Theatre For Thought, December 15, 2012

YOUR THEATRICAL XMAS GUIDE
Or What to Get the Struggling Actor in Your Life
joel fishbane

Snow is falling, carollers are singing and cities everywhere are a-glow with lights. The politically correct people of the world are wandering around with “Happy Holidays” on their lips, but let’s call a spade a spade: it’s Christmas-time and everyone knows it. And whether you're giving someone Hanukah gelt, Kwanza contributions, or winter solstice souvenirs, chances are you’re wandering through the stores with your hand on your wallet.

So without further ado, here’s six suggestions for theatrical gifts for the performer in your life who doesn’t have everything…

6. Headshots

All actors need new headshots all the time. This is an expensive fact of life for the busy artist – so why not help them out? Find out who their favourite photographer is and surreptitiously get a gift certificate – they’ll thank you, I guarantee it!

5. Food

Artists are physically incapable of turning down a free meal. So now’s the time to take them out for dinner or, better yet, cook them one of your own. 

Theatre For Thought, December 8, 2012

MASHING UP SHAKESPEARE

joel fishbane

Raised on a literary pedestal, hailed as the greatest playwright that ever lived, poor William Shakespeare has long been a victim of his own reputation. Traditionally seen as the domain of the theatrical elite, it usually takes a gimmick or a radical re-interpretation of the text to get the average audience involved in his work. Last year, the Stratford Festival shoved Seanna McKenna into the title role of Richard III while down in New York, audiences can still see Sleep No More, Punchdrunk’s site-specific, immersive re-telling of Macbeth. 

Now, for those who don’t fancy a night in the theatre, there’s a new adaptation in town: To Be Or Not to Be: That is the Adventure, a choose-your-own-adventure version of Hamlet by Canadian comic book writer Ryan North.

The idea is as simple as it is brilliant: readers can opt to be Hamlet, Ophelia or the ghost of Hamlet’s father and then follow that character through the story (Yes, Hamlet’s father dies right away and, as a ghost, you are tasked with solving your own murder). While readers can follow the same choices as Shakespeare’s counterparts, there is plenty of leg room to change everyone’s fate. “You can battle pirates or invent indoor heating or both,” says North on the video found on his fundraising page at Kickstarter.com. Each storyline is written by North, who founded Dinosaur Comics and co-edited the bestselling short story anthology Machine of Death

Theatre For Thought, December 1, 2012

THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST END
joel fishbane

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A Producer, a Marketer and a Quantitive Analyst walk into a bar. “I want to produce a hit show,” says the Producer. “No problem,” says the Marketer. “We just need to take a known product that appeals to children while touching the nostalgia lurking within all middle class adults.” The Quant promptly crunches some numbers. “You’ve got a choice,” she says. “You can produce a musical based on Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz.” The Producer thinks about it. “Musicals based on Alice in Wonderland have never worked,” he says. “And best of all, The Wizard of Oz is already written.”

Flash forward a few months and we have Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of the famous 1939 MGM musical of what happens when a girl from Kansas realizes she’s definitely not in Kansas anymore. The show hits Toronto in a few weeks and while I’m usually pretty open-minded when it comes to theatre, I’m having trouble finding anything redeeming to say about this production. At the risk of hyperbole, it strikes me as the greatest evil to appear on stage since Mephistopheles first graced us in the inaugural production of Faust. 

Review: Tagged and It's Complicated

PROFILING THE ART OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LOVE 
joel fishbane

Dating in the 21rst century has spawned a whole sub-genre of musicals, from I Love You Because… to A Craigslist Cantata, each of which comment on how the new generation deals with the impact of technology on love. To quote Jonathan Larson’s Rent, it’s all about “connection in an isolating age”. Into this mix comes Tagged & It’s Complicated, a new musical that chronicles the efforts of two social misfits, Tim (Matty Burns) and Katherine (Ruth Goodwin) to find true love via the Molten Lava Dating Company.

Almost entirely sung, Tagged… is set entirely in Tim and Katherine’s bedrooms; the two are on stage the entire time but never interact (at least not in reality). Katharine’s a workaholic while Tim’s unemployed and living with his parents. Unfortunately, not much more can be said about the characters. They reveal little about themselves during the show’s one hour time span, which right now is about thirty minutes longer then the current plot needs.

