THE CHARLEBOIS POST - MONTREAL

Edgy Women Festival lineup

2012-03-06T17:29:00.000-05:00

Press release: The 19th edition of the EDGY WOMEN festival runs from March 15th to April 1st 2012, exploring feminist issues through avant-garde artistic events. Alongside a performance series, the 2012 edition features professional-level workshops, public discussions, parties, a retrospective screening, an unusual hockey match, and a zombie book launch!

The performance series involves four productions.

– SPIN (Evalyn Parry) - Thursday March 22nd 8pm, Sala Rossa
Award-winning Toronto artist Evalyn Parry's multimedia musical tour-de-force performance celebrating the Bicycle.
"staggering... an ingenious mixure of songs, monolgues, video projection, and modern technology" - the Torontoist

– Je Baise les Yeux (Gaëlle Bourges) - Friday March 23rd 8pm, Sala Rossa
A political, metaphysical show-and-tell "conference" about strip-tease (in French).
"A provocative gem melding humour and humanity" - les trois coups.com

– In Succube (Andréane Leclerc & Holly Gauthier-Frankel) - Saturday March 24th 8pm OR10:30pm, Sala Rossa
Two remarkable young Montreal artists - one a contortionist, the other an actress/singer/burlesque star - in a sizzling new creation.
A Studio 303 commission.

– Les Demimondes (The Scandelles) - Friday March 30th 8pm, Studio 303 (Also playing 3 other times)
Sourcing Dada-ist cabaret and burlesque, this production explores how the art world and media profit from the mystique of "the whore".
"The Scandelles are striptease innovators. They give the art form serious credibility" - Paula Citron

See the complete program on : www.edgywomen.ca/en

News: ANA seduces Scotland

2012-03-06T17:21:00.001-05:00

The initial reviews of Imago's ANA, a coproduction with Scotland's Traverse Theatre, are in and at least one of them - in the Herald - is positive. Reviewer Neil Cooper concludes with, "If we've come full circle and are tapping into a sense of post-modern internationalism, this is a thrilling start."

Read the review
Read Byron Toben's review of the Montreal premiere

News: QDF Spring Calendar Launch

2012-03-06T17:01:00.001-05:00

Cast and director, The Leisure Society

Musical Shows Aplenty at QDF Spring Calendar Launch

By Byron Toben

Friedrich Nietzsche quipped that “Without music, life would be a mistake”. Had he been channeled to the 8th quarterly Quebec Drama Festival Calendar Launch at the Rialto last night, he would have been in a quandary. The 18 forthcoming local productions showcased featured 7 that were musical, no mistake, but the famous woman-hating philosopher would have had to observe that dozens of talented ladies that made up the bulk of the ensembles.

Anyway, this is all hypothetical because God has announced that “Nietzsche is dead.”

The indispensible Calendar has been streamlined into an even sleeker new look. It's a bit bigger - 7cm x 4.5 cm - than previous editions ( 6 x 4 ). I figured this out with my high tech dimension estimator (formerly called a ruler). It's got more colour and logos for each entry. Emily Skahan's photo in Shakespeare in the Park garb on the back outside cover had a good run for many issues, but has been dropped for third

party ads.

The Calendar, brainchild of former QDF head Elise Menard, has flourished greatly under current head Jane Needles, who started these quarterly launches to showcase some of the pending shows. In the coming quarter, 39 shows are listed with details. 2012 is also the 40th anniversary of the QDF and it looks likely to survive another 40 without being in a cultural desert.

CBC “Radio Noon” host Bernard St-Laurent acted as M.C.

Here are some of the highlights;

The Hudson Music Club opened the program with a key excerpt of the classic. "42nd Street”, namely “Lullaby of Broadway”. This ensemble’s ages range from 17 to 91and publicist Janis Kirshner and I tried to figure out which of the lively crowd was the 91 year old gentleman. (Never did find out).

The ever popular Lyric Theatre Singers closed the program with an announcement of its return to a full scale musical after 15 years of concert versions with Kander and Ebb's “Curtains”. K& E also wrote “Cabaret” and “Chicago” so this is on my do not miss list.

In between these book ends, The Montreal West Operatic Society's excerpt of can-can man Jacques Offenbach's lush “Orpheus in the Underworld” featured a superb male soprano.

WISTA ( West Island Student Theatrical Association) proved talented students can sing and cavort with the best with Tony award musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie”

The McGill Player's Theatre bypasses these golden oldies with its “Songs for a New World” a “song cycle pushing the boundaries of commercial musical theatre”.

The Centaur Theatre is mounting “Intimate Apparel”. I would go to any show featuring Ranee Lee, Tamara Brown, Lucinda Davis or Patricia Summersett. Here you have all four of them! For the launch, only Lucinda showed up and captivated the crowd with a brief monologue of her character, an illiterate fashion designer.

The Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre is at it again with Joseph Shragge's "The Heretics of Bohemia" which involves a star studded local cast of ten plus another ten puppets. At the launch's allotted 5 minutes, only Dan Jeannotte showed up with a puppet, but the clever synopsis devised by director Alison Darcy brought the house down.

Infinitheatre also has a local, but smaller, star-studded cast of four in its “The Leisure Society”. A giant screen video substituted for the physical appearance of the actors, who are prepping for the opening tomorrow.

Shadowbox Productions has the fast rising director Michaela Davies directing a two hander “Blackbird” about an encounter after 15 years between a then 40 year old man and a 12 year old girl. Actor Jack MacDonald managed to shill the show amusingly, considering its dark subject.

Ms. Needles announced and showed excerpts of a film in progress on the 40 year history of the QDF,with interviews of such as Elsa Bolam, Alison Darcy, Dean Fleming and Walter Massey

Cool-headed Kathy Cleveland managed to keep the launch running smoothly, despite the odd glitch. Ample supplies of McAuslan liquid nutrition kept the packed house - 250 theatregoers - happy.

After Dark, March 6, 2012

2012-03-06T09:58:00.004-05:00

Confusion
CharPo is in deep debate
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Maybe it's because I'm old. Maybe it's because Arden Ryshpan, the executive director of Actor's Equity is a friend since our days in the trenches of the ACTRA board. Maybe it's because I was a union activist in CEGEP, staging guerilla theatre during student/teacher strike marches and even walking out of a production directed by Jean Gascon because I felt we were scabbing...

Maybe it's because of all of these things that I truly did not see a controversy coming at me like a train in Actor's Equity's stance on non-Equity productions (as expressed by Arden herself on this site). Joel Fishbane's enormously well-reasoned rebuttal came out of the blue for me. The discussions we've had in the CharPo contributors forums surprised me.

The business of big shows involves big cha-ching and if you cannot take the heat get out of the fucking kitchen.

What was worse was that beyond my war horse mentality, when it comes to arts unions, was that everyone seemed profoundly confused about what, exactly, we were discussing. For instance, I have been told that The Globe and Mail does not review non-Equity shows. I believed this because CharPo was reviewing university shows, amateur productions and semi-professional shows and The G&M was not. We reviewed, discussed, wrote about all those works because - as our slogan says - we're about All Canadian Theatre, All The Time. But then the G&M, incomprehensibly, reviewed In The Heights, a production that was CONTROVERSIALLY non-Equity. Equity responded to the attention In The Heights was getting, partly with Arden's article for us. I had done a back and forth email correspondance with Arden saying there had been some fluster about In The Heights, Shrek - indeed a lot of shows. In essence, what Equity was asking us to do is not call attention to shows by production houses who were DETOURING Equity by crying, "Poverty." Aubrey (In The Heights) Dan's argument that it costs too much to employ Equity actors is a canard. The business of big shows involves big cha-ching and if you cannot take the heat get out of the fucking kitchen.

However, a publication like this site has a certain responsibility to readers which I see thusly: if you are charging $100 a ticket and are serving up cheeze, CharPo must scream it from the rooftops in the same way we do if a subsidized, Equity house is charging $50 and is serving up slop. BUT, if you are charging $15, are at a Fringe or in a barroom and are showing ambition and spirit and theatrical knowingness, we will shriek with joy, Equity or not.

In compromise, then, CharPo's sites and podcast will continue to review All Canadian (or touring) Theatre, All The Time but will do our best to draw attention to the fact a show is detouring Equity (like In The Heights and Shrek) and whether or not the spectator is paying the price for such penny-wisdom/pound-foolishness. Yes, as Joel says, there is some great theatre done by non-Equity members and, also, some drek done when everyone is in the Equity tent.

...when we don't look askance at companies who detour unions, we end up with a situation like here in Quebec...

But I would like to finish with this thought: Equity, ACTRA and Playwrights Guild are good for all of us, not because their involvement suggests talent and ability but because they are the only entities between artists and abuse by employers (ACTRA saved my ass once, when CBC was pushing me around), they also help us climb out of poverty (that's, ultimately, what they are all there for) and they make the touchy tango that is contract negotiation a little less...er...subservient. What I also know for a fact is that when we don't look askance at companies who detour unions, we end up with a situation like here in Quebec where production houses did such a good job of detouring musicians' unions, that people in this province think nothing of paying top dollar for "musicals" with a recorded score. (I use the word "province" here in the sense of "provincial" as well.) The shows are not musicals - they're overpriced karaoke.

But I also want to say that the spirit of exploration that exists in the Fringe (small and capital "f"), with shows like Ride the Cyclone and (very germane to this discussion) Big Plans is crucial to the growth of the art and the more attention we pay to that spirit - on sites like this - the better is all of theatre. I know well about the rewards of working on spec or for nothing (I am doing that right now as I tap this out). I am also thankful there are armies of artists (and right here journalists) who do it "for the art" or "for the pleasure".

But I also know Equity and its various incarnations are not "out to get me" because we work for little or for nothing. These organizations simply want us all to be part of the club, climb over the poverty-line, and, most importantly, have the protection they offer.

PS: I also know that no matter what I write here - the discussion will not end.

The Upstage Interview: Lynne Cooper on Traffik Femme

2012-03-05T00:01:00.021-05:00

(photo credit: Samuel Lalonde)

...how do we talk about this without turning these women into victims?

Upstage host Eric Sukhu spoke with Artistic Director Lynne Cooper about Le Trunk Collectif’s presentation of Traffik Femme. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE: Traffik Femme is about a woman caught in the hell of human trafficking. Welcome to Upstage, Lynne. Tell us about this play; how did your Company get involved?

COOPER: In 2005 I did a tour with Théatre Parminou with a play called Lost in Traffic from which I learned about human trafficking in Canada. I never thought such a thing existed in this country. So I started doing more research.

After doing a play about immigration - Sunk in the Trunk - I realized my next step was to produce a show about human trafficking.

As my interest became more localized into Canada, I realized that it’s not so much women from abroad, but it’s more internal. Women being sold within Canada.

UPSTAGE: What did you find out in your research?

COOPER: My research began in Europe, specifically countries that have come up from the Soviet Bloc and women moving into the richer countries in Europe.

As my interest became more localized into Canada, I realized that it’s not so much women from abroad, but it’s more internal. Women being sold within Canada. Native American, young, women from the ages of 13 getting caught into gangs. That really got my attention.

UPSTAGE: How did you go about writing this play?

