Review: The War of the Worlds

Foley sound effects artist John Gzowski in the 2011 production of The War of the Worlds (photo credit: John Lauener)

Theatre...on Radio
by Dave Ross
@dmjross


On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air performed their infamous broadcast of Howard Koch’s radio play The War of the Worlds. Last night, precisely 74 years later, the Art of Time Ensemble presented their dramatic staging of this same radio play. This production was originally presented as part of World Stage in 2011, and was revived for this season by Art of Time. They’ve created an artistic masterpiece – using only a 5 piece radio orchestra and an extremely talented foley artist, we get taken back to 1938 and that radio studio in New York.

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, October 31, 2012

Week 7

Stuart Munro

Dear friends, seven weeks have gone by and we are almost at the end of our journey. There’s only one week left after this and we will all know who our Dorothy is! According to Mr. Lloyd Webber, it’s the eleventh hour, Canada, and it’s up to us! On this stormy night, I can’t tell you how happy I am to be safe and dry in my apartment with a nice glass of Forty Creek to warm me up.

The always dapper and dashing Daryn Jones introduced our top four as they sang Journey’s “Don’t stop believing” (sigh). Stephanie had some pitch problems off the top, whereas AJ seemed calm and comfortable with the song. Danielle showed some real rocker feistiness, while Colleen again sounded under-supported and untrained. Altogether, the four voices don’t blend well, but thankfully we only really care about how they sound individually. And who choreographed this thing? Terrible . . .

All three judges talked about how hard this penultimate episode was with four wonderful girls left. Andrew Lloyd Webber should be back with us next week, but after this week, the decision is 100% up to the voters.

In a Word...C. Derrick Chua, entertainment lawyer and so much more

Bar, Board and Theatrical Banquets

So if I had to just use one word, I’d say unequivocally “excellent”.

A co-founder of Studio 180, C. Derrick Chua is an entertainment lawyer and award-winning theatre and film producer. He is currently President of the Toronto Fringe Festival and past-President of the Toronto Theatre Alliance, and sits on the boards of Cahoots Theatre Projects, fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre and Shakespearience. As an entertainment lawyer, his clients have included a number of theatre companies, independent film and television production companies, bands, publishers, multimedia/ high tech companies and artists/performers of every kind. He holds an Honours BA from the University of Waterloo and an LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario, and is called to the Bar in Ontario and New York. (Source: Studio 180 website)

CHARPO: How did a lad from the Philippines get to be a lawyer in Toronto?

CHUA:  It’s not that this is a secret or that I am reticent to talk about it with anyone on a personal level, but there is really no short answer to this and has lots of related issues from personal family history to the political climate of the Philippines back under the realm of President Marcos, so its more something that I’d be happy to tell you over a drink sometime, but perhaps not so much in this correspondence.

The Vid, October 31, 2012

As you tend to your own costumes for tonight, have a look at what COC went through with Die Fledermaus, one of the happiest evenings in a theatre, closing this week.

(Read our review)

After Dark, October 30, 2012

Why We Must Care
An election is coming and it could hurt
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

It was an awful time. Ronald Reagan was president and Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney were prime ministers. Moreover, the three loved each other. There was a pall over the world. When we were not preparing for the end of the world, small-l liberals were watching everything they cared about go into the toilet.

What was worse was the utter lack of organization on the left and by the opponents of the unholy trio. Lesbians and Gays were fighting, feminists and free-speechers were fighting - each other! It was all over the issue of pornography. Miners in Britain were treated like Mongol hordes and sometimes acted like that. The IRA was blowing up innocents when they weren't starving themselves to death in prison. A play about Margaret Thatcher caused consternation - even on the left! - because it was called Ditch the Bitch. (This before a play called The Happy Cunt toured the Fringe circuit.)

The Show, October

It's been called "a play of shimmering, iridescent beauty"... It is a fabulous vocal symphony that borders on glossolalia without actually falling into Babylon.

