OCTOBER NEWSLETTER — What’s On in October
October is here! With ticket sales having started in September, the new 2024/25 ArtSpring Presents Season has been attracting attention for its diverse and richly colourful programming curated from across BC, Canada, and the world.
The popular Saturday morning Met Opera series gets the season started on October 5 with Offenbach’s fantastical Tales of Hoffman starring French tenor Benjamin Bernheim in the title role of the tortured poet. Opera fans and the opera-curious can look forward to five Live in HD experiences between October and May featuring ArtSpring’s enhanced sound system, brand new cinematic projector, and warm quiche intermissions.
ArtSpring’s highly-anticipated season opener promises to create a stir on October 8. Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a Radical Retelling comes from young Indigenous playwright and provocateur Cliff Cardinal.
Playing to sold out audiences in Toronto and New York, it was initially positioned with great mystery and many questions. How was the acerbic, mischievous Cardinal going to take on this classic of Western theatre, one of Shakespeare’s most accessible and whimsical plays?
The reveal was, what starts as a simple Land Acknowledgement continues for the duration of the show, cleverly recontextualizing the Bard’s storyline into an examination of the relationship between the Indigenous and settler communities and the state of the reconciliation process this country has been attempting for the last few decades.
Exulting in bawdy humour, difficult subject matter, and raw emotion, the work was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and called “a liberating night at the theatre; brutally funny and honest” by The Globe & Mail.
The momentum continues with the return of The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, a curated screening of short films from around the world that captures the essence of human passion, persistence, and adrenaline in the mountain and adventure sporting worlds. We are again partnering to support Salt Spring’s Search and Rescue team and the work they do.
From visionary Montreal-based dance company Tentacle Tribe comes a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic dream, and monsters make their appearance with Salt Spring’s own renowned clown, movement, and performance artist Nayana Fielkov’s Underbelly. The theme continues with Ballet Victoria’s Sunday matinée of Frankenstein on October 27 just in time for Halloween.
Finally, for school and family audiences, from acclaimed Vancouver-based youth theatre company Axis Theatre comes Where Have All the Buffalo Gone? with stories about the Métis people’s history and relationships with the buffalo over time.
October is also busy with local community and off-island presentations. Tribute concerts for Creedence Clearwater Revival and Johnny Cash will get people clapping, while Salt Spring Forum’s free Provincial Election Candidates Debate on October 9 is a true town hall event.
We’re also putting out the call for students in grades 9-12 to join a new ArtSpring Youth Advisory Committee to encourage more voices, opinions, and participation from young people about programming in the future. If you have children in this age group, or know of any who might be interested – please encourage them to apply.
See you at ArtSpring!
Howard R. Jang
Executive & Artistic Director
ArtSpring