COOPER: Initially I wanted to transform a monologue that I loved - A Whore In The Madhouse - into a show about human trafficking. I asked Emma Haché, Governor General Literary Award winner, to write the show. For a period of two years, we did research and workshopped various ideas with different actresses. She developed the play that eventually became Traffik Femme.

I think theatre is a beautiful vehicle for social development and to create dialogue with audiences

UPSTAGE: I see in the press release you incorporate dance as well.

COOPER: My background is Le Coq so I include dance, physical theatre, and shadow puppetry.

UPSTAGE: How long have you been working on this project?

COOPER: We premiered in 2010 at the MAI for two weeks. We’re now in our second season; we’ll be at Segal Centre with Traffik Femme.

UPSTAGE: Why would you choose theatre to present a story like this?

COOPER: I think theatre is a beautiful vehicle for social development and to create dialogue with audiences which is what my company wants to do. I want to use theatre to talk about different topics of interest, as we did with Sunk in the Trunk about immigration, and now about human trafficking with Traffik Femme.

It’s a play that definitely brings us to the subject of prostitution. That wasn’t my goal but inevitably it passes through there.

UPSTAGE: What was audience reaction when first presented in 2010 – shock?

COOPER: There were a lot of different reactions; some people were shocked; some were troubled; others were interested in learning more about it; others loved it and started getting more involved in the scene.

It’s a play that definitely brings us to the subject of prostitution. That wasn’t my goal but inevitably it passes through there. I find that interesting now especially with the conversation about changing our laws.

Traffik Femme creates many different types of conversations; not only about prostitution but also about our sexuality and how we talk about sex. A lot of those conversations came about after the show.

UPSTAGE: In your research. you must have come across many stories. How did you condense; how did you select?

COOPER: We went from a large trafficking story to the story of one woman. That’s how we decided to make it a one woman show. There was quite a lot in the first text. We did a lot of cutting to make it easier for the audience to sit through it.

I thought a lot about our audience while cutting scenes and trying to get where you want to get. I wanted to include poetry, moments where the audience can breathe.

UPSTAGE: Have you met anyone in your research who was a victim of human trafficking?

COOPER: My research was mostly with police officers and social workers but Emma did meet one of the victims and put quite a bit of her story into the show.

I came across people who didn’t believe that human trafficking existed

UPSTAGE: What was the next step?

COOPER: You have to create something and make it artistic. I came across people who didn’t believe that human trafficking existed which led to interesting conversations with people in the sex trade.

A lot of confrontation about how do we talk about this without being offensive or without turning these women into victims. So we selected what we wanted.

We tried to incorporate as much humour as possible. Coming from a background of clown and buffoon I try to throw hints here and there.

UPSTAGE: Were there talkbacks at the first presentation in 2010?

COOPER: Yes there were. They always helped a lot. Audiences need a few minutes to digest this heavy subject. Those conversations were really interesting. We learned a lot. This time we have a panel on March 13.

Traffik Femme Mar 10-24 Segal Centre

The Sunday Read: Rick Miller on Critics

2012-03-04T00:01:00.020-05:00

“We should not seek immortality in reproduction. But if you contribute to the world’s culture, if you have a good idea, compose a tune, invent a spark plug, write a poem, it may live on, intact, long after your genes have dissolved in the common pool.”

(Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene)

“This one’s done, Rick. Stick a fork in it and let it go.”

(Richard Ouzounian, from a Toronto Star review of HARDSELL 2.0)

by Rick Miller

My last article dealt primarily with ‘control’, specifically control of the creative process and one’s career in the arts. This one deals with ‘survival’.

Survival in the entertainment industry conjures up images of a plasticized Wayne Newton or a Botox-ed Liza Minelli but I want to explore something closer to home: why I keep pushing my shows to survive in a competitive market instead of just “letting them go”, to paraphrase our esteemed Toronto Star critic. Granted, I wish we hadn’t invited critics to that show (which was still trying to find its form) but the sheer gall of a theatre critic dispensing The Last Judgment on something I have been working on for 5 years astounds me. The fact is that HARDSELL 2.0 is not only surviving but thriving: I am premiering the French version at Festival le Carrefour in June, we’ll be shooting a short film that will hopefully lead to a TV series adaptation, and I’ve already premiered the in-school info literacy workshop. My point is that the fate of a show shouldn’t lie in the hands of a critic. If I had listened to the ‘critic within’ in 1994, I would have killed the cast-party joke that was to become MacHomer, which is still on tour and is premiering in New York and at Stratford this spring. More on MacHomer and critics later…

Survival.

Biology tells us that in order for something to survive, it needs to replicate, to make identical copies of itself. This applies to cells, but it also applies to ‘sells’ (memes, ideas, jingles, slogans, etc.) Whereas cells replicate within organisms, ‘sells’ replicate between organisms. Ex: if my clever idea passes from my brain/computer to your brain/computer and then you tell two friends, and so on, and so on… the idea replicates and survives. If it doesn’t, it dies. This applies to ideas, it applies to this article, and it also applies to the shows we create as theatre artists. If a play doesn’t ‘replicate’ – whether in people’s imaginations, on their screens or in season brochures – it dies.

Of course, not everything that survives and replicates is inherently beneficial to humanity. From a ‘cell’ point of view, just think of viruses or cancer cells. From a ‘sell’ point of view, think of religious fundamentalism, invasive advertising, child pornography, unsustainable development, the Kardashians… all very good at replicating but not very beneficial to the species as a whole. I’m sure you can think of plays that have survived despite being god-awful and critically loathed (Grease, anyone? And yes, I’ve been in 3 productions of Grease.)

If some plays don’t deserve to survive, others surely don’t deserve to die. In English Canadian theatre, the system generally doesn’t support the kind of long gestation process that devised theatre requires. Due to union regulations, most theatre companies tend to fall into the 3-week-rehearsal-3-week-run pattern because it’s all they can afford. That kind of product-driven system doesn’t usually lead to long-lasting success. On the other hand, if you are a process-driven theatre company, what is presented onstage to a certain audience is merely part of the larger evolution of that piece. You find the flaws – there are always flaws – and try to correct them at the next stage of the process. This doesn’t mean you need to flog a dead horse but it allows a certain measure of time in which a play can hopefully find a sustainable form. If there is no such form and your play truly isn’t connecting with anyone, then you can let go knowing you gave it your best shot.

What role should critics play in this bizarre alchemy of show creation? I’m not an expert in the theory of criticism and I suspect that, ever since there have been plays, there have also been critics. I’m also not an expert in biology but I suspect that there is a biological equivalent to a ‘critic’; some organism in the body that dictates which cells get to survive and which ones do not. I suppose we need some kind of filter to separate the wheat from the chaff, the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’, or the ‘mediocre’ from the ‘god-awful’. Critics have a role to play in the culture industry and there are certain critics whose opinions I value immensely. Others wield too much power with too much arrogance.

Does it sound like I’ve spent my career being critically lambasted? On the contrary, I’ve been blessed with glowing reviews for most of my professional life. Sure, HARDSELL 2.0 had some nasty pans amongst the raves but Bigger Than Jesus has been uniformly lauded and MacHomer has had only two bad reviews in its 16 years of touring. It’s worth mentioning that both were in the Globe & Mail, my paper of choice. Here are the headlines for those two reviews:

“Mmm…murder” (in 2000)

“Is this a tired remount I see before me?” (in 2011)

In the more recent Globe review, the critic quoted from my last CharPo article (the one about control): “I don’t want to spend three months every year begging for corporate sponsorship or sucking up to government granting agencies for a few thousand bucks when I could make the same money doing MacHomer for a weekend in Albuquerque.” Although his review made many other valid points, he unfortunately was left with the impression that I “revive MacHomer at this point simply to fund (my) other projects.” Not true. Yes, MacHomer has helped fund other less-commercial projects but that isn’t why I have pushed for its survival. I honestly love performing it, in the way you love having a few drinks with an old high-school buddy: part nostalgia, part stupid fun. I’ve also received countless testimonials from high schools that MacHomer somehow opened a door for students and they now love Shakespeare (or at least hate him a little bit less). The fact that people still flock to see it sometimes amazes me but it’s a testament to two things: the staying power of the source material (Bart + Bard) and an insistence on constantly improving the show to keep it alive. After 16 years, 160 cities and half a million people, MacHomer is still happily D’OH-ing around the world.

I’ll wrap this up on a broader note about survival. In order for our industry to survive and thrive, I think we need to keep embracing new ways of telling stories, of disseminating information and of connecting with young people. To that end, all of the plays I have managed to keep alive are branching out into transmedia territory. We’ve developed a MacHomer DVD and online educational modules for schools, Bigger Than Jesus is being turned into a film with inter-faith outreach materials, and HARDSELL 2.0 is pushing in the new directions I detailed earlier. Having been somewhat isolated with all my previous projects, I am now happily embracing large-scale partnerships and collaborations with artists of various disciplines as well as sponsors from the corporate and not-for-profit world. We may not all agree on everything but we all want to contribute to the world’s culture in a lasting way.

May your work live long and prosper.

RM, March 2012

MacHomer plays NYU March 30-31 and Stratford May 2-26. Bigger Than Jesus (co-created with Daniel Brooks) plays NYU April 4-7 and Montreal (in French) April 12-28. HARDSELL 2.0 (in French) plays Quebec City June 7-10. For more info, www.rickmiller.ca

Theatre For Thought, March 3, 2012

2012-03-03T00:01:00.004-05:00

CAEA STANCE INSULTING TO CANADIAN ARTISTS

joel fishbane

Earlier this month, Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA) raised a protest over a non-union touring production of In the Heights, brought to Toronto by Dancap Productions. Speaking to the Globe and Mail, CAEA executive director Arden Ryshpan made the following remark: “We think that audiences shouldn’t be inadvertently misled into thinking they are seeing a Broadway calibre production – which we would say they are not, if the productions are non-Equity.” Ms. Ryshpan echoed these comments in a subsequent article for CharPo.

The CAEA is trying to stop the media from covering non-union productions in the hopes of creating a backlash against producers who don’t hire members of the CAEA. These members lose work whenever a non-union company comes to town and the CAEA hopes that with media support, they can dissuade these companies from performing in Canada. Although I am sympathetic to their dilemma, in framing their argument the CAEA has taken a position that is both misleading to the public and gravely insulting to all Canadian artists.

An artist’s Union status does not reflect their capabilities...

Inherent to the CAEA’s argument is the position that had In the Heights been a union show, it would be “Broadway-calibre production”. This argument equates Union affiliation with artistic merit but the equation is uncategorically false. An artist’s Union status does not reflect their capabilities; nor does adherence to Union standards automatically mean a company will create a well-tuned production.

Most theatres that abide by CAEA guidelines are members of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) , none of whom are ever required to pass a test proving they know how to stage “Broadway-calibre” productions. The artistic abilities of these producers are never tested by the CAEA. Companies have no guidelines to follow other than an agreement to adhere to certain business practices These include standardized pay scales, paying insurance costs and reimbursing artists for working overtime.

It does not follow that ethical business practices will have any effect on the quality of the show being produced. It may have an effect in that the actors have not been overworked. But theatre is a lot older than its Unions and history has shown that artistic merit is not determined solely by whether artists receive their required fifteen-minute break.

