The Show

Ava Jane Markus (photo credit: Josie Di Luzio)

We've seen it twice, two different reviewers, both wise, wise people. Terminus seduces, troubles, delights. Of the piece, during SummerWorks, Christian Baines wrote, "This was my second outing with Terminus, and though envious of those around me, who were experiencing the tale for the first time, I enjoyed seeing director Mitchell Cushman’s unique take on it – particularly its unusual and suitably confronting stage configuration...The Canadian debut of this Abbey Theatre gem is surely one of SummerWorks 2012’s standout sleepers. Dark, intimate and truly unique, it’s not to be missed." Then for the remount for Mirvish's brilliant new series of small productions, Jason Booker added, "this otherworldly show must be experienced." Need we say more? (See all of Christian Baines' review) (See all of Jason Booker's review)

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.

The Story: First-person: Wendy Nielsen on the COC Ensemble Studio

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio: Then, But Especially Now

by Wendy Nielsen

Next week, the Canadian Opera Company will hold its second annual competition to see which young singers will be invited to join the COC’s prestigious Ensemble Studio training program for young opera professionals. It may well be history in the making.

In that historical light, I challenge you to think of Ben Heppner in any grassy shade of green. The same goes for Isabel Bayrakdarian, John Fanning, Joseph Kaiser, Gaetan Laperriere, Allyson McHardy, Jessica Muirhead, Gidon Saks, Janet Stubbs, and an all-star cast as wide as the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts’ main stage. Before they ‘arrived’ they all shared one monumental step along the way. They were all members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio program, an elite collection of extraordinarily talented young singers with futures in the big house.

It’s a story not unlike that fabled tale of young Canadian comics honing their skills at Toronto’s Second City. You’ve likely heard the Second City stories before, but what do you know about the Canadian Opera Company’s young artist program, the Ensemble Studio?

Review: Terminus

Maev Beaty (photo credit: Josie Di Luzio)

Apparitions at the Royal Alex
by Jason Booker

Outside the March’s production of Terminus transforms into a ghost story told round the campfire.  Staged with the audience seated on the deck of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the show is a wall of text that awakens and arouses audience members, entertaining them with gruesome characters, unnerving plotting and insinuating imagery. 

With a strong concept from director Mitchell Cushman, Terminus is expertly staged and wonderfully unique.  Cushman takes up the challenge of Mark O’Rowe’s script, maintaining that storytelling comes first, though this tale is anything but family-friendly.  Audience members are pelted with crude but real language and situations that are fanciful but graphic, like the one involving entrails.  The unflinching dialogue, written in a rap prose that rhymes but isn’t precise or metered, slams into the audience’s ear, particularly because of the Irish accents the actors acquire for the show.  There are moments when the barrage of language is almost more pleasant to hear than the specific words – these rhythms are so lyrical yet tricky to deliver and ultimately profound.  The art isn’t always the tale being told (so often the case with ghost stories) but in the method of delivery – and this one is a hit.

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?’”

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 23, 2012

The Still, November 22, 2012

Lordie! we like black and white photography to promote theatre especially for a play that has nothing black or white about it - the very nebulous Oleanna. Richard Burdett created this stunning - almost journalistic - shot using focus, negative space and some tinkering. The two characters (played by Jacqui Skeete and James R. Wood) seem to be floating in a void, with the blackness (slightly left of centre) offering utter separation even as Skeete's face suggests something quite different.

(Read out review)

In a Word...Ambur Braid

From what I've experienced, the key is to do your job consistently well, to be very reliable and to be relentless.

Soprano Ambur Braid is quickly establishing herself as a rising young artist in dramatic coloratura soprano roles that encompass Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Massenet’s Esclarmonde, Handel’s Semele, and Mozart’s Queen of the Night. In her final season as a member of the ensemble at the Canadian Opera Company, Ms. Braid was seen in Christopher Alden’s new production of Die Fledermaus as Adele and will perform the role of Vitellia in the Ensemble Studio performance of La clemenza di Tito. Additionally in the 2012-2013 season, she sings the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Atelier. She recently sang the Queen of the Night in the Ensemble Studio performance of Die Zauberflöte to great acclaim causing the National Post to praise her turning a “stock figurine into a scary, knife-wielding matriarch.” Other recent appearances with the Canadian Opera Company include Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, The Greek Woman in Iphigénie en Tauride, and the Danish Lady in Death in Venice. Previous operatic credits include Diane in Iphigénie en Tauride with Opera Atelier; Konstanze in Die entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Queen of the Night in die Zauberflote, Princess/Fire in L’enfant et les sortileges with the San Francisco Conservatory; and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The Glenn Gould School. Her awards include the East Bay Opera Competition, San Francisco Conservatory Concerto Competition, and Palm Beach Opera Competition. (Source: amburbraid.com)

CHARPO:  You made a deep impression in AtG's "Villains" pastiche in a minuscule venue and again in the mega production of Fledermaus more recently at COC. Could you compare the two experiences?

BRAID: Well, I do love playing the villainess... Joel Ivany has done a wonderful thing with AtG by bringing incredible music out of the opera house and into less austere venues - with beer! The environment is much more casual, which lends to more interaction with the audience and more improvisation.  Joel is a very creative director and working with him is always a lot of fun. The "Villains" night was in an antique furniture store and we only rehearsed twice for that show, but all 3 of my pieces were solos and he just told me to do whatever I needed to do to be frightening. And so I performed the aria from Esclarmonde as a drunk witch. The two queen of the night arias were done pretty normally, in a corset and stilettos, respectively. I also sat on a few audience members laps and canoodled them with my coloratura. It was fun! 