A woman goes missing. Nine lives are thrown into chaos. This is the heart of Andrew Bovell's Speaking in Tongues, The Company Theatre's new production, playing this week in association with Canadian Stage and, later, to tour to Victoria and Belfry. The Company's track record is undeniable. Allan Hawco and Philip Riccio's theatre's previous show, The Test, was almost unanimously acclaimed. The Test and Speaking do have something in common: darkness, ambiguity, mystery.

Betrayal...?

Review: Summer Folk

(photo credit: Joseph Hammond)

The art of life and hatred
by Jasmine Chen
@CHENPINGTING

Summerfolk by Maxim Gorky, featuring the graduating class of the Ryerson Theatre School, opened this Friday at Ryerson's Mainstage Theatre. Grad shows tend to be massive productions; plays with enough roles for everyone in the class and the opportunity for production students to work on a large scale show, showcasing four years of training in action. Written in 1904, Summerfolk is about a madcap collection of Russian middle class men and women who spend the summer together at a summer home  where they bicker, fall in love, out of love, have affairs, philosophize, get drunk and grow to hate each other. 

Review: Der Freischütz

Vasil Garvaliev as Kaspar. Photo by Bruce Zinger.

Hey Man, Nice Shot!
by Shannon Christy
@schristy79

When Opera Atelier’s Co-Artistic Director, Marshall Pynkoski, came out and said this is the most excited he had been since 1991, the audience broke out in laughter. It was not a joke. He was excited because the Opera Atelier, he proclaims, “is taking a giant step in a different direction” and their production of the Romantic period opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) is the first step in that direction. Apparently the excitement had spread throughout every element of the cast creating a work that hits its mark in achieving the Opera Atelier’s objective of creating historically informed period works, which take their own place in history.

The Story: Interview with Chris Abraham

At a certain point the author becomes a real person to me, a friend...

Chris Abraham has been the Artistic Director of Crow’s Theatre since 2007.  At Crow’s, he has directed numerous productions including Eternal Hydra,  I, Claudia, Boxhead, The Country, and Instructions to any future socialist government wishing to abolish christmas. He has also directed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Canadian Stage Company, Tarragon Theatre, Segal Centre, Centaur Theatre, Globe Theatre, Theatre Junction, among many others. In 2000, he co-founded and was the Co-Artistic Director of Bill Glassco’s Montreal Young Company.  Recently he directed the Stratford productions of For The Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, The Little Years and this year's acclaimed The Matchmaker. (Source: Crow's Theatre)

CHARPO: Since you were a young director, you have been closely associated with revivals of older plays. Then, this summer, Matchmaker was a huge success. What draws you to these works?

ABRAHAM: I suppose in Montreal, I have more often directed classics and revivals of Canadian work, but I don’t necessarily feel like this is my only beat as a director. I’ve moved between new plays, creation, Shakespeare and other texts from “the cannon”. This is really what I like to do. I’m drawn to these different kinds of experiences and challenges. I’m interested in projects that stretch me and stretch an audience. The Matchmaker was a play that I had seen a couple of times onstage and really enjoyed, and Thornton Wilder is an author whose other writing has really inspired me, including his novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”. Farce is also a genre that I love – because of the precision of the form and the discipline it requires from the team working on it. I’ve directed “What the Butler Saw” by Joe Orton and Feydeau’s “A Flea in Her Ear” (a few years ago at NTS) and had great times with both. I grew to love The Matchmaker because of what historian Bernard Hewitt calls its celebration of the “radical, the pioneering, the exploring, the creative spirit in man” – which animates all of the comedy in the play. I found there to be a tremendous spiritual force hiding behind the double takes, mistaken identities, and reconciliations of The Matchmaker. The play shines with special intensity because of this. 

Review: Les Fourberies de Scapin/Scapin's Deceits

(photo credit: Marc Lemyre)

Fear and loathing in Naples 
by Shannon Christy
@schristy79

The TfT’s production of Scapin’s Deceits is a vacation from the cold realities of aristocracy and the grey skyies of Louis XIV’s France to a sunny Naples where a valet, Scapin (Nicolas Van Burek), with a noble heart intent on vengeance, aids and physically beats his masters. Welcome to a happy-go-lucky comedy by Molière.

