****January 2012 Focus - Focus Magazine

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the arts in january January 28 THAT’S JUST CRAZY TALK Eric Martin Pavilion WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW: IT’S AN ADAGE WE’RE ALL FAMILIAR with, and one that Victoria Maxwell took to heart when she decided to write what would become her first play. The topic Her experience being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, anxiety and psychosis at age 25, the subsequent five years she spent coming to terms with her disorders, and her eventual recovery. It was a call for submissions for KickStart’s disability arts festival that first motivated her to write. “I thought, ’Well, if I’m going to do something, this might be the place to do it, because there will hopefully be a warm audience there,” says Maxwell, who worked as an actor before her diagnosis. “I applied and more or less said, ‘Hey, I have a book and I can read excerpts.’ And they said, ‘Great!’ Then I realized shit, I don’t have a book. I don’t even have excerpts.” Since then, the self-proclaimed Bipolar Princess has become a premiere presenter on issues surrounding living with mental Victoria Maxwell illness, and has penned four acclaimed onewoman shows: Crazy For Life, Funny...You Don’t Look Crazy, Head Over Heels and her most recent, That’s Just Crazy Talk, which is coming to Victoria on January 28 as a special presentation of Movie Monday. “I would say it’s probably my most personal, mainly because it goes into my family history on both my mom and dad’s side,” says Maxwell. “My other ones were obviously very personal because they were based on my life, but somehow, I guess because I wasn’t describing things that had to do with my mom and dad, it didn’t seem quite as revealing or risky.” The play has been performed three times as part of a research project by CREST.BD, or Collaborative RESearch Team on the Psychosocial Issues of Bipolar Disorder. The project’s goal is to study the impact that lived-experience theatre presentations can have on attitudes towards mental illness, both in people living with bipolar disorder and healthcare providers. While the Victoria performance isn’t part of the research project, CREST.BD team leader Erin Michalak will be attending the show and they will be making a presentation about the project during the Eric Martin Pavilion's psychiatric grand rounds a couple days later. “There is a lot of lip service to the lived experience being so valuable in helping people to recover, but it doesn’t really find its way to really being supported,” says Bruce Saunders, who has been organizing the Movie Monday film screenings at Eric Martin Pavilion for nearly 20 years. “I’ve been trying from all different angles all the years that I’ve been doing Movie Monday to try and influence the mainstream professional community and this is a bright spark for me, to see that someone is doing it and doing something scientifically and with some credibility to the mainstream.” That’s Just Crazy Talk will be performed at 6:30pm Sat, January 28 at the Eric Martin Pavilion Theatre in the 1900 block of Fort Street. It’s free and open to the public. Visit www.crestbd.ca/events to register. For more information on Victoria Maxwell, visit www.victoriamaxwell.com. For more on Movie Monday, visit www.moviemonday.ca. —Amanda Farrell-Low 28 January 2012 • FOCUS
Throughout January WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR Royal BC Museum See the 108 winning images in this 47-year-old international competition, run by BCC Wildlife Magazine, on its only North American stop. Regular museum admission applies. 675 Belleville St, 250-356-7226, www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca. VARIOUS EXHIBITIONS Art Gallery of Great Victoria “Collected Resonance,” works by three South Asian Canadian women, to Jan 8. “Promising Objects,” Alison MacTaggart uses parameters from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office to guide this exploration of inventors and artists and their ongoing desire to find solutions to problems and ideas, to Jan 15. “The Enduring Arts of China,” decorative elements and motifs that have been passed down by Chinese artists for centuries, to May 6. “Emily Carr: On the Edge of Nowhere,” semi-permanent Emily Carr exhibit. All at 1040 Moss St. 250-384-4171, www.aggv.ca. Celebrating Local Artists Fine Art, Jewelry, Gifts & Crafts by Local Artists Great selection of Gemstones & Findings 2000 Fernwood Road 250.361.3372 • www.shesaidgallery.ca THE EMERGENCE OF ARCHITECTURAL MODERNISM II Legacy Art Gallery Subtitled “UVic and the Victoria Regional Aesthetic in the late 1950s and ’60s,” this is the second in a series of exhibitions and publications exploring the relationships, personalities and projects contributing to the development of a regional modernist aesthetic in the post-war Victoria urban landscape. 630 Yates St, 250-381-7645, www.legacygallery.ca. PHOTO: HUBERT NORBURY Council Chamber Wing, Pandora St. Entrance (Wade Stockdill & Armour Architects) ALL STARS CONTINUED Dales Gallery Works by Stephanie Harding, Ira Hoffecker, Bob McPartlin, Clive Powsey. 537 Fisgard St, 250-383-1552, www.dalesgallery.ca. Tuesday Nights NEWCOMBE SINGERS REHEARSALS St Mary’s Church This non-audition community choir is on the hunt for tenor and bass voices, but welcomes all new members. 7:30-9:30pm weekly at 1701 Elgin Rd. 250-480-5087, www.newcombesingers.com. Sundays in January FOLK MUSIC CONCERTS Norway House Check website for performers. Open mic at 7:30pm at 1110 Hillside Ave, followed by the featured concert. $5. 250- 475-1355, www.victoriafolkmusic.ca. Send ARTS-RELATED listings to focusedit@shaw.ca by January 10 for events in February. Placement cannot be guaranteed. www.focusonline.ca • January 2012 29
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****January 2012 Focus - Focus Magazine

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