In Retrospect... What I loved this year onstage...

So I took a little walk through my blog this morning to reflect on what I saw and what really stuck with me.  I saw a lot so it's hard to narrow down, but that's a good thing.  It's a testament to what we have onstage in Edmonton. So, in no particular order but with a little classification, here were some of my favorite moments from the year:

My children's theatre favorites:

The Gooble Portrait  produced at the Fringe by Surreal SoReal Theatre. I wished I had brought my kids to this one but I went on the Me-Day.  The concept, script, acting and direction was outstanding.  No skimping on the elements and a really high quality production.  It also found a way to say something in a subtle and engaging way (not the usual 'hit them over the head with a hammer' way).

Robin Hood  at The Snow Globe Festival.  A real great piece created with low-tech magic and a three stooges approach to story-telling.  It grabbed my kids and was so fun to watch.

Mary Poppins at The Jubilee as part of Broadway Across Canada.  A beautifully done piece of theatre.  I loved the colour-blind casting, the music and the magic of it and so did Gibson.

Personal Involvement favorites:

Directing The Playmates by Bevin Dooley at New Works.  I really enjoyed helping to bring this new piece of theatre to the stage and working with the brilliant cast I had was so rewarding.

Acting as Stage Mom to Gibson in Titanic (Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway) at The Winspear. I was so pleased with how serious he took his 'job'.

Directing Nine at Walterdale Theatre.  Few experiences are so completely rewarding as this one was for me as a director.  A committed and uber-talented cast and team made this such a blessed journey.  The final product was thrilling for me to see. For me it was proof you can do great work without a huge budget if people are talented enough and care enough.

Painting The Weir and Misanthrope at Walterdale.  I learned so much through doing this year and I might even be making some connections to do this work for other theatre companies.  I also made some fabulous friendships on both these projects.  The Misanthrope nightly warm-up routine was one of the best I have ever experienced!

Fringe Favorites:

Hard to narrow down, but in thinking back the two shows that stood out for me were Mojo Mikeybo and Gruesome Playground Injuries. 

Great Performances:

Nicole English and Corben Kushneryk in Avenue Q (Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway).  You'd think those two had been playing with puppets all their lives. They were amazing!

Cody Porter in The Weir (Walterdale Theatre).  I enjoyed this whole show, but Cody was a stand-out. This is the best I have ever seen him and he's always so good.

Garrett Ross in Jack Goes Boating (Shadow Theatre - The Varscona).  Such a wonderful internal performance.  I was so impressed by the subtlety.

Both James Hamilton and Paul Welch in the side-splitting With Bells On (Guys in Disguise - Roxy Theatre). The script deserves a nod too - so well written!

Robert Markus and Sarah Farb in Next to Normal (The Citadel).  This whole production/show blew me away (I had to go twice I loved it so much) but Markus and Farb were major stand-outs. 

All the other Favorites:

The Mechanicals of A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Citadel. The play within a play that the mechanicals perform at the end of the play was so well done.  Oliver laughed so hard and talked about it for weeks.  If I want to make him laugh I can still reference Chris Bullough's silent scream and it sends him into fits of giggles.

I loved the conceptual design of The Mikado (Edmonton Opera) and Boeing-Boeing (Mayfield).  Both shows upped the ante in design and incorporated it into acting choices in a way that made the shows feel like a complete world. 

I loved Red at the Citadel.  They brought this challenging intellectual script to life. What could have been dry and disconnected was engaging and fascinating.

The duo of Nathan Cuckow and Frank Zotter in In On It (Theatre Network - The Roxy) reconfirmed for me what a brilliant gift we have in Canadian Theatre in Daniel MacIvor. 

There were many other great moments and performances but these are the ones that stuck with me. I hope you all managed to see some great stuff this year. 

I'd be curious to know what your favorites were...

Food! Glorious Food! And that was just my Christmas...

Well, I am stuffed! As for most people the last few days have been about culinary indulgence.  Christmas Eve I do okay because our family's tradition of Oyster Stew is not one I over indulge in (I eat my bowlful - it is not Christmas without the taste of it).  I did do some damage to many a cookie, however.  On Christmas Day I am the meal preparer and we have whoever is in town over for the big turkey dinner.  Mark asked me about making 'extra' stuffing - to which I replied - "It doesn't matter how much you make, there is never any 'extra' stuffing".  And I was right.  I made a tonne of it and it was all gone. So I told him I would make him more a few days afterwards to compensate - the bread is currently drying right now. We had a group of 11 this year.  Gibson had probably the best time this year.  He had so much fun with all the cousins and before they came on Tuesday, he kept asking "When are the people coming?!?!" The meal turned out very well - although I clearly do not know how to thaw a turkey.  Mark had to do some cold water baths until the wee hours of the morning to make sure we had a nice thawed but still cold bird in the morning!

I skipped any real action on Boxing Day.  I always look at the piles of stuff under the tree and think "what more could I want?"  I tend to have a hard time when people ask me what I want because I don't really need anything.  So the idea of boxing day seems like over-kill.  Plus, I don't like crowds. As a parent I am finding it a bit hard to cope with this season of excess.  It's hard to make your kids appreciate what they have when there is simply so much of it. The starving kids in Africa story only goes so far. It's also hard to explain why we think an 11 year old doesn't need an iPod Touch when his younger cousin gets an iPad. In his eyes, he feels either deprived or punished.  The latter is sad, because he has been a really good kid this year and that is not why we aren't getting it. The former is sad because we have so much stuff.  Sigh, again. I'm not going to give too much more thought to it.  I am not caving and getting the iPod, and have no problem stating why, but it's a challenge.

I did check out Oliver! at Festival Place with Gibson last night.  It was great to see my friends onstage. I did the show many (read: about 20) years ago in Fort McMurray and although I am not sure how good the show was, it was one of my most favorite theatrical experiences. It's where I met Wanda and where Wanda and AM and I really bonded. The grown-ups in the show have a lot of time backstage together and boy-o-boy we were silly.  So, it was nice to see the show from the other side.  I realized that when doing the show myself I hadn't paid much attention to the play as a whole.  Gibson commented that he thought there were a lot of horrible people in Oliver's London.  He enjoyed it, but it was a bit long for him so he spent some time at the end of the show snuggled up to me snoozing. I thought that Nadine Veroba, as Nancy, was phenomenal.  Yes, I know her. She was Claudia in Nine and is the only person to ever make me cry during an audition and she is lovely to work with, but I make this assessment of her from an objective stand point.  There is something about her that is electric and her singing - wowsers! There were many other nice things about this production.  I was glad to have caught it.

Oliver! marked my 60th show this year that I either saw or was involved in.  It would be more if I counted each Fringe show I went to, but I count the days I went to Fringe instead. I had a goal of 40 so I am very pleased with the number.  That's an average of 5 shows per month.  Pretty good! I will make a new goal for 2013 and it will be closer to the 60 number. I may not win another fabulous ticket prize though, so I am not sure I will be able to match it. We shall see.