Scapin’s Deceits is a lighthearted play with a twisted plot that tilts towards slapstick on the level of Asterix & Obelix. For instance at one point there is a hilarious scene where a valet, Silvestre (Sébastien Bertrand) disguised as a brother intent on restoring his sister’s honour, parades on the pier with exaggeratedly violent gestures and words meant to petrify his master, Argante (Robert Godin) who cowers below. The plot is to scare Argante to death and extract a large sum of money from an otherwise dolt of a man.  

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.

Review: Horses at the Window

Carnations and Bad News

by Jasmine Chen

@CHENPINGTING

Horses at the Window, presented by Go Play Producing is an absurdist tragicomedy written by Matei Viniec and translated by Alison Sinclair. Three centuries of war are visited through three relationships: a mother and son, a daughter and father, a wife and husband. In each story the woman is left behind, only to be visited by a mysterious messenger bearing carnations in one hand and bad news in the other. 

This cyclical journey is highlighted by the fact that all three women are played by the same actor (Oyin Oladejo), and the messenger is the same in each vignette (Pooria Fard). The men are represented by puppets, each with varying degrees of effectiveness. Where this production succeeds is in capturing beautiful stage pictures - dead soldiers rising from the earth with sand spilling out of their helmets, concealing their faces; a sea of boots hanging from the ceiling; a mother waiting at the window; a suitcase overflowing with carnations. Where the journey becomes hard to follow is in muddy transitions, excessive lighting changes, and trouble with pacing. With Viniec's tricky script, the actors must walk the line between deeply tragic and absurd. While the messenger scenes were clear in tone and purpose, the preceding woman and man duos faltered. The energy of these scenes either fell flat or remained at a fever pitch throughout.

Review: Rocky Horror Show

Pushing 40, Still Sweet

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

If you’ve made it to this website and I have to spend a paragraph explaining the plot of Rocky Horror, what the hell is wrong with you?

In 2012, The Rocky Horror Show finds itself pushing 40. It’s more institution than revolution these days, meaning any successful production needs to find whatever trace of sexual revolution remains – all without alienating an established fanbase. A slavish imitation of the definitive film is death. So is going the ‘party over performance’ route that plagues many amateur productions of the show. You’re not shadow-casting under a spray of water pistols and toast now, darling. Expectations are high and fans are rabid. As a wise man in heels once said (theatre superstition not withstanding), “Good luck… and don’t fuck it up!”

CharPo's Real Theatre! October 26, 2012

Review: Miss Caledonia

(photo credit: Nir Bareket)

Beyond Honey Boo-Boo
by Beat Rice

It’s not a new story but I always love to hear that a SummerWorks show has continued to have a life after the festival. Melody A. Johnson’s play Miss Caledonia was performed at the 2010 SummerWorks Theatre Festival and is being presented at the Tarragon Theatre in association with Lunkamud. Johnson’s play, where she is the sole actor accompanied by a fiddler, is based on the experiences and memories of her mother, Peggy Ann Douglas. Miss Caledonia is the portrait of a young girl in the 50s with big dreams of leaving farm chores in rural Ontario for stardom in Hollywood. To achieve her dream, Peggy sets her sights on winning as many pageants as possible, starting with the smaller ones and moving up along the way. Johnson plays many characters in Peggy’s life on a stage with nothing but a wood bench in the centre, all the while appropriately dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans. 

The Still, October 25, 2012

Not our usual theatre photo...

The Hours That Remain

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, October 24, 2012

Week 6

by Stuart Munro

Dear friends, I have to confess that this is quickly becoming one of my favourite nights of the week, though whether it’s because I love the show or enjoy having a glass after a twelve hour day is anyone’s guess. . . . Nevertheless! Here we are with the sixth week of Over the Rainbow! With only five Dorothies to go, the pressure is on. The opening performance of “Together wherever we go” sounded a tad rough, but AJ still stood out, even in the group (she’s my girl).

