INFORMATION Website 4638 Lakeshore Rd., Kelowna, BC  Canada 250-764-2301 Check out our Patio! Our patio is open. Call us today to book your reservation   250-764-2301

UPCOMING SHOWS The Three Scotts on Saturday, September 6 @ 8PM FM HI LOW on Tuesday, September 9 @ 8PM Johnny VS Johnny on Thursday, September 18 @ 8PM Penelope Swales on Thursday, September 25 @ 8PM SOULJAH FYAH on Saturday, September 27 @ 8PM Greetings!  Minstrel Cafe and Bar has some class acts in September.  Please see the information below and call 250-764-2301 today to book your reservation .  For up to date information go to our website at: www.minstrelcafe.com   THE JACK SEMPLE BAND Friday, September 5  8:00 PM to 11:00 PM "Canadian Guitar Warz champion returns performing his infectious style of rockin rhythm and blues" www.jacksemple.com $20 entertainment charge/rsvp   Salsa Night  Wednesday, September 10   8:00 PM to 10:30 PM   " A salsa dance party featuring Trevor Salloum and with dance instruction by Nico " $10 entertainment charge   The Cheeky Monkeys Thursday, Setmeber 11 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM " Contemporary and classic rock and pop hits that will keep you thoroughly entertained with the enigmatic Ted Okos " $5 entertainment charge ZAPPACOSTA Tuesday, September 16 & Wednesday, September 17 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM " Juno award winning, dynamic singer songwriting troubadour, always a crowd favourite " www.iamzappacosta.com $25 entertainment charge WILLIE ROYAL & THE LOCOS Monday, September 22 & Tuesday, September 23 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM "Fiery gypsy jazz, funk and salsa from the beloved member of world beat musical icons, Willie & Lobo "   www.musiciansnet.org/willieroyal/ $30 advance tickets   THE MOCKING SHADOWS Friday, September 26 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM " Calgary's best party band " www.mockingshadows.com $20 advance tickets

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27 Aug 2008

Kelowna Actors Studio Casts 2008/2009 Season

Kelowna Actors Studio is pleased to announce the final casting results for its 2008/2009 Season. The season embraces the theme “Discover the Broadway in You, with some of the best productions that Broadway has to offer, including Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers, Kander and Ebb’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman, the hilarious farce Lend Me A Tenor by Ken Ludwig, and Mel Brooks’ smash hit, The Producers.   The season will feature Actors Studio favourites and newcomers alike. “We had over 110 performers come out to audition this year. We were thrilled with the number of new people who came out,” says Randy Leslie, the company’s artistic director and producer. “They will make a great addition to our roster.” One new addition to Kelowna, and to KAS, is Frank Takacs, who has a few roles next season, including Tito in Lend Me a Tenor, and Roger De Bris in The Producers. Another actor new to the KAS stage, but no stranger to Kelowna audiences is Sarah McCall, who has appeared as Anne in Anne of Green Gables and The Memory of Water to name a few. She will taking to the KAS stage in Cinderella, Lend Me a Tenor and The Producers.   “I am also very pleased that we were able to cast from among those who have taken our classes in the past,” says Leslie. “Gillian Reed will play the lead role in Cinderella and Ryan Taylor and Josh Donaldson, two teenage boys, will take on the lead roles in Lost in Yonkers. It’s also wonderful to see some of our ensemble players return and step up to lead roles, as well.” Actors Studio fans will not be disappointed as many of their favourites will be on-stage next season, including Gwen Plitt (Maria, Sound of Music; Anna, The King and I), Patricia Burns (Shirley, Shirley Valentine; Truvy, Steel Magnolias), Brian Harms (Mr. Mushnick, Little Shop of Horrors; Uncle Billy, It’s a Wonderful Life), Brad Hull (Murray, The Odd Couple; Jud Fry, Oklahoma), Vivian Hughes (Wicked Witch, The Wizard of Oz; Mrs. Van Damm, The Diary of Anne Frank), Carmen Harris (Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz; Luisa, The Fantasticks), Chad Abrahamson (Cast, Godspell, Matt, The Fantasticks), and James Long (Officer O’Hara, Arsenic & Old Lace; Roscoe Dexter, Singin’ in the Rain). Actors Studio co-founders, Nate Flavel (Jesus, Godspell; Don Lockwood, Singin’ in the Rain) and Randy Leslie (Don Quixote, Man of LaMancha; George Bailey, It’s a Wonderful Life) will also appear in a show together for the first time. They will star with Tracy Ross in The Producers. “We are excited to be in this amazing show together, and to have Tracy join us on stage as Ulla.” Ross, who choreographed Singin’ in the Rain for the company, has not been on the KAS stage since Kiss Me Kate in the first season. She will also appear as the Spiderwoman in Kiss of the Spiderwoman. “All in all, some terrific talent and a challenging year,” concludes Leslie. “We are sure that our audiences will be as pleased with our casting choices as we are.”

