Arts Headlines / March 16, 2007

Celebrating a century of stage, song and dance   It’s an hour before show time. In the hallways backstage at the Centrepointe Theatre in Nepean, performers are scurrying around preparing for the Sunday matinee performance of Guys and Dolls.   All the store's a stage for Fools   Four-hundred-year-old literature was turned on its head at a bookstore earlier this month at the first Secret Shakespeare Experiment from A Company of Fools, a local theatre group.   Budget a blessing for city arts   The recently announced city budget has given the city’s arts groups what they lobbied for. The City of Ottawa will be funding arts groups $2.5 million over the next four years.   Viewpoint: Kids benefit from arts programs – but only with city's help   On certain Saturdays, the National Arts Centre’s lobby and auditorium are turned into hubs of artistic learning. Here, children and families can have their ears tickled by some of the greatest composers, learn how to play a new instrument, or throw themselves into crafts.