This Saturday, a unique stylish boutique market hits The Lighthouse with an assortment of one-of-a-kind wares, ranging from jewellery, 1950s dresses, urban guerrilla gardening products, retro craftworks, cupcakes and a lot more. Over 50 vendors will be there to feature their kitschy designs. The event, organized by Made in The Shade (www.wearemadeintheshade.com), offers shoppers an alternative to goods you may not find anywhere else on the High Street.

Not only will perusers get a chance to marvel at many of the handcrafted goodies, there'll also be crafting demonstrations, old time rock 'n' roll music, and free giveaways.

One of the amazing vendors will be Michelle Aaron of Covetables (www.covetables.co.uk), who makes handmade children's dresses, aprons, knitted dolls and animals, and stylish pincushions. Celebrity fashionista Lady Luck Rules OK (www.ladyluckrulesok.com) comes to Glasgow with her products that have sold all over the world.

It's not too early to start Christmas shopping and it's never the wrong time to buy yourself a little treat.

Made In The Shade Boutique Shopping Event
Saturday 26th September 2009
Gallery 5 and Vitra Suite
The Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane, G1 3NU
10.30am - 5pm
FREE ENTRY

If you're a parent who's a ballet fan and want to introduce your children to the arts without gritting your teeth through the performance, Angelina Ballerina's Big Audition may be the solution. The English National Ballet puts on a kiddie-friendly show that includes music by Tchaikovsky but based on the beloved tutu-wearing mouse.

The premise of the show is that Angelina Ballerina prepares to try out for a place in the prestigious performing arts school. As she gets ready to audition, she's both excited and anxious about leaving her friends in her old ballet class behind. However, she discovers she's bound to make fantastic new friends when she meets other dancers who not only can dazzle with classical pirouettes but wow Angelina with hip-hop beats and disco moves.

For two days only, Angelina Ballerina's Big Audition will be playing at Theatre Royal on August 11 and 12.

Angelina Ballerina's Big Audition
Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th August
Tue & Wed 2pm and 5pm
Tickets: £10 - £21 (Family - group of 4 max of 2 adults)
Box Office 08448 717 647 (Bkg fee)
www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow (Online bkg fee)

The most famous feisty redheaded orphan makes her appearance in Scotland when Annie hits the stage at Theatre Royal. Su Pollard, of Hi-De-Hi and Two Up, Two Down fame, takes on the role of Miss Hannigan, the boozy, hapless caretaker of Annie and her fellow orphans. Much loved songs, such as "Tomorrow" and "It's a Hard Knock Life," will be featured. Students from Glasgow's Star Struck Theatre Academy will provide rousing backup as Annie's friends.

Annie is centered on the plight of a little girl who's made miserable in an orphanage. When she's selected to live a week in the lap of luxury with zillionaire Daddy Warbucks for a publicity stunt, her fate changes forever as she worms her way into the businessman's heart. Her journey out of the orphanage is filled with trials and songs.

Pollard has performed as Miss Hannigan before when she came to Glasgow in 2004. According to her web site www.supollard.co.uk, she had planned a cast lunch at the Kelvingrove Museum but had to cancel when she found out it was closed for renovation. Now that the Kelvingrove has been reopened and renovated, hopefully she'll get a chance to visit one of the top cultural attractions in Europe.

A perfect musical for the family!

ANNIE at Theatre Royal, 282 Hope Street, Glasgow

Tuesday through Saturday, August 4th - 8th
Tue - Sat eves 7.30pm
Thu and Sat mats 2.30pm
Tickets: £11 - £26
Box Office: 08448 717 647 (bkg fee)
www.ambassadotrickets/glasgow (bkg fee)

Sportacus somersaults his way to the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, accompanied by archenemy Robbie Rotten and his good friends, Stephanie and her crew. The kids love it and are encouraged to dress in costumes of their favorite characters. If you don't happen to have such outfits, you can always pick up a pink Stephanie wig at the concession stand.

Sportacus makes a spectacular entry from above the stage with the help of high wires and a video screen that makes it look he's jumped out of a airship. He does do impressive somersaults and back flips, perhaps inspiring children to take up gymnastics.

Great fun for the kids!

