What if The Three Stooges told the story of Robin Hood?

Well, that's basically what I saw today at The Snow Globe Festival.  The four person cast of Evan Hall, Caley Suliak, Paul Sutherland and Brendan Thompson In Robin Hood deliver a fast paced, physical and very, very silly rendition of the classic story of the archery expert who stole from the rich to give to the poor in the England of Prince John and the absent King Richard the Lion-Hearted.  The boys loved it.  They are suckers for slapstick and extreme silliness. The ensemble is tight and the action fast paced.  They incorporate audience participation and Oliver even got to go up on stage to compete in the archery contest (he hammed it up his own way).  Highlights included a very funny chase sequence to Gibson's favorite Yakety Sax and I would tell you who both boys' favorite character was, but then there would be a major spoiler, so I can't.  For those who have seen the show, it was the character with the most hair... I loved Caley Suliak as the somewhat Jewish Friar Tuck and Paul Sutherland's Prince John was priceless!  One more show tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Getting in the Spirit of the Season With Bells and Snow Globes and a couple of School Concerts!

You would think I would take a rest after a 2 week run, but no, not me.  I had a brief pause on Monday night (which I used to start some baking) and then dived into two nights of School Concerts (my kids are three years apart so I always get to go twice), then I caught With Bells On at The Roxy (Guys in Disguise) and last night I took the boys to Babes in Toyland at C103 (formerly The Catalyst Theatre) as part of The Snow Globe Festival.

I wrote about Snow Globe last year when Impresario Extraordinaire Ellen Chorley created it. I took the boys last year and once the commitments of the season wrapped up we headed off to see what was happening onstage this year. We bundled up and headed out to catch Babes in Toyland and had a great time.  The boys are the target audience so I will translate their responses.  My kids are 8 and 11 so that can give you an idea of the source.  From the first moment the lights when down Gibson (8) was mesmerized and sitting on the edge of his seat.  He is fascinated by anything musical so once the 3 piece band started playing he was hooked in.  Oliver (11) is a little more laid back - he's an almost teenager, and it's killing me - but he was delighted to actually get a cup of water when Jack and Jill entered selling it. I heard many a laugh from both of them throughout the show and they particularly enjoyed the 3 villains - Barnaby (Devin Bruce), Rodrigo (Rebecca Merkley) and Gonzago (Corben Kushneryk) - who were ridiculously silly/stupid.  The best moment was when Merkley did something particularly silly, Gibson pointed at the stage and yelled to me under the applause, "I LIKE that Girl!  She's funny!" (He also kept saying 'Alan' all the way home). As Oliver declared on the ride home, "It is always better when the villains are dumb!". When I asked for particulars about the show, the two boys declared everything "Really good!". Mission Accomplished!  We return this afternoon for another show (Robin Hood) and there is a third show (Birdie on the Wrong Bus). I encourage you to check them out if you can.

Thursday Night I took a friend to With Bells On at The Roxy.  It was fabulous!  A drag show that was more about conquering loneliness and finding friendship in an usual place and person and while that sounds kind of mushy, it was also HILARIOUS!  I had so many big belly laughs.  I was impressed with both actors (Paul Welch and James Hamilton) as they each brought so much depth to what easily could be stereo-typical roles. They also both have great comic timing.  Darrin Hagen's script is sharp and witty and although there are the prerequisite sparkles, tinsel and 6 inch heels needed for every drag show, it also had a lot of substance behind the flash.

Next!

Well, we wrapped up the show this weekend.  It was a great experience overall, with some crunchy bits on the production side.  That came through at the Post Mortem and I am trying to put that crappy night behind me. It's too bad that it had to play out like that. It made me think a lot about my commitment to Walterdale (which is sad) but it is hard to work so hard and feel unappreciated and (worse) resented for the work that you do. I luckily have a little video of a snippet of the show to watch to cheer me up and make me remember what I loved so much about the experience of doing this show.  I made some great connections and have plans to work with some of the cast and team again in the future. I am chairing the From Cradle to Stage One Act Festival, but I am more tentative about it now.

And now, onto the next adventure!  This week is jam packed with Christmas fun!  Two times two Christmas concerts at the boy's school (2 dress rehearsals and 2 evening performances), With Bells On at Theatre Network and the cleaning of my house will take over my life this week.  I have to go shopping in there sometime too. It's a good thing the kids are still in school so I can theoretically get some of this done.

I am also diving headfirst into Spelling Bee.  I hope to reread the script at least 5-10 times before auditions. The audition sign-ups are amazing and I am excited to get to those auditions so I can can this thing.  It's such a terrifically silly and fun show with fabulous music and just looking at the audition sheet makes me giddy.  Such great singer/actors on that page! I am looking forward to asking them to be ridiculous!

At this point I have seen or been involved in 56 Theatrical Events this year, and With Bells On will make it 57.  I also have plans to see some shows at The Snow Globe Festival and Oliver! at Festival Place, so I think I will hit 60. This surpasses my goal of 40 shows, so I am very, very pleased with myself.  I will have to re-evaluate for next year!

The Misanthrope Makes Me a Philanthrope!

Reflections on The Misanthrope Experience. 

