A Good End to a Fabulous Adventure...

Nine closed last night to another Sold Out house.  I watched it for the 5th time during the 10 show run (7 times including Previews) more than any other show I have directed outside the ones I also wrote.  I think I could have watched it even more if I had had the time to do so. One of the things which made that possible was the absolute commitment to being present from the entire cast. Last night I held my breath with the rest of the audience and laughed as though I were seeing things for the first time.  It was a wonderful show.

We followed the run with a final performance of A Call From the Vatican which Cory requested because he had never seen it (his preference - he wanted to rely on his imagination through the number during the run). It was great fun to sit next to Cory as he reacted to Erika's brilliant interpretation of the number.  I think what she did was even more than he imagined! It was a wonderful way to see the number through new eyes!

Then we struck the set, cleaned the theatre, partied and said our goodbyes.   I would have stayed later (I finally left at 3:30 a.m.) but I had a family reunion to attend today in Pine Lake! I look forward to working with so many of the cast and team again in the future and if I don't get to do that, I hope to see their work on other stages.  I shall be their loudest cheerleader.

A good ending to one of the best theatre experiences I have ever had.

Don't Be Disappointed...

There are only 3 more shows of Nine left.  I love the show, but I am the Director, don't take my word for it.  Take instead the word of the people who have come to see it - we have been overwhelmed with positive feedback from our audiences - and the three reviews we have received.  Two are posted in the previous post and I will get Vue Weekly's up as soon as it is online.  Vue's Review is absolutely glowing - I scoured for negative comments - there are none - it's all kudos.  People (strangers to me) have sent me messages saying they loved it so much they are coming back to see it twice! So blessed to receive this positive feedback.

Anyhow, so if you are my friend, or if you just like good musicals, please buy your tickets in advance.  We have sold out 3 of the 7 shows so far and have had good sized houses for the other 4.  Apparently Tix on the Square says the tickets have been selling fast this week.  Do not miss the best show on in the city at the moment (yes, I am bias - extremely so!). I'd just hate to run into you at Fringe and hear you say, "I tried to come, but it was Sold Out."

Enjoying the Kudos...

We are halfway through the run of Nine and it has been a blessed experience.  This gang is such a good group to work with, not just the cast, but the crew and the Production Team - everyone is lovely.  There are a few who verge on crazy, but it's a good spirited crazy and it makes for more fun.  I am enjoying the kudos.  I have gotten quite a few emails and messages from people about how much they like the show.  Some of them complete strangers! It is gratifying to know that you are putting something out there that people respond to.  I don't want to have people leave thinking they didn't get what they deserved as an audience member.

The reviews we have received have been extremely ego flattering - there's one in the St. Albert Gazette and one on Sound and Noise online.  I expect we will have one in Vue Weekly sometime this week and the Journal had both a photog. at media call and media comps on Opening Night so I'm waiting to see if anything shows up there. We are doing quite well in the run - being SOLD OUT for 3 of the shows so far and fairly large houses for the remainder.  We are Sold Out tonight and it's a Tuesday, so you have to be happy about that!  Between the reviews and word of mouth we can be sure the news is good!

I know it will be a bit sad when it's over, but like Guido, I tend to live some of my time in memory so I am pretty sure I can call it all back if I need to.  For now, we shall enjoy the second half of the run and try to keep cool.  The theatre proper is Air Conditioned for the audience, but the actors are upstairs in a furnace (some of them camp out in the shop where it is cooler). I think that generous souls have brought Popsicles and other cool treats to beat the heat!

* photo of Kate Holley, Mama Maddellena in Nine, by Janine Hodder

Opening Night - Sigh...

