Joel Ivany, artistic director of Against the Grain Theatre, has had a pretty wild year. Just this week, he won a Dora Award with _Figaro’s Wedding  for Outstanding New Musical/Opera, and closed a sold-out run of Pelléas et Mélisande. Next, he’ll be heading out to the extraordinarily beautiful Banff Centre to work on his latest piece, #UncleJohn_, at the Open Space Program. I caught up with Joel to ask him about the program, about adapting a serious classic like Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and why #UncleJohn is a piece that sends opera forward.

Stay tuned to meet the rest of the #UncleJohn creative team, and to catch what’s happening during our time in Banff. Click here for details about the shows, running August 1-3, 2014 at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site.