A faithful reader, knowing of our gossip fever, has written in Gawker Stalker-style with a handful of Alicia Silverstone sightings from last week. The actor, best known for Clueless and the serial TV drama Miss Match, is in town filming MOW Candles on Bay Street.
“I saw her on the boardwalk the night of the Wintersleep show,” on July 23, he emails. “She was walking by herself, and gave me a nice smile as I jogged by her. I saw her Tuesday in front of the Lord Nelson talking to someone around 5pm. I saw her Wednesday morning on my way to work as I walked by the Citadel around 9am. She was by herself again, and again she smiled at me as I walked past. This past Monday she walked out of the Lord Nelson with a tall, blonde dude. A woman ahead of me saw her, slowed down and looked at me sort of confused. I confidently said, ‘Yes, that was Alicia Silverstone,’ and kept walking.…She’s smaller in person than I expected, but she still has that crazy sideways smile that everyone had the hots for back in 1996.”
Another eagle-eyed reader spied newly minted star Ellen Page, a Halifax native, on Agricola this week.
Keep those celeb sightings coming!
Time warp and whatnot
Ah, the joys of running events outside in Nova Scotia. Last Friday’s alFresco filmFesto opener, Grease!, was bumped to last Saturday after an ominous afternoon forecast of thunderstorms that never came. As of press time it was looking like rain, but we’re not Peter damn Coade so who knows what’s actually going to happen. At any rate, keep your eye on the sky because this Friday (or possibly Saturday) boasts quite the double feature: The Party, with Peter Sellers as an accidental VIP, followed immediately at midnight by the first (legal) outdoor Canadian screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The costume option goes without saying. Five bucks as always, The Party starts at duskish, AKA 9pm.
Ensemble away!
Irondale Ensemble Project is back this weekend with a new production called wearing away, August 3 and 4 at 8pm at the BusStop Theatre. “A loving family is torn apart by the hardships of their life in rural Nova Scotia,” Irondale says in a statement. “They stand resolute; stoic in their determination to live according to the traditions and values of their ancestors, but they’re no match for the raging tides of change.”
wearing away, which mixes physical theatre, melodrama and mask, stars Nadiya Chettiar, Emily Shute, Stephanie MacDonald, Kristin Langille, Stewart Legere, Margaret Smith, Karen Bassett, Stephen Cross, Andrea Leigh-Smith and Andrea Ritchie. Tickets are $10 and available at the door (2203 Gottingen) or by calling 429-1370.
Memorial funding
In other theatre news, Halifax is still recovering from the loss of local giant David Renton, who died in May. In his honour, Neptune Theatre has established the David Renton Memorial Scholarship, which will be awarded annually to a student in Neptune’s theatre school. To qualify, you must have successfully auditioned for the Youth Performance Company, be in financial need and—these are Neptune’s words, not ours, trust us—demonstrate the “Neptune company spirit” that David Renton so wonderfully epitomized (to download an application visit neptunetheatre.com). “He would be proud to know,” says his daughter, Rachel, “that a scholarship in his name will support the next generation of theatre artists.”
The big illustrator
The work of former Coast illustrator Hope Larson will appear in The New York Times on Friday, August 4. “It’s a large autobio comic in the vein of the She’s From Away strips I drew for you guys, and it’s supposed to run this Friday,” Larson says. “It’s part of the Summerscapes essay series that the Times runs every summer as—basically—filler. One of the art directors, Sam Weber, is a comics fan—as well as an incredible illustrator—and he worked really hard to get comics by me and a couple of other cartoonists, Vanessa Davis and R. Kikuo Johnson, into the series.”
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