Tonight Nine opened.  It was a fabulous night. I was so pleased with the show and the reception the fabulous audience gave it.  We were Sold Out (at least on paper - there were a couple of empty seats in the house so I guess we had a few no-shows).  I laughed and I cried and it was lovely.  The audience treated us to a standing ovation which is always so gratifying and a wonderful surprise. After the show was the traditional Opening Night Reception and it was great fun talking to my Walterdale friends and the cast and crew.  I realized that I know so many lovely, lovely people and I feel blessed. I will not be back to the theatre until Friday night for archive photos so it will feel weird tomorrow night to know they are all onstage and I am not even in the building.  They know their stuff and they do it all wonderfully, but I will miss not being there.  I came home to kudos on FB from friends and strangers.  A perfect evening.

* Nine marks #26 in my 2012 Theatre Goal

Media Call - I call it Nervous Day...

Well, I survived another media call!  For me, media call is the most nerve wracking day of the whole show experience, but it went quite well.  I was running from interviewer to interviewer and also trying to set up the scenes for shots so it flew by.  I think I sounded articulate and intelligent, so hopefully that will come across in the interviews. It was actually quite fun because there was a variety in the kinds of questions asked so I got the opportunity to talk about the different things I have researched and read up on for this show.  I spoke about the set, the source material 8 1/2, Salvador Dali and surrealism, pole dancing, the shift from reality to imagination to memory, religion, theatre arts training programs, the Edmonton theatre community, and music. It is a bit of a blur.

The pictures from our wonderful photographer, Douglas Stewart, are online.  You can check them out here.

Photo below of Erika Noot as Carla and Cory Christensen as Guido.

A Night Out in a busy time...

Despite being ankle deep in pre-tech and tech week for Nine, I went out with some friends from the cast to catch Kiss me Kate on Saturday night.  We had a lot of f un together and it was great to see familiar faces both on stage and in the audience.  Cole Porter's music is the star of the show (which I had never seen before) and the soloists were all in very strong voice.  It was great just to hear them belting out those standards like I Hate Men, Always True to You in My Fashion, So In Love, and Too Darn Hot (just to name a few). The script is a little dated, but this cast is enthusiastic and they run with it!

Afterwards our little gang sought out ice cream but had to settle for BP's instead, but the conversation was hysterical as we related storied of encounters with bugs, kids and body parts, and past show experiences.  It's always fun to have interactions with members of your cast and team outside rehearsal.  One of the things I live about doing theatre is that development of connection and friendship.  This night was great for that.  Now we dive into the business of tech-week.  Our Q2Q on Sunday whizzed by and took about 3 hours from start to finish (FOR A MUSICAL!!!) and I am so pleased with how it looks.  I will see the costumes under lights tonight and I am so excited.  We are a week away from Director's Preview and I cannot wait!


* Kiss Me Kate marks #24 in my 2012 Theatre Goal

To Get You Warmed Up...

There are a couple of musicals on in town (or son to be on) that you can catch while you wait for Nine at Walterdale.

The first is Two One Way Tickets to Broadway's Avenue Q.  It's the puerile puppets that aren't quite what you saw on Sesame Street.  Several Walterdale alumni are involved including Nicole English, Lauren Kneteman, Martin Galba, Linette Smith, Brad Melrose (who is also lighting Nine), Travis Metzger, and M.J. Kreisel.  I will be seeing the show later in the run as my tech week has me pretty busy right now, but the show runs to June 30th. From what I hear it's hilarious but one should not be expecting clean humour (someone told me the funniest song is called 'The Internet is for Porn').

The other show is ELOPE's Kiss Me Kate which opens this weekend. There are many Walterdale alumni in this one too - Elizabeth Marsh, Gary Carter, and Kathleen McDonald to name a few.  I am catching it this weekend.  It's the musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and features the songs 'Too Darn Hot' and 'Brush Up on Your Shakespeare'.  It also runs until June 30th.

You can let these warm you up before you come to see Nine in July!

This is Why I Feel So Happy Lately...

I get to work with these people:



Most of the Cast of Nine and some of the Production Team (photo by Janine Hodder)

  
















We had the lovely Janine Hodder come in and take pictures for our call board and some rehearsal shots.  She got some wonderful pictures and I love the spirit of this one.  You can tell a lot about the people in my cast from it.  First, they are really good looking and second, they are a lot of fun!

