Hi all
Please note that next year’s Irish ball will take place on:
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
at
The Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Edmonton.
If you have any questions, please contact Colm O Carroll by email: colm@echem.ca
Many thanks!
Serca Festival of Irish Theatre
Announces its first AGM
Sunday, November 27
7:30 pm
Alberta Avenue Community Centre
9210 118 AVE.
All those with Irish connections. Love of things Irish or Interest in Irish Theatre are most welcome!
The Serca Festival of Irish Plays is back! This year’s Irish play festival (the only one of its kind in Alberta) has an exciting line-up and will be running from June 28 to July 3, 2011.
With directors such as Wayne Paquette, Michael Clark, Amy DeFelice and Liz Hobbs to name a few and actors such as John Sproule, Frank Zotter, Liana Shannon, Garett Ross, Vince Forcier, Mat Busby, Jon Lachlan Stuart, Gianna Vacirca, and Jeff Page among others the festival is sure to be thrilling. Jeff Page has even written a show specifically for the festival based on the prison writings of Oscar Wilde called “Secrets of Immortality”.
The other main stage shows include “Mojo Mickybo” by Owen McCafferty, “Molly Sweeny” by Brian Friel, “Faith Healer” also by Brian Friel, and “Beckett’s Shorts” by Samuel Beckett. There will also be a staged reading off-site at the Carrot coffee house on the day after the festival of Jennifer Spencer’s “Maggie Now Parts 1-4”. The main stage shows will all be shown at La Cite Francophone at 8627 Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury St. (91St. and 87 Ave.) and we will also have an Irish pub running in between shows, complete with live celtic music and Irish poetry readings!
The mandate of the Serca festival of Irish plays is to celebrate, showcase and encourage theatre created by or about Ireland and Irish people. The festival creates a link between theatre and the Celtic community, while inviting the broader Edmonton community to participate too! Last year’s festival was a great success and we expect even more excitement this year in our growing festival!
For more information you can go to our website at www.sercafestival.ca or call our office at 780-761-2773. Come on out and join the fun!
The mandate of the SERCA Festival of Irish Theatre is to celebrate, showcase and encourage theatre created by or about Ireland and Irish people. The SERCA Festival mounts innovative and vivid professional productions of Irish theatre for Edmontonians in the emerging Alberta Avenue arts area. The Festival also offers Irish music and spoken-word art.
This festival will create a context of cultural discourse between theatre and the Celtic community while inviting the neighbourhood and the broader Edmonton community to participate too! The SERCA Festival’s excellence is its actors and staff; through their work with SERCA and Theatre Prospero, these artists have been in the vanguard of bringing fine theatre to this historic neighbourhood.
2010 Festival
The 2010 SERCA Festival was a fully-fledged foray into the world of early summer festivals. In June last year, as part of the Caught in the Act Series, the Festival presented: Maggie Now, Part Two (a Theatre Prospero production); Spokesong (a Prosperous Velospians’ production); Connor McPherson’s This Lime Tree Bower (a Trunk Theatre production); and Connor McPherson’s The Good Thief (a Golden Slumber Production).
The venue was the old Alberta Cycle Building, across from the Avenue Theatre on 118 Avenue. Attendance was excellent for the first run of the SERCA Festival, with over 500 attendees. Other Irish-related events during the Festival included an Irish pub in the foyer, which also was the venue for Irish poetry readings of Yeats and Seamus Heaney, among others. There were readings by local Irish-Canadian poets Fabian Jennings and George Millar, and live Irish/Celtic music. The Festival attracted enthusiastic students and venturesome theatre-goers to a new, must see theatre destination.
SERCA was a critical success. Liz Nichols, Edmonton Journal’s theatre reviewer had this to say about ‘This Lime Tree Bower’ and our pilot project, the Serca Festival of Irish Theatre: “The great Irish tradition of storytelling is in the rosy flush of good health, judging by the production that opens the inaugural Serca Festival on Alberta Avenue.”