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About Kelowna Actors Studio: Kelowna Actors Studio is the only licensed dinner theatre in the Okanagan Valley. Their mandate is to provide quality entertainment, education and enrichment through the performing arts.

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For further information about the 2008/2009 Season, including a complete list of casting results, please visit KelownaActorsStudio.com.

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26 Aug 2008

Thistledown press invites you to join Alix Hawley launching her short fiction collection The Old Familiar.

Friday September 12
6:30 pm at Infusions
on the Kelowna Campus of Okanagan College

The art of the everyday shock is at the heart of the stories in The Old Familiar, in which people believe they know others or themselves until the unforeseen surfaces. These instants of surprise, whether subtle or dramatic, force characters, and readers, to question their assumptions.

Alternating between controlled pathos and wicked wit, Alix Hawley's stories refuse predictability, such as in "Romance," when a young man, employed for the summer by a wealthy family, finds that he and his first-time lover have different sexual motivations, and in "They Call Her Lovely Rita," in which a man goes in search of a wife he is sure he absentmindedly misplaced somewhere. Hawley also challenges the conjectures of beauty, revealing that a pristine surface does not secure a happy ending. In "Things Happen," an aspiring playwright is disrupted by her sister's continually revised visions of their youth. In "Chemical Wedding," a gorgeous woman maneuvers the murky waters of a dinner party with a former friend's family.

Dark and sharp, tightly written, this collection will surprise even readers familiar with the crusty undersides of middle-class lives, and the bizarre obsessions that harbour there. The writer's muzzled tension and psychological scrutiny are as diabolically funny as they are emotionally arresting.

Alix Hawley studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Oxford University, the University of East Anglia, and the University of British Columbia. She is especially interested in nineteenth-century writing and children’s literature. The Old Familiar, her first collection, portrays the peculiarities we face in thinking we know people. She is a fourth-generation resident of Kelowna, British Columbia, and teaches at Okanagan College.

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24 Aug 2008

SIZZLING SALSA DANCE
The Minstrel Cafe & Bar
4638 Lakeshore Rd. Kelowna
(250) 764-2301

Wednesdays Sept.10th, Oct.8th & Nov.5th
8:30 Salsa Lesson with Nico
9-11pm Dance with DJ T-Bone

Singles or Couples welcome
 All skill levels
$10/person

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24 Aug 2008

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Remembering the 1980s

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
» Thursday 28 August 2008 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan ARTS. Join cultural pioneers Ursula Surtees and Jennifer Hindle as they provide a retrospective look at the development of culture and the arts in the Okanagan.

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» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE

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Arts Pioneers Recall Cultural Glory Days

The year was 1976 and there was excitement around a new idea that the Okanagan was ready to embark on a new adventure - celebrating its own artistic merits.

Hailed as the cultural program of the decade, Okanagan Image became the "renaissance" that people from Vernon to Penticton to Kamloops were waiting for. It featured the work of local artists, composers, writers, ballerinas, even the premier Canadian playwright of the day - George Ryga - with his specially commissioned work The Ploughman of the Glacier.

On the heels of this excitement came the awareness that the Okanagan was ready to embrace culture to its fullest capability. The result? Two pillars of Kelowna's own cultural community - the coming-of-age of the Kelowna Museum as a place capable of bringing world-class exhibitions to the Southern Interior, and the first glimmer that the arts deserved a home to call its own. In less than a decade, this vision would transform an old packing house into a home for the artistic community � The Laurel Building.

On Thursday August 28, 5pm at the Bohemian Café in downtown Kelowna two critical players in this cultural renaissance - Ursula Surtees and Jennifer Hindle - take part in the Okanagan Institute Express series of public events with Remembering the 1980s: The Past Is Prologue - a retrospective look at a critcally important decade in the development of culture and the arts in the Okanagan.

Ursula Surtees is the retired curator of the Kelowna Museum. Born and educated in England, she came to Kelowna in the late 1940s and started work with the museum as its first and only employee in 1959. Surtees retired in 2002, and during her time with the museum saw it grow from what was affectionately termed "the bunkhouse" into the largest museum in the Okanagan featuring a high-tech conservation lab (named in her honour) - the only one of its kind in the region. Well-regarded as a champion of both heritage and conservation in the province, Surtees received numerous awards including the Queen's Jubilee Award and a distinguished service award from the BC Museums Association.

Jennifer Hindle is well-known in the community as the wife of former mayor John Hindle and the former owner of the Eldorado Arms Hotel. But she's also known as the key player in moving the Kelowna and District Arts Council from a handful of volunteers working from a cardboard box to a full-fledged arts organization. She was instrumental as a local fundraiser for the arts and played a critical role in saving the Laurel Packing House from demolition.

Remembering the 1980s: The Past Is Prologue is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 55th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, architect Jim Meiklejohn, and others from a variety of creative fields.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE

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22 Aug 2008