SRI OR Son ter ror ae ae

En Oi re

ty

DUSTIN —
QUEZADA

BRUNO Belanger and Mary Anne Lawrence

‘temp you to enter the raffle for this statue of
the Virgin Mary. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

TLT puts the F-U-Nin _

' fundraiser

IF YOU missed Nunsense in November, now is
your chance to catch. the award winning Terrace
Little Theatre’s hilarious Production: one last *

time.

‘This very funny musical about The Little Sis-

_ ters of Hoboken, who are fundraising to bury their»
four dead: sisters,, took the:Skeena Zone Drama

Festival by storm in May and now they are doing:

_ their own fundraising so they can travel to Maple
"Ridge to compete for Best Play in B.C. on July 5.

Director Marianne Brorup Weston says she
never meant to enter the musical in a drama fes-
tival but the response was SO positive, she caved

. to her-actors.-musicians and crew when they plead

their case.

“It’s a very giving show, a show that embraces
good clean fun, a show that really takes care. of
the audience and has them leaving feeling uplifted.
The acting, dancing and singing is superb, and the
jokes just keep coming. How could I say no?”

_ The play won numerous awards at the drama
festival in Kitimat including best play, best direc-
or, best actress, best lights, honourable mention
for musical director and three awards for the Peo-
ples Choice Awards: best set, best actress and best
play. —_
In order to raise the $12,000 necessary to send

- 20 Terracites to the Lower Mainland to show them

what stuff the Northwest i is made of is a daunting
task. °
So TLT is pulling out all the stops. ‘We were .
fortunate that Bruno at Gemma’s Kitchen and
Bath Boutique generously donated a most: beau-
tiful statue of the Virgin Mary for a raffle,” said
Weston. ‘We appeal to the community to come on
out and buy raffle tickets as well as purchase tick-
ets to see our vastly improved benefit show — you
won’t be disappointed!”
. » Look for “‘sightings” of the Virgin Mary at the

- benefit show or see her in glorious display at Uni-. «

globe Courtesy Travel. The draw for the lucky win-

* ner of the statue will be drawn right after the show,

Friday, June 23 at.the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Theatre.
For more information, call Nancy at 635- 1329
or Marianne 635-2942,

FOUR on the floor: from left, Brianna Wheeler,
Jessica Ames, Megan Newton and Rebekah
Asselstine each took their dance exams ear- -

lier this week. DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO

Dancers jazz it up
THIS MONDAY, June 19 marked the first time
dance students from Terrace were able to take

~ Canadian Dance Teacher Association (CDTA)

exains here. 4

Ranging in age from six to 17, 23 students in all
took their j jazz dance exams from the preliminary:
level to Grade 5.

- The students, who may be working toward be-
ing dance teachers or dancers, learn the syllabus
for the grade they” re being tested on and perform
it for one examiner.

The exams typically include dancers perform-
ing barres, centre work, floor work, across the
floor work, combinations and a dance routine.

In the past, the dancers have had to travel else-
where to take the exams.

TERRACE STANDARD

. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 21, 2006 - Bi

7 | Beaming benefactors |

. FROM left, Brandon Gardner, Brendan Bisanti, Will Westby, Patrick Moore and John Westby « are all laughs . June: 172 at the unveiling of
"the Spirit:of Terrace mural on the Millenium Trail: All five boys are in the band program at Cassie Hall Elementary School. The project,
« was spearheaded by the Dare to Dream Foundation, a group determined to keep elementary band Programs strong.

"By DUSTIN QUEZADA..

HE’S A moviedirector, screenwriter,

editor, producer, casting director, .
actor and sound recorder making his

living in Vancouver.

Sounds typical in. the place
dubbed “Hollywood North.”
, What isn’t typical is that Ross

~ Weber is from Terrace.
It’s been 30 years, however, since

he left Terrace for Vancouver, where

he initially enrolled in sciences at

.the University Gf British Columbia.

“ve been [in Vancouver] far lon-
ger than I was in Terrace,’ Weber
said last: week- from his Vancouver
home. ,

He quickly moved to film studies
and eventually finished a Masters of
Fine Arts in Film in 1986.

