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The Two shows I’m Most Looking Forward to At Undercurrents

Article by Wayne Current

Last year, the Undercurrents festival launched at the GCTC and was one of the theatrical highlights of the year. The festival’s aim is to promote independent boundary pushing theatre or “theatre below the main stream.” Last year’s line up was terrific and I saw every show. Undercurrents 2012, opened yesterday and I’m once again looking forward to seeing more independent theatre!

In fact, I’m on record, and have been quoted in marketing material, saying this about last year’s festival: 
“I hope this festival becomes a regular feature of the Ottawa theatre scene and that the GCTC will sponsor even more independent theatre productions in the future.”

As a strong supporter of this festival, I thought I would take some time to tell you about two of the shows I am particularly looking forward to this year. I think I would be remiss if I also didn’t tell you about the one show I feel should not have been included this year and why, but I will save that for another blog post.

Here are two recommendations: 

At the 2011 Ottawa Fringe Festival, Luna Allison premiered Falling Open in a very original venue(her bedroom.) Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to catch this one at Fringe. Her home was a little off the beaten path and, to be completely honest, the play’s subject matter (one family’s experience of sexual abuse) scared me off a little too. That being said, those who saw it raved about this show. I’m told Allison treats the subject matter with appropriate sensitivity and puts in a powerful performance. While I’m sure this one will be challenging, 

Falling Open is top of my list to see at Undercurrents 2012.

Highway 63: the Fort Mac Show, looks like an interesting piece of verbatim/documentary theatre, bringing to life the stories of the people who live in Fort Mac, Alberta. I love when communities use theatre to tell their stories. I’m also a fan of the verbatim movement so I’ll definitely be checking this one out.

So if you don’t know what to see, those are the two shows in the festival that I am most excited about.

Get your tickets soon!

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“Blood on the Moon” retells the story of James Patrick Whelan’s trial with skill

Review by Wayne Current

Last Thursday, I set off to see Sleeping Dog Theatre’s (in association with the National Arts Centre English Theatre) Blood on the Moon  at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre (GCTC).  Written by Pierre Brault, this show was selected as a last-minute replacement for You Fancy Yourself by Maja Ardal cancelled due to Ardal’s severe illness.  Blood on the Moon features Brault as the ghost of James Patrick Whelan, an Irish  immigrant who was found guilty of assassinating D’arcy McGee, retelling the story of his trial. Those who are familiar with Brault’s work will not be surprised that this is a one man show with Brault playing all the characters.  Brault has built his reputation with these kinds of performances and once again does an admirable job juggling all the roles.

Pierre Brault as Whelan, Photo by Lydia Pawelak

I am always pleased when local writers make an effort to tell Ottawa’s stories and Brault has done a nice job of telling Whelan’s story in Blood on the Moon. I particularly enjoyed the way he weaves in modern local references that Ottawa residents will relate to along with the historical facts of the trial.

Martin Conboy’s lighting design is also quite effective. The various scenes in the play from jail cell, to courthouse, and finally the gallows are all depicted through the use of clever lighting techniques.

Blood on the Moon is a local story skilfully told. It’s a show definitely worth seeing.

It’s important to remember that this show started 13 years ago as an Ottawa Fringe Festival show before touring Canada and Ireland extensively.                                                                      

This is not surprising, in fact, with so few opportunities to catch independent theatre on main stages, the theatre festivals have become the breeding grounds for the best of independent theatre in the country.

On that note, I’m very pleased that the GCTC is once again offering the Undercurrents festival in February. It’s a perfect opportunity to check out more independent Canadian theatre. Perhaps, some of the shows featured here will move on to main stages or, like Blood on the Moon, tour internationally.

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A Midwinter’s Dream Tale: A Very Serious Conversation with AL Connors*

*AL and HM are married, and as such are completely incapable of having a serious conversation

Photo courtesy - Andrew Alexander

HM: AL Connors. First of all, I would like to thank you for joining me in the house that we both live in.

AL: It is a pleasure to be here, as always, Heather Marie.

HM: I wanted to ask you a few questions about “A Midwinter’s Dream Tale”, opening this week at the GCTC, very big deal…

AL: Yup.

HM: Can you give me your basic 140-character summary of what the show is?

AL: #GCTCmwdt is about two clowns on a quest for ice cream who get wrapped up in a Shakespearean mash-up of the characters from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and some of the storylines from “The Winter’s Tale”.

HM: And the two protagonists in this story are…

AL: Two clowns, named Pomme Frites and ‘Restes, played by Scott Florence and Margo MacDonald.

HM: Right. And this isn’t the first time that audiences have seen Pomme and ‘Restes – I wonder if you could talk a bit about the genesis of those two characters.

