New Works at the U of A and a Double Serving of Craigslist at the Citadel Theatre!

Tonight I returned to my old stomping grounds of the University of Alberta to see one of the two nights of The New Works Festival.  I am sad I won't be able to see both nights, but there are only so many available days in my calendar right now. I am always interested in seeing new work and I think it is fabulous that the University of Alberta has this festival.  Each year, since 2000, they have produced 6 new works by University students, providing opportunities for dramaturgy and direction.  I am sure for many it is only one stop in the development of their plays, but it is also an important one.  I have both had a script in as a playwright (Tight Rope) and have directed (The Playmates) and found the experiences to be extremely rewarding.  Tonight I saw The Comedian, Solitaire and All That's Left.  These were three very different shows in various stages of development, and the evening had many laughs and many moments of tension. I connected most to Solitaire, by Sophie Gareau-Brennan. It was so lovely and the language was very elegant and essential.  No wasted words and repetition was deliberate and served a purpose.  It was also directed beautifully with some wonderful choreography.  It was a lovely poem about how we are sometimes alone even though the world is crowded. There is only one more day of New Works and you can catch all the shows if you hit both the matinee and evening performances tomorrow.

Solitaire reminded me a lot of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata which is currently playing at the Citadel.  I got to see it twice this week.  Both pieces make observations about human connection in today's modern age. Craigslist was very funny, but also kind of sad.  I wasn't sure what to expect - a musical based on Craigslist ads?  What's that going to be like?  It's not a traditional musical, but rather a Song Cycle.  The songs are based on and include actual text from Craigslist ads.  The oddities of what some people are looking for or looking to sell are truly comical, but there is also an underlying theme of seeking connection.  It made me think of my FB and Twitter feeds.  There are people who I think are lonely based on what they post and some of the posts are like breadcrumbs hoping to lead people to them to make a connection.  Some are more like blaring announcements about what they are doing and who they are, as those each post is a confirmation of how much they count.  Craigslist shows the people at the ends of the messages.  The real, human people who are just seeking a connection but who don't know how to make them without help.  The music is catchy, yet complicated, the actors are all up to the task.  There's some phenomenal singing.  I hope to get back to see it again. A Craigslist Cantata runs until February 23rd.  It's in The Club, so seating is limited.  I would advise buying tickets sooner, rather than later. 

One Small Step for Theatrekind...

This week the New Works Festival opened at the University of Alberta. I was fortunate to be able to direct one of the pieces which is being presented. I attend the University of Alberta as a Special Student in the Department of Drama and have been doing so for the past four years. I had a show in New Works 2 years ago as a Playwright (Tight Rope) but the completion of my ADship at Walterdale had allowed me to free up a lot of my time so I applied to direct. I was accepted and overjoyed to find out that I would be directing Bevin Dooley's script, The Playmates. It has been a wonderful experience. I loved working with Bevin and the Production Team as well as the Festival Team. So just for experience I have been blessed. I am also very pleased with the show itself - the script, the cast, my crew, the designers - truly wonderful people to work with.

The Festival opened Tuesday Night. I had to wait for Mark to get home so I missed the first piece, a Staged Reading of Fire in their Eyes by Ben Dextraze and directed by MFA Candidate Jessica Carmichael. I hope to catch it later in the Festival. One of my cast members saw it and said she quite liked it. New Works is about development of work and apparently this piece will change throughout the festival as they are treating the festival as a workshop so that might be one to catch on more than one night to get the sense of development of a piece. I know before I started writing I would think of plays being unmalleable once produced, but I have learned that not to be true. The work is not frozen in Amber. A piece can evolve and have more than one incarnation as the playwright crafts it. This has been observable for me with the staged reading on Night B: Murmurations of Starlings by Evan Tsitsias, directed by MFA candidate Donna Marie Baratta. As part of the festival tech week I sat through tech and dress rehearsals and Opening Night and the evolution of the piece in those three days has been incredible. It is really very cool to watch a play evolve from one draft to the next, to the next. Whereas the non-reading plays are basically set for the duration of the festival - these readings are still evolving and it is pretty cool to see. You can only imagine what the script will grow into as the playwright continues with the writing process.

