Friday is World Theatre Day! The talented young people of the West Island Theatre Association (WISTA) have (remotely) recorded a cover of Shine Like the Sun from the musical 9 to 5. Put it on, smile and scroll this list of fun things to do online with family and friends. 'When all is said and done...'
Up for some bricolage? Consider making a rainbow to put in your window... it's the cool kid thing to do to encourage our first responders and health workers, who are working to keep us safe and healthy.
This is something I am trying at home: tackling through the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest American Films Of All Time. The list, which you can print or save, includes classics like Singin' In The Rain, Jaws, Vertigo, Wizard of Oz, Schnidler’s List, Gone with the Wind, M*A*S*H, and older films like Duck Soup, City Lights and All About Eve.
Many musicians are livestreaming on Facebook, Instagram and other outlets, with the content remaining up for awhile. Try searching for your faves and see if they are online... Jann Arden, John Legend and Chris Martin are some of many. The Montreal Symphony Orchestra will be streaming free shows on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, at 8pm.
The Segal Centre is using Facebook to keep in touch. They are streaming daily dance classes at noon, Monday to Friday. And band leader Nick Burgess hosts a Broadway Happy Hour on Thursday and Saturday at 5:30pm. Request your fave show tune in the comments!
It’s the year 2220, and lonely space stations at colonies across the galaxy stay in touch with ‘socialization sessions’, orchestrated by an AI program called Zero. Montreal improviser and creator Vinny Francois, is joined by a new guest each week in this sci-fi stream. Alsa Bruno calls in from San Francisco in episode two of Loneliness: an online improvised show, Saturday at 8pm on YouTube.
Jewish food club The Wandering Chew is hosting a Virtual Bagel Cooking Class Saturday afternoon on Zoom. Have the ingredients ready and get baking! (If you cannot make it, check out Chef Ricardo's bagel recipe - even Andrew Carter managed to make some decent bagels with this recipe!)
Montreal's International Festival of Films on Art wraps up this weekend. Cancelled just days before it was to open IRL, the festival's organizers have put the entirety of its programming online for $30.
If you want to MAKE something, the organizers of this fall's Tout Tout Court Festival have set a daily creative challenge. Every night at 12:01am, the are releasing a word in French and in English as a theme... and they invite anyone to make a short performance and share it with the hashtags #30DaysofShorts or #30joursdecourtes. The first day's theme was "Rafistoler" or "Patch Up." Your creation could be a poem, song, dance, knitting or visual art - anything you want!
The Montreal Museum of Fine Art is making new content available each day on social media, like videos, podcasts, quizzes: find the morning update on Facebook or Instagram. On Fridays, they are sharing a new art-therapy activity on their Facebook, devised by the museum's art therapist, Stephen Legari.
Also, explore the Museum's most recent show, Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives virtually by tuning into the guided audio tour. And visit EducArt, a free online resource that draws links between 350 works of art in the Museum's collection and subjects like math and social sciences. There are 75 videos featuring local luminaries like author Kim Thuy.
A bevy of other Canadian museums are putting their offers online: Winnipeg's Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Art Gallery of Ontario and The Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau are making their works and exhibits available online. The Calgary Zoo is also sharing their Panda Cam, where you watch their two giant pandas, Er Shun and Da Mao, frolic for a few hours every day.
International museums like the Louvre, the Sistine Chapel, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the British Museum in London and the Hermitage Museum are also online. The Metropolitan Opera has a nightly stream. And visit Yayoi Kusama's mesmerizing Infinity Mirror installation.
And if you're looking for something different visit Open Culture, a fantastic website that lists dozens if not hundreds of free books, audio books, movies and online courses. The selection here is a mix of the classic, indie and the offbeat. Pick up a Jane Austen novel, watch the original A Star is Born or browse through videos of poets like Maya Angelou reading their work.
With libraries closed, consider finding out if your local branch allows for ebook downloads. With my membership at the Bibliothèque nationale, I have thousands of books, audiobooks and sheet music compilations at my fingertips through an spiffy app called Libby.