What you see when you watch any theatrical production is the artistic ideas of its creators - not of the CAEA.

An artist can only join the CAEA after getting hired by a theatre under Equity’s jurisdiction (usually a PACT company). At no time in this process does the CAEA ever assess the quality of the member’s work for themselves; the quality of each member’s art is judged only by those who hire them. What you see when you watch any theatrical production is the artistic ideas of its creators - not of the CAEA. While it is often the case that CAEA members, owing to their experience, will create stronger shows, it is nothing but arrogance to assert that this will always be the case.

We have all had the experience of attending a “professional” (Equity) performance which left us unimpressed; likewise, we have all sat in the theatre while a group of “independents” dazzled us with their skill. It is irresponsible to claim that only union-affiliated artists can provide quality art and insulting to any non-affiliated artist working to make their own contribution to Canadian culture.

Union affiliation does not eliminate an artist’s ability to make mistakes – In the Heights got poor reviews, but it could have been just as lousy with Unionized artists. They are just as capable as anyone else of producing disappointing work. To suggest otherwise is to suggest we judge a work based solely on the artist’s professional affiliations rather than the artistic merit of the work itself. This is a frightening proposition and one which is akin to censorship - imagine a show which is ignored by a Liberal paper because it features actors who are members of the Conservative Party. As an established defender of the arts, the CAEA should want no part in such a position.

They are not members of the CAEA – does this mean that they are not capable of professional-calibre work?

It is noteworthy that individual talent has little bearing on the overall quality of any theatrical show. Theatre is a collaborative effort and only a small portion of that collaboration is ever governed by the CAEA – after all, the CAEA only has actors, stage managers and directors as its members. A show’s sets, lights, costumes and script are all being supplied by non-Equity personnel. They are not members of the CAEA – does this mean that they are not capable of professional-calibre work?

It would be a dangerous thing indeed if the CAEA decided that companies under their jurisdiction needed to adhere to some specific artistic standard. Given the subjective nature of art, their judgments would always come under scrutiny. More, the CAEA would be obliged to kick out members who don’t meet their own artistic criteria, thus turning them into artistic censors.

This is also the role the union threatens to play if they ever succeed in blocking non-Equity companies from entering Canada. Here is another idea Equity has been promoting and it has frightening implications. If we close Canada’s doors to non-union artists from elsewhere, how long until we turn our attention to other non-Union artists at home? It could be the end of non-Union theatre all together. Goodbye independent theatre. Goodbye FTA. Goodbye Fringe.

The CAEA would be wiser to direct their energies towards fundraising and advocacy for arts funding, which would make it more feasible for companies to produce under Union guidelines. They may also want to look at loosening their requirements for membership: non-Equity producers would have a hard time producing their shows if there were fewer non-Equity artists looking for work.

EVENT: QDF Spring Calendar Launch

2012-03-02T13:56:00.000-05:00

On Monday March 5th, 2012, the Quebec Drama Federation will present its Spring 2012 Theatre Calendar Launch at the Rialto Theatre (5723 avenue du Parc) from 7:30pm-midnight. This FREE public performance features excerpts and previews of upcoming English-language theatre productions. The MC for the event will be Bernard St Laurent, CBC host of Radionoon Montreal and C’est la vie and is CBC Quebec’s senior political editor, providing political analysis on Daybreak.

Also, with the Spring theatre launch, QDF begins the celebration of its the 40th Anniversary of serving the English-language theatre community of Quebec. We will screen a special video with some of Montreal’s most prolific English theatre artists and makers.

This is a free event for the general public and is designed to give audiences a taste of what is available this upcoming theatrical season. Complimentary refreshments will be served!

The Theatre Calendar launch will feature previews from 14 upcoming productions from Montreal’s professional, independent and community theatres. They are:
42nd Street - Hudson Music Club
8 Ways my Mother was Concieved - MaryBeth Prodcutions (2011 MECCA winner for Best Text)

ACME Burlesque – Shayne Gryn Productions
Blackbird - Shadowbox Productions
CLOWN - Francine Côté's School of Clown and Comedy
Curtains - Lyric Theatre
Femme Traffik - Le trunk Collectif
Intimate Apparel - Centaur Theatre
Jitters - Hudson Music Club
Last Days of Judas Iscariot – Concorida University Theatre Department Now at the Hour - Beyond the Mountain
Pinocchio - Geordie Productions
Songs for a New World – Players Theatre and Dane Stewart
Stephanie Martin and VitoDeFillipo in Concert – Sovereign Productions The Heretics of Bohemia - Scapegoat Carnival Theatre
Thoroughly Modern Millie – WISTA

What: QDF Spring Calendar Launch Event Where: Rialto Theatre, 5723 avenue du Parc When: Monday March 5th, 2012
Details: Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 7:30pm

News: Harper/Moore announce commitment to the arts/NTS

2012-03-02T13:50:00.003-05:00

GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT TAKES CENTRE STAGE

joel fishbane

The Canadian government will invest $9.2 million dollars in the National Theatre School over the next two years, Heritage Minister James Moore announced today.

“To invest in culture is to invest in Canada,” said Moore, speaking at a packed press conference in the lobby of the National Theatre School in Montreal. Quoting politician and gay activist Harvey Milk, Moore said “I am here to recruit you!” – though in his case, Moore was referring to encouraging the private sector to make a firmer financial commitment in arts and culture.

“Any government that says it has a plan for economic recovery that does not involve supporting the arts is a government that doesn’t have a plan for economic recovery.”

Both Moore and Heritage Canada have been the focus of controversy within the arts community recently. The recent resignation of playwright Michael Healey from Tarragon Theatre and the loss of funding to Toronto’s Summerworks festival in 2010 are both incidents that have led Canadian artists to fear the government is adopting a new policy unfavourable to the arts.

Moore may be hoping to contradict these claims with the government’s generous two-year endowment. “Any government that says it has a plan for economic recovery that does not involve supporting the arts is a government that doesn’t have a plan for economic recovery,” Moore said.

His short speech also cited some revealing statistics about the importance of the arts to the Canadian economy, including the fact that last year the arts sector created 630,000 jobs.

The appropriately bilingual press conference began with performances from both the French and English acting students, beginning with a clown piece by the French class that featured roller-skating students dressed as Becketesque tramps. The English students supplied two acapella choral pieces, one in English and the other en Français.

Heritage Canada’s investment is the capstone to a year-long capital campaign launched in 2011 to take advantage of NTS’ 50th anniversary. CEO Simon Brault was beaming as he announced they had already raised over 10 million dollars out of their 12 million dollar projected goal.

“The renewal of our operating grant, along with the substantial growing support of the private sector, will allow us to meet educational, artistic and technological challenges in training the actors and creators who shape theatre,” Brault remarked.

Since 1960, NTS has been offering bilingual training in acting, playwriting, directing and technical design. They remain one of the few schools in the world that unite almost all of the theatrical arts under one roof. Their famous graduates include actress Sandra Oh, playwright Judith Thompson and writer / director Wadji Mouawad.

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 2, 2012

2012-03-02T00:01:00.002-05:00

EVENT: 10-Minute Plays

2012-03-01T14:24:00.001-05:00

click to enlarge

Review: A History of the Devil

2012-03-01T13:52:00.001-05:00

The History of the Devil a Trial-ing Experience
by Byron Toben

Clive Barker is a sort of adulte terrible in story weaving circles. A multi-disciplined myth-maker - plays, novels, films, paintings - he has engendered tons of controversy. Director Jeremy Michael Segal has proven himself as a sort of enfant terrible by assembling 10 young and talented actors (many, like himself, recent grads of the Dawson theatre program) to portray 31 characters in this cluttered work. Lucas Chartier-Dessert is particularly impressive as the devil himself. The other 9 switch between 30 roles, some fictitious people, some mythological characters, some historical.

“We have met the enemy, and he is..us.”

Barker and Segal go Mr. Hamlet one better by literally holding a reflective mirror on stage to our nature. Is the Devil only a sad reflection of humanity? As Pogo the possum (the only comic strip character to run for president of the USA) famously quipped, “We have met the enemy, and he is..us.”

The plot of this show is that a homesick Lucifer (he of many names) wants to return to Paradise, from whence he was rejected eons ago. A trial is held to determine whether his history warrants a reprieve. Rather than this Devil being in the details, here the details of his record are recited to see if they have been exaggerated.

Dante (the Inferno) is a witness, as is one Jesus of Nazareth. Lady Caroline Lamb (lover of Lord Byron) and one of the Dukes of York (General) are among the historical personages making an appearance. I was surprised to see the 18th century boxer Daniel (Danny the Jew) Mendoza included. He was one of the good guys in the script. That battling scene enlivens the second act, although its comparison of British bare-fisted, no-round limited brutality as an analogue to the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution did seem a bit of a stretch. I was toying with writing a play about this father of scientific boxing, so the pre-publicity is good, I guess.

Stage manager Beata Groves must have been exhausted with all the rapid fire changes and shifts.

The other assorted demons and Greek tragical figures wander and flex their physical theatre stuff in a Dali-esque landscape of white manikins. Stage manager Beata Groves must have been exhausted with all the rapid fire changes and shifts. Logan Williams (who also played Jesus) did the clever costumes and set design.

Conclusion of all this? The show is a must for real theatre enthusiasts, who can pick out subtle Brechtian distancing, Shavian paradoxes and Pinteresque menaces. Others may find the whole too much of a pot pourri of threads and knowledge of obscure references. So. Faust it ain't, Damn Yankees, unh-unh. A much longer and extremely surrealistic trial than Steven Vincent Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster might be closer to the mark with its trial framework.

Montreal English theatre goers are blessed with several young groups. We hope this one, Theatre 66, survives long enough to mount other shows.

The History of The Devil continues at Theatre Rouge, 4750 Henri-Julien until March 4. Contact www.Title66.Com

CPM's Picture of the Week, March 1, 2012

2012-03-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

As Occupy Montreal Culture Committee works, one

unidentified poet reads at Square Victoria - October, 2011

(photo: Norman Nawrocki)

Review: Three Sixty

2012-02-29T11:30:00.001-05:00

I Want Your Sex

La Ronde's twisted descendant

by David Sklar

What was that saying I remember hearing when I was taking Sex Ed in high school? “When you’re having sex with your partner, you’re not just having sex with them but with everyone they have ever been with.” I guess they were trying to scare us into abstinence but I just kept thinking, “Oh man, I can’t wait to get laid”.

The circle of life, or rather the sex circle is on display at the Monument National this week. The third year graduating class is putting on a new adaptation by Eva Christie, based on Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde directed by Graham McLaren and Steven Mccarthy, entitled Three Sixty.

...the thing that stuck out most was how the male characters were portrayed.

The premise of the play follows eleven characters through twenty scenes as they debase, submit or assert dominance over each other. There are no fairy tale weddings or happily-ever-afters in this updated text for the 21st century. In fact, the text offers a very bleak outlook on the status of relationships as if to say, if you are not the one screwing, you are most likely getting screwed.

While the text has been updated, the thing that stuck out most was how the male characters were portrayed. Almost all of them were either vile or weak, lusting after their women (with the exception of one couple) and discarding them once they finished their deed. What are we saying to the modern day man who cherishes his relationships and lovers? Is there no hope for a meaningful and honest connection?