I have had such a wonderful time working with this cast and crew.  I have met so many wonderful people and been inspired by their dedication to do good work on the stage and with each other.  I regained a sense of silliness and joy with them that I haven't had in a while (at least as an actor).  The newer actors in the cast made me revisit my early days on the stage.  The one who bailed us out when we lost a cast member made me appreciate the spirit of the show must go on and there are no small roles. Working with Afton made me realize how lazy I can be and because of her phenomenal hard work I pushed myself to be more present. It is hard to express how much I value that. It can be too easy to go through the motions and thanks to her example, I never felt like I was. It was also so lovely to share the stage with some fabulous emerging artists like Zachary, Brennan and Amanda and I hope to see them in lots more stuff and (cross fingers) work with them again.  The main thing is, I got to work with some great people onstage and from our joy-filled ridiculous warm-up every night, to our creative sign-in sheet, to getting laced up every night up to bows and the Act afterwards, this has been great. I also enjoyed being a part of Janine's first directing gig at Walterdale.  I am glad she got to work with this group and tackle this challenge (because it wasn't an easy script).

Anyhow, I leave The Misanthrope a Pilanthrope, and that feels good.

A Couple of Nice Reviews of the Show... First week recap...

The first five shows (plus two previews) are done and tonight we head into the final stretch.  We had a nice opening week and I am excited to get back onstage this evening.  When you spend so much time with people you like you really miss them on the dark day.  But it was a much needed dark day as there was a lot of laundry to do!

Opening Night was tonnes of fun with an audience who seemed primed to laugh. It's always interesting to see how different audiences react - some are laughers and some are listeners.  This is a play that requires heavy duty listening skills, but it's worth it.  Best night for me was Saturday night because my sister was in town all the way from Toronto and she and a friend came and saw it.  It has been a long time since she has seen me onstage so I was very happy that she made it out for this one. Plus, she is sharp and a loud laugher so she got a lot of the funny stuff and we were rewarded.

There have been a few reviews so far, and all are (yay!) positive. Here are some links.

From Sound and Noise.
"If you’re able to keep up with the rapid-fire dialogue, this play will have you laughing and leave you thinking."

From St. Albert Gazette.
"...director Janine Waddell Hodder has created a solid production that provides stimulating discussion."

A Personal Blog.
"I thought the play was very funny, and it probably would have been funnier for someone with a more intimate knowledge of the source text.  For one thing, the dialogue (some of it possibly a different Molière translation than I’d read, and some of it completely modern) was in the same kind of rhyme and metre used in the source text.  The actors – especially Brennan MacGregor who played Alceste – did a great job phrasing the long speeches for sense rather than emphasising the metre."

I hope that people can make it out.  This has been a wonderful challenge for me and I would love it if people saw it.  Learning the dialogue felt like it does when you are doing Shakespeare and I am very proud of what it is. There are only five shows left and then it's gone...

The Misanthrope Loves Everyone Who Came to the Show Last Night!

See what I did there?

Anyhow, we had a fabulous Opening Night for The Misanthrope at Walterdale Theatre last night.  We had enjoyed Previews, but the audience last night was HOT! It was thrilling to hear all the laughter and feel such gratitude to the generous audience.  I always say that a show is nothing until there is an audience to perform for so it is nice to be finally open and sharing this new twist on an old classic with people.  I love the character I get to play and the people I get to play with.  We celebrated the opening with a lovely after show reception (mmmm, lobster tarts...) and Tonight is 2 for 1 Night so hopefully we get a nice sized audience from that to continue with the journey!

Citadel Theatre's A Christmas Carol - A Storybook Brought to Life

This was another jam-packed weekend for me.  Filled with basketball, a dress rehearsal and theatre clean, and two tries at seeing A Christmas Carol at The Citadel Theatre (one successful!).  I had never seen the production before and this was greeted with astonishment by most people I told that to, but the show itself actually replaced a different Christmas tradition of our family so when it first started I wasn't really into it.  I have seen or been in 5 different productions of the story so didn't figure I needed to see it.  I always heard from people 'Oh! You must go! It's really something wonderful!' - and it was.

You may note I said two attempts to see the show.  I had tickets for the Saturday night performance and an unfortunate power outage took out the lighting board and I have to get my tickets re booked for Sunday.  The Citadel was outstanding in dealing with the re-booking.  I did notice that they have also added another matinee to deal with the demand for tickets as this is a big selling show for the house. On Saturday, Kristin (my date for the evening) and I coped with the lack of show by having a fabulous visit and I was happy that she was able to rejoin me the next evening to see the show.

It was a wonderful night and every note is perfect pitch, a true storybook brought to life onstage.  You can tell that everyone in the cast is dedicated to telling this age old classic story with both reverence and joy. It's warmth and sharing of the Spirit of Christmas (and what that means) feels truly authentic.  I may go again and take my boys to it.  I think they would both appreciate the magic of the show, because the clockwork precision of the scene changes feels truly magical, and I think they are old enough to deal with it.  There were a number of children who were really too young for the show but most of them were far away from me so they didn't spoil my night. There are a few potentially scary elements but really, you shouldn't be taking a child under 4 or 5 to any show longer than an hour... they do not have the focus for it. That's not fair to the rest of the audience. That's my rant.  I like that people are taking kids to theatre, but know the appropriate age... that's all I am saying...

Anyhow, if you haven't see it, I now join the group of converts heavily endorsing it. Go, it's a wonderful way to get in the Christmas mood!