Bringing poetry off the page is one of the ways to get the most of it. Poetry Grind is a one man poetry performance starring Kyle Markewich, and will take place at the 5th Ave Cup and Saucer on August 26 at 7 p.m.
The show will see Markewich perform a selection of 28 works, ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary. What he performs will be up to the audience, as all of those selections will be placed on a poem menu, with audience members selecting what they would like to see. The show will last approximately sixty minutes.
"It's going to be a performance of the poem. What that means is I'm going to be up in the room speaking to the poem. The reason I chose to do a performance rather than a reading is it allows you to engage the audience in the work more, it allows you to communicate what the poet wanted to express. People can expect to see me running the gamut, and see me doing a marathon man thing," Markewich explains.
The selections are highly varied, Markewich promises, and are based on the many works that speak to him as a performer and a person.
"There's 28 poems, and they really vary. There are things from Shakespeare, so 16th century. But then there's really contemporary things, I think one of the more contemporary poets is a Canadian poet named Alden Nowlan, and he just passed away in 1987. It's poems that have captured my imagination, but they're really across the board, from different countries, contemporary to classical works," he explains.
Markewich says that the inspiration from the show comes from his training as an actor at the University of Regina.
"While I was in that program that's where I really started to read poetry, in English courses and theatre courses, and developed my appreciation for it... I've always wanted to do something poetry related in Yorkton, and the time was right," he says.
Putting on the show at the 5th Ave. Cup and Saucer was a perfect fit for what he wanted to do, Markewich explains, due to their long standing support of arts in the area.
This represents the first time Markewich has produced a show in the area himself, though he has been involved in the arts and acting for years, including appearing in the first two years of Shakespeare in the Park and working with Free My Muse theatre in education and performing.
"I'm very excited, I love performing in Yorkton... There's a real appetite here for people to do theatre and be involved in theatre. Speaking of Shakespeare in the Park, that's a huge thing for the city, for people to come together over the summer, and that's a poetic form of theatre," he states.
The upcoming show will take place on Friday, August 26. Those interested in learning more can join the Facebook group or follow Markewich on Twitter at @KPauseMark or by searching the hashtag #PoetryYorkton. Markewich says Twitter is the best way to follow the show, and what might happen in the future.
