Finster Finds

The next few weeks offers up a lot of choices for the Edmonton Theatre goer. If you can't find something to see in February that you want to see then I think you'd have to literally be a rock. I have plans to go to at least 4 shows in the next few weeks and there are others that I would love to catch if I can squeeze it in. First up - I will be seeing the show I directed for New Works and the other shows that are playing in the Festival. New Works is an annual theatre festival at the University of Alberta where University of Alberta student can submit and if selected have their work dramaturged and produced. For the most part the teams on the show are all current students or staff of the university. There are occasionally exceptions when a particular skill set is required, but usually an alumni is located to step in. There are 6 shows - 2 nights with 3 shows each night. It is a great opportunity to see new work by the next generation of Edmonton theatre artists. I have...

Waiting For Godot Wishbone Theatre Feb 2-11th - Westbury Theatre (FTA) http://fringetheatreadventures.ca/arts_at_the_barns.php#waiting

I scored a date for The Ladies Who Lynch at Canoe Festival this evening. It was a mix of hysterical and terrifying and overall meant for a good theatrical adventure. Some things worked better than others for me. I was very impressed with Candace Berlinguette as Judith and Nadien Chu as Maureen and the other two ladies on stage held their own. Hard to know if it is the characters as written that are more compelling or the actors playing them. In any case, there weren't any weak links in that regard. It was also the right choice of a play to see to connect to the work I am doing in my Drama 409 class. I spent the last two days researching Split Britches, a Lesbian-Feminist theatre company out of New York, and although this was not a Feminist-Lesbian piece, it did challenge certain societal and cultural expectations. It was also post modern in that it did not track as 'real' and the arc was not traditional. Even off the top there was a self-awareness that underscored the piec...

Last night Walterdale held it's Donor Voted Show event, a great event for socializing, supporting the theatre and for getting to have a say in picking one of the shows for next season. As Treasurer I had a couple of duties: taking donations (it was a nicely supported event!) and counting the votes. I was a bit surprised and delighted that The Weir by Conor McPherson was selected. Surprised, because I really thought Dracula was going to win based on the in-house support, and Delighted, because I wanted it to win. I would have been happy with any of the three choices as I think anything that gets the audience more engaged with the theatre is a good thing and there was definitely engagement last night. As well, the vote was close so who is to say that Dracula can't be submitted another year with just as much interest? Tonight I am hoping to catch The Ladies who Lynch at the Canoe Festival (it all depends on whether I stop writing this blog and get my homework done...). I missed ...

I spent this last week re-acclimatizing to University and sorting out exactly what I would be taking. I decided that I would stick to Drama 409 (Contemporary Theatre) and dropped Drama 240 (Oral Communication and Interpretation). I quite liked 240, but could quickly see that 409 was going to take a lot of time for homework and the steepness of the learning curve as we dived into Phillip Glass and Hamletmachine and the like was going to require I scale back. After two classes my brain is hurting (a good thing) and I am excited about what the course will bring. I feel like this exploration into contemporary and post-modern theatre will enrich my play writing as it might encourage me to play with structure and language. I know that I am fairly traditional in my writing, but I am excited to push myself. I also got back into rehearsals of Playmates for New Works. We did a bit of exploration and text work before the break and Bevin came back with a tighter and even more effective scr...

On Saturday, Mark and I attended the Broadway Across Canada production of Beauty and the Beast at the Jube. We have season's tickets and we go with our good friends, Richie and Veronica, so we get to see some musical theatre and connect with our friends at least 3 times a year. I had seen 2 other productions of Beauty & the Beast previously and Mark had seen one other (not the same ones though) and we have probably seen the Disney cartoon over 25 times so we were travelling in familiar territory. I quite liked it. It was better than the 2 productions I have seen (one a community production and the other and hybrid semi-pro production) and finally I saw a production that did proper service to Be Our Guest . I felt the ending hit the right emotional notes and I even got a little teary-eyed. I did feel that there were a couple performers who would not have careers if it weren't for the technological support of the microphones just because their voices lacked real power, but ...

A New Year - 2012 So, first of all, I will work on my weight and fitness . My extended family has a group of us working on this in 10 week chunks. We check in via email and we did one leading up to New Years. I did okay - losing 10.3 lbs and then gaining a bit of that back over Christmas (sigh). I am down 8 lbs from that starting point. I like the 10 week chunks of time and plan to make 10 lbs per 10 weeks my goal. I like the 10 weeks because it means I can 're-new' my plan every ten weeks and not let it get lost in the busy of my life. I do find that I do much worse when I have the kids home so hopefully when they go back to school on Monday I can get back on track. Recovering from Christmas et al has been a challenge. Second is my theatrical goal. I plan on seeing a minimum of 40 theatre or arts events this year. I actually think that is lower than what I want, but manageable. I have never kept track before so I may find that after this year I will up that total! The way I se...

I spent a little time thinking back to the past year and the theatre I saw and what stood out for me as wonderful moments of theatre in Edmonton. I figured if they resonated with me for so long than they were worth noting. That is not to say there weren't other wonderful moments, these are just those that 'popped' for me in retrospect... I tweeted them one by one and thought I would collate them here for the blog. In no particular order * Festus (Chris Bullough), Andrew Aguecheek (John Kirkpatrick) & Sir Toby Belch (John Wright) 'partying' in Twelfth Night - Freewill Players - I have special fondness for the Andrew Aguecheek dance which made tears roll down my cheeks! * Holding my breath through the entire hour of (Real) Gone (Girl) at The Edmonton International Fringe 2011. This despite having woman have a seizure right behind me. I so wished I had the luxury of time so that I could go and see this show more than once. * Boygroove produced by Impulse Theatre...