But while the fractured personae remained, the actors brought an honest portrayal to their parts. What I’m sure felt awkward and uncomfortable in rehearsal, was done with precision and finesse on stage. Intense moments of intimacy were brutal but genuine and a reflection on how we can treat each other at certain times. Possibly the most engaging moments were the choreographed movements pieces called “strings” were the audience is given an encapsulated picture of each couple’s conflict (both sexual and verbal).

I believe this play’s point was not to push boundaries and say, “look at us, we’re naked, we’re going to shock you”. It was more about finding a new approach to express English theatre by adding a dash of French style. You may not like what the play has to say, but you can appreciate how it is going about expressing itself.

The show runs until March 3rd at the Monument Nationale.

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, February 29, 2012

2012-02-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

Intense theatre moment, without ambiguity…

KOLIK

Mar.21

Usine C (photo by Sylvain Couzinet Jacques)

Theatre…en français

by Estelle Rosen

World premiere of a play by Frederic Sonnttag; a strange event on an unforgettable night in November…

Disparu(e)(s)

Mar. 20-Apr.7

Théâtre Prospero

Musical drama based on a poem by Federico Garcia Lorca

La Maison de Bernarda

Mar 14 – Apr 5

Théâtre Denise Pelletier

EVENT: Between Night and Day

2012-02-28T17:01:00.000-05:00

Mainline Theatre and LaSalle College present a performance written and directed by Concordia University graduate student Michael Belcher, with art direction by LaSalle College student Karen Firth.

Set in California in the years following the end of WWII, Between Night and Day tells the story of actress Rose Pierce whose relative emancipation during the war years poses a threat to her shellshocked husband and their once blissful marriage.

Presented from multiple perspectives - the vibrant color of Rose's burgeoning love for a handsome waiter and the stark blacks and whites of the film noir world in which she works - Between Night and Day takes the audience from the crumbling domesticity of Rose's home to the shady docks and smoky bars of a crime kingpin. Rose, split between the dictates of society and the yearnings of her own heart, must find a way to navigate the heartbreaking and heart-pumping travails of her dueling existence and escape her past - or die trying.

Tipping its large-brimmed hat to such classics as Mildred Pierce, The Lady from Shanghai, and The Big Sleep, Between Night and Day is a dual-barreled mix of romance and suspense, stunning costumes and imaginative sets that will leave the audience rooting for both Rose and her femme fatale alter ego until the last gun shot is fired.

SHOW DATES/TIMES:

Thursday, March 8, 2012 @ 8 PM

Friday, March 9, 2012 @ 8 PM

Saturday, March 10 @ 1 PM

Saturday, March 10 @ 8 PM

TICKET PRICE:

$15 (regular)

$10 (student)

WHERE:

MainLine Theatre

3997 Saint Laurent

coin Duluth, métro Mount Royal, bus 55

HOW TO GET TIX:

Box Office / Billetterie 514.849.3378

Tues-Sat 2-6pm / mar-sam 14-18h

mainlinetheatre.ca

After Dark, February 28, 2012

2012-02-28T00:01:00.003-05:00

The Safe Haven of Fluff
Are theatres playing it too safe?
By Gaëtan L. Charlebois

In about three months I will be 55 years old. I remember the day John F. Kennedy was shot. I remember Nixon's resignation. I remember the end of the Vietnam war, the fall of the Berlin wall, 9-11, the deaths of Milosovic, Saddam and Ghadaffi.

I also remember lineups for gas at gas stations, taxes going up and down, the stock markets all over the place, cuts and cuts and cuts to social programs and the arts.

I remember marches and letters and people giving up the theatre because houses were closing for good, companies were going bankrupt and arts Councils had no money.

Been there, done that. Take a deep breath all - an Ativan if you got - and calm down. Simply, if I read one more editorial about how theatres around the world are playing it safe to weather the storm I shall scream.

It's space-filler journalism which tells you what you SHOULD already know.

Theatre playing it safe during a crisis is one of those tried-and-true stories like the senior citizen trampled to death at Walmart on Black Friday, the weather-man frying an egg on the sidewalk in August or NORAD giving Santa the okay to enter North American airspace. It's space-filler journalism which tells you what you SHOULD already know.

Hard times mean artistic directors have to make hard choices to keep their companies afloat in the storm. It's not a pleasant fact of life - especially for new and adventurous writers or the actors who counted on these ADs to hire a bunch of them year after year - but it is a fact.

However, what is also a fact is that the theatres which do not go under (and there will be some who drown, no doubt about it) will come out on the other side stronger and with an AD who has a revived spirit of exploration. Moreover, the companies who did drown will see their strengthened artists go off to other things, create new theatres, new works, and they, too, will revive the culture. It's theatrical Darwinism and it is why our beloved art has survived millennia.

Fiscal chaos passes - censors are considerably harder to get rid of.

What we have to be careful of, of course, is that enemies of the arts use this period of weakness as a sign that we have been fatally striken and try to exploit our fatigue. We can't go back to the days of the Lord Chamberlain's office, the Catholic Church rulings on what is "right" in the arts, the various and sundry Morality Watchdog groups who seem to rise up - like Santorum (capital and small "s") - during economic crisis. Fiscal chaos passes - censors are considerably harder to get rid of.

So let us accept theatres playing it "safe" for a bit. It is not the end of the world.

...and, besides, there really is no such thing as "safe" in theatre.

The Upstage Interview: Graham McLaren on THREE SIXTY

2012-02-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

I don’t want to be the 40-year old guy sitting at the back of the room looking at 21 year olds.

Upstage and Charlebois Post contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke with Director Graham McLaren about the National Theatre School presentation of THREE SIXTY. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

This play, being presented by the graduating class, is a radical adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde by Toronto poet Evie Christie. The original play created a major scandal after opening in 1921. Tell us about the scandal associated with this play, and how it’s been adapted to modernize it.

McLAREN

I wasn’t really around when the first scandal happened in 1921! All kinds of things are potentially scandalous. The interesting thing is that over the years people have used this play in an effort to explore themes about sex. There was an all male version around the time of the AIDS epidemic. It’s a play that’s used for people exploring themes about sex and why people have sex.

...these people range from city stockbrokers to hustlers and lap dancers.

UPSTAGE

It pushed the boundaries then; is it still pushing boundaries?

MCLAREN

Well that depends where your boundaries are! I still think it’s often shocking to see how frank the portrayal of these blunt sexual encounters are. We’ve made no effort to keep it in its early 20th century. Those characters are soldiers, counts, gentlemen. That really doesn’t make much sense to us.

But pop stars, screen writers, pimps, and hustlers are part of our life. We do have a kind of contemporary reference to that so these people range from city stockbrokers to hustlers and lap dancers.

In the original play there was a kind of social comment but as we go through the play basically one sexual partner encounters another kind of like a daisy chain. By the time we get to the top of the tree that person goes to a prostitute and the whole circle begins again. We’ve created a contemporary version of Evie’s adaptation.

UPSTAGE

There are a lot more plays and movies these days where sex has become a greater theme; we’re much more open about it. Is it shocking?

MCLAREN

What’s interesting about this is that Evie is 20-something as is the cast. There’s something about that generation growing up with a great deal of information, therefore an awareness of themselves as sexual beings and comfortable with the value of their sex. That seems to be a unique phenomenon.

The way I work is influenced by movement and dance so there’s a lot of physicality in the work.

UPSTAGE

It’s a changing topic for our generation. You talked about the age of the performers. They’re students so it’s a learning experience for them. How much space did you give them to explore the sexuality in the relationships their characters are experiencing?

MCLAREN

I thought it was crucial they take the lead. I don’t want to be the 40-year old guy sitting at the back of the room looking at 21 year olds. So it’s been about them.

The way I work is influenced by movement and dance so there’s a lot of physicality in the work. They’re comfortable with each other physically and that comes across.

I let them go as far as they want to go. I’m there to support and advise them and push them in certain directions so that we’re really always clear about the story of that scene. What’s at stake between a married couple and how is that different between the married couple and his mistress for instance.

UPSTAGE

Do you think that’s the most overtly sexual piece for this class?

MCLAREN

I think it’s the most overtly sexual piece the school has done.

Show website

Sunday Read: Blog: The MAP Project

2012-02-26T00:01:00.003-05:00

Part VI: Theatre / Friends

What makes us unique

by Amy Kitz

Theatre is a unique place to make friends. As an actor, director, designer, technician, stage-manager: you freelance. When you begin a job it is often with the understanding that this job is contractual and has a definitive end point. The contractual aspect of a life in the theatre is not a work-place attribute exclusive to the stage, but I have found that theatre people have a tendency to be social people, big time social people, and this is what makes theatre friends unique.

In the theatre you may work on a show and feel as though, with that specific cast and crew, you have found/made the best friends of your life. You work together, have dinner-breaks together, go out for post-show drinks together! Theatre people seem to work very hard at making their co-workers their family. After all, we work in a business where connection is key, so this desire, combined with the added environmental pressure of working passionately towards one unique end-product (the show) makes sense. But then the show ends, and though everyone pleads life-long connections made, so too do the friendships. Or at least the style and intensity of companionship developed during the period of working.

Friends and theatre: it is a funny, special, and transient mix.

...the work does not define our way of being together…in theory.

Here at The MAP Project we have that special luxury of being a company, meaning that even when the show ends, our work together (and hence our style of being together) remains ongoing. We also have the benefit of all having had some sort of relationship with each other that precedes the genesis of MAP. Which means that the work does not define our way of being together…in theory.

The tricky part of MAP is the fact that the friendships that exist within the company also then become the inspiration for the content of the work that we put onstage. For someone inside of it all it soon becomes a bit of a confusing chicken and egg type situation: which came first the show, or the friendship?

I am considering this because in one of our weekly MAP ‘social labs’, I was asked to talk to the camera about how I interact with the other MAP members outside of rehearsal/MAP time, and I realized that interaction with my MAP pals outside of rehearsal was becoming a rare event for me. However, I then went on to claim that I wasn’t particularly bothered by this lack of friendship time because, I knew that no matter what, I would see all of these pals in rehearsal and work time anyways; for rehearsal has to happen, the work must be the priority over social time, right?

...what does this lack of time spent just hanging out mean for the work?

It is only now that I have begun to consider that, although our lack of ‘normal’ social time may not be detrimental to our status as friends, what does this lack of time spent just hanging out mean for the work? The content of the work counts on us as a company having an identity outside of the fact that we are a theatre company. What happens to the integrity of the source-material when that identity begins to morph and slip itself inside out?

I certainly have no answers, but I have begun to wonder: when the work is about the friendship, and the friendship is about the work, where does that leave the heart of the show?

Theatre friends: a unique beast indeed.

MAP Episode Six: Friday, March 2, 2012 at Mainline Theatre. Go to www.themap-project.com for details.

Theatre For Thought, February 25, 2012

2012-02-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

ANOTHER HAMLET

joel fishbane

As far as theatrical trends go, our obsession with One-Man Hamlets has to be one of the most bizarre. No one ever seems interested in solo-versions of King Lear or Henry VIII, yet new one-man versions are cropping up all the time (and yes, it is always one man). Artists who have tackled the idea include Clayton Jevne (Victoria), Michael Birch (New York) and the folks at the Classical Theatre Company in Texas. Until recently, the latest version was Rhaoul Baneja’s Hamlet (Solo) which has had a life of its own since appearing at Theatre Pass Mureille in Toronto. But Baneja will have to make some room on the bench: thanks to BJ Harrison, there’s a new one-man Hamlet in town.

