No matter what month of the year, fans of theatre, music, art and dance can be guaranteed a full schedule to tempt them.
As the regular season winds down, June offers some new and outstanding experiences including several fundraising performances, Kaleidoscope Theatre’s fourth annual Family Theatre Festival, the inaugural pretty good, not bad multi-media festival, and the second OUTstages Festival.
The third annual Modern Visionaries exhibit of original artwork by Victoria’s Limners and their contemporaries at Eclectic Gallery in Oak Bay (until June 30) features a remarkable diversity of art from some of this city’s finest artists covering the era 1971-2008. eclecticgallery.ca
Pizazz and All That Jazz is a fundraiser for the Victoria Conservatory of Music and The Canadian College of Performing Arts at Jim Pattison Toyota on June 2.
Jean Topham and Janie Woods-Morris (TopMor Productions) present The Long and The Short of It, June 3 to 5 at the Intrepid Theatre Club, a fundraiser for Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders. Topham and Woods-Morris will perform Alan Bennet’s Bed Among the Lentils and Sketches by Joyce Grenfell.
Langham Court Theatre presents She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith, June 8 to 25. This restoration comedy of deception and seduction has enthralled audiences for over two centuries. langhamtheatre.ca
Join Kaleidoscope Theatre for the annual Family Theatre Festival, June 11/12 at the Metro Studio and the Cameron Bandshell in Beacon Hill Park. Kaleidoscope.bc.ca
A Place to Listen is a unique concert series that focuses on listening, with compositions noted for their sparse and unique melodies. Concerts this month are June 8 – with works by two recent graduates of the MMUS program at UVic, David Foley (Transcriptions for solo typewriter) and Robert Hansler (In a golden room for solo snare drum – and June 22 with solo violinist Mira Benjamin. aplacetolisten.ca
Scrumpy Theatre presents The Hidden City by Stanley K. Freiberg adapted by Julian Popham Cervello at the Paul Philips Hall (1923 Fernwood), June 8 to 11. Follow the journey of two hikers in the 1970s as they discover the magical world of Peru and are possessed by the spirits of the Inca. Eventbrite.ca and search The Hidden City.
A brand new annual festival – pretty good not bad (June 17 to 19) is aimed at engaging Victoria through dynamic and evocative multimedia experiences. Look for video and visual art, contemporary dance, interactive multimedia, music and sound art in alternative spaces around greater Victoria. All ages and free programming is available every day of the festival. pgnb.ca
The dream collector(s) by Impulse Theatre, June 18 at the Intrepid Theatre Club, utilizes imaginative characters, gestural choreography, choral text and potent design to express the story of a group of beings who have been charged with the task of collecting the dreams of humanity. Impulsetheatre.ca
OUTStages, Intrepid Theatre’s new queer theatre festival, June 21 to 26 features Ivan Coyote’s Tom Boy Survival Guide, an opera, tales of roller derby and a fairy tale for adults. IntrepidTheatre.com
The Victoria Cold Reading Series, June 28, at the Victoria Event Centre provides an opportunity for pre-selected authors to have their new scripts cast on the spot and read (no rehearsals) in front of a live audience. coldreadingseries.wordpress.com
Janis La Couvée is a community builder, writer and arts advocate.