Sappyfest for Dummies wants you to create your doppleganger for this year’s festival
Sackville-based artists Shary Boyle and Graham Patterson are working to convince Sackville residents to create dummies–modeled after themselves–that will be part of a special audience during the Sappyfest music and art festival this August.
The project is called Sappyfest for Dummies, and the artists held an ‘idea jam’ workshop last week at Struts Gallery. CHMA was there and spoke to Boyle, as well as some potential local dummy-makers.
Boyle says the plan is to gather as many Sackville dummies as possible into the Ralph Pickard Bell Library theatre over the festival weekend. It “will be a moment to remember,” says Boyle, “having as many members of the community self-representing their doppelgangers, avatars, or dummies, as we’re calling them, in the seats of the theatre.”
The project is not just for artists or skilled craftspeople. On Thursday Boyle and Patterson outlined a wide range of techniques that people can use, from basic stuffed-clothes porch dummies to more sophisticated structures with wooden frames. There’s also many options for heads and faces, including photocopied photos, papier maché, and simply drawing on a paper bag. Boyle herself created her dummy with torn corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun, while Patterson’s features a found piece of wood which, with the right embellishments, bears a surprising resemblance to the artist.
Boyle and Patterson are collecting pledges from those who have expressed interest in the project, to commit them to following through with the project.… Continue
Sackville’s ‘dye power’ increases with new retail space for Gobsmacked Yarn
Gobsmacked Yarn is the newest addition to downtown Sackville’s commercial landscape.
Owner Marit Munson has been dyeing yarn since 2012, and when she outgrew her space at home, decided to expand into a space that allowed for both her studio and a retail shop. Gobsmacked Yarn opens officially this Saturday, in a space on Ford Lane, in the rear of the Goya’s Pizza building in downtown Sackville.
CHMA dropped by the new location to speak with Munson:
The grand opening of the Gobsmacked Yarn shop coincides with Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and to celebrate, Munson is collaborating with another Sackville dyer, Megan Ingman of Lichen and Lace, for a ‘mini yarn crawl’ between the two studios.
“The dye power here in Sackville is pretty incredible,” says Munson. “Lichen and Lace is a business that’s known worldwide, and then there’s a bunch of artists in town who also have really amazing practices with natural dyes and all kinds of neat things going on.”
Munson works with and carries both treated ‘superwash’ yarns, as well as what she calls ‘farm yarns’, which are sourced from sheep farms in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
“People are really rediscovering wool,” says Munson. “I think because it’s a natural material, it’s warm, it absorbs a lot of water. It keeps you warm in the winter, and it actually keeps you a bit cool in the summertime as well, which is fantastic… And when you’re done with it, it will biodegrade and go back into the soil in a way that modern synthetics absolutely don’t.”… Continue
Marshlight Theatre presents inaugural production The Wyrd Sisters in revamped space
Marshlight Theatre launches its first production, The Wyrd Sisters, on Friday. CHMA popped by the new theatre company’s newly renovated space to talk to managing director Ryan Slashinsky.
“We’re just so thrilled to have this beautiful new venue to perform in,” says Slashinsky, who thanks Marshlight member Laura Thurston for “managing the whole reconfiguration and rejuvenation of our space.”
Marshlight was formed this spring by the merger of Live Bait Theatre and Performers Theatre, and took over the former Performers’ space on Fairfield Road. Now the reconfigured black box theatre features expanded seating, a larger backstage area, a tech booth and coat check.
Audiences for The Wyrd Sisters can expect “a hilarious, zany, fantastical romp through [a] pseudo-medieval world,” says Slashinsky, “but really it’s a satire on modern society.”
“We’re working on developing a season for next year, which will be our first official season,” says Slashinsky. “But we wanted to kick things off with a nice big production within our brand new space that everyone can come and enjoy.”
Schedule and ticket information ore information is online at marshlight.ca… Continue
Andrew Ennals goes back to his spooky Sackville roots with Shivers: Supernatural Tales of Tantramar
This week, Live Bait Theatre debuts a new play written and directed by Sackville’s Andrew Ennals. Shivers: Three Supernatural Tales from Tantramar is playing at the Performers Theatre Studio on Fairfield Road from Thursday to Saturday, and at the CCUBIC theatre in Amherst on Wednesday.
Ennals dropped by CHMA studios to talk about the production:
When Ennals was young, he can recall being captivated by the “wonderfully spooky” look of Sackville during Halloween. “That setting of the Tantramar marsh, the Fundy fog rolling in, and just all these big spooky Victorian houses downtown,” says Ennals. “When I was a kid growing up here, and especially at Halloween, that was such a picture perfect version of what that that night felt like.”
And now the grown-up Ennals is bringing some of that spookiness to the stage, with a play he wrote featuring three stories designed to send shivers up spines.
“They’re ghost stories and they’re creative stories at the same time,” says Ennals. One of the tales is based on his own experience in the old Middle Sackville school house in the late 90s. Another features the ‘phantom fiddler of Frosty Hollow’ because with a name like Frosty Hollow, “you’re already starting from an advantage, as a writer”. And the third tells of the marsh witch, bringing in parts of the legend from Amherst and Tantramar regions.
Ennals has a background with Live Bait Theatre, having taken on roles during his high school days.… Continue
Marilyn Lerch, Janet Crawford and Dan Steeves join the ranks on the Sackville Arts Wall
Since 2008, Sackville’s Arts Wall has been honouring local artists who have made an impact at the regional, national or international level, and those who have helped to build the cultural and artistic life of the town. This week, three more names were added to the distinguished assembly: Janet Crawford, Marilyn Lerch, and Dan Steeves.
CHMA spoke with all three new inductees, and brings you their voices as they talk about their work and their love for the cultural life of Sackville.
Literary Arts honoree: Marilyn Lerch
After a full career as an educator in the United States, Marilyn Lerch moved to Sackville in 1996 and took up her lifelong passion of writing poetry. Many acclaimed collections of poems later, Lerch is a respected cultural force and societal critic. She served as Poet Laureate of Sackville for four years from 2014 to 2018, and led the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick for four years from 2006 to 2010. Most recently, she published a collaborative work called Disharmonies, with fellow Sackville poet Geordie Miller, printed by letterpress artist Keagan Hawthorne.
In a conversation with CHMA, Lerch talked about the origins of her second career in the literary arts:
Visual Arts: Dan Steeves
