by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Amanda Mabro has a dream. Her WAWA Show (We Are Women Artists) will celebrate and encourage Montreal's diverse artistic community and benefit the local chapter of Gilda's Club, a cancer support organization named after comedienne Gilda Radner. Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989 - the term WAWA itself is derived from Radner's famed Barbara Walters spoof, Baba Wawa. With fellow singer-songwriter Nancy Snipper, Mabro has curated a multidisciplinary event uniting artists and performers of different generations and ethnic backgrounds for a bona fide variety show in the spirit of her own project, Amanda Mabro & the Cabaret Band.

"Usually, our set is as theatrical as it can be given the line-up that we have," says Mabro, "but I've always wanted to put on a huge performance, to build something that's really grandiose and exciting and fun and happy, and that's why I ended up inviting a lot of these people. Some of them are my friends, others are acquaintances, people I've worked with here and there, my mother in law [Sharon Galdikas] who's doing arts and crafts - she makes gorgeous scarves and blankets - and all the artists will be giving a portion of their profits to Gilda's Club as well."

When la Sala Rossa's doors open this Sunday at 7 p.m., patrons can survey the arts and crafts for an hour before the lights are dimmed for the stage show. WAWA's visual artists are Mexican-inspired painter Holly De Bourbon from Oshawa, local abstract painter Sara Taylor, photographers Nadia Nespeca and Katie Bradner, filmmaker/photographer/painter A.D. and craftswomen Josianne Massy and Norma Kassabgi.

On stage, CBC's Sonali Karnick will act as host, introducing spoken word artist Nikki Brown and circus performer Emilie Benoit. The musical menu features French-born free jazz performer La Baronne, local singer-songwriters Katie Sevigny and Nicka and Toronto's Lily Frost, as well as Mabro's cabaret pop sextet and Snipper's good-time bluegrass act.

"She's a lovely woman," says Mabro of her co-organizer. "She was a classical pianist for many, many years before she took up the banjo, and now she makes bluegrass and country music. We first met in a music store and I told her that the cover of her CD was awful (laughs), which wasn't very nice but she asked me what I thought and I felt really bad not telling the truth. So she changed it and we kept in touch from then on."

Together, and with ample help from sponsors such as Mabro's label Querin Records, the pair strive not only to showcase women's unique talents, but to set the scene for an alliance of artists within their often overly competitive fields. Mabro hopes to make the WAWA Show an annual event and perhaps even a national tour with equally eclectic shows benefiting an array of charity organizations. For now, however, she's got WAWA's local debut to focus on.

"I feel that I'm making at least a small contribution to Montreal's artistic community because a lot of these artists are unknown, but by working together, getting exposure and contributing to a good cause, everybody wins."

At la Sala Rossa on Sunday, Dec. 7, 7pm, $8-$10

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