and Jason Marsalis Quartet (Fri., June 19, at Desautels Concert Hall).

Dachshund playgroup completes a social circle

It’s just before 7 p.m. on a sunny Tuesday evening in March, and dachshunds are descending upon Earl Grey Community Centre from every direction, straining at their leashes to get inside.

These pups know what’s up. It’s time for the wiener dog play group.

You can hear the excited barking before you step foot in the gym. About 20 dogs are here tonight. The majority are dachshunds in a variety of colours and sizes, but the group is not wiener-dog exclusive: a Pomeranian and a couple of Shih Tzus are playing, too.

One of the regular pups, Zeus, is celebrating a birthday tonight. It’s clear he’s ready to “pawty”; he has a Birthday Boy ribbon affixed to his harness.

What’s up: Grotoko, Philipp Schott, flower arranging, Dirty Dancing

GrotokoPark Alleys, 730 Osborne St.Saturday, 9:30 p.m.Tickets: $12One month after donning witch hats at Public Domain for their first gig as a full band, Grotoko — the former solo project of Winnipeg songwriter Blue McLeod — will keep on rolling at Park Alleys, a revitalized bowling alley that forms a veritable South Osborne venue trifecta along with the Park Theatre and Sidestage.

Known for its cynical, yet routinely optimistic lyrics — a necessary specialty for post-pandemic indie dirges — and McLeod’s clear-eyed, diaristic delivery, Grotoko is gearing up for its third album, a followup to 2022’s Periwinkle.

For those looking to get acquainted, Periwinkle sees McLeod’s lyrics floating atop jaunty baroque rock air, with the panflute and the glockenspiel joining as occasional passengers. Alongside Veronica Blackhawk’s project Tinge, Grotoko is one of the city’s top contemporary interpreters of the grunge era, with McLeod frequently decorating their tunes with Celtic mysticism. Grotoko is the main event on Saturday night, with midwest emo rockers On Purpose greeting audiences at 9:30 p.m. sharp.

— Ben Waldman