And it all comes together...

I have been really lucky in my theatre experiences in Edmonton, really in my life, but really, really, lucky in Edmonton.  I feel at home at Walterdale.  I have been there for a little over 6 years and have participated in many different roles within the company.  Working on Nine right now is wonderful.  I feel blessed with a fabulous team who all seem to be working for the best show possible.  I feel lucky that they all said 'yes' when I asked them.  Some of them I have not worked with in their capacity on the show, but I just thought they would be a good fit. Some I have worked with a few times before and I knew they would be a great fit.  Some, like Sally and Erin, I will always ask because there is a connection.  I feel like there have been no mistakes in the team, in any case. My cast is a joy.  A real joy.  I was blessed with a lot of choice at auditions and I know that there are others that would be just as wonderful in this cast, but I really like this group of people.  They make my job easier.  They push themselves for more.  They are fun and pleasant and understand my silliness.  There are no divas... We are 3 weeks from Opening Night.  Right on schedule, if anything a little ahead which might mean a couple of unanticipated nights off (don't want to over cook this baby).  The pole work, which I thought would take another week to solidify, is tight and amazing (Whose idea was it to have poles in this show?!?!  Great idea!).  The girls who use them are fearless and I am blown away!  One of them sings on the pole - UPSIDE DOWN!  AND she not only looks fabulous - she SOUNDS incredible!!  We slide into the home stretch, getting ready for the challenge of costumes, an orchestra, lights and make-up and we are ready.  It's a wonderful way to spend the month of June!

Living in the Theatre - Painting by Day, Directing by Night!

After all the build up for me in the rest of the season I am solidly up to my neck in Nine at Walterdale.  We are enjoying being spoiled by a set being mostly done much earlier than scheduled.  This has allowed us to do a lot of spacing in the actual theatre with all the architectural elements (except the poles - one comes in today and the other two should be in on the weekend).  It has been wonderful and has actually pushed us ahead of scheduled.  I am hoping this means I can give some nights off here and there.  That will only happen, however, if new conflicts from the cast stop rolling in.  It is hard to say 'no' because everyone has a (ahem) good excuse.  Anyhow, we are in good shape and that makes me happy.  Because of the strength of the cast, there are things I do not have to put a lot of time into (like character work) because they come with their homework done. I like that!

In the day times, since the set has been done, I have been leading the paint crew. I am technically second in command, but I can paint in the daytime and I prefer that happening so that I don't get kicked off the deck in the evenings. We are therefore, ahead of schedule when it comes to paint, too!  Yay!  I have had a nice gang of helpers to keep my company and make the work go so much faster! It does, however, make for long days and I have to watch how much of my time I schedule for the painting so that I do not stress myself out too much. 

As I have gotten older, I find that I cannot handle the long hours as well. I also have a hard time getting to sleep right away in the evenings as I come home wired from rehearsal so I have to watch that.  I need nap time I think.  In any case, I am delighted with how we are progressing!

A Week of Late Nights - Auditions for Nine!

Last weekend were the official auditions for Nine (playing at Walterdale in July). On the roster were over 65 people which made me very happy. A large turn-out meant that we would have a lot to choose from to make the best possible cast. Well, not only were there many, but there a lot of really strong auditioners! This meant that we had 2-6 possibilities for each of the roles we were calling back and a large group of people from which to construct the cast. I had to say NO to a lot of strong people - we looked at all three areas (singing, acting and dancing) as determiners, as well as scheduling (always a challenge with busy, talented people). After all was said and done we got a cast that I am thrilled to work with. The hardest part for me is the NOs. There are people I do not have that were absolutely brilliant. There are some that are newer and less experienced and therefore a little less polished in their audition and hopefully they come back and I will get to work with them in the future as I saw great potential. In any case, that is done and yesterday we had a fabulous read-through with our cast and I could already see that many of them had brought choices to what they were going to do. I cannot wait to hear this group sing together. The music is challenging but these guys can handle it. An interesting thing is that of this group there are only a couple that I have directed before and it is about 50-50 people I knew before and people I didn't know. We really made an effort to cast based on the auditions we saw.

