Finster Finds

Okay, so I am back home and I am tired already. This is not the fault of the trip itself, but rather the return to laundry, messy kitchen, laundry, tight schedule, writing a paper (at midnight), doing payroll (at 11 p.m.), having to get up to hand the paper in, kids fighting (they were up late, too) and having lines to learn. I would love to come home to a kitchen as clean as the one I left (or cleaner, that would be awesome) but I don't think that will ever happen. I would love to not have all the laundry to deal with. Maybe some day. I did have a great time in Toronto. It started off quite fast paced with lunch, a movie, dinner and a pub on Saturday. Then dim sum, a play, and dinner on the Sunday. We slowed down for Monday and Tuesday and fit in a mani and pedi and another movie but mostly visiting. That's what it was really for. I did want to get to a play and managed to get to the Tarragon for Daniel McIvor's new work, Communion , a great 3-hander for women of ...

A couple of weeks ago I got this message from a friend saying a company was looking for a 40+ actress to play an 'aging starlet', singing skills preferred but not essential, for a show to start rehearsing in the latter half of March and which goes up mid-April. If the dates worked, I thought I could squeeze it in, and they did (bizarrely so). Last night was the first rehearsal (we had the read-through last weekend) and it was so much fun. It's right up my alley - lots of different voices (we had a bit of discussion as to which ones) and silliness and the cast and director are so much fun to work with. It is called On the Wire and will go up in April at the Selkirk Hotel (well, down the street - they eat supper first and then come down) and only runs three nights. Lots of fun! I am thinking I will have a good time with this one!

I heard an interesting segment on CBC Radio the other day about Echo Chambers on the Internet. They were not talking about the physical echo chambers that you can stand in and hear yourself, but rather a media/issue echo chamber. These phenomenon exist outside the Internet as well, and basically they work in that people tend to surround themselves with like-minded people so that they hear they things they believe in echoed back to them by everyone else. It was nice to have a name for what I see happening around me in a lot of situations (both situations to the left and to the right). It is easy to believe that you are right when everyone around you agrees with you and it can even amplify your belief because the echoing builds on it. I think it is where a lot of people go wrong. Instead of questioning what they believe (like good scientists do), they find confirmations of their beliefs which put them even further out of touch with anyone outside the circle. We need to challenge, ...

Even though I enjoyed the discussions about Arts Funding in Canada, I am glad that this week is over. It has been emotionally exhausting. I definitely felt an agenda to the discussions and if anything it made me really delve into the statistics (Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Edmonton Arts Council). If I am going to talk about these things, I want to be able to talk about them with some facts and understanding of the whole funding situation in Canada. We were getting the correct information about average income and percentage of the national budget for the arts, but the tone was suggesting that those amount were low and something to complain about. My feeling was that the numbers were actually pretty good. I think the size of the pie is pretty healthy - 4% of the national budget (which did not account for Provincial and Municipal grants) for an industry that employs about 3.9% of the working population. What struck me was that between 1971 ...

I am doing very well in the course (yay!). So far of the three assignments I have written and gotten back I am quite satisfied with my marks! Yesterday I wrote my next assignment on "Funding for the Arts in Canada". On Monday we talked about different sides to the argument (for and against) and we basically can write about anything on or related to that list. I wrote about Sarah Polley and the whole Becel/Heart and Stroke Foundation Film thing that happened just prior to the Oscars. I think that while it is noble and all that to not associate with a product (selling out, ahem), it is a much different thing for someone who is independently wealthy than for someone who might need those corporate funds to pay their bills. So in some ways I think it is irresponsible for Ms. Polley to make this grand stand on the issue. I also wonder why she did not know where the money was coming from ahead of time... Perhaps she did and this was a way for her to make her film and make a s...

Yesterday was quite busy for me and this past week, in general, I have spent arranging meetings and planning and recording rehearsals for the various projects I have coming up. I have two current projects on-the-go. The first being the Directing/Dramaturgy of Uncle Robert's Funeral which will be read at From Cradle to Stage in May at Walterdale. It is a nice project, which does not require a ton of time on my part at this point in time because the playwright is currently working on re-writes. We had a few reads and discussion and she went away to rewrite and we come back together on next Sunday to do the same with the next draft. The other project is the one that kind of fell into my lap. A friend passed a long a message that a group was looking for a 40+ actress to play an 'aging starlet' for a play being produced at the Selkirk Hotel in Fort Edmonton Park. The dates looked good considering my other obligations and it was to be a paid gig (how cool would that be?) so I s...

I like my Canadian Drama class. I have to admit, that we mostly just talk and I wish we were in a smaller room because of the format of the course, but we always seem to have interesting discussions. I think we could have studied 2-3 more scripts in the time, but we have gotten to cover quite a few and that has been good. Next week we talk about Arts Funding in Canada and I am excited about that. Today (and this week in general) we talked about Michael Healey and his play Courageous (and a little about The Drawer Boy ). I recommend Courageous to anyone. It's at the Citadel until Sunday. I am glad to have read The Drawer Boy. I had heard it was good and man-oh-man was it ever. I have put it on my list of shows I would like to direct some day. I now have acquired the rights for 3 of the 4 shows in the season next year that require them. Not bad for one week. I am waiting on the 4th, which is unfortunately the first show of the season. I don't anticipate any problems as...

The other day was International Women's Day but statistics released indicated that women still make significantly less than their male counterparts. I am happy to say that although the jobs I get people to do are not compensated financially, I still look for the best person for the job regardless of their being male or female. This season, 4/7 of my Directors were female. I didn't really think about that when I was getting people in place. I am happy that it was more about the right person for the job. Next season, I have 5/6 being female. I am waiting to hear back on one position. I think it speaks to the fact that the best person for the job is not necessarily female or male. If you look at the submissions, the submitters were over-whelming female. The first season I think there were only 5 male submitters out of around 20 so that certainly impacted the selection. I don't know if it happens as often in the paying theatre. Sure there is Marianne Copithorne, but I...

I didn't realize how hard I had been working until last night when I was watching the Oscars at AM's house. It was so nice to just sit and laugh and watch and eat and not think about the stuff to do. I have a few days this month where I should be able to do more of this, including a trip to Toronto at the end of the month, but then Whorehouse will start up and I will be on the ride again! The thing is, it doesn't really stop even if I am not directing involved in a show, because as AD there are other things I am always working on - the next thing on the list - things with the current show - getting rights - reading scripts - planning calendars - checking in with directors -answering questions from members at the theatre - answering questions from other theatres - responding to emails - board meetings - writing reference letters - writing thank you letters - writing other letters - coordinating auditions - attending auditions - seeing shows - the list goes on. Add to that th...

I have a issues that is bothering me and I have written 3 Blog posts and not posted them because I realized I wasn't really sure if I wanted to 'air the dirty laundry' that way. So it may seem that I haven't posted for a while. There's a lot that has happened since the last posted post. I now have my 2010-2011 Season approved and I am working on the rights. I am very early compared to last year and because I have been through it all once before and I was determined to feel ahead of the game. It should feel better for the rest of the season too because I know what has to happen with media and feel better about understanding that process and what I should expect. Last year that whole process was so new to me that I didn't really know what to expect. This year I expect more and I think we have a system/plan in place to get that. The whole Season thing is agonizing. I don't think people realize that. It is like casting a show but on a grander scale. You know t...