The male vocal quartet Sh-Boom headlines an evening musical variety show at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons on Saturday, July 24. Producer Nikki Weber has put together a lineup that includes the popular foursome plus the J-Tones female vocal trio, and soloists Jacquie Allan, Trudi Diening, and Maddy Weber. Miles Black and his band will accompany. The show starts at 7 p.m. Health protocols have limited the number of seats. Call Nikki for tickets at 604-740-0933.
Youth performance
If you know a young person who’s interested in learning about theatrical performance, you might point them to Driftwood Players’ Musical Theatre Intensive. Two weeks of singing, dancing, and acting, taught by industry professionals, start on July 26, building up to a show at the Heritage Playhouse on Aug 6 and 7. Call 778-819-3567.
Open studios
Sechelt artist Jan Jensen is opening her home studio for a pop-up exhibit of newer works this weekend at her Garage Gallery at 5785 Genni’s Way, Friday, July 16 through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. An abstract painter and sculptor, Jensen calls the show Catching the Wave, with “pandemic explorations in expressing flow and what affects flow. Large and small formats.”
Motoko is hosting guests at her private gallery at 4590 Sinclair Bay Rd. in Garden Bay Saturdays and Sundays through July and August, from noon to 5 p.m. The abstract painter’s aim is “to create art that evokes emotions and feelings and generates positive energy and harmony.” Motoko is also open to visits by appointment weekdays. Contacts can be found at motoko.ca.
Live music
There are many opportunities to catch live music once again this weekend, a trend that will continue all summer. On the patio at the Clubhouse Restaurant at the Pender Harbour Golf Course on Friday, July 16 from 5 to 8 p.m., Peter Van entertains on the piano. Sunday at The Clubhouse, you can hear The Sofa Kings from 2 to 5 p.m.
Starting at 5 p.m. Friday, July 16 at the Roberts Creek Legion, The Organics are on the outdoor stage. On Saturday, Buddy and the Scarecrow play at 4 p.m.
Music in the Landing is back on in lower Gibsons on Saturday afternoons. At Pioneer Square (by the George Gibson statue) on July 17 from 1 to 3 p.m., it’s Brazilian guitar maestro Celso Machado. Saturday night, from 7 to 9 p.m., Bigger Bits of String play at Winegarden Park.
The Burying Ground bring their old-timey, country blues and swinging jazz to Tapworks in Gibsons on Saturday, July 17, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
At the Sechelt Summer Music Series on the lawn behind the library on Saturday, July 17 at noon, DJ Topher Trick (aka Chris Hergesheimer, the “rookie MC with a PhD”) spins a high energy show. At 1 p.m., singer-songwriter Charlotte Wrinch and her band take the stage.
The Sitka String Quartet of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra plays two shows at High Beam Dreams in Gibsons on Saturday, July 17, performing works by Haydn, Beethoven, along with Nordic folk tunes. Doors at 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Tickets at eventbrite.ca.
The Billy Hillpicker Band plays the patio at the 101 Brewhouse in Gibsons Saturday, July 17, starting at 7 p.m.
Slow Sundays in the Creek is now in its fifth season at the gazebo behind the Roberts Creek Library, running from 12:30 to 3 p.m. The July 18 show features classical guitarist John Farmer, Corner Table Trio, and Bigger Bits of String and friends.
Looking to Thursday, July 22, Deanna Knight brings in Vancouver’s zany The Myrtle Sisters to her stage at Secret Beach B&B Suites for an evening of tunes and fun. Call 604-362-1280.
There’s so much live music now that not all acts can be listed here every week. Also check the Coast Reporter’s Coast Community Calendar, and the Coast Cultural Alliance’s listings at suncoastarts.com.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
