The launch of the new fall season at the ACT Arts Centre will include live music and theatre performances, movie screenings and a holiday favourite.
However, capacity for each performance will only be 10 per cent of the theatre’s normal volume due to COVID-19 gathering limitations announced by the Provincial Health Authority.
Only 50 patrons will be permitted in the Mainstage theatre for each show. The theatre holds 486 seats.
The 2020-2021 season will include an expanded, continuing series of the National Theatre Encore Screenings with All My Sons by American playwright Arthur Miller on Oct. 24 and 25.
There will also be a live theatrical production of Billy Bishop Goes to War, Nov. 7 and 8, starring Maple Ridge actor Damon Calderwood, for Remembrance Day.
Music lovers are invited to intimate, solo shows by Jill Barber on Sept. 26, and Michael Kaeshammer on Oct. 17.
READ MORE: Live theatre performances to restart in October at ACT Arts Centre in Maple Ridge
For classical music lovers, the Coffee Concerts Series will be returning with a performance by John Stetch on Oct. 22, along with Beethoven 250, on Nov. 15. The 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth will be celebrated with a chamber music concert featuring works for violin, cello and piano.
The fall season, that runs until December, will end with several 60-minute ‘mini’ performances of The Nutcracker in December. Ballet Victoria will begin their performance during Act 2 of the famous ballet, and is considered a perfect ‘starter Nutcracker’ to share with children and others for the holiday season.
ACT Art Gallery reopened on Sept. 12 with Vancouver Biennale’s touring exhibition: Weaving Cultural Identities: Threads Through Time.
READ MORE: The ACT shuts its doors
The exhibition includes woven pieces created by six renowned Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh weavers, surrounded by a large Jacquard-woven border.
The pieces were part of a multi-phase project for the 2018-20 Vancouver Biennale, that invited Indigenous and multi-ethnic weavers to engage in conversations about colonization and the dividing up of stolen land that followed.
Featured artists include: Angela George (Squamish and Tsleil Waututh), Chepximiya Siyam’ Chief Janice George (Squamish) and Skwetsimeltxw Willard ‘Buddy’ Joseph (Squamish), Debra Sparrow (Musqueam), Doaa Jamal, Krista Point (Musqueam), Mary Lou Trinkwon, Robyn Sparrow (Musqueam), and Ruth Scheuing.
The exhibition runs until Oct. 17.
To visit the ACT Art Gallery admission must be booked online at theactmapleridge.org/act-gallery in advance. Free admissions are for Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 1 p.m. and are released a week in advance.
The ACT may add additional performances throughout the fall.
Performances taking place January through May 2021 will be announced in November.
For more information go to theactmapleridge.org.
cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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