Proposed Programme
2011 Serca Festival of Irish Theatre
Old Alberta Cycle Building
9115-118 Avenue
June 28 to July 3, 2011
Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones presented by Ad Hoc Players
Maggie Now, Parts 1 – 4 written by Jennifer Spencer and read by Prosperous Paddies
Faith Healer by Brian Friel Produced by Michael Clark
Diversions and Delights by John Gay directed by Liz Hobbs
Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel directed by Wayne Paquette of Citadel/Shadow theatres
Mojo-Mickybo by Owen McCafferty, directed by Amy De Felice
Beckett Shorts by Samuel Beckett, produced by Surreal Soreal
For final programme and further information contact:
Mary-Ellen Perley at Theatre Prospero 780-761-2773
or email meperley@gmail.com
Letter from Tim Marriott, President of the Serca Festival of Irish Theatre, to the Irish Chamber of Commerce Edmonton.
Friday March 25, 2011
Dear friends,
It was very nice meeting you all at the Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce St. Patrick’s Day Ball at the Chateau Lacombe on 12 March. We had a marvellous time, although it was a wee bit late when we finally headed home. Mary-Ellen learned many new songs that night and is looking forward to an opportunity to sing them all again when the Serca Festival of Irish Theatre begins on 28 June. She plans to continue singing right until the end of the festival on 3 July.
At the ball you graciously let us know your e-mail address so that we could send you information on the festival. Attached to this e-mail is a flyer, updated to to-day, listing the plays and presentations scheduled to be performed.
We are confident you will find the programme interesting; we look forward to seeing you in June and July at the festival venue, which is the “Old Alberta Cycle Building”, located at 9115-118 Avenue. We hope also that you will tell your friends about the festival and encourage them to join you at the shows!
If you would like further information about the festival, please contact Mary-Ellen at Theatre Prospero at 780-761-2773 or at meperley@gmail.com
Thank you all for a wonderful evening on 12 March, and we hope we will see you at the Serca Festival of Irish Theatre!
Tim Marriott Mary-Ellen Perley
President, General Manager
Serca Festival of Irish Theatre Theatre Prospero
A very successful 2011 Irish Ball took place on March 12th at the Chateau Lacombe Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Edmonton. The evening was very well attended with over 150 guests from all walks of life turning out in wonderful style to this black tie event.
The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was the CBC’s Mark Schultz who, despite some issues with the sound, did a fantastic job of keeping everything moving along smoothly.
The Irish Ball is organised each year by the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce Edmonton to raise funds for the Wild Geese Endowement at the University of Alberta and for the Irish Sports and Social Society in Edmonton. This year, over $20,000 was raised at the ball for these worthy organisations.
Paula Molloy, who works with the Irish Embassy in Canada, was guest speaker on the evening and made a very informative speech about the recent change of government in Ireland as well as the strong trading relationship between Ireland and Canada that continues to provide opportunities for companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Ms Molloy, seated on the right in the picture below, kindly gave us permission to put a link to her speech on this website. You can view the speech here: Edmonton speech _2_
As with other years, the date of the 2011 Irish Ball happened to fall on the same day when Ireland played Wales in the 6 Nations Championship, the outcome of which was made known on numerous occassions throughout the night by one proud Welshman, Dr. Alan Jones. He is pictured below (second from left) with his wife Lynda, after presenting Colm O Carroll, chairperson of the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce in Edmonton with a Welsh scarf which he had to wear for the entire evening, as per the rules of the annual bet the two men make. The fact that Wales completely and utterly cheated on their way to victory over the Irish team earlier in the day, didn’t seem to dissuade Dr. Jones’ gloating in slightest throughout the evening.
A Welsh man rubs the Irish man's nose in it!
Entertainment on the night was provided by the wonderful Irish dancers from the local Matterine School of Irish Dance as well as a big brass band which kept people on their feet throughout the evening. A great night was had by all.
To read the Edmonton Journal’s Nick Lees’ take on the evening, please see his article here
ICBA Inaugural
International Summit
10th March 2011, Toronto
AGENDA AVAILABLE HERE:
Toronto-Business-Summit-Agenda-10-Mar-2011
For further information email
Kate.hickey@irelandcanada.com