Photo courtesy - Andrew Alexander

AL: Pomme and ‘Restes were first seen on stage at the 2001 Ottawa Fringe Festival in a show called “The Danish Play” (later re-made as “Shakespeare’s Danish Play”)…but rehearsing Danish Play in 2001, I don’t remember Scott or Margo ever ‘workshopping’ either Pomme or ‘Restes.. I just remember them being Pomme and ‘Restes, and, me trying to keep up as the clown named Landis in that play. So, yeah, Pomme and ‘Restes, to my knowledge, poofed into existence in 2001.

HM: That’s amazing. Midwinter’s Dream Tale takes place in what we’re told is a winter wonderland, but it’s sort of a magical winter wonderland – can you tell me about the world of the play?

AL: Yeah, it’s a land inhabited by fairies. Presumably if you’re familiar with Shakespeare, you’ll start to place the setting in reference to a “Midsummer Night’s Dream” because we’re talking about Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of the fairies. Oberon suspects Titania of being unfaithful, which is one of the stories from “Winter’s Tale”, and he suspects that she’s been with a mortal, which is presumably Bottom from “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. And it’s been about nine months since that play, so, I guess we’re outside the Athenian woods in a crazy snowy Canadian winter? Kind of?  Really, it’s fairyland.

HM: Um, do we want to address the fact that our cat is meowing incessantly?

AL: That depends on what you intend to use this recording for…I was told you were going to transcribe this. But if it’s going to be released, the cat clearly has opinions.

HM: I think she wants to be included.

AL: Yes. There is no reason why she shouldn’t be.

HM: This is the first ever co-production between a Company of Fools and the GCTC – how did that happen?

AL: I don’t really know, honestly. When we produced the show in 2009, Lise Ann and a whole bunch of folks came to see the play. I know that immediately following, Scott or Margo or both had conversations with the Great Canadian Theatre Company that were ‘hey wouldn’t it be great if we could do this big silly show at your house’. And then…14 months of nothing…and then I found out through Scott Florence, who was doing all of the actual wheeling and dealing on behalf of the show, that it was happening. Then we had to hold our tongues (that was in November/December) and not tell anyone about it until April, when the GCTC announced their season. So, that was hard. I told all kinds of people. I was pretty excited.

HM: Well, you are the director of this show…

AL: Yup.

HM: …and you directed it in 2009, and for that work you were nominated for a Rideau Award…

AL: I suppose I was.

HM: …what’s it like to be working as a director  at the GCTC?

AL: I’ve had nothing but very positive experiences working at the GCTC – first as sound designer for the Lawyer Play, for Mr. Pat Gauthier’s “The Crucible” – and I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to work on that show; to get to know everyone in the theatre and get to know how that building works, before having to come in as a director. So that experience was great for all sorts of reasons. This time around, yeah… I could totally work there, just, forever. Or at least, I don’t hate it yet. It’s still all fun and exciting and new, and a novelty for me. Everybody’s been very supportive and, I’m sure it helps that the show we’re working on is a big, inclusive, ridiculous affair that is easy for people to get excited about. You know, all the stuff gets moved into the building, and you know that there’s clowns on site, all the time.

HM: So…let’s talk about the fact there are clowns on site all the time. What is it like to direct clowns?

AL: You have to resign yourself to the fact that…um, they’re gonna want to do what they want to do, and so…sometimes you have to ask Pomme and ‘Restes what they want in a scene. It’s great. It’s truly…look, let me put it this way: working with clowns, in real life, as a professional, you’re basically just in a somewhat state of make-believe, all the time. There’s always some play happening when Pomme and ‘Restes are in the room. Period. And you can try to overthink it, which is what I just did – but the bottom line is: when clowns are in the room, at some level, no matter how hard you’re working or how frustrated you are, there’s still some play happening.

HM: Right. So, Midwinter’s Dream Tale is a comedy…

AL: Yeah, I hope so.

HM: …you work a lot in comedy…

AL: I enjoy working in comedy, yes.

HM: Tell me about directing comedy. Who are your influences when it comes to your own brand of comedy?

AL: I have never been asked who my influences are…in any situation…before…

HM: Inquiring minds want to know, AL Connors.

AL: Yeah, well, they’re about to find out. And you know who most of these influences are: I’m a fan of Judd Apatow movies, big fan of Will Ferrell…growing up my folks showed me Monty Python, so, British comedy stuff…um, lately, Stephen Colbert is probably my favourite comedian…that type of political satire is fun…I don’t have it in me to do that kind of comedy, but I enjoy it.

HM: So what kind of comedy are you thinking about when you’re directing Midwinter’s?

AL: I guess if I had to put a label on it, the kind of comedy I’m thinking about is Company of Fools.

HM: Nice.

AL: ‘Cause I’ve worked with them for over 10 years now, and over that time I’ve really come to respect and understand that flavour of comedy – it is pretty unique to that company. And I’ve watched other people try to do it, and have it be a struggle, ’cause it’s a really difficult style of comedy to pull off. Partly because… it’s in the bones of that style of comedy to be accessible. It has to be accessible to the whole rainbow of ages, and, basically we’re forcing ourselves to work within that box – to come up with ways to get the most out of not breaking all the rules. (to the cat) Isn’t that right, kitty?