Following the reading on Night A were Sitter and Felix and Max. The two shows I got to see were quite enjoyable. The first a comedic juxtaposition of two different couples in an unusual situation. The writing was natural and funny with smooth direction. The second dynamic, funny and full of tension with an almost absurd ending. On Night B, just before us, is Laundry Cycle - a fast paced comedy which I absolutely loved. As part of my directorial application involved reading the four produced scripts it was very cool to see what the other directors did with them, as well as see how the script evolved. Since the process is about developing work all four scripts changed from the original submissions. I was really impressed with what their assigned directors did with the pieces and how they used the space. We all share the same set and yet each one of us uses it so differently. It becomes a house, a 2-story apartment, 2 apartments, and a rocky coastline and it works beautifully for all of them. I think the Festival Directors did a great job matching directors to plays because each of the other directors seemed to make choices that totally worked for the scripts they were working with.

Anyhow, I gush. Hard not to when you are in the midst of things and really enjoying the experience. I do, however, highly recommend checking out one or both nights of this Festival. For $10 you can see 3 brand new plays written by future Daniel MacIvors or Judith Thompsons. If you can't make both nights or even a whole night, I highly recommend you check out The Playmates, which goes up on Night B (Fri 9:45 p.m., Sat 4:15 p.m., Sun 9:45 p.m.). I am quite proud of it and would love if you came and checked it out.

http://www.facebook.com/events/255274744545973/

#4 and #5 of my theatre goals for the year.

A Plethora of Theatre Options...

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 directed Bevin Dooley's work, The Playmates which features Katie Orsten, Kabriel Lilly and Jordan Sabo. We open (night B) on February 8th at 7:30 p.m. I am quite pleased with the production thus far. I think that Bevin is a gifted writer who constantly strives to make her script better. She has a strong voice and a gift for creating mood and believable, compelling dialogue. The entire festival opens on February 7th and runs to the 12th.

Really first, but listed second - I am lucky enough to be able to catch a Preview show of Edmonton Opera's The Mikado. I actually know the music for this one as I was in a modified production of The Mikado a few years a go. It's a G & S so it should be a lot of fun, AND the pictures of the costumes are amazing. They are going with an anime kind of aesthetic and it looks very cool. The Edmonton Opera always seems to have very high standards, but this will no doubt be a more accessible production for most audiences because it will be in English. I am pretty sure it is going to be a fun night!

Third, I will be attending Albertine in Five Times at Walterdale. I am a bit biased on this one because the cast contains 5 of my very good friends and although I don't know the 6th as well, I do know she is a strong actress and a lovely person. The entire cast is strong. Any one of those women could anchor a show by themselves so I will be surprised if this is anything less than wonderful. It's also a Canadian work by Michel Tremblay and I do love supporting Canadian theatre! It opens February 8th and runs to the 18th.

Fourth, I MUST SEE Wishbone Theatre's Waiting for Godot. I really like everything I have seen this company do and to get the chance to see them do Waiting for Godot just tickles me. I remember reading the play in grade 10 and thinking, "What the - ?" and then I saw it a few years later and it suddenly made sense (in the way that it doesn't...). Such a tremendous pieces of work and looking at the assembled cast and production team I think I will be in for a good night of theatre. It's directed by the delightful Chris Bullough (who I always love onstage, and who directed the brilliant Shimmer 2 Fringes ago). I am really looking forward to it.

My next few weeks will be packed!

Walterdale Event - Donor Voted Show

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 this show when it was presented the first time in town and heard great things about it. It was written by Jason Chinn at the last 24 Hour Playwrighting competition where I wrote Tight Rope and the scene read from it was hilarious in a very dark way. Tomorrow I am hoping to end my rehearsal a half hour early so that I can catch the beginning of the last panel for Canoe Festival. It's right in the Timm's and we are in good shape with Playmates. We finished a 1/2 hour early on Thursday, so it is completely doable if all goes well.

Making Connections...

One of the things that I loved about being the AD at Walterdale was that I often got requests from people to help them find someone for their project. Walterdale has a diverse membership and often has people of ages and demographics that are useful. I liked searching through the membership and connecting the right people to the right opportunity. Sometimes this took a bit of time, but usually if someone explained what they needed I could think of a few people to suggest to them. Despite no longer having that position, I was pleased this week to be able to continue with that and I think I might have connected a very talented person that I met through Walterdale with a fabulous opportunity (maybe even two opportunities). This is exciting for me. I like getting talented people to the right places. It was a good thing. I hope I can continue to do things like this!

