The Whole Shebang, PDT

The Whole Shebang was an Asian Heritage Month Event at Harbourfront Centre. Within the luxurious Premiere Dance Theatre it was a live performance of passion, by choreographer and dancer Andrea Nann, that also featured Michael Oondatje. The opening and closing segments, combinations of her interpretive dance based on his words (from both In The Skin of a Lion and Anil’s Ghost), and his voice over, was very powerful and dramatic. And, as beautiful as she is, and as his work is.

In between those pieces, there was a Writer’s Circle with readings by Oondatje, Dionne Brand, and Souvankham Thammavongsa, who recently published a full length collection with Pedlar Press and who not too long ago was publishing chapbooks bound with craft glue.
This was followed by an acoustic songwriter’s circle, that showcased Josh Finlayson as a fabulous guitar player. Gord Downie was the real crowd pleaser, and honoured the tradition of sharing (in the circle) each song’s inspiration. Andrew Cash has honours for the clearest song snippet I remember, from a new song about a new hand of cards to play, followed closely as a highlight by Kathleen Edwards hockey song. Andy Maize (Andrea’s lucky husband) sounded great and is also to be commended for recognizing the Harbourfront staff and crew, not only requesting applause from the audience for their effort, but also sticking around backstage until all the work was done. While pre-show Andrea had dazzled with an unprecedented expression of sincere appreciation to the front of house staff. What a wonderful evening. Here is another round of applause for a great show.
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Premiere Dance Theatre, 207 Queen’s Quay W, 3rd fl, May 20/04
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I am pretty sure I got to go in for the show that night because I knew who Kathleen Edwards was/had heard of her at least, when she was the replacement for Margo of the Cowboy Junkies (originally listed on the programs for the evening), and no one else on shift could tell the House Manager anything about her. Also, of course, I was the only keener who had arrived there a tad early and saved the day by accepting pre-shift tasks while chatting to the manager about my eagerness to see the show… but everyone wanted to go in that night, and I am lucky it was Ted on House Manager duty because he picked me as Balcony Usher, as a reward for said early bird pre show work, despite all other requests. And I was really impressed with Kathleen Edwards that night. And, I remember when I finally picked up her first cd after that, used at sonic boom (it still has the 9.95 sticker on it) because I was flabbergasted to see that my favourite song on it had been done at my friend Jimmy’s.