Theatre For Thought, November 24, 2012

SIMPLE TAKES A LOT OF WORK
joel fishbane

Last month, while killing time in New York, I decided to get lost in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After taking the subway to 86th Street, I enjoyed a New York breakfast of street food and coffee on those iconic steps before heading inside to look the painting “Grey Weather” by Georges Seurat. Along the way, I plugged in my iPod and listened to the only musical worth listening to when you’re lost at the Met: Adam Gwon’s song cycle Ordinary Days.

“The Met’s the only place in New York City where the traffic patterns don’t make sense,” sings Deb, one of the four characters in this quirky musical about the crossroads of youth. The show is made up of two completely separate storylines, but the scene at the Met is one of the few times when all four characters manage to break into each other’s lives.  “The show is about how one small thing that one character does creates a domino effect on everyone else,” explains Kayla Gordon, who’s directing the Canadian premiere. “It’s a show about asking ‘what is my big picture? What am I doing with my life?’”

Theatre For Thought, November 17, 2012

HARPER GOVERNMENT RINGS THE BELL AGAIN
joel fishbane

Both the Conservative government and a slew of Canadian artists each got a chance to enjoy their favourite hobby this week. The Conservatives got to provoke the anger of the artists and the artists had a good time getting angered. This time around, the issue was the unglamorous Bill C-427,  a private members bill introduced by Tyrone Benskin, the former artistic director of Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop. The bill was an attempt to rewrite the Income Tax Act to allow for income averaging for artists.

In layman’s terms, income averaging allows individuals who have a varied annual income to spread out their tax liability over a period of time. I won't bore you with the math – which, I assure you, is really boring – but the point is the bill was defeated and, as always, a few artists got their undergarments in a twist. I have a hard time taking it seriously whenever artists come down hard on the Conservatives. It strikes me as a Pavlovian reaction: at some point, artists were trained to think that the Conservatives don’t support culture and so whenever they ring the bell, the arts community begins to froth at the mouth. 

Bill C-427 wasn’t very well written

With apologies to Tyrone Benskin, I’m siding with the Conservatives on this one. Bill C-427 wasn’t very well written – read it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Not only that, but it ignored the fact that artists are not the only people out there with a varied annual income. Look at farmers, salespeople, restaurant workers, or practically any entrepreneur. If Bill C-427 had been more inclusive – more applicable to all Canadians – then perhaps it would have fared slightly better.

Income averaging is a fine idea and perhaps one day it will come to Canada. But in the meantime, there are plenty of things the Canadian artist can do if they want to lessen their tax burden. First, all artists like to complain about the tax breaks the government gives to corporations. So why not go out there and become a corporation. It’s completely legal and, paperwork aside, relatively painless. As an incorporated entity, you can elect to pay yourself a salary and have the rest of your profits taxed at the corporate rate rather than the individual one.

Another suggestion is to familiarize yourself with the expenses you are allowed to claim. In Quebec, for instance, artists can deduct income derived from royalties. Federally, all artists can deduct the cost of business-related supplies, travel, commissions and so forth. As a self-employed person, an artist who works out of the home can also deduct a portion of their rent, mortgage, property tax and insurance. The government even allows you to carry-forward this amount, a fact which is very helpful for those of us who have a varied annual income. 

In the end, all artists need to conduct themselves like any small business and make sure that they put money aside for taxes over the course of the year. The best thing to do is open a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) and dump some money in there. It will accrue tax free interest and will be sitting there waiting when the government comes calling. 

But most of all, artists may just have to accept that a volatile financial life is all part of the business. Enjoy the good years when you have them and use the profits and reinvest it in your company - which is yourself. And the next time the Conservatives ring the bell, don’t be so quick to froth at the mouth. Stephen Harper’s government is very much like a stopped clock: they’re always right at least twice a day.

Theatre For Thought, November 10, 2012

HATCHED FROM A THEATRICAL EGG
joel fishbane

“I didn’t want it to be an issue play,” said Claire Burns. “Just a play that deals with certain issues.” She’s referring to Hatched, her new play that was inspired from her own experience as an egg donor back in 2004. Produced by Toronto’s Triangle Co-Op Productions, the show aims to be less about the moral / legal issues surrounding in vitro fertilization and more about the ripple effect our choices have on generations to come.