Theatre Royal
Wed 1 - Sun 5 July
Wed and Thu 5pm
Fri 1.30pm & 5pm
Sat 11am, 2pm and 5pm
Sun 11am & 2pm

Tickets: £10 - £18.50
Family Ticket (4 with max of 2 adults) £65

Box Office: 08448 717 647
www.ambassadortickets.com/glasg

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell kicked off his U.K. tour last night in Glasgow at the King's Theatre. The reason for his tour is the release of the paperback version of Outliers: The Story of Success, the best-selling pop sociology book with entertaining stories of how people become wildly accomplished. As Gladwell joked in his performance, the purpose of his tour was to convince the audience to buy his book "in triplicate." Gladwell chose to make the current global financial crisis the focus of his one-hour talk.

And to explain the phenomenon and not bore his listeners with discussion of head-spinning derivatives, he chose to use an example of the American Civil War, a topic he joked his Scottish audience wouldn't challenge him on. What Gladwell basically says is that "miscalibration" - the overconfidence of experts - helped spiral the world's economy out of control. Those who were armed with information, expertise, and most of all, power, didn't react fast enough with urgency and solutions to handle the crisis looming in the horizon.

Perhaps it's an oversimplified explanation given in hindsight of the recession we're living in now, but I'm looking forward to his next article or book that'll elucidate more on his theories. Gladwell is an important thinker in the modern world, and not to be missed if you get the chance to see him live.

-Helen I. Hwang

For more tour dates, go to www.malcolmgladwell-live.com. For more information on Malcolm Gladwell, go to www.gladwell.com.

Cinderella on Ice, currently playing at Theatre Royal, is full of twists and turns in several dimensions.

First of all, the glass slipper is replaced by a glittery ice skate, and the act is a whimsical performance with the women skating on single blades, coyly pointing their hosed toes out for the Prince to size up. Instead of a royal ball, the plot climaxes with a skating production of Swan Lake, where the evil stepsister slips up in her role as Odette. Cinderella is picked from the ensemble of swans to dazzle the audience.

The storyline is actually an enjoyable alternative retelling of the classic, though the show stretches on for three hours, including intermission.

Another surprising aspect is the number of acrobatic maneuvers and surprising high-wire theatrics, which adds to the magic of the ice dance show. Skating in such a small rink is no easy feat for the primarily Russian troupe. The choreography is based on a complicated sequence of counter-clockwise maneuvers, sometimes with as many as ten skaters synchronized tightly. Yes, there were a couple of scary slip-ups, even from the principal male skater, the Prince (a dead ringer for Prince Harry with a mullet.) But the gracefulness of Cinderella, played by Olga Sharutenko, and the ardent passion of the evil stepmother, Olena Pyatash, more than make up for any pitfalls.

Perhaps in a nod to its Gaelic audience, the skaters performed Irish step dancing on ice skates, immensely pleasing the crowd.

Altogether, the show is exciting to watch, entertaining old and young alike.

Theatre Royal,
Tue 9th - Sat 13th June
Tue - Sat eves 7.30pm
Wed, Thu and Sat Mats 2.30pm
Tickets: £13.50 - £30
www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow
Box Office: 0870 060 6647

Children's Classic Concerts on Saturday, April 25, Glasgow and Sunday, April 26, Stirling

A word play off of the wildly popular TV show, The X Factor, Children's Classic Concerts offers a version called The Wow Factor, where kids and adults will be thrilled to hear some familiar tunes from their favorite TV shows, films, and football teams. Little do some people know, some of the most popular songs in our day are taken from the greatest composers of our time.

"Kids don't really realize they're listening to classical music," said Owen Gunnell, 28, one of the co-presenters of Children's Classic Concerts.

Gunnell will be offering up a well-beloved tune, Ravel's passionate "Bolero," with a twist. He'll be performing the song while on roller skates (not on ice skates like Torvill and Dean dazzled in the Olympics to the same composition.) Will Owen manage it? Will he fall off his skates? Owen recently confessed to having not been on those teeny, tiny wheels in a while. The concerts promise to offer loads of fun and amusement.

This month's concert will also feature a full orchestra so masterpieces like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony will get the full cacophonic effect. Also, kids will get to see how different sections, like the woodwind and the strings, play integral parts in creating the layered harmonies.

For co-presenter Oliver Cox, who goes by Olly, performing in Scotland is a welcome homecoming. Raised in Haddington, East Lothian, since he was 4 years old, he now resides in London. "My mum's family is still in Scotland," said Cox.

