Demystifying the artistic process

21 Thursday May 2015

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Art is hard.

Let me put that another way: creating art is challenging.

The vast majority of arts’ consumers – readers, music lovers, gallery attendees – only see the results. Few know of the struggles artists face taking a piece from conception to completion. This is one of the reasons, when I interview artists on the Arts Connection broadcast (shameless plug: Mondays at 9:30 p.m. ET on 94.3 Faith FM and archived at www.selawministries.ca), I specifically ask them about the process: Where did the idea come from? How long did it take? What was the  most challenging part of the process? What part was the most satisfying?

While the answers vary, they help the artist demystify the process and make the creation of art more understandable and accessible to the consumers of art.

For example, I have a musician friend who has been working on a CD project for the past three years. I’ve witnessed the challenges that have arisen, the frustrations faced and the anticipation of a near-completed project. When the CD is finally released, most of the people who will listen to it won’t have the faintest idea of the figurative blood and literal sweat, toil and tears that went into the CD’s creation. All that will matter is whether or not they like what they hear.

Social media has helped pull back the curtain that separates the artistic process from the finished creation. A novelist friend frequently posts updates on their social media feed about the progress of their latest novel. A landscape artist I’ve interviewed posts photos and videos that show the progress being made on current projects. And I’ve frequently posted updates about the progress on a novel I’m working on.

Demystifying the process also helps artists avoid the standard small talk comments which follow the “‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘I’m a writer, musician, etc.'” opening: “I was thinking of doing that at one point but I decided i needed to get a real job” or “I’m thinking of taking up writing once I retire.”

But there will always be those who think creating art is easy and anyone can do it. Smart phones and programmable digital cameras have made everyone think their Ansel Adams. Desktop publishing programs and print-on-demand publishers have created a plethora of Margaret Atwood wannabes. And the list continues based on the various technologies available such as video editing software, etc.

For those of us who are dedicated to our craft, we know how challenging it can be. We know the long hours devoted to creating a work. We know the pain of staring at a blank canvas, an empty computer screen or an unmarked music score as we wrack our brains for the correct colour, word or note. But we also know the satisfaction of a completed creation – or at least a creation we’re now releasing to the public because we know a piece is never really completed since there’s always a tweak here or there that can be made.

So let’s put paintbrush to canvas, fingers to keyboard, chisel to stone, eye to viewfinder, hand to instrument and create art.

No matter how challenging it is.

Exposing ourselves through our art

14 Thursday May 2015

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Meet You at the Manger scriptLast night ranked among the top 20 of the most exciting and most anxiety-inducing experiences I’ve had as an artist.

I’ve dabbled in theatre, starting in high school as an extra with the Ridge Players, which started out with Gilbert & Sullivan works, eventually expanding to contemporary musical theatre. I started out as part of the chorus in my first couple of musicals, graduating to Boy #1 in the next two. I took part in church-produced production as an adult and became part of a church drama team.

Even though I enjoyed treading the boards, writing was still my first love and began writing sketches and plays. All, at the moment, unpublished and unproduced. But God intervened last December when, through an Arts Connection broadcast, I met Kim Pottruff, artistic director of Audience of One (http://www.audienceofoneguelph.ca), a new Christian amateur theatre group in Guelph.

While researching the company’s website, I noticed they were looking for playwrights. So I mentioned to Kim that I had a few plays gathering dust in my computer and wondered if she’d be interested in reading them. By the beginning of February, I was writing the script to a musical which, if all goes well, will be staged in December.

Which brings me to Wednesday, May 13, where nine people gathered to read through, aloud, for the first time the script of Meet You at the Manger.

You’d think after three decades as a journalist and author, I’d be used to setting my words free for others to read

You’d think after three decades as a journalist and author, I’d be used to setting my words free for others to read – never knowing what readers thought of them. A table reading is an entirely different experience. You’re sitting there, with your words exposed by another’s voice, disappointed when a particular word or phrase didn’t quite work and excited when people laugh at the right time.

But that’s the tension we face as artists. Without a reader or an audience or a viewer, the book or play or movie or music or painting are simply exercises in self expression that will gather dust. And for those of us who are trying to impart a Christian worldview through their art, that message is muted and our calling is unfulfilled.