In other connections news, today I met with the Playwright and Dramaturge that I will be working with for New Works at the University of Alberta. I was happy to get assigned The Playmates by Bevin Dooley for New Works and the Dramaturge is fellow student Hans Potter. We had a good first meeting where we discussed roles and communication pathways and, of course, Bevin's wonderfully mood-filled script. I am excited about this. Bevin and Hans seem very invested in creating good theatre and I think this will be a good team to work with.

Another connection happened this weekend. I was at the Uni waiting for my first Drama 483 rehearsal and I ran into someone who recommended I audition for Romeo & Juliet. I hemmed and hawed, knowing full well my schedule is pretty yucky, but I decided to do the audition anyhow. I auditioned yesterday and had a fabulous time. I don't know if I will get it (again, my schedule sucks), but I had such a great time working in the audition with the Director, Jessica Carmichael. It was like a mini acting workshop. I would love to be able to work with her. It washed away my bad feeling about my last audition when I was so unprepared. I was nice to feel like I still got it. Either way it goes, I was happy to have had the experience of the audition.

So Much for a Lull...

Well, I have been saying that there is a lull in my theatre life between September and April (basically between A Little Night Music and Nine), however, I have managed to fill some of that time up this week. In addition to working a couple of casinos (Shadow Theatre and Theatre Yes) I also auditioned for the Drama 483 midterms and was cast in one of them, as well, I interviewed for and received an offer to direct for New Works at the U of A. The 483 scene is for the play Mrs. Packard. I do not know which role I will be playing at this point. I will find out Sunday. And the New Works script is also a mystery. I have my fingers crossed for one in particular but will be happy to work on whatever they want me to! I am excited. I think I should pause now before auditioning for anything else. At this point the time is filling up. Since I am also Master Painter for Wyrd Sisters at Walterdale I am running out of free time. But it is parcelled out nicely.

I also wanted to mentioned I am working on a scene from Marion Bridge by Daniel MacIvor for my Drama 257 scene. This makes me happy as I really connect to the writing and the characters in the piece. I only wish we were presenting after Playworks Ink when the experience of actually hearing MacIvor speak would potentially enrich the project.

In the Lull...

I am in between projects right now - not really, but it feels like it. I do have a script I need to work on for New Works, but the time to work on that is flexible, not scheduled like when you are in rehearsal. Soon I will be in rehearsal and that will shift my work schedule on that, but for right now, 2 weeks after Sweeney and a week before New Works auditions, I am in a lull. The worst thing about lull time is that I eat more. It is strictly boredom and because it's there eating, but it happens and that sucks.

So, to try and make the lull work for me, today I finally wrote several drafts for the Handbook we are putting together at Walterdale. I wrote about Theatre Etiquette for Audiences and Actors (and Production Teams as a whole) and I wrote about Rehearsals (for the Director and the Actor) and the Previews and Late-Comers Policies. There was a whole lot of writing. I think at the end I got kind of snippy, because some of the stuff I shouldn't have to spell out, but clearly we need to because people are frequently late to rehearsals and give notes to other actors and eat in costume. You know, that sort of stuff. But the drafts are done and all I have left is the Welcome Letter (from the AD) and the Chain of Communication Flow Chart (which I will hand draw and get a better computer person than I to make it digital!). I should be able to pull that off tonight.

I do have some rewrites on two plays that I need to get to work on, and I need to got through Much Ado, The Seagull and Hedda Gabler to find a good scene or scene(s) from each to sell them at the Donor Voted Show Gala Evening in January. Better get on that, I suppose!

So much for the lull...

A Read Through and then a Run Through...

Today was a wee bit crazy, but in a good way. First Mark took the boys to Olds for a visit so I had a bit of time alone at home. I decided to make chocolates for the Walterdale Gala. I made them with red and white accents because that fits the colour scheme for the event. Then I rushed to Staples to photocopy my script for New Works at the University.

Then it was off to Walterdale for the first read-thru of Black Hearts in the Green Room. It was a nice read thru and it really clarified some of the challenges we will face. We have a nice fun cast with a lot of depth and diversity. I don't really know many of them so it is nice to meet new people.

After the read-thru I went for supper at the Act and then back to the theatre to run-thru the Gala Entertainment. Whew! I am feeling pretty good about it. We have a nice little set of music and we added some simple staging to back it up.

Now I am home and contemplating bed. Tomorrow will be Oliver's first day on the bus. He was supposed to start on Wednesday of last week but in the craziness of the week I thought it was the wrong week. So we shall see how tomorrow goes!