Project Description
“Touch me: songs for a (Dis)connected Age”
“Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)Connected Age” is a one-act musical revue featuring all-new songs composed by writers from across Canada (and a couple of honorary Canadians too!) Funny, tuneful and sometimes poignant, “Touch Me” is bound to get you thinking about the connections in your life. The show won three Calgary Critics Awards including “Best Production of a Musical”! It was also nominated for three Betty Mitchell Awards and won for Outstanding Musical Direction.
For the production, I wrote the song “Just an Old Ford” about a daughter trying to set her father up on a dating website.
PRODUCTION HISTORY:
2014 – April 15 – 26
Production soon to be announced for 2017!
Naughty but Nice
Winner of the 2016 Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical! A celebration of the holiday season with fabulous songs by composers from across Canada and beyond. with tunes that are sometimes racy, sometimes sweet, Naughty… but Nice! promises to leave you with a song in your heart and a smile on your face.
For this show I wrote the song “Thank You Christians!” about what people who don’t celebrate Christmas get up to on Christmas day, as well as the song To The People That We Lost Last Year.
Update: In 2017 I had the pleasure of being in the show myself, and what a blast it was! Click below to hear a live recording of “Lait de Poule” by Joe Slabe, which I sang with Scott Olynek, Ellie Heath, and Justine Westby (and a bunch of puppet chickens…)
Listen to it HERE!
PRODUCTION HISTORY:
2014 – December 4 – 21
2015 – December 8 – 20
2016 – December 6 – 18
2017 – December 5 – 17
In recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of having songs I’ve written included in shows produced by Forte Musical Theatre in Calgary. Forte accepts submissions from writers across the country on certain themes; “Touch me: songs for a (Dis)connected Age” dealt with our difficulty to connect in a world of technology, and “Naughty but Nice”, a holiday musical with a bit of mischievousness. I’ve had three songs included in two shows so far, and the shows always get nominated for Calgary’s Theatre community Betty Mitchell awards.
To request more information, click here.
REVIEWS:
The evening’s most poignant song is Grant Tilly and Konrad Pluta’s To the People That We Lost Last Year.
Slabe has found a certified holiday gem in Grant Tilly’s Thank you, Christians. It’s a devilishly clever and pretty darn astute look at how non-Christians view Christmas.