It takes work and passion to become a good artist. It takes even more if you want to be a working artist.

My guest today is Bailey Hanson, a visual artist specializing in portraiture, and another of the artists-in-residence supported by the Fredericton Arts Alliance. During her residency, she is exploring the combination of her mediums of colour pencils and paints. We talked about her journey as an artist, her life as a full-time artist, and her expression.

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Notable Acts brings brand-new plays, in brand-new locations, and often-times they’re weird, they’re wonderful, and they’re entirely novel.

Joining me today are some of the people behind this year’s Notable Acts Theatre Festival.

Gillian Salmon is a playwright with several plays in her catalogue. This year, she’s written a pair of site-specific plays: Historical Walking Tour/Where We Go One, We Go All.

Brandon Hicks has been involved in a number of creative endeavours, from Next Folding Theatre Company to freelance writer/illustrator, and is the playwright for Keeping Tabs, one of the ten-minute, “Taking It To The Streets” productions.

And Emily Darling has performed in numerous productions of Theatre UNB plays, and can be found as one of the characters in Chicken Man and behind the scenes as the director of #MomLife.

We talked about where these stories come from, the challenges they present to stage, and how much the community of theatre contributes to their success.

The Notable Acts Theatre Festival runs from July 20-30. The set of four, 10-minute plays called “Taking It To The Streets” (which includes Chicken Man and #MomLife) will be performed 7:30pm nightly from July 24-27 outdoors in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard (weather permitting).

Historical Walking Tour/Where We Go One, We Go All are part of the site-specific plays running from July 24-27 at 8:30pm nightly, starting outdoors by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard.

That means you can take in both performances, one after the other! Admission to each is by Pay-what-you-will.

More information about these plays (taken from the Notable Acts Theatre Festival website):

#MomLife

All Jackie needs is a few moments of silence to get her fussy baby to sleep, but this evening the world, and a particularly persistent missionary, has other plans.

Written by Sandra Kell. Directed by Emily Darling. Featuring Al Newling, Hailey Trifts, Gray Miller, and Adrian Saliendra.

Keeping Tabs

Online interruptions abound as every tab on Allie’s computer can’t stop chiming in as she preps for her date with Nina.

Written by Brandon Hicks. Directed by Jane Deil. Featuring Diana Chavez, Alex Pannier, and Kaylee MacNeil.

To Dig or Not to Dig

A famed paleontologist and her younger protégé spar over professional ethics, unearthing frank disapprovals of one another’s methods.

Written by Julianne Richard. Directed by Armin Panjwani. Featuring Rebecca Tremblay and Adrian Saliendra

Chicken Man

Never having accepted that it is her genetic destiny to remain earthbound, Tootsie the chicken is determined to follow his icon, the comic book superhero Chicken Man, on a path into the skies and glory.

Written by Mary Walker. Directed by Julianne Richard. Featuring Ben McIntosh, Madeline Savoie, Emily Darling, and Alex Pannier.

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Once again, it’s time to celebrate theatre in the city especially theatre from up-and-coming performers, directors and playwrights — including some familiar faces from recent productions.

My guests today are two people who you should recognize from numerous local theatre productions, including Bard in the Barracks, UNB Theatre, STU Theatre, Notable Acts and the Plain Site Theatre Festival.

Julianne Richard has written two plays for this year’s festival, the one-act play Murder Mondays, and the 10-minute play, To Dig or Not To Dig, as well as directing Chicken Man (written by Mary Walker).

Alex Rioux is directing the other one-act play, I Hope You Can See the Birds, and getting ready for the fall’s Plain Site Theatre Festival.

I talked with about being involved in several different aspects of theatre, and how each informs how the other can be done, as well as the four plays they are responsible for in this year’s festival.

The Notable Acts Theatre Festival runs from July 20-30. The One-Act Plays (Murder Mondays and I Hope You Can See the Birds) are being staged as a double-bill from July 28-30 at 7:30pm nightly at the UNB Memorial Hall. The 10-Minute Taking It To The Streets performances (including To Dig Or Not To Dig and Chicken Man) are being staged outdoors (weather permitting) at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery Courtyard, from July 24-27, starting at 7:30pm nightly.

The 4th Plain Site Theatre Festival will be staged in November of this year, with its full schedule announced then.