While we may worry about the reaction to our work, we can’t let that prevent us from making it public. We do need to make sure our art has been polished and perfected as much as possible. But there’s a point when we have release our art even if we don’t think it’s perfect.

And that’s the point I reached with Meet You at the Manger . I know it still needs work. But I also needed to hear other voices speak the words of the characters. And I dreaded the first read-through. I feared the changes that might be suggested. I worried they wouldn’t understand what had been written.

All in vain.

For the most part, the readers gave positive feedback. Except for a few words or lines here and there that needed to be changed, and a section that relies more heavily on the still-to-be-completed song than the script, they liked it. They really liked it.

This is only the first step setting the play free. There’s still opening night and the play’s run before a live audience. And the jitters that will come.

For now, it’s back to proofing and polishing.

Exploring the “why” of art with Calvin Seerveld’s “Redemptive Art in Society”

07 Thursday May 2015

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Redemptive Art in Society cover

In the paean of those who have provided philosophical and theological underpinnings for the role of art in faith and culture, four names stand out: Hans Rookmaaker, (Art Needs No Justification), Francis Schaeffer (Art & the Bible) and John Franklin (Imago).

The fourth is Calvin Seerveld, professor emiritus in Aesthetics at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies, who had a six-volume collection of his “sundry writings and occasional lectures” published buy Dordt College Press last year.

One of those volumes, Redemptive Art in Society, needs to be on the “to-read” list of anyone involved in the intersection of faith, arts and culture. The lectures, papers and articles date from as early as 1993 to as late as 2010 and were presented in venues as varied as: the Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference at McGill University in Montreal, the Christians in the Theatre Arts (CITA) conference in Chicago and Barcelona’s “Arts Gathering” conference in Spain.

In Redemptive Art in Society Seerveld provides artists with the “why” of art. I’d suggest that many of us are so busy with the “how” of our art, we often forget the “why.” We become focused on what we should create, what role our faith plays in creating art, where our art should go and who should be exposed to our art – often forgetting the foundational question: why do we create art?

The peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry (can) be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.

One answer is found in the chapter titled “Necessary Art in Africa: A Christian Perspective,” originally published in Art in Africa, where Seerveld suggests:

“If artistry is built-in human nature, and if artistic imaginative activity is so fundamentally at work in personal, family, and public societal life, though often unobserved, then artistry with its cultural potential left in the hands and to the whims of a godless direction will go to hell. An overwhelming portion of the contemporary Western artworld – painting, song, cinema – has indeed lost its way, I think, because disciples of Jesus generations ago ignored the terrain, or merely domesticated the least offensive varieties of the secularist fashion…

Artists who follow Christ are called to forge a community with faith-brother and faith-sister artists, aestheticians, art historians, art critics, art patrons, an artistic communion within which artistry can be reconceived and reformed from what passes as normal, so that art’s presumed privilege or art’s esoteric adventitious capriciousness be ended, and the peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.” (italics in original)

Christian artistry, suggests Seerveld in “From Ghost Town to Tent City: artist community facing Babylon and the City of God” (a keynote address to the CIVA conference), “does not have to add something to art; it is simply competent artwork presented with holy spirited insight, the way God wants it done.”

Seerveld packs much food for thought into each chapter. But once the reader has a chance to digest his thoughts, they come away with a greater understanding of the role artists who are Christian can have in society: creating “artwork that presents nuanced sorrow or joy with the imaginative relish of an understanding bouyed by hope.”

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Calvin Seerveld, Redemptive Art in Society, Dordt College Press, 2014, 328 pages, www.Dordt.edu/DCPcatalog

Seeing churches in black and white…photography, that is

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Most of my artistic endeavours have centred around the written word, either as a journalist, short story writer or, in the past couple of years, as an unpublished novelist. But because I began my writing career as a reporter in weekly newspapers, I was also introduced to news photography.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of my photos have appeared in newspapers or magazines. Most have been focussed (pun intended) on providing a visual image of a news event or a feature subject. And, of course, I’ve taken photos of family events or trips, almost in all cases looking for the unusual or unique shot that will differentiate the photos from the “normal” photo album or vacation shot.

For the past couple of years, every other Saturday, I get together with about a dozen other men to talk about photography. We’ve talked about how sensor size counts, lenses (length, telephoto versus zoom), depth of field, existing light and photo manipulation with photo software. Our discussions are always enlightening, engaging and, sometimes energetic (but never argumentative).