This week the girls all sang ballads. Danielle’s pre-song video talked about just how good she’s always been (a bit corny) and how, as a result, she has a harder time constantly improving (which is fair). She opened the show singing “At last” and sounded soulful and rich. It was a really fun performance, and she looked so comfortable and relaxed on stage. If there was a moment or two of “showiness,” or a few sour notes, they were easily overshadowed by the real honesty the majority of the performance showed. She easily kept me engaged enough to ignore all the back-up dancers, and even the handsome fellow they had as her love interest. OK. He stole my attention once or twice. But is that so wrong? Arlene was “impressed beyond belief” and loved her vocal versatility. Louise recognized the truth of the performance and bought it “100%,” and Tom wanted to throw his shoe at her and praised her story-telling abilities. Danielle’s another favourite of mine.

In A Word...Joel Ivany, Artistic Director, Against The Grain Theatre

Why, Joel, Why?

Joel Ivany, Artistic Director of the supremely innovative Against The Grain Theatre, has directed for The Canadian Opera Company, The Aventa Ensemble, The Canadian Children’s Opera Company, The Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, The U of T Opera Division, Wilfred Laurier University, Opera Nuova and The Banff Centre.  

CharPo: Why should anyone who hasn't, attend an opera? It's just people shrieking in each others faces!

Ivany: Well if you only have 30 seconds...Opera has the ability to connect with people the way no other art-form does.

If you have 3 minutes, read on.

So why don't people go to opera?  Some people inside opera think it's a fashion thing that scares people away.  I personally don't think so.  Many companies try to "dress down" opera making it more accessible.  Our company encourages our audience to wear what they feel comfortable in.  To be fair, some people (even young people) go to the opera to dress up.  Growing up, the only time I ever dressed up, was for church. On the other hand, opera companies shouldn't be offended if people show up in jeans and toques as well.  Opera, for some, is a chance to clean up and dress up and for others it is a chance to unwind and enjoy.  

The Vid, October 24, 2012

Larry Kramer talks about the AIDS epidemic and beginning of ACT-UP, key to his play The Normal Heart. Studio 180's acclaimed production is now playing.

Interview: Pooria Fard of Horses at the Window

Mother Son Daughter Father Wife Husband

by Christopher Douglas

A recent graduate of Humber College’s Theatre Performance class, Pooria Fard stars in Horses at the Window by Matei Viniec in a translation by Alison Sinclair. In addition to playing the role of the Messenger, he is also a member of Go Team Producing, serving as assistant producers on the show. Having participated in the SummerWorks Leadership Intensive Program with him this summer, I sat down with Pooria and caught up about the upcoming show.

CHARPO: What is the show about?

FARD: The play centres on three relationships: Mother and Son, Daughter and Father and Wife and Husband. In each of these, the amazing Oyin Oladejo plays the woman. And, in each scene, after the men leave for battle, a Messenger arrives with news. 

There is no specific timeline to the play; it’s not about one war or another, though it mentions battles by name but they span history and geography. The play emphasizes the universality of war and the consequences for those left behind but it isn’t about war so much as being about what it is to be left behind when people go to war. It’s about how survivors react to the news that something terrible has happened to someone they care about. For me, playing the Messenger, it’s about the challenge of having to tell each woman in a new way, to let them know without sounding automated or scripted, finding the compassion in a moment that asks for impersonal action and demands strength.

First-Person: Ned Loach of 360 Screenings

The Fight Club Audience

Sharing the Movie

by Ned Loach

360 Screenings is part of a rising trend in entertainment where guests are not only encouraged, but expected to break traditional audience behaviour of sitting in a dark theatre watching the story unfold on stage or on screen. Robert Gontier and I, co-founders of 360 Screenings, spent a year in London, UK where a large part of the theatre scene there blurs the boundaries between various art forms. This inspired us not only by the way it challenged us artistically, but by how it resonated with everyone in the audience. We’d seen something truly unique and exciting.

