Shriners Parade Causes Traffic Chaos
My ears are still ringing from the horn blasts of this Shriners car making its happy way up Bay Street this afternoon following the Shriner’s Imperial Day parade on University Avenue. Downtown traffic was paralyzed by grid-lock as east/west routes in the city core were diverted onto adjacent streets. The Shriners appeared to be having a ball unlike the commuters forced to share the roads with these wacky do-gooders (Shriners work tirelessly raising money for children’s hospitals). With streetcars reduced to a crawl, walking became the better way, heat wave or not.
HarbourKIDS CIRCUS Promises Serious Fun
Toronto isn’t known as a circus town, at least not compared to Montreal, which is home to the National Circus School and the internationally renowned Cirque du Soleil. But T.O. is carving out a niche on the circus map as this weekend’s 8th annual International Circus Festival at Harbourfront will make crystal clear. The three-day HarbourKIDS: CIRCUS is co-produced by Toronto’s own Zero Gravity Circus, a company that’s been operating in an old Vaudeville house on Gerrard Street East for the past five years. When it’s not in use by circus professionals, the Centre of Gravity Theatre (1300 Gerrard Street) operates after-school circus classes for youngsters from 4 – 6 pm; tweens and teens take over the space after that. Proteges of the school, dubbed the Canadian National Youth Circus (ages 9 – 13), perform on the Harbourfront mainstage each day at noon. There are also all-day sessions called You Can Try It Circus where curious kids can have a go at juggling, stilt walking, even aerial hoop and silk tricks.
“After they discover for themselves how hard it is, the kids will be even more impressed when they see the Youth Circus,” states Centre of Gravity coach Jen Georgopoulos, above, herself an accomplished aerial acrobat and alumnus of Cirque du Soleil. Her companion in the photo is professional clown Foo (Helen Donnelly), who co-hosts the mainstage shows with her diva sidekick Chandeleirva (Suzette Araujo).
Heritage Walk Season Begins in Scarborough
The weather forecast for Saturday has improved considerably and Scott Woodland, for one, couldn’t be happier about it. A director of the Scarborough Historical Society, Woodland will leading the Thomson Pioneer Settlement walk May 1 beginning at 1:30 pm: it’s the first Heritage Toronto Walk of the season, one of dozens of free, real-time explorations of the city’s present and past.
A public school teacher and committed history buff, Woodland, above centre, is an expert on the early days of Scarborough and its founding family, the Thomsons. “David and Mary Thomson were the first European settlers to be given a land grant in the area [around 1798] although there had been native villages on the site going back about 800 years,” says Woodland.
Storytelling Fest Brings Historic Sites to Life
The premise is simple and thoroughly compelling: during the summer of 1847, 38,000 poverty-stricken Irish immigrants passed through Toronto, then a city of 20,000. Responding to the tragedy, innkeeper Thomas Montgomery hosted a benefit to aid the refugees. Tomorrow night at 8 pm, storyteller Nan Brien, left, and historical music ensemble Gin Lane recreate that night 163 years later in the very same room at Montgomery’s Inn.
Titled No Irish Need Apply, Brien relates the stories of seven women ranging from an Irish tenant farmer’s wife, to a sea captain’s wife to a midwife and soothsayer. Some storytellers are very clear about a distinction between what they do and theatrical performance; not so for Brien who spent her career teaching high school drama, acting and directing amateur theatre.
“Because of my background, it’s easy for me to step into a different voice or mood,” says Brien. “I like being close to the audience and as a storyteller I feed somewhat off their reactions.” Brien has been telling stories in the historic Montgomery’s Inn for about 15 years and says the rustic rooms “are like a live stage setting.”
WinterCity Feast on Flickr
Life conspired to derail my WinterCity plans last weekend — fortunately there were lots of local photographers who did make it out to capture the spectacular and spectacularly cold first weekend. I found a superb cache of photos on Flickr and have taken the liberty of pulling a few of my favorite shots to share with you here. Artist/photographer Alfred Ng shot the Flaming Lotus Girls‘ Angel of the Apocalypse, above, just as daylight faded into darkness. Jugolic captured the installation on video.
