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?

CharPo's Real Theatre! September 7, 2012

The Still, September 6, 2012

A warrior goddess from Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna, landing here this week.

The Vid, September 5, 2012

The funny/sexy (the two go hand in had...so to speak) Pomme is French for Apple, returning for one night only after a hugely successful run at the Fringe. 

(Read our - rave - review)

BREAKING NEWS: Factory announces interim artistic team

Press release (received 4:45 PM, September 4, 2012):

Factory Theatre announces Interim Artistic Team
and play development activities for 2012-13 Season
Nina Lee Aquino and Nigel Shawn Williams

Toronto, ON - Tuesday, September 4, 2012 – Ron Struys, President of the Factory Board of Directors, and Managing Director Sara Meurling announced today that Factory Theatre Associate Artists Nina Lee Aquino and Nigel Shawn Williams will be taking on the role of Interim Artistic Team to take the lead on programming and artistic operations at the company.

After Dark, September 4, 2012

The Tribes
There are lessons we must learn from politics
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Today Quebeckers vote. It has been a rancorous and unpleasant campaign and I'm glad to be rid of it (though suspect by midnight we will have a minority government and be heading back to the fucking polls in no time).

I've heard all the hyperbole I can handle. It didn't come close to the scum thrown in the US, but it did approach it. Because of the confluence of the student uprising and the burgeoning strength of the sovereignist Parti Québécois we were treated to ugly epithets hurled on one side and another not just on Facebook and Twitter - bad enough - but in editorials too. One idiot editorial in anglo Montreal trotted out "fascist" to describe the PQ leader's aspirations. When you've heard that one thrown at the Liberals for nine months, it becomes meaningless.

US politics are uglier than ever. But that seems to be a refrain we repeat every election.

The Show, September 3, 2012

Nancy Palk (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is not only a play, it is a monument: a brilliant model of everything that works in modern theatre. It treats time as it wants. It tells a compelling story. It uses an average man like the Greeks used heroes - showing them as victims of destiny. It strikes universal themes: love and betrayal, sons and fathers, family. 

But make no mistake: as the work's title suggests, it is first and foremost about a small man in a downward spiral. From its opening lyrical moments to its inevitable close, you see Willy Loman as already drowning and it is merely a question of how many of his loved ones - his sons or wife - he will pull down with him. Men, especially, will tell you how they are always brutalized by the troubled relationship Willy has with his boys but Salesman is also a great love story and Linda Loman one of the most convincingly written female characters of the last century. As much as Willy is actor-bait, Linda is one of the great roles, reminding one of the many great women of theatre who saw their husbands' flaws even as they loyally defended them. (Inge's Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba springs immediately to mind.)

The tragedy of everyone in Salesman - particularly apt in this age of big business spinning all of our lives out of control - is their smallness. And in the final words of Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, through Linda, rescues us all from that tragedy. We will not give those words away because if you have never experienced this work, do...now.

The Story: First-Person - Mitchell Marcus on Acting Up Stage's season

The Magnificent Arlene Duncan with Michael Levine in the company's highly praised and rewarded Caroline, or Change of last season. Now on to the next season. 

The Journey of a Year
An Artistic Director reveals the ideas behind planning a season
by Mitchell Marcus

Programming a theatre company's season is a complicated job. Most people assume (and in many ways correctly) that it’s the most enjoyable task for an Artistic Director, as he or she gets to delve into possibilities and extract a comprehensive slate of exciting stories to tell onstage. However, creating a season can also be challenging and demanding. How do you balance building on past success while avoiding predictability? How do you find the right mix of programming that strengthens connections with audiences, artists, granting bodies and sponsors? And then, how do you tie this all together in a neat, digestible package? 

At Acting Up Stage Company, we were blessed with a 2011-2012 season where all of the elements magically came together. All of our public presentations (Ride The Cyclone, Caroline, or Change and The Long and Winding Road) received critical and audience acclaim, and we had the good fortune of selling out each production and garnering some wonderful accolades during award season. Where do we go from here? Topping our 2011-2012 year at first seemed an impossible task. But I started where I assume most Artistic Directors must: I began to revisit pieces which had affected me; I attended performances which had received good word of mouth; and, I began to daydream about initiatives which could complement a season's worth of shows. Throughout all this, I tried to determine, as I always do, a driving theme or agenda to unite our 2012-2013 slate. 

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.” 

CharPo's Real Theatre! August 31, 2012

The Still, August 30, 2012

No Great Mischief, by David S. Young with, l, RH Thomson and David Fox.

Joy von Tiedemann's image, with its use of light (both theatre and accessory), negative space and profile is simply brilliant.

The Vid, August 29, 2012

And here comes Proud! 

Open Letter to The Factory Board from Atom Egoyan et al.

[The Charlebois Post has been given permission to publish this letter which has appeared elsewhere. Signatories are: Atom Egoyan, Martha Henry, Annie Kidder, Seana McKenna, Michael Ondaatje, Eric Peterson, Gordon Pinsent, Fiona Reid, Richard Rose, R.H. Thompson, David Young. We republish this here to further the conversation which has continued over the last months. Some formatting has been changed from the original .pdf version]

See other articles about the crisis at Factory Theatre.

The letter:

After Dark, August 28, 2012

Outside the (Poor) Box
Reflections on money in a penniless world
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

If you're on Facebook or Twitter you have been seeing two trends: projects - especially theatre projects - crowd-sourcing funding for shows; a backlash against professionals - actors, journalists, musicians - working for nothing except the joy of working, experience and exposure.

These two trends interest me profoundly. As we, at CharPo, have said - out loud and constantly - we pay nothing to our writers (nor do editors, nor publishers, receive any payment). Crowd-sourcing money has been considered so that we can at least offer honorariums.

However, what is happening out there is sometimes exciting to us, and sometimes discouraging. Whereas, as little as a year ago, crowd-sourcing funds was a fascinating idea, we now see a lot of projects who go the Indiegogo route (to name one fund-raising organization) failing to raise even close to what they were aiming at. Some of these companies are solid, even magnificent, organizations. They cannot - for a variety of reasons - get government funding or when they do it's a pittance. Right now, without much research, I know at least four theatre organizations crowd-sourcing money and having a bitch of a time of it.

The Show, August 27, 2012

Neil Labute was not your average Mormon. He's not even your average ex-Mormon. He is a writer who takes your hand, leads you into the forest, and then lets go. He's done it over and over again with his plays - many of which have been adapted to cinema. (In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, reasons to be pretty.) As a playwright, he's not a nice guy. He strips flesh from his characters and his audiences walk out dazed and haunted. (What makes it all worse is that, quite often, the audience has laughed during the torture!)

In a Dark, Dark House - continuing this week at the tiny Unit 102 Theatre - carries on the Labute tradition. Two brothers may or may not have lived through sexual abuse by a friend. This is simply a premise for a flood of recriminations and anger between the two - one of whom has been incarcerated in a psychiatric facility for observation and hopes his brother's memories of the abuse will free him.