Upon returning to Toronto, we knew we wanted to share the experience and be a part of this burgeoning trend, so we spent upwards of a year planning and adapting the model to make it appropriate for Toronto audiences. Before we knew it, we were well on our way to announcing the first screening in 360 Screenings’ immersive cinema series on May 25th, 2012.

After Dark, October 23, 2012

What are the limits?
One critic revives the debate
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

In my third year of acting school, one of my teachers - an inveterate bastard - decided to tell us the facts of life. He told us what we would play when released into the real world. "You," he said to one handsome boy, "would play Prince Hal." To a lovely young thing, "Juliet," to a less lovely one, "Mistress Ford." And on and on. It was a harsh lesson. In the real world, beyond our talent (or lack of), we would get roles based on our looks. (For the record: I would be Richard III...fucker.)

Let's face it (no pun intended) when an actor walks onto a stage his or her first job is to create the illusion. That's the work. If you are playing older, younger, uglier or prettier (or smarter or dumber) than yourself, you will spend a few long minutes of your first few on stage convincing the audience otherwise and then pulling them more deeply into the play. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

But here's the thing...

Review: The Normal Heart

The ensemble (photo credit: John Karastamatis)

Fearless

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

As a writer and activist, Larry Kramer is nothing if not confronting. By cutting so fearlessly close to personal experience, he creates stories that are as real and enriching as they are unsettling. The Normal Heart has enjoyed something of a renewal in recent years, not just in the form of this superb production from Studio 180, but as a multi-Tony award winning revival staged last year on Broadway. The Studio 180 production returns as one of the most anticipated plays of the current Buddies season.

For the uninitiated, this not an easy night out at the theatre. The frustrations and challenges faced by Ned Weeks (a very thinly disguised manifestation of Kramer), in his attempts to unite and rouse the Gay community to action against AIDS, are lifted from actual events. His efforts fell on the largely deaf ears of both an American establishment that didn’t want to know, and a Gay community that was less terrified of AIDS than it was of being outed, or losing the liberties it had gained up to that point – two stuck wheels not greased by the fact that Weeks/Kramer is, by his own admission, an uncompromising, hot-tempered asshole. 

And Kramer was not afraid to show his ugly side.

The Show, October 22, 2012

Sweeney MacArthur (photo by Riyad Mustapha)

Bloodless
Celebrating a new work, a new company
by Stuart Munro

There are many reasons to celebrate Theatre 20’s new production of Bloodless. First and foremost, I think it is entirely appropriate to cheer on any new theatrical venture, especially one of Theatre 20’s size. The calibre of the assembled artists is truly staggering, and the company’s mandate is smart, lofty, and challenging – all things worth paying attention to. In short, Theatre 20 wants not only to re-imagine existing repertoire, but also showcase new Canadian works (and hopefully resurrect some older forgotten ones . . . do we really need any more productions of Anne of Green Gables?), and always with a focus on story. Some of the country’s best actors will be performing classic musicals we maybe haven’t seen in town for a while (like their upcoming production of Company), and these established shows will, in theory, provide something of a financial groundwork that will let them experiment and produce new homegrown works, giving our Canadian writers a much needed place to showcase their material. It’s a model that, on paper at least, sounds fantastic.

Now, before you go accusing me of praising Bloodless because I admire the company’s mandate, I’d like to admit freely that the show is not perfect. The material doesn’t always find the right blend of macabre and more light-hearted humour, and there’s a patch in Act II that drags on a little. Joseph Aragon’s score is good with a few moments of brilliance. What made the night so vastly enjoyable was the sheer quality of the performances which had been so clearly and carefully honed by director, Adam Brazier, who is a force to be reckoned with – rarely do we get a chance to see a musical on our stages that has been so carefully thought out, and treated so seriously. Too often musicals get thrown away as nothing more than light entertainment. It’s exciting and refreshing to see a company committed to changing that and giving the artform the dignity it deserves.