These days, he’s busy trying to:

get Mount Pleasant, his most ‘an-

“ticipated work, edited in time for an
August submission to this year’s To-
ronto International Film Festival.

“Toronto is the really big one — .

it’s probably only second to Cannes

(International Film Festival),” Weber / _
_ script around and found a distribu-

said. “‘T.O. is-huge.”:

The festival accepts 30 to 35 Ca-
nadian films and, assuming it is fin-
ished in time,.Weber is confident the

movie he wrote and directed will be.

‘well received.

Mount Pleasant represents the.
biggest budget ($1.5 million) Weber
has ever worked with and another
step ina long j journey in independent
moviemaking.

Since he finished at UBC, Weber

has been involved with a number.of ~

award-winning projects that have
appeared in numerous festivals in a
variety of different capacities.

His directorial debut came in 1998

~ with No More Monkeys Jumpin’ on

the Bed, winner of Telefilm Canada

‘Best Western .Canadian — Director

Award at the 2000 Vancouver Inter-
national Film Festival.

Compared to Mount Pleasant, ;
that movie was made for a paltry
$13,000.

Independent filmmakers in
Canada are‘ usually funded through
Telefilm Canada, the federal cultural

-agency that develops and promotes

the Canadian film, television, new
media and music industries.
Generally, Weber says Telefilm
looks for good scripts and if it likes.
one, a project will get a good pro-
ducer and half the money necessary
to make the movie.
_ “There’s a lot of money and peo-
ple just don’t hand it out — it’s very
competitive,” Weber said. “I feel
very fortunate.”
From there, Weber shopped ‘the

tor.

$1:5 million doesn’ t go far i in the in-
dustry.

“AL this. budget level, you have to
compromise,” said Weber.

That compromise meant Weber
and his producer wife Kimberley
Wakefield took 19 days to shoot the

movie this spring, about half the time

the script would normally demand.

TV’s The O.C.

Some scenes were cut and ‘the -

couple also. used their house as a
- shooting location for the movie that
takes place in the Vancouver neigh-

_ bourhood of Mount Pleasant.

“It was absolutely crazy,” Weber
said of having a crew at their home.
“There’s enough worry.and work to
do to upset the Producer and the di-
rector.”

‘The couple moved to the edge
of Mount Pleasant, on Vancouver’s

east side, six’ years ago during a time .

when there was a lot of crime, pros-
titution and drugs there. ©

“We got involved with the com-
“munity, to deal with the. situation,”
said Weber : of night ‘patrols and
meetings.

Mount Pleasant is a drama that .

follows a number of characters who
interweave throughout the story in
the neighbourhood that’s in the pro-
cess of gentrification.

The story centres around a young

fits direc

Despite the expanded budget,

Weber used a good portion of his -
budget to lure some recognizable ac- |
tors, including Kelly Rowan from:

. at

couple who try to clean up the -

neighbourhood after their daughter
is pricked by an infected needle in
their backyard:

‘Other characters include a teen
addict and her pimp boyfriend, a

wealthy businessman who comes to
*: Mount Pleasant for. paid sex and a
policeman and his wife.

It’s style has-drawn comparisons
to Oscar-winning. films American
Beauty and Crash.

While media attention in the Low-
er Mainland has focused on Weber’s
real life experience in the neighbour-
hood, the 47-year-old-says that’s not
enough to entertain audiences.

“You use the experience but you
have to find a way to make a movie
one that people want to watch,” he
said.

“I hope [audiences] like it. I’m

tor’s

pretty close to it and I think it s 's pret

ty good.”
Weber says": ‘he’ s: always writing ”

and currently has ‘a couple: of’ half-":

_completed scripts.

Weber is the son of Bvva and the .
late J. Fred Weber. The latter brought .
television to the Northwest, found-’ ;
ing what is now CFTK. >

Remembered . as a. “mechanical .
wizard, his son says he did learn «
some things from him.

. “We used to build our own houses

_in Terrace so now I can do my own

plumbing and electrical (wiring),”_ ”
Weber said.

Weber's parents moved to Van-
couver in 1988 and ‘Evva still lives a
few blocks away from her son: We-
ber says they see a lot of each other.

Mount Pleasant is expected to be
in theatres this fall. ~

638-7283