Die Fledermaus was certainly a mega production. We rehearsed for many weeks and were really able to form our characters over a long rehearsal period, with a director who is so knowledgeable, and so prepared.  My Adele ended up being a bit more Lulu than the typical Adele because we really dug down into the dark truth of the piece. Christopher Alden and the designers did an incredible job with this production - it was unlike any Fledermaus done before and I am so thrilled to have been a part of it. 

The Vid, November 21, 2012

The trailer for Soulpepper's Alligator Pie which our Stuart Munro called "pure unadulterated joy"

After Dark, November 20, 2012

On The Eating of One's Own Head

Can critics' dislikes and the internet be creating precisely what theatre needs?

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

This week Andrew Dickson, one of The Guardian's many very able theatre critics, tweeted thusly: 

"Invitation arrives for Kiss Me, Kate, dir by Trevor Nunn. No, no, thanks awfully, very kind, really don't think so #wouldrathereatmyownhead"

I laughed out loud because I knew what he was talking about. There are productions I get invited to that I would rather eat my own head than spend an evening seeing let alone reviewing. Kiss Me, Kate would be in my top ten for sure, along with Annie (and a lot of musicals), anything by Ionesco, a lot of Albee, mime, a lot of Greek theatre, tons of Shakespeare, most French opera...need I go on?

The fact is, we all have tastes. My uncle loves opera but when I told him I had seen the Ring at Covent Garden he said, "Better you than me." He is, says he, "Saving Wagner for my old age." He's 75.

The Show, November 19, 2012

Matty Burns and Ruth Goodwin in Tagged and It's Complicated

It can't be called a renaissance because...well...there never was really naissance (unless you count the collective creations of the 70s and 80s with their tunes), but - damn! - there seem to be made-in-Canada musicals a little everywhere. And they're working. We think that is so because smart theatre people - learning from the Fringe model - are scaling down and, in the process, creating an intimate show that speaks (sings) quite directly to audiences that are smaller, hipper and - let's say it - younger. That is the case with the cross-country and still-touring hit Ride the Cyclone. Coming soon to the city, as well, is Do You Want What I Have Got - A Craiglist Cantata. Continuing on the theme of souls joined in virtual worlds is yet another new work by Matty Burns and Ben Wright. Tagged and It's Complicated opens this week and the company has let just enough of its content loose to suggest this might be another little charmer. (See also: Matty Burns on the journey of the piece; a video from a studio session for one of the songs from the show.)

The Story: Interview with Esther Vallins on Half-Pint Theatre

Halfpint go BOOM!
by Cassie Muise

Esther Vallins is a born and raised Torontonian trained extensively all over Canada, including Randolph Academy and The Banff Centre. Her company, Half-Pint's first show, 'tick, tick... BOOM!' opened to excellent critical claim, and is now nominated alongside the likes of Stratford and Shaw for nine BroadwayWorld Awards. One of those nominations includes one for Vallins as Best Leading Actress in the production. (source: company website)

CHARPO:  Why start a new company?

VALLINS: One of the most valuable things I've learned being in the industry, is if the work is not there, create the work yourself. So that's just what I, and the ladies of Half-Pint Theatre did. As recent graduates of three different theatre schools, all of us found ourselves striving to succeed and get recognition, in a very competitive, tight community. We want to create the work not just for ourselves, but also for new artists who find themselves in a similar position to us. We're also all just so passionate about our wonderful city. Toronto has so much amazing talent, and there needs to be more companies showcasing what this town has to offer!

Review: Oleanna

Mamet’s People, Mamet’s Problem

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

David Mamet’s writing can often feel like a kind of theatrical assault, with a broad sweep of ideas and points of view conveyed in dialogue that is not just perpetually active, but often heavy on colloquialism and peculiarity. Oleanna, his two-handed power play, is no exception, pitting a young student’s seemingly self-righteous political correctness against her teacher, whose sense of old world familiarity seems to mask much darker impulses. 

It’s a tough piece for Jaybird Productions to choose for their debut. For one, when you take on Mamet, you take on Mamet’s clipped dialogue. There’s nary a finished line in the play’s opening, making it difficult for actors James R. Woods and Jacqui Skeete to build momentum, as a tense, yet seemingly benign meeting between teacher and student takes a much more sinister tone. Could the actors and director Jaqui Burke put a few more layers into the exchange to carry it through? Perhaps. But is there something lacking in the play itself?

Review: Tales Of...

The Story Hour
Tales Of: Firsts
by Christopher Douglas

Dry and warm from the cold rains of Monday night, the charming Rustic Owl hosted the first of a new monthly storytelling series. The evening's theme was Tales of: Firsts - a witty way to launch.  

The quaint environs welcomed a small but friendly crowd to hear six storytellers share their experiences. 

Starting the evening was comedian Marco Bernardi regaling the audience with his tale of growing up and coming out in a small city, and writer/comic Paul Bellini's first funeral. Not Paul's funeral but the first he would attend... for his Italian grandfather... on Paul's 14th birthday... as Paul stared at the shirtless summer-student gravediggers.

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.