Read Stuart Munro's complete review of the opening night of Bloodless

The Story: Interview with Matthew Jocelyn, Artistic Director, Canadian Stage

(photo credit: George Pimentel)

The King (of collaboration)

The controversial boss talks about listening to company-members and artists and finding the "juste milieu" in an age of "right-sizing"

by Christian Baines

Since taking the reins as Artistic Director of Canadian Stage in 2009, Toronto-born Matthew Jocelyn has embraced an approach that’s as contemporary and adaptable as it is prudent. He talks to CharPo about a new season, dance theatre, and why there’s no formula for theatre ‘right-sizing.’ 

CHARPO: Canadian Stage has undergone quite a few changes since you took over. How would you describe the company’s place in the Toronto theatre scene now?

JOCELYN: That’s almost more for others to say than for me. Obviously we’re aware of what’s happening in the rest of the city. But there’s only one really large scale house in Toronto for not-for-profit theatre, and that is the Bluma Appel Theatre so we are still, as the company has always been, the major not-for-profit theatre company. I think that where I would distinguish our position today is that we are a resolutely contemporary company, so that we can say that maybe even in the country, we are the largest not-for-profit contemporary theatre company.  I’d include contemporary performing arts company. What we’re also doing now is film theatre, musicals, music and dance. It’s also sort of visual spectacle. So it’s got a mandate about any form that contemporary performing artists or contemporary performing directors are occupied with as the ‘meat’ of their expression for today.

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. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! October 19, 2012

Review: My Name Is Rachel Corrie

Amelia Sargisson (photo credit: Daniel Di Marco)

The Thinnest Ice
Person or symbol?
by Gregory W. Bunker

My Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the activist life and death of a 23-year old, idealistic West Coast American student: Corrie was killed supporting Palestinians after an Israeli bulldozer ran her over. Two years later in 2005, Corrie’s story was translated to stage by Katherine Viner (deputy editor of The Guardian) and Alan Rickman (the Severus Snape of Hogwarts fame, among many other film and theatre roles).

The script draws heavily on Corrie’s journals and correspondence, which makes it both personal and with a clear pro-Palestinian bias—the play has not been without controversy. This production belies its activist intent in some heavy-handed and distracting ways. The interruption of Corrie’s mother’s voice at irregular, unexpected times, for example, seemed jarring and too consciously deliberate as a device to remind the audience of the play’s inspiration. It also seemed altogether unnecessary as the superb Amelia Sargisson so entertainingly demonstrated her ability to imitate and interact with her lonely self, even pretending to be her father at times. (Her re-enactment of an awkward encounter with a high school crush was priceless.) 

The Still, October 18, 2012

We love rehearsal pics, especially when they're as whimsical as this Nathan Kelly photo of Raquel Duffy and Mike Ross preparing for the opening of Soulpepper's Alligator Pie. Mr. Kelly has captured one of those exquisite moments when actors are simply rejoicing in their art.

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, October 17, 2012

Week 5
by Stuart Munro

Dear friends... After what felt like the longest day I’ve had in ages (which is saying something), I can’t tell you what a relief it is to come home, pour myself a glass of Forty Creek, and tune in to my favourite reality TV show (OK. Second favourite after RuPaul’s Drag Race, amiright?), CBC’s Over the Rainbow! Who will we lose this week? Who will shine? Who will blunder? I’m here to answer all these questions for you, and more.

Daryn Jones (who let’s face it, is the object of my affection these days) introduced our six remaining Dorothies as they launched into a high-spirited performance of “Don’t rain on my parade” from Funny Girl (I guess they finally ran out of songs from Oz). The girls sounded huge! I want to suggest there were some off-stage singers, but I think they’ve simply brought out the big guns. All three judges were looking in top form, and we learned that, not only will Andrew Lloyd Webber be back on the panel soon, but the show’s director, Jeremy Sams, is in town this week as well. But no pressure!

In A Word... Joel Greenberg, Artistic Director of Studio 180

Maria Ricossa, Audrey Dwyer and Joel Greenberg rehearsing Clybourne Park (photo credit: Robert Harding)

The Art of Avoiding Panic

Studio 180, and its Artistic Director Joel Greenberg, are everywhere this year. This season, however, they are cementing their already solid reputation in the city with revivals of two of their works. One is the insanely praised The Normal Heart, the other - as part of Mirvish's new season - Clybourne Park.