The Wow Factor show gives audiences a high dosage of classical music, combined with fun and antics, when really, they'll be listening to songs they've heard in the most unlikely of places their whole life.

Saturday 25th April 2009, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 3pm
Sunday 26th April 2009, Stirling MacRobert Centre, 3pm

www.childrensclassicconcerts.co.uk

Ticket Prices - Single Concert: Child £6, Adult £10, Family £29 (2 adults, 2 children), Concessions £6

To book tickets,
Glasgow - GRCH Box Office: 0141 353 8000 or at www.glasgowconcerthalls.com
Stirling - The Macrobert Centre: 01786 466666 or at www.macrobert.stir.ac.uk

Scottish Ballet Presents Carmen and Cheating, Lying, Stealing

This week, Carmen, the passionate Spanish cigar girl, hits the stage at the Theatre Royal, along with Cheating, Lying, Stealing, choreographed by Ashley Page, Scottish Ballet's artistic director.

The world premiere of Carmen is staged as a one-act ballet piece and based on the original novella, written by French author Prosper Merimee. Many people are more familiar with the Carmen in Bizet's opera. This rendition is choreographed by Richard Alston, who won the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance at 2008's Critics' Circle National Dance Awards.

In the second half, ardent emotions continue to run high with Cheating, Lying, Stealing. Exploring the psychology of female control though movement, the piece lets the audience observe a couple as they spiral through the demise of their troubled relationship.

Theatre Royal, Glasgow
282 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 3QA
15-18 April 2009
15-18 April at 7.30pm; 16 and 18 April at 2pm
Tickets £8.50*-£33.50 (*Thu matinee)
Family tickets (group of four, max two adults); Wed and Thu evenings - Stalls and
Upper Circle £58, Fri and Sat evenings - Stalls and Upper Circle £74
Audio described performance Sat 18 Apr at 2pm preceded by a touch tour
Insight Sat 18 Apr at 11am (£5 ticket / £3 concession / £12 family of four)
Free pre-show talks with Artistic Director Ashley Page on Thu 16 Apr at 6.30pm and
Resident Conductor Richard Honner on Fri 17 Apr at 6.30pm. Please book places at box office.
Box Office 0870 060 6647 (bkg fee)
Book online www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)


Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
13-29 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9FT
22-25 April 2009
22-25 April at 7.30pm; 23 and 25 April at 2pm
Tickets £8*-£35 (*Thu matinee)
Family tickets (group of four, max two adults);
Thu matinee-Stalls £72, Dress Circle £82, Sat matinee -
Stalls £92, Dress Circle £102, Evenings - Stalls £92, Dress Circle £102
Box Office 0131 529 6000 (bkg fee)
Book online www.festivaltheatre.org.uk (bkg fee)


His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen
Rosemount Viaduct, Aberdeen, AB25 1GL
29 April - 2 May 2009
29 April - 2 May at 7.30pm; 2 May at 2pm
Tickets £11.50-£27.50
Family tickets (group of four, max two adults); Wed and Thu evenings - Stalls and
Upper Circle £57, additional children £10 each.
Audio described performance Sat 2 May at 2pm preceded by a touch tour
Outside In Fri 1 May at 4pm (£5 tickets with a £3 discount when buying a show ticket
at the same time)
Insight Sat 2 May at 11am (£5 ticket / £3 concession / £12 family of four)
Free pre-show talks with Artistic Director Ashley Page on Thu 30 Apr at 6.30pm and
Resident Conductor Richard Honner on Fri 1 May at 6.30pm. Please book places at box office.
Box Office 01224 641122 (bkg fee)
Book online www.boxofficeaberdeen.com


Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
Bishop's Road, Inverness IV3 5SA
6-9 May 2009
6-9 May at 7.30pm; 9 May at 2pm
Tickets £11-£26
Audio described performance Sat 9 May at 2pm preceded by a touch tour
Outside In Fri 8 May at 4pm (£5 tickets with a £3 discount when buying a show ticket at the same time)
Insight Sat 9 May at 11am (£5 ticket / £3 concession / £12 family of four)
Free pre-show talks with Artistic Director Ashley Page on Thu 7 May at 6.30pm and Resident
Conductor Richard Honner on Fri 8 May at 6.30pm. Please book places at box office.
Box Office 01463 234 234 (bkg fee)
Book online www.eden-court.co.uk (bkg fee)
Concessions and group discounts available at all venues