I must comment, however, I do have a Blog Post coming about Auditions Dos and Don'ts. There are people who really jeopardized their being cast by playing a little too much in the Don't column. I have to think about it though, as I have held auditions for a number of shows and I want to collect my thoughts.

The other thing I did this week was check out Cowardly Kiss Theatre's The Maids playing at the Catalyst Theatre. The play is a dark little piece, directed by Andrea Beca, about 2 maids (Sarah Horsman and Louise Large) who role-play and plot the murder of their employer (Madam, played by Zachary Parsons-Lozinski). Beca's production concept emphasizes the twisted nature of the two sister-maids with specific physicalization and costume and make-up. The script itself feels a titch slow at first, but you understand the need for it later in the piece as it sets a lot of the story up. All three actors commit totally to their choices and it was really quite interesting to watch. Horsman is electric onstage in her monologue and she and Large work well together as the sisters, and Parsons-Lozinski always looks as though he should just live onstage all the time - he is so natural there, even in the campiest roles. It's an edgier piece, one you think about a lot afterwards, and provides a good contrast to more mainstream theatre. It runs until next weekend. Check it out!

* The Maids is #17 in my 2012 Theatre Goal.

Love and Whispers...

Hard to believe, but after spending so much time this week in a theatre shepherding my son, I still managed to see two more shows this weekend. I was tired, but glad to catch more of the fabulous theatre we are fortunate to have in Edmonton.

Friday night I worked coffee bar at Walterdale for their current production The Love of the Nightingale directed by Alex Hawkins. The play is a dramatization of the story of sisters Procne and Philomele. I enjoyed reading the script and it was interesting seeing it brought to life onstage. The production is carefully directed and the subtle sound design by Erin Foster-O'Riordan gives it momentum in it's silences. The costumes by Geri Dittrich are wonderful and lush and bare skin abounds! Rachel Kent, as Philomele, is luminous and in the first act my favorite scenes are between her and the doomed ship's captain, Kevin Oulette. In the second act, however, it is the fiery Procne, played by Marsha Amanova, who pulled me in. Justin Deveau also delivers a solid performance as her husband, Tereus. If the idea of a piece of Greek theatre scares you, it shouldn't. The story is clearly told and has humour to offset the tragedy.

Tonight, my sister and brother and I managed to catch Whisper, the final Studio Theatre production for the current U of A BFA graduating class. The project was a collaboration between Catalyst Theatre's Jonathon Christensen and Bretta Gerecke and the class itself. Titled Whisper, the text came from the students and were whispered to each other in translation through a classmate counterpart to the audience. A significant portion of the piece dealt with the recent death of a classmate and it is this portion which has the most impact. The production is skillfully delivered and conceptually complex with amazing lighting and score, however, a lack of variance in delivering the stories and remembrances made it feel a bit too long. As well, no matter how gorgeous the stage images were I never quite got the purpose of the deer like creatures and hunters in the woods. It is clear that this is a class with talent and a team with strong vision, but some more thought to story arc and playing more with the whispers themselves might have created more engagement, especially for those in the audience who were not familiar with the class itself and it's recent history. Personally, I felt that if they had either focussed more on their classmate (by cutting some of the script) or less on their clasmate (by shifting weight to a more defined arc to show growth or change) then the piece would have been stronger. Alternatively, they could have found different ways than just standing and whispering to relay the story. When the background was supported by action/dance/images it was stronger, as the pauses in relaying the stories slowed the pace in an already long show.

In any case, I feel full of theatre. It's a nice feeling. Tomorrow I have auditions for Nine at Walterdale. I am excited to see who is coming out. Soon we will be in rehearsal!

* These are #15 and #16 in my 2012 Theatre Goal!