Out of these discussions arose a the idea for a photo project I started working on last year. The Stone Churches Project will be a collection of black and white photos of the seven limestone churches in downtown Guelph.

Knox from Quebec & Norfolk - blended cropped B & W watermarkedKnox Presbyterian Church. Taken from the corner of Norfolk and Quebec Streets

The project is intended to challenge me on a number of levels.

The first challenge is to begin looking at the churches with an artistic mindset. As a photojournalist, my main reason for taking pictures was to illustrate a story. If, for example I was taking the above photo to accompany a story talking about the role of the church in the community, I would always have made sure there were people in the picture.

Instead, I’m now focusing more on composition, lighting, shading by creating a photo you’d want to put on your wall rather than in the recycle bin.

Lakeside Downton front - blended cropped B&W watermarkedLakeside Downtown front tower on Norfolk Street

My second challenge was seeing things in black and white. At one of my early newspaper gigs, our office was right across the hall from a portrait photographer. Victor was one of my early influences as a photographer and I still appreciate the informal lessons he gave me.

One of those lessons was about the “grey scale” used by Ansel Adams in his stunning landscape photographs. The scale ranks the varying shades of grey from white to black which photographers use to determine shutter speed and aperture size.

I had to learn those all over again for this project. And learn to convert the colour in my viewfinder into black and white.

Shell-Butterfly window - cropped B&W watermarkedLakeside Downtown interior: north-side stained glass window in the late evening.

My final challenge was to overcome my aversion to photo manipulation and learn how to use photo software more effectively.

I’ve always been a purist. That comes naturally when you’re using film and taking photos at a newsworthy event. You only have one chance to get the photo right because, for the most part, you can’t go back and recreate the event.

This becomes a challenge when shooting for black and white. While my digital camera will allow me to shoot in B & W, the photos tend to be flat, with little definition. The photo above was taken in colour and then converted to crisp, clean B & W image. I still don’t manipulate the photos as much as other people I know, but I’m learning.

Where am I going with this project? I’m still debating. Perhaps a book. Perhaps an exhibit. Only time will tell.

For now, I’m just enjoying the journey.

“House of Many Rooms”: treat for the ears, feast for the soul

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Laila Biali - House of Many Rooms cover

From brass fanfare that opens “Shadowlands” to the plaintive closing notes of “Plainclothes Hero,” Laila Biali & the Radiance Project’s new CD, House of Many Rooms is a treat for the ears and a feast for the soul.

Biali, a Vancouver native who now calls New York City home, has played with Sting, Paula Cole and Suzanne Vega. Best known as a jazz pianist, House of Many Rooms is a musical departure for her.

But her fans can thank her husband, and CD co-producer, Ben Wittman for pushing her into recording the CD and sharing these songs with the world.

“He helped me silence the judges in my head,” says Biali in an Arts Connection interview to be broadcast in early May. “Releasing original music like this is sharing something that’s deeply personal and is a higher risk than putting out an album of cover material.”

And deeply personal it is, with songs that explore grief, loss, longing and expectation.

“Sparrow” was written for a friend’s sister whose twins were stillborn, where the pain comes through in the lines “But I can’t feel the kicking inside of me/In the space that my hands overlay.” Biali writes of her own reaction to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in “Shine” a lullaby-style tune which says “There’s shattered glass beneath our feet/The shards they cut like broken dreams.”

A friend’s battle with cancer is the backbone of “Plainclothes Hero,” while “Little Bird” is an ode to her son and “Home” is one of the best descriptions of Christian community I’ve seen: “This is home for all/You will not be rejected/All of perfect beauty reflected/In your face/In this place.”

House of Many Rooms has an indie-pop feel (one person I’ve shared it with says it reminds them of Hark the Herons – an indie duo which includes downhere bassist Glenn Lavender) with a solid cast of musicians, including Wittman, and vocalists, including the Toronto Mass Choir. “You” with its eerie Haken Continuum is reminiscent of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. And “Home” has roots in Biali’s jazz stylings with a steady rhythm section base underpinning the vocal and string arrangements.

Biali first conceived The Radiance Project about six years ago. And two years ago she entered the studio to begin recording House of Many Rooms. The final product has been well worth the wait.