It’s hard to discuss Hatched without resorting to puns, so I’ll get them out of the way now. The show was “conceived” after Burns donated her eggs, it “gestated” while Burns conducted research, interviewing egg donors, recipients and donor children. After its initial “birth”, it was “nurtured” by Burns with some dramaturgical help from the people at Triangle Co-Op. And last week, the show finally arrived, aged and mature, at the Toronto Free Gallery.

Theatre For Thought, November 3, 2012

AN ODE TO THE STAGE MANAGER
joel fishbane

A long time ago, while in university, I had the opportunity to produce the first play I had ever written. On the first day of rehearsals, I was approached by a girl who offered herself to me, and not in the way I might have liked. “Who’s your stage manager?” she asked. I laughed. “I don’t need a stage manager,” I replied. “They don’t do anything anyway.”

Ah. To be young and dumb.

I hired her anyway, thinking she’s be someone to bring me coffee. I don’t think she ever brought me a single cup of coffee. But she saved my life and I have never worked without a stage manager since. 

     

Just as writers do not trust directors, directors do not trust actors. Actors are absent minded. The moment they no longer need a prop, they forget about it. They finish their costume change and leave things scattered on the ground. After the curtain call, they leave to find their friends so people can tell them how great they were. And when they show up the next day, they expect their costumes to be clean and hung, their props to be pre-set and the stage to be swept and mopped. Directors know this (usually because they were once, or still are, actors themselves). That’s why they hire the stage manager. 

Theatre For Thought, October 27, 2012

ONCE UPON A TIME, AT MCGILL….
joel fishbane

About ten years ago, I wandered into a production of Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s seminal musical that was hailed as the first plotless musical. It was electric, so much so that the following week I went back to the theatre, stood in the cancellation line and scored a ticket after someone’s date didn’t appear. A decade later, it remains one of the most engaging productions of Company I’ve ever seen. 

So who was behind this theatrical miracle? A regional theatre? Some scrappy independent company? Actually, it was McGill Players' Theatre, McGill University’s student-run theatre company. That’s right: one of the best productions I saw in fifteen years of Montreal theatre was produced by a bunch of twenty year olds, most of whom have gone on to become doctors, lawyers and aging hipsters with degrees they never use.

Theatre For Thought, October 20, 2012

THE COST OF THEATRE
joel fishbane

I’ve been in New York for five minutes when I meet Jennifer Lopez. Sitting on the F train, trying to make sense of the colored lines that zig zag from Manhattan into Brooklyn, I am interrupted by a heavyset woman with dark frizzy hair. “I’m Jennifer Lopez,” she tells us. “But not that Jennifer Lopez. I’m the homeless one. Will someone give me a dollar?” 

Meanwhile, in the pages of the New York Times, a more genuine entertainment story is breaking. Rebecca, a musical based on the book by Daphne du Maurier, was set to be the big opening on Broadway this Fall. Rehearsals were set to start the week I arrived but less than 24 hours before the first read-through, the production had been scuttled. According to the NY Times, stockbroker Mark C. Hotton likely invented four crucial investors who were set to bring in $4.5 million dollars of the show's $12 million dollar budget. The show had other troubles, having suffered cancellations and the death of a major investor earlier this year. 

Theatre For Thought, October 13, 2012

Eloi ArchamBaudoin and Jennifer Morehouse

HUMANITY LOST: MEDEA COMES TO THE STAGE
joel fishbane

Emma Tibaldo has never been shy when it comes to her thoughts on Medea, the famed murderess of Greek myth. “She’s always been a hero to me,” says the artistic director of Playwrights Workshop Montreal, one of Canada’s longest-running play development centres. It’s a bold statement, given that Medea murders her own children to enact revenge on a faithless husband. But Emma Tibaldo sees it as something more then just an act of infanticide. “She’s a hero to me because of her willingness to do something extra-ordinary to get justice.”