Harrison reads classic books, utilizing his incredible talent for voicework and characterization to bring the works to life.

If Harrison’s name provokes some head-scratching, it’s probably because you’re not a fan of the Classic Tales Podcast. Harrison is the chief cook and bottle washer of this humble little operation which, at last glance, had over 7 million downloads on iTunes (Harrison estimates about 20 000 downloads a week). The concept is simple: Harrison reads classic books, utilizing his incredible talent for voicework and characterization to bring the works to life. Over the years, he has tackled short stories, poetry and serialized novels by a cadre of famed authors including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Last week, Harrison launched his most ambitious project yet: a five-part unabridged reading of Hamlet. “Hamlet has been my favourite play for many, many years,” he reports on his blog. “If I had to point to one work of literature that has turned my casual pursuit of books into a passion for the classics, this is it.”

Harrison isn’t a trained actor and he isn’t after interpretation, which may prove to be a blessing. A long time ago, someone put Hamlet on a high literary pedestal and actors often risk treating the text with the reverence of a religious tomb. Or, rather than create their own interpretation, they imitate the performances of presumed goliaths like Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh. Harrison, though, is taking a much simpler approach. If the first instalment (corresponding with Act One) is any indication, his goal is to present the text as simply as he can.

...he’s decided to precede each episode with an interpretive essay by Charles and Mary Lamb.

Given that his audience isn’t necessarily a theatrical one, he’s decided to precede each episode with an interpretive essay by Charles and Mary Lamb. I’ll admit to not being a fan of this decision, as I don’t like the idea of telling a reader what to think of a text. Still, one can’t fault his reasoning, especially given that the very word ‘Hamlet’ tends to scare people away (even the theatrical ones).

To delineate characters, Harrison also interpolates a narrative tag into the script - “To be or not to be”, says Hamlet, “that is the question.” It’s a little jarring to listen to and Harrison’s characterization is so distinct that I think he might be a little overly cautious. Though, to be fair, I know the play. Listeners approaching the text for the first time may appreciate a little hand-holding (or ear-holding, as the case may be).

Audio presentations of Shakespeare, such as those presented by the Complete Arkangel Shakespeare, are perhaps my favourite way to enjoy the Bard: one can never be distracted by some director’s “clever” ideas. The audio format demands attention is always paid to the narrative and the script. Harrison’s other audio works have always demonstrated a fine dramatic flair and my hope is that, when completed, Harrison’s Hamlet will be a unique addition to this quirky theatrical niche.

At the very least, he’s already demonstrated he knows a good Danish prince from a bad. “If I can turn out a better Hamlet than Mel Gibson,” says Harrison, “I would consider this endeavour a success.”

You can subscribe to The Classic Tales via iTunes or visit Harrison at www.thebestaudiobooks.com. Instalments of Hamlet by William Shakespeare will be released every Friday from February 17 – March 16, 2012.

The Friday Five, February 24, 2012

2012-02-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

Five Reasons Why We're Stopping The Friday Five

Your worst nightmare has come true. The gates of hell have swung open and flaming horrors scream through your mind, devouring your happiness, your sanity, your very will to live. Where once you had faith, there is now only darkness. Where once you had strength, there lies a broken child. Where once you had hope, there sits a steaming pile of hopeshit. The Matt and Kyle and Matt Friday Five has come to an end, and with it, the end of all things. Why? Choose one of the answers below.

by Kyle Gatehouse of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. We've All Gotten Very, Very Fat

Typing has become impossible, not only because our fingers are too fat for keyboards, but because we'll have heart attacks if we move or think.

2. We're Too Cool For Blog School

Blogs are so Internet 2.0. When they start beaming pure information into the back of our eyeballs, we'll consider a return to Internet stardom. Until then, we're going retro and sending telegram jokes to the highest bidders. A little bit old is uncool, but a lot old is ununcool.

3. Death Is Our Fetish

We'll get triple hard boners from the wave of suicides that are sure to follow this post.

4. We're Handsome Millionaires

We've got lots of hot rich things to do, like drive to the living room and pet our tigers. Pools don't swim themselves!

5. Theatre Is Dead

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. 'Nuff said.

Thanks to our parents for reading, and thanks to you other eight readers as well.

Please send all cheques and telegram requests to:

Rich Fatties

69 Handsome and Funny Boul.

Hollywood, CA

90210

CharPo's Real Theatre! February 24, 2012

2012-02-24T00:01:00.001-05:00

Norman Nawrocki on Occupy Montreal Culture Committee

2012-02-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

NEW ARTS & CULTURE COMMITTEE FOR OCCUPY MONTREAL

by Norman Nawrocki

Who says last Fall’s international runaway hit ‘Occupy!’ was a one-shot production?

Not activist actors and artists in Montreal who are about to catapult some collaborative creative action onto the local Occupy Movement stage.

About 30 writers, designers, theatre people, film makers, musicians, poets and performance artists from across the city responded enthusiastically February 17th to an open invitation by a few local artist/activists who felt it was time to come together and establish a new, formal, open ‘Arts & Culture Committee’ to support and participate in Occupy Montreal.

Participants talked about the need for better, bigger, livelier visuals, about how to ‘occupy’ the media

Last Fall, local artists contributed sporadically as individuals to Occupy Montreal, with everything from street theatre and live music to a ‘Poet’s Corner,’ film screenings and ‘Surveillance Cameras by the 99%’ installations. But there was no clear infra-structure or space for anyone from the arts to meet each other and collaborate as a group or as individual disciplines.

At this first Arts & Culture Committee meeting which included representatives from Montreal’s original Occupy Movement, participants engaged in a wide-ranging discussion about how actors and other artists can organize themselves and contribute to the radical agenda.

Among the topics discussed: how creative actions can help promote the Occupy ideas; how the arts can be used to raise public awareness of the issues; how to enlarge the network of artists and other creative people who want to be involved; how to make links with ongoing Occupy Montreal groups in diverse neighbourhoods; how to express indignation as artists about current affairs; how to link up with community groups, striking students and other social groups who continue to organize and protest in the streets, and more.

Participants talked about the need for better, bigger, livelier visuals, about how to ‘occupy’ the media, how to make the general public part of performances, the importance of sharing existing resources, how to occupy other public space with a critical arts presence, actions equivalent to bright, colourful, noisy processionals in different neighbourhoods to ‘reclaim the commons,’ and contributing to ongoing cultural events and festivals as Occupy Movement artists.

A proposal was launched for a first organizational meeting (February 23rd) to plan a ‘Creative Retreat/Seminar about the New Paradigm,’ inspired by a similar initiative (‘The Crisis of Everything Everywhere’) by artists and thinkers from New York’s 16 Beaver Street group.

This would review the lessons learned from the past Occupy Movement activities and plan for the future. It would cover broad cultural topics like ‘Cultures of Resistance, Resistances of Culture,’ the cultural shifts necessary to refuse the corporatization of public institutions, including institutions of art, and what are cultures of the commons. Other proposals were launched for collaborative actions during Montreal’s Nuit Blanche.

A second meeting of the Arts & Culture Committee / Occupy Montreal is planned for Friday March 2nd, 4521 rue St-Jacques, just west of the St-Henri Métro, 5pm to 7pm. All theatre artists, allies and creative peeps are welcome. For more information for the moment, please contact either Johanne Chagnon or Norman Nawrocki:

rhythm@nothingness.org

For more information about artists in the Occupy Wall Street movement:

http://artsandculture.nycga.net/about/

http://www.occupywithart.com/

The Occupy Montréal website :

http://www.occuponsmontreal.org/

CPM's Picture of the Week, February 23, 2012

2012-02-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

A screen-grab from The MAP Project.

Episode 6 is March 2

Blog: Crystle Reid on ArtHere!

2012-02-22T00:02:00.002-05:00

Anne Sophie Grenier performing Frida Kahlo at the last ArtHotel! (photo: Julian Stambouleh)

Part III

The Artists

by Crystle Reid

Each ArtHere! is made spectacular by the artists who are involved. This week I asked a couple of them to share with me what’s it’s like to participate in an ArtHere! event. First we have Anne-Sophie Grenier who, at the upcming ArtHostel!, will be presenting a Vaudeville Hall of Freaks:

After performing at ArtHere!, I needed a good sixteen hours of sleep to recover. Not only are you performing all night, but you also have to be on your toes and prepared for a different audience every time, especially if the piece is interactive. Since ArtHere! allows you to venture deep into the unexpected, push limits and break pretty much every conventional rule of theatre, you get exactly what you ask for: unexpected reactions. Before every new wave of audience members come into the performance space, I can’t help but think, “Will they get it?” Luckily, experience at ArtHere! has taught me that nine times out of ten, they do “get it”. Most audience members are fellow artists or art enthusiasts and happily embark on the adventure.

The major reason why I perform at ArtHere! events and hope to continue doing so is, quite simply, because it’s really fun. My piece for the upcoming ArtHostel! is a vaudeville Hall of Freaks. The idea came when I was writing an essay on the history of theatre for a class when I thought: “Gee-whiz, that sure looks like fun, I wish I could have lived 100 years ago and been a vaudeville star.” Well now I can! So despite the accompanying fatigue and nerves, it’s all worth it to me.

“What if?”

Next I talked to local actor Scott Humphrey who you may have seen in Sheep in Fog’s, Jesus Jello. Scott has just finished wrapping up a production of Cyrano de Bergerac in Ottawa with Plosive Productions. He will be presenting Empty Page(s), Empty Space(s):

Scott Humphrey performing Ranger Coyote at ArtCamp!
(photo: Julian Stambouleh)

I work primarily as an actor: my job entails giving life to characters from a script (or elsewhere). I work to create a physical presence on a stage or in a film where before there were only words, feelings, and actions; in short, I make the abstract concrete. And one of the most important tools I have at my disposal is the very basic “What if?” “What if a man working as a concierge at a low-end motel got roped into a crime syndicate?” “What if a young girl fell into a world filled with strange creatures and backwards logic?” “What if a young educated man came home to find his father dead and his mother newly married to his uncle, all the while knowing that this land will one day be his to inherit?” (You’ll excuse that last tired example.) My imagination and my desire to explore all facets of strange “What if?” worlds are indispensible to my work.

Of course, when you often ask yourself hypothetical questions, they start to arrive unbidden. In my bed, on the metro, in a restaurant, the “What if?” boils up inside me, sometimes being a logical follow-up to something I can see, and sometimes just arriving out of nowhere. What to do?

ArtHere! is a project that, from where I’m standing, gives freedom to artists to explore these nagging questions and scenarios. Oftentimes, something that’s popped into my head doesn’t have anything to do with the non-traditional performance space in which I’ll be working, but so much the better! “What if a young man knows it’s his destiny to be a writer, but he doesn’t know how put words together into sentences?” combines with “What if I couldn’t ever leave this tiny, claustrophobic bedroom?” to create something gripping from almost nothing. And then I, the artist, just go along for the ride, letting my gut lead me in the direction of the most interesting answer to the question I proposed.