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For more on Laila Biali & The Radiance Project got to http://theradianceproject.com/. And listen to the full interview with her on 94.3 Faith FM on Monday, May 4 at 9:30 p.m. ET (webcast on www.faithfm.org).

“The Name of the Hawk” series offer a new take on the Arthurian legend

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Pincher Creek, Alberta writer Murray Pura offers a new take on the Arthurian legends through his two The Name of the Hawk series.

The two series are a throwback to the days of Charles Dickens novels and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Authors would release a bit of their stories at a time in the magazines or newspapers before a publisher would release the full story or novel in a book. Pura has taken the e-book route with both The Name of the Hawk series, releasing a volume (in essence a chapter) at a time.

Last year’s series, a six volume novel, introduced the reader to Hawk, a young man ready to leave his island home on the pilgrimage that marked his entry in to adulthood. The not-so-chance arrival of a boatload of Danes changes the direction of Hawk’s journey and adds his love interest Skaytha and her companions to the journey.

After a few physical and spiritual trials, Hawk et al leave the Danes, travel across unknown lands and end up in Jerusalem. There he meets Galahad, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. The two reluctantly team up to find the true cross. There’s more than a twist or two in this tale, most of which revolves around the relationship between Hawk and Galahad.

Volume II, released in March, picks up Hawk’s tale, where he and Galahad are tasked to find…

The Holy Grail.

Which shouldn’t really be a surprise, since the grail quest is a key part of the Arthurian story. While this is only the first volume, based on the first series, I’m betting this grail quest ends up taking a markedly different direction than what’s found in other treatments of the legend.

What Pura adds to the mix includes:

1) A nod to the Galad/Galahad controversy: is this the same person but with different spellings or are these two different people? In Pura’s interpretation, these are definitely two sides of the same coin.

2) A compare/contrast approach to Celtic and Roman Christianity: Hawk represents the Celtic approach, which is personal, intuitive and structured around the community. Galahad represents the Roman approach, which  is centred around the church and priests. Pura shows, through the interaction between the two as they, that a melding of both approaches produces a deeper, richer spirituality.

3) A sense of humour: This began in the first series, when Hawk met Galahad and insisted that Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were fables. And Galahad’s knightly speech patterns remain a constant source of amusement for and ridicule from Hawk.

Pura’s clean, conversational writing style makes the books an easy read. That doesn’t mean they’re simplistic – there’s an unexpected depth to the narrative, especially for those who are fans of the Arthurian genre.

I’m looking forward to the rest of Series II of The Name of the Hawk and eagerly curious about how the grail quest will end. If it’s anything like the search for the true Cross in Series I, it will be nothing like I’ve read in the past.

The Name of the Hawk Series II, published by Helping Hands Press, is available as an e-book at amazon.ca (http://tinyurl.com/ktgfbsn)

Exploring Jesus’ journey from Gesthemane to the tomb through art

06 Monday Apr 2015

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For the second year in a row, Guelph’s Lakeside Downtown invited about a dozen artists to use their talent to depict the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. One of the unique things about Lakeside Downtown is the number of artists – writers, poets, painters, musicians, storytellers, graphic designers, etc. – that are part of the  congregation.

This year, about 500 people walked through the downtown church plant of Lakeside Church (http://lakesidechurch.ca/) and experienced the various interpretations of Jesus journey from the Garden of Gesthemane to the tomb.

By way of disclosure, Lakeside Downtown is my home church. And my part in the Art of the Cross event was to create a photo journal of what was going on. I’m posting a few of the photos here and the rest can be seen on my Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/kbv3swh)

Phil Irish 1Elora artist Phil Irish created this depiction of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. Most of the pieces of paper with lips on them came from those attending the event. Phil provided the paper and lipstick and those attending provided the lip prints – making this an interactive piece. For me, it made me wonder if I could, or have, betrayed Christ as easily as Judas.

Community Choir 3The Art of the Cross event was the debut of the Lakeside Downtown Community Choir. Comprised of members of the congregation and the community, the choir provides an opportunity for people to share choral music no matter their faith, or non-faith, background.

Community participationA large cross, made from kraft paper, took up a good part of the floor in the Lakeside Downtown’s gym. Those who came, adults and youth alike, were invited to create their own interpretation of either the event or the Stations of the Cross, making it a truly interactive time of meditation and reflection.