Her ability to sympathize with a woman who commits a heinous act may be what makes her the ideal choice to direct Nadine Desrocher’s English translation of The Medea Effect, originally penned by Québécois playwright Suzie Bastien in 2005. Both a modern tale of trauma and an emotional tug-of-war between two lost souls, the piece stars Jennifer Morehouse and Eloi ArchamBaudoin. It’s the latest show by Talisman Theatre, the Montreal based company that produces English language premieres of Francophone plays. Founded by both a director and a designer, its shows always find a way to incorporate design into the narrative. Designers often start a year in advance and Tibaldo works in conjunction with them to make sure that both text and design work together to highlight the play’s themes. 

Theatre For Thought, October 7, 2012

(photo credit: Ashton Doudelet)

BLOOD AND BELIEF

joel fishbane

The first thing composer / lyricist Joseph Aragon thought after hearing about 19th century serial killers William Burke and William Hare was “that would make an awesome musical!”. Infamous in their own time, Burke and Hare were a pair of Irish immigrants who supposedly sold the bodies of their victims to medical schools who used them as cadavers. “The story had large emotions and large stakes,” said Aragon. “At the same time [it had] sophisticated themes, like class struggles, medical ethics and the value of human life.”

And so Bloodless was born. A new musical that isn’t based on a popular movie or book is a rare thing today. Rarer still is a new Canadian musical being given a plum spot in the Mirvish’s new season: Bloodless will appear in Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre throughout October.  “It's more than a little overwhelming,” admitted Aragon. “This production represents a lot of firsts for me: my first fully professional production, my first major production outside of Winnipeg." 

Theatre For Thought, September 15, 2012

FALLING TOWARDS YEAR’S END
Your Canadian Theatre Fall Preview
joel fishbane

There’s a chill in the air and the other day I had to cycle wearing gloves: I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country, but here in Quebec autumn is making itself known. For the theatre world this means the start of another season of shows: the 2012-13 season is upon us and actors everywhere are shaking away their tans to step once more into the footlights. It would be impossible to cover everything going on in Canadian theatre between now and Christmas but here are just a few of the highlights. 

Chris Abraham, who last season helmed Annabel Soutar’s Seeds (now playing in French in Montreal), will return for a double bill, at least if you feel like crossing the country. At the start of November you can catch his production of my favourite John Mighton play, The Little Years, over at Tarragon (Toronto). Two weeks later, all the way over in Gateway Theatre (Richmond), Abraham teams up with Marcus Youseff and James Long for Winners and Losers, a devised piece in which a harmless game turns into a ruthless dissection of the players’ intimate lives. 

Theatre For Thought, September 8, 2012

COLORS OF THE FUTURE
joel fishbane

Many young artists have made bold pacts after a night of too many beers, but every now and then the promises remain even in the harsh light of day. Such was the case for the founders of Metachroma Theatre, Montreal’s newest independent theatre company. Comprised of some of Montreal’s most talented actors – Tamara Brown, Lucinda Davis, Mike Payette to name a few – the company was created to promote a singular mandate:  to produce theatre that normalizes the presence of cultural minorities on stage. 

“This is an idea that we have all had in our heads for a long time,” said Julie Tamiko Manning, a Company member who's playing several roles both onstage and off. A third-generation Japanese-Canadian, Manning can relate to the idea that sparked the Company’s creation: How come we never see minorities on the stage unless it’s a culturally specific show?

Theatre For Thought, September 1, 2012

THE ART OF TRANSLATION
joel fishbane

“I think translators have done their job when they aren’t noticed,” remarked Bobby Theodore. “The moment someone compliments me on the translation, I worry the script needs another draft.” It was a smart remark from a veteran translator / writer, one that encompasses both the goals of a translator and the problems in being one in the first place. As important as theatre translators are, if they do their job well, people forget they were ever in the room. 

This talent for invisibility has had an unfortunate consequence within the Canadian theatre industry: there currently exists no standard contracts that outline the translator – writer relationship. “What’s missing is dialogue,” Theodore revealed. “No one ever talks about money. There needs to be something that outlines the legal relationship.” 

Theatre For Thought, August 25, 2012

ACTING IN THE AGE OF REJECTION
joel fishbane

This week was a typical one for me. There was some good news, which stroked my ego; this was quickly followed by one or two disappointments that knocked it back to size. When you work in multiple formats you usually end up tripling your chances of being turned down;  when you’re acting, writing and dating, it also means you field three or more rejections a week. Does this make me an expert in rejection? If so, it’s a dubious skill and I’d be happy to give it back. 