Oh, and just in case you think that this all sounds super serious, it’s not. The humour of the everyday gets transposed into what artists do, whether they like it or not; it’s simply their choice whether it will serve their work to acknowledge it. Getting an obstacle-filled space (the actor’s favourite!) where you can take a kernel of an idea and expand it into something with shape, direction, rhythm, colour, and life. What more can I, the artist, ask for? How much closer can an audience get to the authentic theatrical experience?

To book tickets for ArtHostel!

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, February 22, 2012

2012-02-22T00:01:00.001-05:00

Alex is obsessed with filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Devastated by his death he becomes physically and mentally off balance.

La Mort de Kubrick

Mar 15 – 31 Théâtre La Chapelle

(photo by Olivier Morin)

Theatre...en français

by Estelle Rosen

“Happy families cause me anguish” Jérémie Niel.
Croire au mal

To March 3 Théâtre La Chapelle

Brussels theatre companies present a play that asks whether burning subjects can ever be re-defined as lukewarm.

Capital Confiance: La Crise du Capitalisme

Mar 13 – 17 Espace Libre

Grating comedy about ambiguous connections between desire, personal accomplishments, and love.

Midsummer

Mar. 5 – Apr. 13 Petite Licorne

After Dark, February 21, 2012

2012-02-21T00:01:00.006-05:00

The Insidious Nature of Theatre

Damned if it's not everywhere

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Believe it or not...

There was a time when Radio-Canada, through it's primetime Sunday (hit) series Les beaux dimanches, would broadcast plays by ours and the world's greatest playwrights. (They even did my play, which brought it an estimated audience of 800,000 and sent me on a three-month trip through Europe...God bless those times.) There was a time when CBC showed opera and theatre and ballet. There was a time when even the American giants presented plays or the work of playwrights on shows like Playhouse 90 and The Goodyear Television Playhouse; on the latter Paddy Chayefsky tested the waters with his piece, Marty (before it went on to its movie version and an odd little Oscar for Ernest Borgnine in the role Rod Steiger created on TV) as did William Gibson with his seminal The Miracle Worker on the former.

Glee is clearly a Broadway queen's wet dream - or so I thought 'til I did some sniffing around.

Theatre and playwrights were integral to the creation of television.

No more. Indeed, it's gotten so bad at the Ceeb that it's a fucking miracle if their idiot arts feed on Twitter talks about anything besides Whitney's funeral or Demi's breakup.

But something else is happening and I like it very much. In a very surreptitious way, theatre is coming back onto the small screen. (In passing, it is also bringing with it a larger acceptance of Queer culture...but that's for another column.)

Let's start with the two obvious shows: Glee and Smash (the second would never have been possible without the first). Glee is clearly a Broadway queen's wet dream - or so I thought 'til I did some sniffing around. I spotted an app on the Apple store which allows Glee geeks - Gleeks - to sing - in real time - with other Gleeks around the world to a Karaoke recording of a song that appeared on the series. It also allows the Gleeks to record their rendition and subsequently have them rated by other Gleeks (1000s, it would appear) across the globe. This is a really fun app and you can burn away hours of your life listening to some shower-diva (or divo who is really a diva) blasting ersatz-Streisand with "Don't Rain on My Parade" - right down to the pronunciation: budda (for butter). Now many would say that these Broadway star wannabes always existed but I would suggest that Glee showed them that there was a way - besides American Idol - that they could pour out their guts in a song and it was about the drama not the Céline-Dionesque soar-note.

Smash is not a great show, but for a theatre aspirant it is a fun show.

If Glee teaches the hopeful about the drama of the musical itself, Smash is now showing them about the mechanics of mounting one. It is not a great show, but for a theatre aspirant it is a fun show. It does not reflect the full truth of mounting a production, but it is a reasonable facsimile. And, like my play (which never played to a bigger audience than those 800K who watched Rad-Can) it is going beyond what a community house can possibly do and saying: this is what you're looking for. I would suspect glee club coaches and community theatre directors around the world are falling on their knees and thanking God for - and cursing - both shows. (Listen to some of the people on that Gleek app if you want to know what I mean by cursing; keep that for the shower, kid.)

Look, I don't care if - for now - the only result of this is that productions of Annie get mounted in every hamlet in the nation (believe it or not, there were two Annies in St. John's last year!). The fact is, many of us - myself included - got the theatre bug in a roundabout way (from TV, from film - like when I saw the movie A Man For All Seasons with Paul Scofield and then studied the play in English class - from a book, even from a People magazine) - but what we haven't had in the last three decades is the legitimization of how we feel reflected in pop culture. Now, with Glee, Smash and all those little app-Gleeks out there, we do.

Rejoice.

The Upstage Interview: Dennis Foon and New Canadian Kid

2012-02-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

Warona Steshwaelo and Mike Payette in New Canadian Kid

(photo: Ashley Belmer)

Veteran Canadian Writer

Upstage host Eric Sukhu spoke with playwright Dennis Foon about his play New Canadian Kid presented by Black Theatre Workshop as part of Black History Month. Below is an abridged version by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

Tell us about New Canadian Kid.

FOON

New Canadian Kids started many years ago when I was working on a project with a school in Vancouver. Speaking with kids from 42 different language groups about their experience as a New Canadian was an eye-opener for me.

Even though I was an immigrant, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought. My own family were immigrants but hearing about what it’s like coming into a country not knowing anyone or even the language allows you to feel it from their perspective.

We don’t think about these things; you just deal with it. The heart of the show.puts you in the shoes of the immigrant and allows you to feel the experience.

The hardest thing for kids is seeing their parents in crisis. Seeing their parents trying to make a new life and often not able to maintain their positions as engineers for example is stressful for kids.

I helped them build their own play about these experiences. Doing that got me inside the skin of the whole problem.

UPSTAGE

How many kids were involved in this project?

FOON

About 30 kids. I helped them build their own play about these experiences. Doing that got me inside the skin of the whole problem. Then decided to do my own play. My Director suggested reversing the languages so that Canadians speak a kind of gibberish and the immigrants speak English. That way, we see it from their perspective.

I wrote the play so that everything Canadians said was accompanied by a gesture therefore didn’t need a language. Playing with that idea created an effect where we could do all kinds of word play; funny on its own. Working with skilled actors over time, the gibberish became a quite refined and elegant language.

UPSTAGE

Was it difficult to work that into the script?

FOON

I had to think about it especially from a physical point of view because everything was accompanied by an action. If I said, give that to me, the motion had to be included.

In one way the staging is simple; in another a good part of it is basically physical comedy.

UPSTAGE

So you were using a variety of theatrical ways to communicate.

FOON

I’ve always been interested in playing with theatricality. In one way the staging is simple; in another a good part of it is basically physical comedy.

UPSTAGE

When was New Canadian Kid written?

FOON

1978. I’ve been told it’s the most produced Canadian play ever. Every year there’s a production of it going on somewhere.

I’ve received many letters from kids who were sensitized to either their own behaviour or another kid’s behaviour.

UPSTAGE

What’s interesting is its relevance. Bullying issues today seem to escalate into different levels, especially with cyberspace.

FOON

Working with kids trying to reflect their experience, you find out a lot about society at large.

UPSTAGE

Is there any way to end bullying?

FOON

As an artist what I try to do is raise awareness. What theatre can do is make you feel. I’ve received many letters from kids who were sensitized to either their own behaviour or another kid’s behaviour. Getting people to talk about a play like this can do something. I’m not saying it can change the world but if we can be touched by it, that’s a start.

Black Theatre Workshop website

The Sunday Read: Actor's Notes - Paul Hopkins and In Absentia

2012-02-19T00:01:00.001-05:00

l-r Paul Hopkins, Jillian Fargey, Jade Hassouné (photo: lucetg.com)

From With-In Absentia

Actor's notes

by Paul Hopkins

I’m currently performing in Morris Panych’s new play, In Absentia, at the Centaur. I play Tom, husband to Colette. To me, this is a story about love. And boy, do I love this play. It reminds me of what I love about theatre: The opportunity to explore the big questions. Below are various thoughts, questions and obstacles that I had during the rehearsal process. The audience only gets to see a prepared meal. What’s below might give a taste of some of the ingredients that went into it.

FYI - The play, in case you haven’t seen it: Colette lives in a house next to a lake in cottage country. A year earlier, her husband was kidnapped, in Columbia. She’d agreed to pay the ransom but then never heard back from the kidnappers. Since then she has remained in limbo, not sure whether her husband is alive or dead. She has taken to talking to an imaginary husband, and receiving consolation from her neighbour and sister. The play begins when a young man shows up at her door, seemingly out of nowhere. The play moves forward from this moment but is comprised of little scenes that jump back and forth in time.

I Love Theatre. Theatre allows me to bathe in the ultimate questions alongside smart, compassionate, engaging people. Rehearsal for this play, especially early in the process, was all about examining and uncovering…trying to find a way to use theatre and its devices to express or manifest this beautiful story about love.

In Absentia and Morris Panych. The term “In absentia” is Latin and is typically used to refer to a defendant in a trial who isn’t present at the trial. Morris suggested, in an interview, that it refers to an absence of God. Is this a play that puts God on trial? I wonder.

What a joy to have Morris in the early rehearsal. Most interesting: he doesn’t have all the answers. Thankfully, neither does the play.

The Play.

The play reads beautifully. Putting it on its feet...a noble challenge.
The structure of the play reminds me of something a friend said about his Vipassana meditation retreat. You realize that your mind is constantly swirling around unsolvable problems. The structure of the play is like her mind swirling and checking out every angle to find a solution where there is no solution.

Is there a God. For Colette, she begs the question of Tom: Is there meaning in life or is it random? Tom thinks some things don’t make sense. Colette can’t accept that and needs to find meaning behind her horrible circumstances. Is there a God or an ultimate reason behind reasons? Tom thinks there isn’t. Colette thinks there has got to be something. I think Tom eventually changes his mind: Love exists when everything else is gone.

Colette and Hamlet. Hamlet came up a few times in rehearsals:

Imagery of being frozen, static, unable to feel or move forward: Hamlet: Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew. Colette: This isn’t feeling this is the absence of feeling… They want to move forward but can’t.
Lots of soliloquies: does the character step out of the action to soliloquize? How does it move the action forward?

How do I play Tom?

Tom isn’t a ghost or a spirit. Okay. Is he a figment of her imagination/sub conscience? Is she channeling his spirit? So are my intentions linked with hers? Morris uses the image of a dream. The characters in a dream have their own motives. What motivates characters in a dream? We have taken to calling him an entity.
Why does Tom move, enter, exit. I’m directing myself while onstage. I need to be in the story not outside of it. Yet I’m playing a character outside the story. I guess I can use it. What do I do with my hands? Morris suggests this isn’t a bad question for my character to have. Why do I leave the stage? Why do I enter the stage? I don’t know… I’m lost… So is the character?
A guide. Tom’s is a guide for Colette’s journey. He loves her. He challenges her. He consoles her. He steers her. But he’s limited in what he can do from where he is.
Lost. I keep getting lost and don’t know where I’m supposed to be on stage.