Phil Irish - paletteThis shot of Phil Irish’s palette, for me, sums up everything about the event and my experience as a writer and photographer. It represents the chaos of the artistic process, from the discordant sight-reading of a new piece of music to the mixing of color for a painting. But out of this chaos, through practice, practice, practice – be that rehearsing a section of a piece over and over until it rings out in harmony, painting over a section of a canvas, experimenting with exposures and f/stops, or working on the umpteenth draft of a story – that chaos begins to form a cohesive work of art.

And those cohesive works of art can touch people in a way nothing else can. It can stir emotion. It can evoke questions. It can bring healing. But most of all, and especially in an event such as this, art can reflect to us the cross of Christ.

Book takes “Subway Stations of the Cross” from the stage to the page

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Subway Stations cover

A year ago, during the one of the runs of the award-winning play Kim’s Convenience, I had the chance to talk to Ins Choi about one of his other works: Subway Stations of the Cross.

Subway Stations of the Cross has its roots in a conversation Ins had with a homeless man in a park in downtown Toronto. Puzzled by what seemed to be ramblings at the time, Ins eventually found himself intrigued by what was said and began writing poems and songs based on it. By 2009 he began performing a song or poem in church services during Lent, a project that ultimately grew into a 20-minute performance.

“Over the years it started to grow and grow and now it at about an hour long,” said Ins in the interview.

Now, this work of the stage has been transformed into a work of the written page with the House of Anansi Press publication of Ins’ spoken-word poems and songs, beautifully illustrated by artist Guno Park.

The book opens with an illustration of Ins in character as the play’s nameless vagabond who is both beggar and seer. The poem “Repent” sets the tone for the book with lines that seamlessly meld social comment, humour and theology:

“Compare/Laissez-faire/Up in the air/On a whim and a prayer/Neither here nor there/Neither hide nor hair/Multi-million dollar home five car garage private jet plane mega-billionaire/MDiv PhD summa cum laud professor director member fellow published text book nicky picky air tight I’m right doctrinaire ye the way of the Lord.”

My personal favorites are “Bread” and “Wine” (two poems that look, separately, at the elements of the Last Supper), “Birkenstock Jesus” (which asks “If Jesus came to visit us today/How would he react to the church?”) and “A Field” (the parable of the hidden treasure from Matthew 13). But I also find a new “favourite” every time I read through the book again.

The beauty of Ins’ words is matched by Guno Park’s wonderful illustrations. “Guno and I grew up in the same church in Toronto, Toronto Korean Bethel Church,” writes Ins in the Author’s Note. “For an immigrant Korean church, or any church for that matter, it had an unusually disproportionate amount of artists.” In the same note, Ins says Guno’s drawings were “the perfect visual companion to my poems and songs.”

And they are. The publisher has formatted the book so that Guno’s pen and ink subway scenes can fold out in a panorama of human drama. Or as Ins writes: “like lost travellers on a holy pilgrimage who, after many years, forgot where they were going and why.”

While Subway Stations of the Cross can be a quick read, its complexities will draw the readers back to it time and time again for new insights into human and divine natures. It’s going to be in my re-read pile for a long time.

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For the complete interview with Ins Choi, which looks at Kim’s Convenience and Subway Stations of the Cross go to: http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-april-7-2014-ins-choi-kims-convenience-and-subway-stations-cross

“Body & Soul: A Worship Collective” equals a theolgically-rich, musically-relevant music experience

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Body & Soul cover

In a blog recently brought to my attention worship leader Dan Cogan writes about his journey away from contemporary music. One of the reasons he cites for the change is that “the content of hymns is almost always vastly more theologically rich…

“Rather, the theology in the hymns is typically more sound or healthy than much of contemporary worship music. As I said earlier, contemporary songs engage our emotions more often, where the hymns engage our hearts by way of the mind.” (http://www.dancogan.com/my-journey-away-from-contemporary-worship-music)

To which I reply: have you listened to the Body & Soul: A Worship Collective CD?

Headed by Jeremy Zeyl, part of the folk roots trio Isabelle Gunn, Body & Soul: A Worship Collective is a theologically-rich, musically-relevant worship experience which engages the heart and soul as well as the mind and emotions. Recorded over two nights late last year at the Talbot Street Church in London, Ontario, the two-CD set features a worship team made up of musicians and singers from churches in London.