Rejection remains a difficult thing whether it comes from a publisher, director or the girl at the end of the bar. The most common balm is the suggestion that we not “take it personally”. This isn’t easy for actors and less so for those hoping to find a date for Saturday night. At the end of the day actors are every bit like the singleton: both are trying to sell themselves and both find it all too easy to take the rejection as a personal affront.

Theatre For Thought, August 18, 2012

LOVERS AND KNAVES IN TORONTO’S BACKYARD
joel fishbane

People who know me know how vehemently I tend to react to those who alter Shakespeare and keep it to themselves. Toronto actress / producer Kaitlyn Riordan knows me well – or at least well enough to assure me that her company’s inaugural production, Two Gents is very clearly an adaptation of a Shakespeare classic (Two Gentleman of Verona). “The ending is different from the original,” she assured me, though she admitted that many people may not even notice.  “Nobody knows anything about [the original,]” she admitted. “It’s an early work – much like us.” 

The “us” Riordan is referring to is Shakespeare in the Ruff, a new Toronto-based company dedicated to bringing the Bard to Riverdale, the neighbourhood east of the city’s downtown core. The company is a reboot of one that existed years ago – Shakespeare in the Rough, who performed once upon a time in Riverdale’s Withrow Park and inspired company founder Brendan McMurty Howlett.

Theatre For Thought, August 11, 2012

SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON SIMULATED MEDICINE 
joel fishbane

The world of simulated medicine is getting a comedic approach thanks to Vanessa Matsui, the actress / writer / brain behind The Simulation Centre, a new sitcom she’s pitching at Toronto’s Pilot Week Festival. “It’s about a former child star who is now the most unemployed actress ever,” said Matsui, speaking to me during a brief sojourn in Montreal. “The pilot is the disaster episode where everyone has to pretend to be dying.” 

There are many things they don’t teach in theatre school and the ability to feign gastro-enteritis is definitely one of them. Yet across Canada countless actors are being asked to become adept at having abdominal cramps, nausea and perhaps a little vomiting. Canada’s several Simulation Centres are used to train young doctors in the art of diagnosis. They’re also places where the hungry actor can come to find a steady paycheque; cast in the role of Simulated Patients, actors both contribute to science and explore an untouched realm of their own abilities.

Theatre For Thought, August 4, 2012

From the original production of Big Plans

TAYLOR TAKES TORONTO
by joel fishbane

It’s a Sunday morning and both Jeremy Taylor and I are going on very little sleep, although in his case it isn’t because he spent the night before in a bar. Taylor’s the proud father of a new baby girl and of all his latest creations, she’s the only one not making an appearance at SummerWorks 2012. Toronto’s annual festival of new and innovative work will feature two works that have Taylor’s fingerprints – one which he wrote, the other which he directed. Although his shows have been produced in Montreal and abroad, until now Toronto has been “the mythical beast we haven’t been able to hunt down.”

Theatre For Thought, July 28, 2012

MARRIAGE AND THE SHREW

joel fishbane

A war over Taming of the Shrew has been waged over in the comments section of the Montreal edition of CharPo, for which I’m infinitely grateful. Those who know me know I detest The Merchant of Venice, not because of the anti-Semitism but because of the poor craftsmanship – simply put, it’s a badly-made play. Shrew doesn’t quite suffer from this problem: it has its problems but the real dilemma lies in the subject matter. The story of a man named Petruchio who “cures” Kate, the titular shrew, cannot help but provoke strong opinions. Time and again, productions either ignore the uncomfortable material or attempt to distract us from it with theatrical wizardry and a comedian’s bag of tricks.

We may think that the controversy surrounding Shrew is a late 20th century phenomenon but apparently it’s been raising ire ever since it first hit the stage. In 1888, with the women’s movement on the rise, George Bernard Shaw made his own thoughts known in the Pall Mall Gazette: “Having been told that the Daly Company has restored Shakespeare’s version to the stage,” he wrote, “I desired to see with my own eyes whether any civilized audience would stand its brutality… I hope all men and women who respect one another will boycott Taming of the Shrew until it is driven off the boards.”