CHARPO: We understand there is a good story behind getting the rights for the Normal Heart. Care to share it?

GREENBERG: During the 2011 run of our production of The Normal Heart, which was exactly a year ago, we felt that there was more audience eager to see the play. As is so often the case in Toronto (and maybe everywhere?), we couldn’t extend the run because Buddies In Bad Times was already booked. We spoke to the Company about a re-mount for this Fall, and everyone was on board. 

What I thought was a simple phone call to arrange for the performing rights became a five month conversation with the American producers who had successfully brought the play to Broadway in the Spring of 2011. Their production won the Tony award for Best Revival Of A Play, and they planned a National tour during the 2012-13 season. Toronto was on their list of preferred cities. 

They were aware of the success we’d had with Larry Kramer’s masterpiece and they understood our desire to bring it back. The conversations with them were all entirely cordial and open but the producers weren’t prepared to release Toronto. Our company  was kept up-to-date with the ongoing discussions and, at the same time, Studio 180 was looking for other projects as part of the 2012-13 season. I found it was very hard to get excited about replacement choices. Finally, in late March of this year, after I made a call to say that we were really at the point of having to give up any thought of a re-mount, the New York folks released the rights to us.

At the outset, when they withheld the rights, they said that they would know their own plans by the Spring. Hearing that in November felt a long, long time away. Happily for Studio 180, the entire company, save for one actor who was moving out West, was still ready and eager to proceed. As I write this, we have just finished the third day of rehearsals. We have our first audience on October 19 and we run until November 18.

The Vid, October 17, 2012

Le Théâtre Français de Toronto created a series of charming videos for their upcoming season. Here is the vid for Le fourberies de Scapin, opening next week.

After Dark, October 16, 2012

We Need to Talk About The Kids
Out of the mouths of babes...
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

I was having a conversation with a bunch of much-younger-than-me film students, a few years back. We were working together on a movie project and I mentioned that the style we were shooting it resembled what I had heard and read about the shoot for Midnight Cowboy - very guerilla. To a person the group of four looked at me with a blank stare. I was confused. Yes, I realized that guerilla art was a fad of my own youth.

But Midnight Cowboy!! They had never heard of it. I blustered. Midnight Cowboy! I repeated over and over again, like the repetition itself would make this film iconic to them. It gets worse...except for Dustin Hoffman, all the names linked to this film (director John Schlesinger, actor Jon Voigt) meant nothing to them.

This was the moment my attitudes about art changed - I thank the four youngsters for this. I realized, later, that these young people were not a bunch of baboons - they had given me the same look I gave my older sisters and brothers when they talked about Rickie Nelson (pop star and star of the TV show Ozzie and Harriet, and cute - my sisters insisted). The roll of the eyes I gave my elder siblings was exactly that given me on Midnight Cowboy and for the same reason: this is not important...now.

The Show, October 15, 2012

l-r Jeff Miller and Jonathan Wilson (Photo credit: John Karastamatis)

When Larry Kramer came out with his play The Normal Heart in 1985, he was a well-known, Oscar-winning screen-writer (Women In Love) and, in the same way as Truman Capote, a pariah. Many saw his seminal novel, Faggots, as a case of telling tales out of school - exposing the sordid underbelly of the fuckorama that was Gay New York in the 70s. But what no one suspected when the book came out was that Faggots would become what can only be called Journal of a Plague Decade - Part I. For it was precisely the party-hardy madness that Kramer satirizes in Faggots that serves as the backdrop of his AIDS play, The Normal Heart. The Normal Heart (and Kramer) felt it was time to rein in the partying if only to get serious about the epidemic that was killing thousands. If Kramer had been an outcast before, the play only solidified opinion against him. But he persisted with his movement and soon he was equally despised and respected as the raging prophet of AIDS activism. Studio 180 is reviving its much-praised production of The Normal Heart. See it.

