Here’s something you might not know: Membership in the Association of Canadian Choral Communities is almost 40,000 strong, making it the largest group of performing artists in this country.

While that might seem like a surprising fact to people outside the world of choral music, the March 7th concert that saw the Finnish singing group Rajaton perform with a massed choir over 500 singers from all over Nova Scotia went a long way towards explaining the popularity of this art form.

Rajaton was in town to perform with Symphony NS (By all accounts, the two shows, which featured music by ABBA, were outstanding) and to lead workshops in a three-day choral festival.

Sunday’s concert was truly worth forgoing two hours of sunshine for. The six members of Rajaton perform entirely a cappella, and they create heavenly harmonies and the most startlingly realistic instrument sounds. (At one point, I had to remind myself that there was no drum set hidden off stage.)

Their choice of music was varied, from the haunting “Dobbin’s Flowery Vale” to a high-energy, dramatically-choreographed version of “La Dolce Vita”. This group is the whole package—attractive, charming and oh-so-talented. They were received like rock stars, and deserved the treatment.

For the finale, the massed choir (which included singers of all ages) and Rajaton performed an ode to the brevity and beauty of life called “Butterfly”. It brought tears to my eyes, and was the perfect end to an amazing afternoon.

Hunter Street has quietly become another cultural hub in city, thanks to fashion and art events at the Olympic Centre, plus the drums that keep me company as I walk home past the Rock Garden and Common Ground Studios. And now here comes Plutonium Playhouse, located above Long & McQuade (2315 Hunter), ready to blow up the neighbourhood.

According to a note from producer Lee-Anne Poole (formerly of Bus Stop Theatre), this is filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald's baby, who conceived of the idea and will be acting as artistic director. According to their website plutoniumplayhouse.wordpress.com, it's a place "to explore and develop a piece until a first (and beautifully rough) unavailing to the public. Our focus is on the script, and characters, and giving the playwright the opportunity to see their work produced from start to finish."

Both Poole and Fitzgerald have productions this season, as does Katie Swift and Stewart Legere, who was electrifying last year in the one-man play Thom Pain and as the emotionally broken rock star in Zuppa's Poor Boy.

Here's Plutonium's inaugural season:

Cloudburst
by Thom Fitzgerald
April 8-May 8, 8pm, Sunday matinees 2pm, $20
A stage version of Fitzgerald's full-length comedy and unlikely road trip film, set to shoot with Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. Dotty and Stella are a 78-year old couple, living together in Maine for 31 years, until Dotty falls and is facing care in a long-term care facility. To avoid separation, the two take a road trip to Nova Scotia to get married. "The road is long and rough, and Stella begins to wonder if she really can take care of Dotty in her old age. After 31 years, they are trying to keep their family together."

A Rescue Demonstration
created and performed by Stewart Legere and Katie Swift, and directed by Ann-Marie Kerr
May 20-June 5, 8pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees 2pm, $15-$20
Edward and Mary were once close, but they haven't seen each other in 10 years—until a distant violent event brings them together again to sift through their memories. "The story takes place on the edge of memory; where everything that happens may have happened before, and where a question as simple as 'Who is Ezekiel?' can knock you off your feet."

Splinters
by Lee-Anne Poole
July 1- 25, 8pm, Sunday matinees 2pm, $15-$20
A full-length, two-act drama follows a young woman—a lesbian in a heterosexual relationship—as she returns home to take care of her mother after her father’s death. "Wanting her boyfriend to accompany her to the funeral but not wanting her mother to know about her and a man, they pose as friends. Trying to keep secret the one thing Belle’s mother has always wanted."

For more information check out plutoniumplayhouse.wordpress.com.

• Hopefully these guys will stay home tonight.

Tonight at Yuk Yuks, 10 comedians will compete in the Great Canadian Laugh Off, the winner of which flies to beautiful sunny Toronto for the national finals (and boy, will their arms be tired. Hi-yoo!). No pressure either, considering that last year, Halifax’s Mark Little took home $25,000 funny bones.

Little’s Picnicface pals are well-represented in the local finals, with Kyle Dooley, Evany Rosen and wildcard Cheryl Hann all competing, along with Josh Dunn, Catherine Robertson, Steve Mackie, Scott MacLean, Kyle Hickey, Peter White and Matt Labouki.

We asked Coast cover laugh-lady Robertson how she was feeling before the big night: “I’m totally excited, and I feel a bit like a jack-in-the-box waiting to pop out the top,” she says. “My jack-in-the-box plays ‘Dancing With Myself.’ I know it’s going to be a killer show and a tight competition. I can’t wait to get onstage Wednesday!”

Man Men watchdog Terry O'Reilly has a new book, The Age of Persuasion, a collection of advertising's "funniest hits, the most legendary industry anecdotes and the never before-revealed stories behind the ads." The CBC host and author will be at the Keshen Goodman Public Library on Wednesday at 7pm to share a few stories.

Maybe he can explain these:

We've seen it all before. Soho and the meatpacking district in New York. Williamsburg. Queen West (and now West West in Toronto). Artists move in, fix up neighbourhoods, make them cool, then come the good bars and restos and the galleries, and then, eventually, the rest of the world figures it out and moves in. Mark my words: it will be the artists that bring the masses to Dartmouth.

On Wednesday night, there's a DANG! event (Dartmouth Art Neighbours Get-together). It's an informal get together for Dartmouth visual artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, dancers and more to meet each other, 6-8pm, in the Ram's Head Room at the Celtic Corner Public House (69 Alderney Drive).