Opening May 15th and running through May 30th at the Pumphouse Theatre in Calgary, Front Row Centre Players presents Cabaret, directed by Kay Astop. Kyle sits down with Kay to talk about this complicated production and the time it took to bring it to the stage from having to shutter it due to the pandemic 4 days before it was set to open until today when it finally sees an audience.

Tickets: https://www.artscommons.ca/whats-on/frc-2025-26-season

About the show:

In a Berlin nightclub, as the 1920s draw to a close, a garish Master of Ceremonies welcomes the audience and assures them they will forget all their troubles at the Cabaret. With the Emcee’s bawdy songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the dark, heady, and tumultuous life of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer newly arrived in Berlin, is immediately taken by English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally’s boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish.

Directed by Dayna Coles, Kyle sits down with Dayna to discuss Dewdney Player's production of Steel Magnolias, opening May 8th and running through May 23rd.

Tickets: https://www.showpass.com/dewdney-players-presents-steel-magnolias-the-old-church-theatre-6/

About the Show:

The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, ("I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

Opening May 20th and running until June 7th at the B'nai Tikva Temple in Calgary, Chai Life presents The Last Yiddish Speaker, directed by Zelda Dean. Kyle sits down with Zelda and producer Laura Shuler to discuss what this show means, and how it will impact an audience.

Tickets: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/the-last-yiddish-speaker

About the show:

In this fast-paced drama with a streak of magical realism, a Jewish father and daughter rely on their wits and powers of deceit to survive when the world has dramatically changed and the slightest divergence from the norm could cost them their lives. When an ancient Yiddish-speaking woman is deposited on their doorstep, Sarah and her father must decide whether to help the woman hide or to save themselves. Though it centers on Judaism and the right for Jews to exist, it has universal appeal to anyone who worries about marginalized groups, and the often-unwitting or uneducated, both well-meaning and vengeful, who group together to persecute them.