Some history is in order. Body & Soul has its roots in Jeremy’s 2013 CD Heidelberg: Songs from the Catechism, released in celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Reformed teaching. And one of the reasons for Heidelberg‘s release was to create a new body of worship material for churches to use.

Body & Soul is the latest step in Jeremy’s journey to bring theologically-driven music to the masses. While Jeremy may be the driving force behind the project, it truly is a team effort. Writing credits also go to Jeremy Jongejan (electric guitar), Janelle Lightbourne (vocals) and Brian Van Arnhem (bass).

While some contemporary worship music displays a theological shallowness, Body & Soul certainly doesn’t. What other contemporary worship songs recognize the imagery of the Old Testament Tabernacle with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (“Jesus Our Tabernacle”)? “The poignant “Lord, Are You There?” echoes the question many of us ask when life is difficult, while acknowledging that God is in the silence. And “Not My Own” is a musical version of the first question and answer in the Heidelberg catechism.

Musically the songs run the gamut from Jeremy’s folk-roots stylings (“They Were Waiting,” “I Am Not My Own”), country (“Nothing in Creation”) and gospel (“Jesus Our Tabernacle,” “Jesus My Red Sea”). The collective works well together, with no single person outshining the other. Highlights include vocalist Janelle Lightbourne’s rich vocals on “Jesus Our Tabernacle” and “Jesus My Red Sea” and lead guitarist Jeremy Jongejan’s work on “Nothing in Creation”.

Body & Soul doesn’t suffer from the production flaws many live CDs have. It’s a clean and crisp with a mix that melds the vocals and instrumentals into a cohesive whole. It’s truly a listening pleasure.

Whether you like songs that make you think while you listen to them or just enjoy excellent worship music, Body & Soul: A Worship Collective is for you.

For more on Body & Sould: A Worship Collective, check out http://www.bodyandsoulcollective.com/#body-and-soul-event

Lost & Found Theatre’s “Kimberly Akimbo” is funny, poignant and deeply moving

20 Friday Mar 2015

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Lost and Found Theatre - Kimberly Akimbo

One of my pleasures is live theatre and the Lost & Found Theatre company’s latest production, Kimberly Akimbo, is one of the reasons for my love of theatre.

The Kitchener, Ontario-based company doesn’t describe itself as a “Christian theatre company” even though most of the company’s core cast are Christians. But the works they choose to produce frequently resonate with Christian values and definitely look at the challenging and redemptive aspects of human relationships.

Kimberly Akimbo does just that. Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire’s play introduces us to a mother (Christy Ziss) about to give birth to her second child and worried about about diseases she’s never been diagnosed with; a rarely sober father (Andy Pogson) who constantly makes promises he never keeps and 15- turning 16-year-old, Kimberly who tries to navigate the turbulent waters of a budding teenage romance, a dysfunctional family (that also includes an aunt with a sketchy past) and her own mortality.

Cast as Kimberly, is Kathleen Sheehy portrays a teen who struggles with a rare condition that causes her body to age faster than it should. Faced with an uncertain future, she also has to cope with her parents avoidance (bordering on denial) of her condition despite her desire to live a normal teenage life. When her aunt Debra (Jennifer Cornish) shows up with a get-rich-quick scheme, Kimberly’s world falls apart as simmering family secrets boil to the surface in heated arguments and accusations.

And when the family secrets no longer remain secret, instead of ending the dysfunction, it serves to drive the wedge between Kimberly and her parents in deeper, forcing her to forge her own path and find her own happiness.

Thrown into the mix is a Jeff (in a stunning professional debut by Alten Wilmot), a geeky wannabe boyfriend who uses anagrams portray his true feelings. Using a school project as a ruse to get a chance to talk to Kimberly, the budding romance survives awkward silences, their own dysfunctional families and Kimberly’s overprotective father.

Kimberly Akimbo is funny, poignant and deeply moving, often in the space of a single line. It’s a must see.

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Kimberly Akimbo runs until March 28 at the Registry Theatre (122 Frederick St., Kitchener). For ticket details go to http://www.lostandfoundtheatre.com. (Warning: Coarse Language, 13+)

And check out Lost & Found Theatre’s Radical Hospitality initiative where a limited number of tickets for the Saturday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 24 will be available at no cost.