The Story: Robert Morgan on 25 years of his The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine

Anger Explored and the Oh-Oh moment
by Robert Morgan

I was thrilled when it became apparent that I was going to create a show with Leah Cherniak and Martha Ross. They were the co-founders of Theatre Columbus and in my books and many others’ they were the brightest bees-knees in the business of theatre-making in Toronto… or anywhere else in the country.

That was about 27 years ago. I was working the bottom rung of the ladder of the biz in schools and church basements touring a one-man show called ‘Morgan’s Journey.’ They saw the play and liked it, in part because of its elements of clown so fundamental to their own work. They also liked the theme we came up with for our proposed new co-creation.

Review: La Cages Aux Folles

Hamilton (l) and Sieber (photo credit: Paul Kohlnik)

La Cage So-So
La Cage Aux Folles is entertaining, if inconsistent
by Stuart Munro

At the end of Act I, when Christopher Sieber as Zaza (Albin) ended his outstanding interpretation of “I Am What I Am,” the audience burst into applause in a way I haven’t heard in a long time, more than a few folks had jumped to their feet, and I had goosebumps up and down my legs. It was a sublime and utterly captivating moment. If only the rest of the act had been of similar calibre.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot about the National Tour of La Cage Aux Folles, currently at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, to enjoy. But too often it feels thin and uninspired, as if everyone is simply going through the motions. Considering the tour is a year old this is not entirely surprising, but it is a bit disappointing.

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. 

Review: Bloodless

Jeff Irving (photo credit: Riyad Mustapha)

Brimming With Potential
Theatre 20 bursts onto the Toronto stage with a Tour de Force
by Stuart Munro

When Theatre 20 announced they would be opening their inaugural season with a Canadian musical I had never heard of, I admit I was perplexed. It seemed an awful risk to launch a company with such untested material. But at the same time I was forced to ask: what was it about this musical that convinced Artistic Director, Adam Brazier, to take a chance on an unknown property? Thursday night gave me, and Toronto, an answer to this question. A harrowing story told with passion and conviction, crafted by a director unafraid to take risks, have made for a difficult and challenging, but ultimately rewarding and extraordinary night at the theatre.

CharPo's Real Theatre! October 12, 2012

Whiskey-a-Rainbow, October 11, 2012

Week 4
by Stuart Munro

Hello again, friends. It’s time once more to travel with me to Oz as we watch seven talented young ladies duke it out for the chance to play Dorothy! This holiday weekend’s episode opened with “If I only had the part,” a clever little play on “If I only had a heart” from the Wizard of Oz. (As a side note, CBC’s on line video player makes it extremely difficult to watch the episodes sometimes, often forcing me to reload the page two or three times an episode . . .). Daryn Jones was chipper and dapper as always, and the panel of judges also looked particularly stunning. Tom Allison, apparently, is starring in Jones’s dreams, whether Tom likes it or not! And in response to some questions from viewers, Arlene Phillips explained that the girls are singing pop songs because some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new music for the show is more pop inspired, and Dorothy needs to have a bit of today’s attitude to pull them off.

In order to kill time (now that there are fewer girls), each girl is now getting a little montage where all the other girls talk about how wonderful their new friends are. It’s all a bit saccharine for my tastes. . . . Cassandra opened the show with confidence and verve. Singing “Mercy,” she was able to show off her movement abilities and, again, made it clear that her strong voice and personality are forces to be reckoned with. She seemed to tire physically and vocally pretty quickly though, and her back-up dancers stole a bit of focus. And please, Cassandra, take off the glasses! Arlene thought she dug deep into the soul of the song, but Tom and Louise both worried that she wasn’t digging deep enough. Jennifer followed with a pitchy and uninspired version of “Crazy little thing called love,” though I put some of the blame on the absurd diner scenario they placed her in. Still, this wound up being one of the weakest performances of the night for me. Tom, Louise, and Arlene all felt the pitch problems wouldn’t be so noticeable if her acting was stronger, but sadly that’s not the case.