Critics often characterize Calgary as an oil-driven cowboy town, inferior to Edmonton (its provincial rival) in matters of high culture such as theater or literature. But cowboy culture is culture nonetheless and in Calgary its roots run deep. The Calgary Stampede dates back as far as 1912 and the event continues to attract thousand of visitors to this most emphatic celebration of all things cowboy. So Western is the flavor of Calgary that the city and its surroundings have also been used in the filming of numerous Western movies, including Dustin Hoffman’s
Little Big Man (1970) and Clint
Eastwood’s
Unforgiven (1992). Having said that, Calgary also offers a great deal in the way of highbrow culture as well. It has over 10 professional theater companies, staging shows that range from the traditional to the experimental. Both the
Alberta Ballet Company and the
Calgary Opera find their home at the newly renovated
Southern Jubilee Auditorium, 1415 14th Avenue NW (tel: (403) 297 8000; website:
www.jubileeauditorium.com). The
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra plays at the
Epcor Center for the Performing Arts, 205 Eighth Avenue SE (tel: (403) 294 7455; website:
www.epcorcenter.org) - a modern arts complex (built in 1985) with five performance spaces at the heart of Calgary’s cultural district. The complex is also home to
Theater Calgary, as well as a variety of cultural festivals and competitions.
Tickets for most cultural attractions can be purchased through
Ticketmaster Canada (tel: (403) 777 0000; website:
www.ticketmaster.ca). Events listings can be found in the Friday edition of the
Calgary Herald (website:
www.calgaryherald.com), in
WHERE Calgary magazine (website:
www.wherecalgary.com) and in the free
FFWD Weekly (website:
www.ffwdweekly.com) and
Straight (website:
www.calgarystraight.com).
Music: The
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (403) 571 0270; website:
www.cpo-live.com) (offering classical music, popular symphonic music and a children’s program) performs at the
Epcor Center for the Performing Arts (see above). Between September and April, classical music concerts are held at noon at the
Central Library, 616 Macleod Trail SE (tel: (403) 260 2780), while in summer, outdoor concerts take place at noon in
Olympic Plaza, Eighth Avenue and MacLeod Trail SE. The
Calgary Opera (tel: (403) 262 7286; website:
www.calgaryopera.com) performs at the
Southern Jubilee Auditorium (see above).
Theater: The
Epcor Center for the Performing Arts (see above) plays an equally important role in theater. It is home to
Theater Calgary (tel: (403) 294 7447; website:
www.theatercalgary.com), which offers musical, comic and serious theater every season, and
Alberta Theater Projects (tel: (403) 294 7402; website:
www.atplive.com), which offers a program geared more towards experimental and Canadian works. The
Calgary Young People’s Theater, 204 16th Avenue NW (tel: (403) 230 2664; website:
www.cypt.ca) caters for children. Theater in a more informal setting is offered by
Lunchbox Theater (tel: (403) 265 4292; website:
www.lunchboxtheater.com), a theater company begun in 1975, which performs short plays for the lunchtime business crowd at Bow Valley Square, 205 Fifth Avenue SW, and claims to be the longest-running lunchtime theater company in the world.
Dance: The
Alberta Ballet Company (tel: (403) 245 4549/4222 for box office; website:
www.albertaballet.com) offers both contemporary and classical ballet and performs at the
Southern Jubilee Auditorium (see above).
Film: Mainstream cinemas in Calgary are dominated by two companies:
Cineplex Odeon (website:
www.loewscineplex.com/canada) and
Famous Players (website:
www.famousplayers.ca), with locations scattered throughout the city. The most central of the mainstream cinemas is the
Cineplex-Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas, 200 Barclay Parade SW (tel: (403) 263 3166). Arthouse and foreign films can be seen at the
Uptown Stage and Screen, 612 Eighth Avenue SW (tel: (403) 265 0120; website:
www.theuptown.com) and at the
Plaza Theater, 1113 Kensington Road NW (tel: (403) 283 2222; website:
www.theplaza.ca). Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are sold only at the box office, normally on the day of the performance. Listings for all the cinemas can be easily accessed online (website:
www.calgarymovies.com).
Calgary has recently been favored as a movie location. Andrea and Antonio Frazzi’s
Almost America (2001) was filmed in these parts, as was
Anthrax (2001) and
Viva Las Nowhere (2000), in which Daniel Stern and James Caan take on the country music business.
Literary Notes: Although Calgary has been the setting for numerous Hollywood films, its depiction in literature is not quite as rich. Nevertheless, much of the history and texture of Calgary and prairie life can be appreciated through various books. Perhaps the best of these is Hammond Innes’
Campbell’s Kingdom (1952), a little-known book by a popular writer that chronicles the intertwined dramas of love and oil-drilling in the Rocky Mountains. Margaret Laurence, one of the most highly regarded and influential of Canadian writers, grew up in the prairie province of Manitoba and much of her work is set in the country’s vast prairie - usually centered around the lives of women. Her most famous book,
The Stone Angel (1964), is a story told by an elderly woman recounting her youth in a prairie town and is resonant with themes that dominate life in the west of the country. Another well-known Canadian book chronicling the days of the Wild West is
The Englishman’s Boy (1998), by an author rapidly gaining prestige in the Canadian writing world, Guy Vanderhaeghe, who won Canada’s Governor General’s Award for this novel.
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