A Contest? A Contest! Win Nextfest Passes!

So last August I won a fabulous prize from Vue Weekly... I wrote about it here.  It has made for one of the most fabulous years of theatre watching for me.  I am really, really, really going to miss all these free tickets next year.  I hope to still be going to see a lot of shows - I did before I had the prize, so I I don't see why I won't - I am just going to have to pay more money... That's alright.  Those artists need to eat too.

Anyhow, I only have a few things left on the docket, one of which is Two passes to Nextfest Arts Festival at Theatre Network and I discovered that I am out of town for most of the festival and I really don't want to see these passes go to waste.  So, I decided to hold my own little contest to give away those passes.

Here's how you can win my two passes - comment below and tell me why you want to go to Nextfest and why you should win.  You can relate a story about how seeing something at Nextfest affected you, or how being in Nextfest changed you, or just how theatre in general enriches you life.  As to the why you should win, that's up to you.  This is pretty much what Vue Weekly asked me to do - "Tell us why you should win." Be creative. I like that. Nextfest runs June 6th - 16th.

For those of you uncomfortable with setting up a google profile to enter, feel free to email me your responses - email to smeep22003@yahoo.ca with FINSTER FINDS - NEXTFEST PASSES in the subject line and I will put you in the contest!

Deadline to respond to this contest is April 30, 2013!  I'll announce the winner by May 5th!

By the way, Nextfest currently has a call for proposals out so if you are under 30 and have a project that you think might be good, send it in!

The Citadel Theatre - Off to a Great Start this Season with A Few Good Men...

This weekend was a great weekend for using my Vue Weekly Ticket prize pack.  I sent Oliver and Mark off to see Joel Plaskett at The Arden on Saturday night and then I took my mother to see A Few Good Men at The Citadel Theatre on Sunday night. The boys quite enjoyed their night of music, buying CDs and getting them autographed and the boys have been listening to the opening act, Mo Kenney, as we drive home from school each day.  They each have a favorite song and we bounce back and forth between track 3 and 8 as many times as we can before we reach home.

Both my mother and I were quite impressed with A Few Good Men.  It was a tightly run ship - quickly paced, which I love and which I felt the script calls for, and committed performances.  I found the direction the outstanding part of the show.  The script, with it's quick cuts and film like dialogue, is not easy to stage but Director James MacDonald keeps it moving and the use of the revolve is clean and sharp.  I really liked the use of the marching chants to move from scene to scene.  It kept you in the world of the military - the world of the one-mind/following orders/doing duty. I felt the piece was very strong for it's sense of ensemble and this too supported the over-arching theme of the play - If there is one weak link the whole thing would crumble, but there isn't - it is military precision with each unit following their orders without fail. It's hard to attack a play like this where 90% of your audience has seen the film and knows the lines (You can't handle the truth!) and there is the inevitable comparison.  I was happy that I was able to immerse myself in this particular telling of the story.  Sure, I had moments where I was thinking: "Who played that character? Oh, yeah, Kevin Bacon.  Oh yeah, Kiefer Sutherland.", but it was more of my brain being jogged by memory than being separated from the show.  In fact, seeing these different actors speak the words in their own voices made me understand the weight of what was going on even better.  There are a few tiny missteps - one sound cue that made everyone between the ages of 40 and 50 giggle, and a titch too much yelling when you wished for some subtlety, but the latter served the masculine nature of the subject and the former happens at a moment where no major damage is done. The key moment of realization at the end brought tears to my eyes and the authenticity of that moment was perfect.

Afterwards my mother and I talked for quite some time about the nature of living in that military world and how it must be to live in a world where you must follow orders without question.  It was thought provoking even though both of us had seen the film many times before.  Still relevant today - perhaps even more so.

My Set Gets Another Mention...

The Vue Review... my Whimsical Set!

http://vueweekly.com/arts/story/village_of_idiots_review/

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the set and the show as a whole. It's very funny and appropriate for children (my boys loved it). I haven't met anyone who hasn't liked the show. A fine finish to a 2 year term!

Three Shows Down...

We have had wonderfully full houses and it seems to be going very well. Yesterday Mark and the boys came to see the show. They said they had fun. I got Gibson onstage 2x. The first time he got down and then said he didn't want to do it and I had the audience help him. The second time he bowed with a large group of people at the end and it was all good. Oliver participated but I didn't get him onstage. Apparently he was in a mini-play at the kids fringe so he wasn't too worried about it.

We were reviewed by The Vue and received a nice review and 3* which is what I thought we would get. We do a good job, but how do you compare Children's Theatre to work written for adults? It's apples and oranges. Most of the kid's shows got 3*, with a couple getting only 2* and only one getting 4* and it was a professional puppet show (The Ugly Duckling - KayBridge Company). I am happy with the review as it was generous to the cast as a whole and there was nothing negative in it.

Looking through The Vue Weekly's reviews I discovered that I have tickets for a no star, a couple of 2*, a 3* and some 4* shows. A real mixed bag. I will be positive for my friends. I like variety and I am enjoying supporting my friends as well as seeing new things. I am getting to a lot of theatre, even though I can't get to everything.

Vue Weekly - I don't sound stupid - Yay!

THEATRE
FROM CRADLE TO STAGE ARE ONE ACTS TO FOLLOW
DAVID BERRY / david@vueweekly.com
Anyone who writes plays in this city will tell you that the hardest part isn’t so much getting the idea, or finding its structure, or even fleshing it out into a workable bit of art—it’s finding a place to put it on. The sad reality is that even in a city with Edmonton’s myriad outlets for new work—everything from the Fringe’s blind lottery draw to the festivals and workshops devoted entirely to new works—establishing yourself on the scene can be something next to impossible without a couple big breaks.So when recent Fort McMurray expat Kristen Finlay found out about From Cradle to Stage, the Walterdale’s initiative to not only produce a new work, but also spend a year developing the play with the help of one of their directors and a dramaturge from the Alberta Playwrights Network, it didn’t take much convincing to get her to pull a play from her catalogue and try to take advantage of a rare opportunity.“As a writer, you really don’t have many opportunities to get to see your work produced, and as many plays as you might have on the shelf, I don’t think you’re ever quite as excited about them as when they go up on stage,” Finlay says of getting to premiere Pieces, about a mother suffering from dementia and reliving her life in her own head while her daughter struggles to come to grips with her external behaviour. “The opportunity is just huge, and you get a lot of confidence through the whole process, too. As a writer, you never really know if what you’re doing is good until other people see it, and everyone here has been very supportive and positive with everything.”
Finlay’s play will join two others, Katherine Koller’s Perdu and Phil Kreisel’s The Travelling Nude—about a lonely dog-food store clerk and a controversial small-town art teacher, respectively—as the inaugural one-acts in what the Walterdale hopes to make an annual affair. Though she admits that she’s unsure of exactly what will happen with Pieces now that its year of lavish attention is coming to an end, she hopes that audiences will be moved by a play she admits she was proud of even before it went through the Walterdale’s treatment.“I like it because I really got a chance to tell two stories, one about how the mother struggles to find herself in what was probably a time of transition, and one about figuring out how to deal with losing a loved one who’s still right there in front of you,” Finlay explains. “Ultimately, I think it’s a hopeful play—you see inside the mother’s mind, see why she’s acting and saying the things she is that don’t make much sense to you, but are actually providing glimpses into that person that’s still in there somewhere.”
Mon, May 21 - Sat, May 26
From Cradle to Stage: An Evening of One Acts
Featuring plays by Kristen Finlay, Katherine Koller, Phil Kreisel
Walterdale Playhouse (10322 - 83 Avenue), $12 - $14