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Art Beat: Lots of tricks and treats at the Halloween Block Party

Gibsons Public Library, the Arts Building, Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives and the Art Garden have gotten together once again to present what sounds like a party overflowing with seasonal treats.
block party
Super Cheerleader Bronwyn Kent carried her bag of popcorn, also known as Kieva Faille, at last year’s Halloween Block Party.

Gibsons Public Library, the Arts Building, Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives and the Art Garden have gotten together once again to present what sounds like a party overflowing with seasonal treats. It’s an all-ages event, featuring the Driftwood Players Spooky Theatre, a treat-and-treasure hunt, shadow-puppet making, a community shadow show with Sandy Buck, a costume contest, music and visual treats by Coast Streaming, freaky fiction readings, a Museum haunted house with spectral projections, a ghostly graveyard, spooky snack bar and a Gibsons Lantern Festival installation. Saturday, Oct. 26, 5 to 8 p.m., admission by donation. A costume party for the grownups follows at Tapworks at 9 p.m., free entry with a costume.

Hot Club Halloween

Gibsons’ singer Deanna Knight is bringing back her long-time Vancouver collaborators Hot Club of Mars along with the brothers’ duo Tiny Island for a Vintage Halloween Great Gatsby Costume Dance. It will be an evening of virtuoso roots, funk, pop, gypsy swing and 1920s’ cosplay at High Beam Dreams in Gibsons on Saturday, Oct. 26. “The event will kick off with a swing dance lesson,” says Deanna. “We will also set up seats for those who love to take in the music and enjoy the dancers.” Lesson with Lucy Falkner at 7 p.m., concert and dance at 8 p.m. Advance tickets $20 from Blackberry Gifts, MELOmania or Strait Music, $25 at the door.

Harbour Halloween

The 11th Annual Halloween Howl Dance and Costume Extravaganza, with music by Gary Comeau and the Voodoo Allstars kicks off at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Pender Harbour Community Hall. Prizes for best costumes. Tickets $30 from Java Docks in Madeira Park, Strait Music in Sechelt and online at phblues.ca.

Playback Halloween

Dress up in ghoulish garb and join in as the beloved Coast rockers play back a bunch of the greatest dance tunes of the past 60 years or so at the Gibsons Legion on Saturday, Oct. 26. Doors at 7 p.m., music at 8 p.m. $6 for members, $13 for non-members.

There’s no mention of costumes, but why not dress up anyway to hear Lucid Afterlife at the Roberts Creek Legion on Friday Oct. 25 and Saturday, Oct. 26 . “A sound as eclectic as the themes within its imagination-driven walls.” 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. $8 and $15.

Monty Montego and the Rocksteady Crew play Sechelt’s Lighthouse Pub on Friday night, Oct. 25.

At the Pender Harbour Golf Club restaurant on Oct. 27, Joe Stanton hosts the Sunday Jam Session from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Music for the Mother House

Guitarists Scott Reinson and Darren Cassidy, along with drummer Terry Aleck and Christine Turenne, will perform what will be a fun afternoon house concert on Saturday, Oct. 26, starting at 2 p.m. at 5740 Boulevard on the Sechelt waterfront. The event is a fundraiser for the Children’s Sanctuary Namibia Society. The group is helping complete construction of the Mother House, a future home for 20 orphaned children in Namibia. Tickets are $20. Seating is limited and advance ticket purchase is requested though betty.owen@hotmail.com or jdunbar1@telus.net.

Renaissance Music

The Coast Recital Society is presenting an extraordinary opportunity to hear music written 300 years ago that will be played on instruments identical to those used at that time. The Montreal ensemble Les Voix Humaines Consort of Viols will perform Renaissance and contemporary compositions at Raven’s Cry Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m. British lutist Nigel North will join the group for the performance of John Dowland’s Lachrimae. There also will be a pre-concert chat with the musicians at 1:30 p.m. Tickets and information: 604-885-0991.

Goodnight Desdemona

Some of the costumes will be Renaissance for sure, and perhaps not just on the stage, as the Driftwood Players present the award-winning Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Anne-Marie MacDonald’s exuberant feminist revisioning of Shakespeare’s Othello and Romeo and Juliet – as experienced by a heartbroken, modern-day female hero. Opening on Thursday, Oct. 24, the play runs for the next three weekends at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons, 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a 2 p.m. matinée Sunday. Tickets $15 to $25.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Big success in the middle of one’s career is a mixed blessing, as biographer Lee Israel could attest. As her fortunes soured, Israel started writing biographies that were made up – but she didn’t let her publisher know she had turned to fiction. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant star in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the Oscar-nominated story of the real-life author. The Sunshine Coast Film Society is screening the film at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 28 and Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2 at Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt. Society members $5, non-members $9.

Submissions

If there’s an event you’d like considered for Art Beat, please let us know by 11 a.m. Tuesday at arts@coastreporter.net. Space is limited and, regrettably, we can’t list everything. Also check Coast Reporter’s Coast Community Calendar for more music and events.