Tumaco, Columbia. What a terrible place. No trustworthy authority, ruled by corruption. Part of the US war on drugs. Farmers of coca can make twice the minimum wage, $12 an hour. Then the U.S. army comes in and fumigates their crops. So they move to Tumaco. Thank God this isn’t the air we breathe in Canada…as far as we know.

Confession. Colette confesses her sins, as if it might bring him back if she purged herself.

Reviews. I think these reviews reveal more about the reviewer than the play.

In Absentia continues at Cenatur to March 4

Obituary: Jennifer Cook

2012-02-18T14:39:00.002-05:00

The unsung heroine

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Jennifer Cook, who died this week after a prolonged illness, was one of the great unsung heroines of Canadian theatre having touched the lives of artists across the country. She began her work in Canadian theatre at Centaur where she served as secretary to the artistic director and general manager (under Maurice Podbrey). She became friends with many of the creators simply passing through the company, and was a close accomplice of virtually all who worked there. It was during this period that I met her and before long she was not only my best friend, but also managed my career as a playwright, ushering my work into CBC radio and coproducing my play Michael (which was subsequently performed, in French, at Quat'Sous, largely thanks to her involvement).

Cook continued her work in theatre after retirement, offering her volunteer services to GCTC when she moved to Ottawa. She also worked as a DJ for a time.

But it was simply with her temperament - always positive and enthusiastic - and with her encouragement, that she allowed us to see the light in the - often profound - theatrical darkness. She helped many of us to stay the course.

She leaves behind her two sons, Miles and Alastair, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Review: C!rca

2012-02-18T11:18:00.000-05:00

The spectacle of C!rca

A THEATRICALLY EXCITING WORDLESS SHOW

C!RCA moves in ToHu

By Byron Toben

This is not an English- (or any language-) speaking show and is also not a Montreal based company (it is from Australia). So, it is not strictly a candidate for CharPo's motto… "All Montreal English Language Theatre..all the time". Still, it is so good that, to quote Arthur Miller, “Attention, attention must be paid”.

This heralded Brisbane company has travelled the world, amazing audiences with their focused body control as they blend acrobatics with modern dance. As a dancer, I am your original two left feet guy, but, as Harry Truman once remarked. "I may not lay any eggs, but I am a better judge of an omelet than

any hen in the state of Missouri".

Though there is no verbalizing, there is plenty of well chosen music to suit each stint of the 7 dancers (5 men, 2 women). Three of the musical pieces do have recorded words. I did not identify the two English lyrics, but the one in French was the wonderful Jacque Brel's “Paris”.

During the other instrumental background music, viewers witnessed performers flopping like rag dolls, only to bounce upright from prone positions and then sliding as on ice in bare feet and seemingly floating on air, defying gravity without yogic levitation.

Especially eye grabbing were the double somersaults performed from a standing position! Some stunts resonated with Apache dancing. A hand-stand with fingers only was impressive, but pushing it to one finger only was the sole failed attempt of the evening.

All this done without fancy costumes or clowns as in Cirque de Soleil; a minimalist exercise of the Dance is the Thing. They may not have captured the conscience of any king, but we did notice DanceTiger Robin Henderson somewhere in the audience, presumably making notes of ideas for her next Dance Animal show.

C!RCA continues at ToHu until February 25. 514-376-8648.

Theatre For Thought, February 18, 2012

2012-02-18T00:01:00.005-05:00

MAMET VS THE MAGICAL POST OBAMA TIME
joel fishbane

As frustrated as I can be with some of David Mamet’s work, I remain doggedly convinced that he is one of the finest playwrights of the modern age. It is, I think, a glorious thing to experience anything he has written: he has the ability to cut through the great chafe of life and, in prose that is lean but never anorexic, reveal wisdom in all areas: art, lust, guns, even campaign buttons. Oh and race. Let’s not forget that.

Mamet’s 2006 book The Wicked Son dealt with anti-Semitism and self hatred among the Jews; not content with this controversy, he returned to Broadway in 2009 with Race, a play that tackles the great racial divide that has haunted America ever since Thomas Jefferson was forced to remove references to slaves from the Declaration of Independence (it’s true, look it up).

... three attorneys, two black and one white, debate whether to defend a white man charged with raping a black woman.

Race is finally getting its Canadian premiere thanks to Edmonton’s Catalyst Theatre and if you’ve always been on the fence about David Mamet, this play will probably be the one that sends you to one side or the other. Even the synopsis doesn’t pull any punches: three attorneys, two black and one white, debate whether to defend a white man charged with raping a black woman. The heated premise forces all the characters to expose the unresolved racial and sexual issues at the heart of our culture.

“The play covers so many Taboo topics,” said my friend Tristan D. Lalla, who's appearing in the production. “They're all incredibly poignant and relevant to the world we all co-exist in today.”

I was eager to talk to Tristan about Race, both because he’s a sharp Montreal actor and an outspoken social activist. Back in August, 2011, Tristan made headlines after he accused bouncers at Montreal’s Saint Sulpice of racial discrimination - he and friends were denied admittance because they were in “le style hip-hop”. Not surprisingly, he remarked that Mamet's views on racism “are eye opening, yes, but for me, they aren't new.”

Although Race is set in contemporary America, Tristan knows firsthand that its themes are far too relevant for Canadians. Many people, according to him, believe we’ve entered a golden age of equality. His director (Heather Ingalls) was even asked why Catalyst Theatre was producing Race, given that there was according to the questioner, no race problem in Canada. “That's why we're doing this play,” Tristan told me via email. “Unfortunately, many people somehow have convinced themselves that that is true... that we live in some kind of Magical ‘Post-Obama’ time.”

Mamet has given the entertainment world a pantheon of modern classics.

Race opened to mixed reviews in 2009 with critics divided between the show’s subject and its style. All agreed it represented a general return-to-form for Mamet, who had been focusing on adaptations (Faustus, The Voysey Inheritance) and madcap comedy (November, Romance). But critics were equally unhappy with the story itself, calling it “hollow” (Variety), “clunky” (New York Post) and “lacking in dramatic tension” (New York Times.).

Their disappointment was palpable. In addition to the Pulitzer-prize winning Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet’s work in film, TV and stage has created a pantheon of modern classics: American Buffalo (stage), The Untouchables (film), The Unit (TV). But with his run of adaptations and farces, Mamet has long threatened to become a caricature of himself, especially in his recent films (I’d argue he’s been remaking his 1997 film The Spanish Prisoner for years.)

So it’s easy to understand why people were itching for a new Mamet they can champion; and equally easy to see why they were disappointed. It’s unfair to judge any artist’s work to others in the oeuvre, but this doesn’t stop people from doing it. The danger of being prolific and popular is that you’re your own worst enemy. Put another way, Race is not Glengarry Glen Ross - but everyone wants it to be.

Viewed as its own animal, Race remains a provocative exploration of a subject most playwrights (and theatre companies) are loathe to explore. Whether or not you agree with its depiction of race in the western world, it should spark the sort of uneasy conversation that needs to be had. Aside from its risky topic, Race also contains all the hallmarks of the classic David Mamet play. Language has long been a prison in Mamet’s work and Race’s characters stumble into more than one verbal cell. There’s the traditional manipulation, the corkscrew plot, the trademark dialogue known to the theatre world as “Mamet-speak’.

Given its topic, the staging of Race will probably always be something of a political act, but this should not be taken to mean the play is not inherently theatrical. “[Race] leaves you uneasy, wanting, and curious,” said Tristan. “It leaves you questioning what you just heard, what You Believe, who you trust... It leaves you Talking- which is what good theatre should do.”

Race by David Mamet runs from February 24 – March 11, 2012 at Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton. For tickets call 780.420.1757 or visit www.catalysttheatre.ca.

Review: Depflies 2

2012-02-17T13:06:00.003-05:00

The Night of the Living Losers II

Depflies again

by Byron Toben

The lovable losers of DEPFLIES 1 are back in Frappe les rues - part of a projected 13 part live bilingual soap opera about St. Henri denizens who hang out at a local Depanneur. In this installment, a star is born! The star is writer/director/actor Alain Mercieca's 7 year old daughter, Adele. The cast breaks W.C. Fields's famous warning to “Never work with children or animals” two fold...there is also a rodent in the plot...and gets away with it.

Mercieca plays Peter who works, sort of, at his half sister's Depanneur. His friend Roger, is a frequent hanger-on in the dep as they discuss issues both mundane and existential. Brecht discussed “What is a Man?” but in loftier theatrical terms than the Franglais quips here.

Zoe introduces Peter to a gun merchant...

In hitting the streets (hence the title), Peter encounters a squirting skunk who challenges his manhood. The residual aroma is not appreciated by the customers of the dep, except for Zoe (Lise Vigneault) an ethereal street philosopher who decides that he “smells like a man who works”. Zoe introduces Peter to a gun merchant and, although tempted to purchase a Bazooka, he purchases an archaic musket to kill the skunk and reclaim his manhood.

In a subplot, Theatre Ste-Catherine mainstay Sandi Armstrong (a holdover from the Eric Amber days) plays an Anglo lady enamored of Rick Moranis but settling upon lazy Roger as the possible father. She is delighted at a chance to babysit little Adele for an afternoon and play ersatz Maman.

Into this mix intrude four muppets, a car chase, a vegetarian grower, a hunt in the snow and an exhortation to take back the streets, but the time is not quite ripe right now. Seinfeld-like, much is made of word play on phrases such as "The tables have turned".

I would guestimate that the French percentage of the dialogue exceeds the 50% plus one enshrined in some circles, but that should be no deterrent to less than fluent speakers. All the actors have improv comic backgrounds and expressions and mugging make the plot twists easy to follow.

Note: No real animals were hurt or killed in this show.

Depflies 2 continues at Theatre Ste. Catherine until February 18. 514-284-3939

See Byron Toben's review of Depflies 1

The Friday Five, February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T00:02:00.001-05:00

(fig. 1)

FIVE WAYS TO SIT IN THE AUDIENCE

Try these out with your friends!

by Matt Raudsepp of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. Nobody To My Left/Somebody To My Right: Safe (fig. 1)

The Holy Grail of assigned seating. Some “theatre goer” didn’t go, and you find yourself with an empty seat next to you. Throw that elbow open and extend a foot into nothingness… this play is going to be good! Pro Tip: use the empty spot for your jacket, bags, and program.

(fig. 2)

2. Nobody To My Left/Somebody To My Right: Confrontational (fig. 2)

The person sitting to your right asks you if they can place their jacket in that Holy Grail of an empty space to your left. Well, guess what? Your jacket, bags, and program are already filling it quite nicely, thank you very much. Show your neighbour that you’re the king of the row by invading his space (you wanted to shift your arm and leg anyway). Be sure to keep a firm grip on the armrest while you throw that other elbow open and place the bottom of your foot on his thigh... this play just got a lot worse for your neighbour! Pro Tip: feign ignorance for as long as you can.

3. The Bust (fig. 3)

(fig. 3)

This play is a bust? You are a bust. Turn your back on the show and nap in a near-fetal position… this play is busted! Pro Tip: rest your feet on the bosom of the woman sitting in the row behind you to level up the “bust” pun yet again.

