Events
Actor and writer Shelley Thompson will be visiting the Astor this Sunday to launch her new novel, Roar. Inspired by the original screenplay for the award-winning feature film “Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor”, about a young trans woman who returns to her family farm in the wake of her mother’s death. A work of fierce allyship, of enduring love and of gentle hope, Roar follows a family through grief and estrangement as they become catalysts for change in their rural community. Told from multiple points of view, with confidence and tenderness, Roar is profoundly authentic, drawing on her own experience as the mother of a trans child and fierce activist for the trans community.
Shelley will be doing a reading from this, her debut novel, and signing copies of the book in the Gorham Room at 2pm. She will be joined in conversation with special guest, author Marcia Harding. There is no charge for this event.
In the theatre at 4pm, we will be screening Shelley’s 2021 film “Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor”, which inspired the novel. We are thrilled to be able to offer the first 25 tickets at no charge! After that, tickets to the movie are $10 each.
We are immensely grateful for the financial support of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Team of the Region of Queens Municipality who have made this book reading and film screening possible.
Chantal Kreviazuk, a two-time JUNO Award winner and Raine Maida — a four-time winner with Our Lady Peace — are one of Canada’s most influential cultural couples.
Kreviazuk made her critically acclaimed full-length debut, Under These Rocks and Stones, in 1997. Since then, the Winnipeg born singer-songwriter has released five more studio albums, and garnered five JUNO Award nominations. Maida has forged a dynamic career as a solo artist and the front man for the band Our Lady Peace, 25-time JUNO Award nominees, including winners for Rock Album of the Year in 2003 (Gravity) and 1998 (Clumsy).
The pair has also co-written countless hits for artists such as Kelly Clarkson, David Cook and Carrie Underwood.
While Kreviazuk and Maida are quick to lend their time to the studio and stage, they are equally committed to lending their help to those in need — both in Canada and internationally. In March, the couple received the 2014 Allan Waters Humanitarian Award that recognizing outstanding Canadian artists whose contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada.
“Not only am I able to express myself, and be able to play music for others and be creative for a living in life, but I can go to the next level and be a part of true greatness — the process of another human being’s healing, possibly playing even a small role in improving the quality of life of another,” Kreviazuk said.
War Child Canada is one of the many organizations the married couple has embraced. Kreviazuk is an honourary founder and active in various causes including women’s rights, war refugees and child education. Maida launched War Child’s Busking for Change program, in which Canadian musicians have raised money for children in the world’s most devastated regions, supporting initiatives such as the construction of schools in the Congo. Additionally the couple has recorded contributions for multiple benefit albums for War Child.
“I was first drawn to music because of the inherent ‘hope’ it provided me,” Maida said. “Social activism carries that same promise and the two together have shaped and taught me more than I could ever repay.”
On Sunday November 12th at 2pm, Anne Janelle will be celebrating the release of her fourth album, How Best to See the Light upstairs in our Gorham room. She will be joined by special guest James Hill.
Tickets are $20 and are on sale through Anne’s website: https://www.annejanelle.com/…/anne-janelle-in-liverpool-ns
With twenty-five years spent barrelling down endless strips of asphalt from coast to coast, RON JAMES, our nation’s number one road warrior and newly minted senior citizen, is ‘Not Nearly Done Yet’! With his trademark poetically charged alliterative rants, performed with razor sharp timing, this award-winning comedian and best-selling author takes audiences on a marathon roller coaster ride in the language of laughs, charting a course through a politically polarized world out of whack. From the micro to macro, he tackles everything from the dating woes of Baby Boomers, embattled public health care, aging parents, food fads, exercise addiction, nostalgia, information overload, tropical vacations gone awry, New Age divas, homelessness crisis, climate change, corporate monopolies and gambling ads in hockey, to the rise of AI’s robot revolution. The comedian the Globe and Mail called, ‘a man of a million words and a million laughs’, contemplates what really matters most in a culture beset by runaway consumption… and it is us. The preservation of humanity’s humanity. ‘Everything else is just a spoiler on a Dodge Neon’.
“Utterly Brilliant” – Ottawa Sun
“fits of helpless laughter” – Halifax Herald
“hysterically funny … at the top of his game” – Toronto Star
“gut-busting, knee-slapping funny” – Ottawa Citizen
“funniest man in Canada” – Victoria Times-Colonist
“thunderous standing ovation” – Saskatoon Star Phoenix
Over eighty years since the public first embraced the successful Glenn Miller Sound, both the legend and the music live on! The most popular and sought after big band in the world today, with its unique jazz sound, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is considered to be one of the greatest bands of all time. The present Glenn Miller Orchestra was formed in 1956 and has been touring worldwide ever since, playing an average of 300 live dates a year around the globe to millions of fans.
Now, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is visiting the Astor Theatre for the first time! They will perform a Sunday afternoon matinee at 2:30pm and an evening concert at 7:30pm.
“A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.” – Glenn Miller
Over eighty years since the public first embraced the successful Glenn Miller Sound, both the legend and the music live on! The most popular and sought after big band in the world today, with its unique jazz sound, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is considered to be one of the greatest bands of all time. The present Glenn Miller Orchestra was formed in 1956 and has been touring worldwide ever since, playing an average of 300 live dates a year around the globe to millions of fans.
Now, the Glenn Miller Orchestra is visiting the Astor Theatre for the first time! They will perform a Sunday afternoon matinee at 2:30pm and an evening concert at 7:30pm.
“A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.” – Glenn Miller
