Keith Alessi in Tomatoes Tried To Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life, at Workshop West. Photo supplied.
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
This week, in Edmonton theatres, you can have your heart warmed — and in several ways. (Seriously, you can’t be thinking of staying home feeling frosty).
It started with a beautiful memorial Monday night at Theatre Network to the remarkable actor John Wright, the last of a storied Canadian theatre family. A life lived in theatre: great stories from theatre artists across the country mc-ed by John Ullyatt, a wonderful slideshow of photographs curated by director/designer/actor Jim Guedo. A great gift of an evening from his wife, actor/director Marianne Copithorne, to the theatre community.
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•Keith Alessi returns to Edmonton, to re-define the term pay-it-forward at Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, in an inspiring way. There are so many ways his hit solo show Tomatoes Tried To Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life might never have happened. Alessi was a highly successful corporate accountant CEO, with a big, beautiful collection of banjos he didn’t know how to play. A terrible life-threatening cancer diagnosis moved him to drop his high-powered job, and take up banjo-playing and, assisted by Edmonton-based theatre artist Erika Conway, playwriting.
Alessi hadn’t ever performed onstage before. But this true story became a show, with music and uplifting encouragement about embracing your passion. It premiered on the Fringe circuit in 2018, and has been travelling, to theatres and festivals, ever since.
And this is even more heartwarming: Alessi, who’s in his sixties, has donated 100 per cent of the nearly $1 million he’s raised so far to theatre and music charities wherever he goes. As billed, “it’s more than a show, it’s a movement.”
Alessi brings his fund-raising show to Workshop West’s Gateway Theatre for five performances Wednesday through Sunday. Tickets: workshopwest.org.
Kelly Holiff in Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical, Citadel Theatre and Grand Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.
•If you want the gelato in your veins melted, Disney’s Frozen: The Broadway Musical at the Citadel could easily get you there. A stage adaptation of one of Disney’s hottest animation properties, it’s actually about the melt, since an ice queen is rescued from her own cryogenic super-powers by the force of sisterly love, and some powerhouse singing. Rachel Peake’s spectacular production, a collaboration between the Citadel and the Grand Theatre, knows a lot about the theatrical pluses of snow and ice and blizzards. Nearly as much as we do. Have a peek at the review. It runs through March 2. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820
Eli Yaschuk, Nina Vanderham, Aidan Laudersmith in The Noon Witch, Teatro Live! Photo supplied.
•And opening this week, a tempting comedy about temptation from Teatro Live! The Noon Witch, a revival of Stewart Lemoine’s 1995 comedy, is inspired by an eccentric Hungarian folk tale about a witch who operates under the midday sun, and lures young men to their watery doom by offering them fatty snacks so they sink. The production directed by the playwright introduces four up-and-comers, a new generation of theatre talent, along with the experienced Teatro star Michelle Diaz. Meet Eli Yaschuk, one of the quartet of newcomers, in a preview. The show runs Friday through March 9. Tickets: teatrolive.com.
•A Midsummer Night’s Dream: the 70s musical, a new creation by Daryl Cloran and Kayvon Khoskam, starts previews Saturday at the Citadel. More about this show in an upcoming post.
