New west Theatre is  still here. But instead of being on stage at the Yates Theatre, they are on the air performing old school radio plays for the next two weeks.
 They air Thursday nights at 8 p.m.
“We’re still here and though people can’t interact with us face to face, we still want to interact with our audience,” said New West Theatre artistic director Kelly Reay.

 Last week, they debuted  their first night of classic Alfred Hitchcock plays.
 They continue in  the Hitchcock vein tonight with “ The 39 Steps” and Sherlock Holmes’  ‘Murder at the Casbah.’

“ ‘The 39 Steps’ was written as a radio play to perform on stage. So if we were performing it live, we‘d have a set that looks like a radio station,” Reay said.
“And ‘ Murder at the Casbah’ is a classic Sherlock Holmes mystery, that is solved like only Sherlock Holmes can,” he continued, adding they just finished recording next week’s production of ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” sandwiched between two episodes of Flash Gordon.

“Those have been a lot of fun to do, looking at science fiction through the eyes of  the 1930s,” he said.

People who want to hear the shows can e-mail New West Theatre and they will be sent a link.

 Most of the plays have been public domain and will be available through the public domain, except the Hitchcock episodes.

“ They were on our website for a few days because we could only air them for a specific window. The public domain shows will be up for longer,” Reay said.

Like all theatre companies, they are experimenting during Covid.

Covid 19 got the creative juices flowing during quarantine. In addition to about a dozen local musicians releasing CDs in the past few months, local visual artists have been hard at work.

 The 68 artists’ recent works culminates in The Summer Salon, the new exhibit at Casa, which officially opened on Monday, July 6.

“We have everyone from emerging and self taught artists all the way up to academic and professional artists,” said Casa curator Darcy Logan.
 The Exhibit, on all floors of Casa, runs until Aug. 21.

 “So it runs all summer,” Logan continued, adding he was impressed with the quality of the art submitted.

“We weren’t even sure if we  were going to be able to open casa,” he continued, adding organizing the exhibit came together quickly.

Local musician/ songwriter Brenna Lowrie keeps a pretty low profile, online as well as in person, but she is pleased the attention her new classical and folk music inspired Ep “Loss Leader” is receiving from fans, media as well as radio stations like CKUA.

“Who know where these ideas come from? said Lowrie.

“ But I decided I wanted this collection to feature classical guitar and voices and maybe a little folk music. I wanted it to be very sparse,” she continued, adding she recorded most of her six song EP at home. She also added a few subtle keyboard sounds.

 “I also recorded some of the voices in a space I rent because I wanted to eliminate background noise,” she continued.

The result is a beautiful 16 minute platter of tender fingerpicking highlighting, but never overwhelming Lowrie’s hauntingly beautiful voice.
 It is a departure from her more Joni Mitchell inspired folk music.

“ It’s a very honest artistic statement,” she summarized.

“ If I can record an EP at home, then anyone can,” said the ever humble Lowrie.
“She approached lyrics from an emotional point of view.

“Some of them are true, some of them are made up. A lot of them are about the loneliness of the human condition. None of them are black and white, but emotions are part of the human condition,” she continued. Loss Leader is her second EP. She also has released two full length albums. She is only going to release the music online. through Bandcamp as well as streaming services like Spotify, iTunes, Googleplay and Apple.