More about each play (from the Notable Acts website):

Murder Mondays

In this love letter to the whodunnit, an esteemed naval captain is found murdered in his countryside home, with a slew of possible suspects. For the investigating detective, though, the crime is the least pressing mystery she needs to solve, and strange and shocking twists and turns abound.

Written by by Julianne Richard. Directed by Jake Martin. Featuring Rose Messenger, Jason McIntyre, Brenna Gauthier, and Alex Fullerton.

I Hope You Can See the Birds

In this intimate narrative of death and dying, together with his daughter and granddaughter, Bryan, a senior in hospital after suffering a heart attack, confronts his own mortality in a long string of goodbyes, heartbreaks, visions, and enlightenments.

Written by by Kaitlyn Adair, Directed by Alex Rioux. Featuring John Macaulay, Dani Brun, Circe Cain, Devin Rockwell, and Julie McDonald.

Chicken Man

Never having accepted that it is her genetic destiny to remain earthbound, Tootsie the chicken is determined to follow his icon, the comic book superhero Chicken Man, on a path into the skies and glory.

Written by by Mary Walker. Directed by Julianne Richard. Featuring Ben McIntosh, Madeline Savoie, Emily Darling, and Alex Pannier.

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Every year, Notable Acts introduces us to different scenes, different places, different writers, different plays,, things that we don’t expect, things we never thought to expect, things we’ve seen before but done an entirely different way.

The mainstage performance for this year’s Notable Acts Theatre Festival is a new play called A Canyon Contained. I had the pleasure of talking with the playwright, Jena McLean, and the two actors performing in the play: Lara Lewis (“Jessica”) and Megan Murphy (“Regan”). We chatted about where this play came from, where it’s going, and the journey along the way.

The Notable Acts Theatre Festival runs from July 20-30. The mainstage production of A Canyon Contained runs nightly at 7:30pm at Theatre New Brunswick’s Open Space Theatre (55 Whiting Road). Tickets are available at the door.

More about A Canyon Contained (from the Notable Acts website):

The morning after an eventful high-school party, two distant sisters find themselves trapped together on the drive back home. On one side, Jessica is glad to leave her reality behind for the sake of a new cause and a chance to build a bridge. On the other side, Regan struggles to make sense of her night and uncover the agenda behind her sister’s new interest in connecting. As confessions, callouts and questions around consent come into play, the ride turns rocky and the political and personal intertwine.

Written by Jena McLean. Directed by Natasha MacLellan. Featuring Lara Lewis and Megan Murphy.

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My guest today is abstract painter Katrina Slade. whose virtual residency with the Fredericton Arts Alliance happened earlier this summer.

I caught up with her in her wonderful backyard garage studio, and we talked about her residency work creating very large paintings with a starting point of written words you may never see.

You can see more of Katrina’s work on her website, including some of the things she’s working on during her residencies.

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We often think of art as the process of taking something from the imagination and putting it out there for others to see. But some art takes in what the world gives us and highlights it into its own thing.

My guest today is photographer Ramneet Kalra, one of the artists involved in the artist-in-residency program of the Fredericton Arts Alliance for this summer.

Ramneet sees the theme of “Breaking Out” as more than only breaking free from prejudice and stereotyping. For him, it is the transition from the COVID-19 pandemic, a period of crisis, uncertainty and the unknown, to one of peace and prosperity.

During his residency, Ramneet worked to convey the moments during and after the pandemic through a photographic series. Photographs of empty spaces will illustrate times of confinement, while those with people will display freedom and triumph.

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Art is one of those things which transitions from the personal to the public, which allows us to take the inside and put it up for everyone to see.

My guest today is Emily R. Dow, another artist-in-residence as part of this summer’s Fredericton Arts Alliance program. Emily is a painter and survivor of relationship abuse. In her art during is depicting the pain and challenges one must overcome to ‘break out’ of a toxic or abusive relationship in order to find peace and happiness again.

Dow’s work will be collaborative. She wants other victims of abuse to help her in depicting the beauty and purity inside the heart in her painting. Anyone who wants to contribute can pick their favourite colour and paint anything they like—a flower, their initials, a simple brushstroke, etc.

Dow is planning to do her pop-up in Odell Park, weather permitting, July 16, at 2 p.m. She is looking forward to meeting people of all ages, LGBTQIA+ individuals, victims, and non-victims at her event.

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