4. The Standing Ovation (fig. 4)

(fig. 4)

Wish you could see the stage better while simultaneously showing your appreciation for the performance? Step right up and get a bird’s eye view… this play was far too understood by audiences ‘til you stood up! Pro Tip: that was a pun.

5. One Hand Clapping (fig. 5)

Are the actors seemingly performing for themselves up there? Feels a little too “wanky”? Why not join in on the self-gratification? Leave a decoy sleeve on the armrest and slip that hand down your shirt and into your pants. Pro Tip: the sound of applause perfectly masks the sound you’re now making.

(fig. 5)

CharPo's Real Theatre!, February 17, 2012

2012-02-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

EVENT: A Paul Robeson Tribute

2012-02-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

BYRON TOBEN presents

A PAUL ROBESON TRIBUTE

His amazing life and songs told and sung by TOM FOX and

accompanied by ANDREW COWAN

PAUL ROBESON…

The son of an ex-slave who became the true

Renaissance man of the 20^th century

All American football player
Lawyer
Broadway actor
Film actor
International singer
Social activist
Banned by U.S. from singing in Canada

Thursday March 1, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

Atwater Library

1200 Atwater

Admission by voluntary donation to Black Theatre Workshop www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca

($8 suggested, $10 includes door prizes draw)

Snacks, Juice and cookies

Reservations: btreserve@gmail.com

CPM's Picture of the Week, February 16, 2012

2012-02-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

The cast of Black Theatre Workshop's

New Canadian Kid

(clockwise from top: Mike Payette, Warona Setshwaelo,

Vladimir Alexis, Tamara Brown; photo credit: Ashley Belmer)

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, February 15, 2012

2012-02-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

In typical les Éternels Pigistes style, dramatic black humour about the theme of death or existential solitude.
Après moi

Mar 13 - Apr 14 La Licorne

Theatre…en français

by Estelle Rosen

A man is enclosed by four walls; isolation cell perhaps?

Dissidents

Mar. 6 – 31 Espace Go

A young woman believing she’s going to help her cousin, is given the address of a club that was formerly a place of a strange process of degradation.

Les Abeilles

Feb. 14-Mar.3 Prospero Salle Intime

Third in trilogy on origin of violence against men.

La Guerre

Feb 14-Mar 3 Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui

After Dark, February 14, 2012

2012-02-14T00:01:00.005-05:00

Flinch Mob

All signs point to a chill - a very weird one

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois
(See below for a further comment by Michael Healey)

The news is not good and for all the wrong reasons. We are NOT being pounded on by Harper's conservatives except in the usual sleazy ways. But the effect is the same: we are submitting like archetypal sissy liberals, hearts a-bleeding, eyes a-tearing.

I know this all sounds brutal and over the top but I have just lived through nearly two weeks of rhetorical give and take with people on all sides of the censorship issue. Except it's not the censorship issue; it's the flinch-before-they-hit-us issue. It is another set of cases where good-thinking people should be doing something - mobilizing - and where there will be a lot of really, really good talk and writing and nothing will get done because - dammit! - it's really, really scary out there right now.

Two cases:

1) A right-winger (insert name of any CP pol or Quebecor/Sun hysteric here) spouts off about state-subsidized porn. Yes, indeed, Radio-Canada - through its online service tou.tv - is showing a satire about the porn industry - Hard - which, itself, is humorously soft core. Even the Heritage minister James Moore (quickly becoming the left's favourite boogie-man) sermonizes. (He did it in a beautifully sleazy way, too. The Toronto Sun has him saying, "This programming cannot be defended", and then, "Having now seen the show in question…") (Boldface added…) Radio-Canada flinches and reprograms and now Hard cannot be seen on demand except after midnight.

2) Michael Healey writes Proud, presents it to Richard Rose, artistic director of Tarragon, and is told it will not be programmed into the next season because, Healey says, it could subject the company to legal problems from the Prime Minister (who is featured in the play). All this despite an eleven year relationship between the playwright and company (which Healey parts from, quite publicly). It's not censorship…per se. It's Flinchfest at the Tarragon.

I do not blame the powers at Rad-Can, nor Rose for backing off. What I blame them for - and blame everyone in the cultural community for - is the subsequent silence. Outside of Facebook, I am not seeing discussions about why we flinch, think we have to flinch and might flinch in the future. Or, better, how we can stop flinching. The closest we've come is right here on this site in Brad Fraser's open letter to Rose, Steve Galluccio's open letter and Mr. Fraser's brilliantly considered essay on the whole business.

But as Brad and I have noticed, with some dismay, is the very few comments following these articles despite both his letter and essay being the most popular articles at The Charlebois Post - Canada...ever. Brad and I have had some great discussions with dozens of people in and out of theatre…on Facebook. I have invited all of them (pro and con) to go public. I have invited Mr. Rose directly (twice!).

Silence.

Death by flinching.

Here is a boil on the body theatrical that needs lancing and it is just going to grow and grow over the next three-four years to the point where the Tories need do nothing at all to keep us all "in line". We'll do that job all by ourselves. And then, yes, we'll get five more years of the Tories come the next election.

* * * * *

One of the people who participated in Facebook discussions was playwright Michael Healey. I asked his permission to include the following comment:

To reiterate a few points: the theatre's liability, as described to me by Richard, would be the loss of revenue from a theatre shut for 6 weeks. They couldn't be sued out of existence. My understanding is that the theatre's fed funding comes from the Can Council, which is arms-length and transparent (Heritage is neither), so their risk there is minimal. In my opinion, Richard gains nothing at all by responding publicly to the controversy. First, because there's no good that comes out of having your season choices second-guessed in public, and second, because what's he going to say? That he chose the theatre's security over one of its playwrights? That just stirs the pot, and his goal is to put this behind him as quickly as possible. The real issue here -- forget Tarragon, forget Richard -- is this: no one would have had a moment's hesitation if I'd written a play with Paul Martin as the central character. This is about the atmosphere created by this gvt's high-handed approach to dissent of any kind. And one of the tactics they use is isolation -- teach one dissenter a lesson, and it makes the others hesitate. Let's not use that shitty tactic, isolation, on the Tarragon. If I wind up self-producing, I will want as many co-producers as possible, and wouldn't it be great if Tarragon was on that list?

Listen to an episode of The Current with Healey, Moore and a representative from PACT. Listen carefully. The PACT rep speaks as if she's just wandered into a minefield and Moore subsequently treats her as an ally and Anna Maria Tremonti is treated by the minister like she is everything that is wrong at the Ceeb (read: on the left).

The Upstage Interview: Charles Harries on The Hazards of Love

2012-02-13T00:01:00.003-05:00

For a long time, it was a pipe-dream. But if you stick with your idea, you have a show.

Upstage host Eric Sukhu spoke with Co-Playwright/Director Charles Harries about McGill Players Theatre’s presentation of The Hazards of Love: A Folk Opera. Based on the cult Decemberists’ album The Hazards of Love, Campbell and Harries reassess the romantic cliché ‘happily ever after’. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

How was opening last night?

HARRIES

Quite something. Such an entirely different feeling from seeing it in rehearsals to waching it with an audience.

UPSTAGE

Your Co-Direcor James Campbell wasn’t able to be here with you tonight; is he with the actors and the band tonight?

HARRIES

Yes, he’s going over details with the band. We have a 6-piece jazz band, and everything has to be coordinated at Players.

It was a very interesting learning experience for us to see the characters we’ve written interpreted in different ways by other people.

UPSTAGE

Before going on air you told me a story about the origins. Tell our audience about it.

HARRIES

At a cast party of another show that James and me had done; about 4 am we said to each other what would be really cool to do would be The Hazards of Love. We started the next morning. For a long time, it was a pipe-dream. But if you stick with your idea, you have a show. This was early 2010.

UPSTAGE

When casting did you have specific needs?

HARRIES

Lot of amazing talent showed up. We needed actors who could sing. It was a very interesting learning experience for us to see the characters we’ve written interpreted in different ways by other people.

UPSTAGE

Did you find things changed once you had the cast?

HARRIES

Definitely. Lines we had written with a certain character in mind played entirely different when we saw it in front of us.

Writing alone you start to second guess yourself.

UPSTAGE

Is it difficult to write with someone else?

HARRIES

On the one hand it’s difficult because we both have different creative visions. On the other hand it’s beneficial.Writing alone you start to second guess yourself. With two people it was easy for one of us to write something maybe a bit edgy; bring it to the other one to get their opinion. It would have been a much more conservative and much more laid back script if it was just one writer.

UPSTAGE

Did you share the writing?

HARRIES

We’d sit down, knowing we had 7 hours ahead of us. We’d be at the beginning of a scene, then work them out together. Because it’s a love story and we’re working at the Arts building; professors were walking by and we’d be looking at each other passionately reciting these love lines. Interesting to see the looks on their faces!

...mostly it was a matter of recruiting people who were eager, talented and wanted to work with us.

UPSTAGE

I understand music was the inspiration for the play; how did you work it into the play?

HARRIES

The music was all there. The Decemberists’ entire album. My Co-Director and Music Director are part of their own folk band. So mostly it was a matter of recruiting people who were eager, talented and wanted to work with us. Came together better and easier than I could have anticipated.

UPSTAGE

What are future plans for the play after this run?

HARRIES

We’re trying to enter the New Wave Festival in New York. We’re also thinking about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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The Hazards of Love continues at Players' Theatre until February 18. Info: 514-398-6813

Reservations

The Sunday Read: Estelle Rosen on CKUT

2012-02-12T00:02:00.006-05:00

Me and CKUT

The iconic and important part of our local culture is in danger

by Estelle Rosen

At a time when my life wasn't quite so rosy, my survival instinct kicked in. I couldn't identify it as such then. I was listening to and following instincts which ultimately proved to act as anchors for quality of life survival.

We get used to bad things, getting used to good things required its own form of adjustment.

Two things in particular significantly helped get me through an emotionally difficult life experience.

First, enrolling in a writing course with Joel Yanofsky brought sanity to my insane life in upheaval. Writing personal essays remains one of the most beneficial ways for me to deal with life's little surprises.

Second, joining CKUT provided a sense of being where I should be. Beyond being accepted and welcomed without question, the hallmark of CKUT, was the amazing feeling of belonging. A most welcome feeling at that point. We get used to bad things; getting used to good things required its own form of adjustment. In addition to CKUT enriching my life, as a bonus I have made life-long friends. Upstage has been one of the most gratifying experiences ever.

The current situation placing CKUT in jeopardy is especially distressing. The potential loss of a community radio station which has been broadcasting from the McGill campus since the 1960s affects listeners, the community, the 300+ volunteers and much more. This isn't the place to discuss the whys and wherefores of McGill/CKUT/QPIRG kerfuffle. Read about it at www.ckut.ca. I can only hope resolution will happen soon.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: CKUT is not only a key part of our community but also integral to Montreal English-language theatre life. Estelle Rosen's Upstage: Theatre on Radio is just one of the programs on the station which has brought theatre artists to public attention who would otherwise have been lost in the media and PR noise. Through our partnership with Upstage, CharPo has also been able to expand its coverage of local and international theatre artists each week with The Upstage Interview. We beg readers of CharPo - especially those at McGill - to respond to appeals for help in any way they can and before media coverage of theatre in Montreal shrinks once again.