HM: (to the cat) Kitty, we are doing a very serious interview right now, and you need to respect that. Now be quiet.
So, back to the topic of inspiration…

AL: You really told our cat off. And she listened…is the most impressive thing…I just had to comment on that.

HM: You just have to reason with her.

AL: I guess I didn’t give the cat enough credit.

HM:<ahem> Inspirations.

AL: Yes.

HM: How much have I inspired you, during this creative process?

AL: Um…well…okay…the writing process for the play started in August of 2009, and throughout that Fall, the Fools would have these writing meetings, where we’d get on our feet for some bits and we’d pitch story ideas…we’d get homework where everyone would have to come up with a scene and bring it back. And so I’d come home from some of these meetings, and like, toss ideas around with you, in a similar manner. And, in memory, because I love you, some of those ideas get mishmashed together, and I can’t remember whose idea some things were…

HM: That’s okay. I am just surprised you came up with an answer to that question, cause I was just kidding.
And finally, AL Connors, opening night is this Thursday night…what will you be wearing?

AL: <Sigh> I don’t know. Probably this pinky, pinstripey shirt I have that matches, or at least ties in with, some of the costumes in the show, and then with that, maybe a white tie.

HM: Thank you for this.

AL: Hey, it was my pleasure. I am happy to talk about myself.

A Midwinter’s Dream Tale, a Company of Fools production, opens December 1st at the GCTC and runs until December 18th. Family pricing is available, please see gctc.ca for all the details. 

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Constructing Reality at the Whispering Pines: A Review

A Review by Heather Marie Connors

(from l to r): Paul Rainville, Tracey Ferencz & Kris Joseph

On the surface, not much happens in “Whispering Pines”. The first act shows us the past: a couple, Bruno (played by Paul Rainville) and Renate (Tracey Ferencz) meet Thomas (Kris Joseph) a Canadian scholar doing research in East Germany. Bruno is a troubadour, famous for his songs of revolution, and Renate is a painter. Through Thomas’ eyes, there is something romantic about the socialist ideals this couple attempts to live by, despite the hardships of living in the German Democratic Republic in the late 1980s.  The second act is set in Canada twenty years later, where Renate runs a motel called the Whispering Pines, and we watch as the three characters are reunited and confront their shared past.

There are a couple of things going on beneath the surface that make this text interesting. Time and truth are represented as fluid, and the play asks to what extent truth can be shaped by imagination and art. The play seems almost to be an exercise in social constructionism. The three characters are the social group, and the practice they attempt is socialism. Rather than essentialism, where there is one truth, the truth in this play is socially constructed. That reality is derived from and maintained by social interactions explains why the interactions between the characters are constructed, reconstructed, and constructed again.

Bertol Brecht is mentioned a couple of times in this play and Brechtian techniques are loosely employed in this production; such as direct address from each of the characters, and the use of microphones for narration.

Brecht, a Marxist, was known for his explorations of dialectics. Without getting too far into it, dialectics is all about how the natural world is in a constant state of flux, as is this narrative about the lives of these three friends. That’s why the story moves fluidly through time, and the concept of truth bends and changes depending on who is doing the telling.

The fact that it is difficult to determine which version of events is the “correct” version is, I think, exactly the point. When sorting through the narratives of history, it is equally difficult to determine the ‘real’ truth.

Paul Rainville, with his amazing Wilford Brimley-esque mustache, is great as the troubadour Bruno. And in general there is a warm familiarity between the characters that gives a real sense of their history together. Tracey Ferencz is warm and lovely as Renate. Kris Joseph’s portrayal of Thomas is perhaps a little too stiff; I never quite believed he had feelings for Renate.

The set (Brian Smith) and lighting (Beth Kates) design are simple and effective, the use of projections a great way to highlight landscapes and works of art. In all the design elements were in service of the text, and this play is all about the text.

Because Bruno is a singer, and because he spends the entire first act with a guitar strapped to his gut, I did expect there to be more songs. There’s really only one – granted it’s boot-stompingly good – but it wasn’t enough to buoy up what is otherwise a low energy show.

(from l to r): Paul Rainville & Tracey Ferencz

The bottom line is that “Whispering Pines” is a slow-moving, low stakes drama. The script and characters are interesting, but there is little to no action or plot progression. The ‘before and after’ of the Berlin Wall is a backdrop to the story, but this is not exactly a political thriller. Instead, it is more of a personal story, and in the end all we know is that it is impossible to escape the past and that freedom, as a concept, remains elusive.

The lack of climactic catharsis in this story can be read as Brechtian. As the theory goes, catharsis serves only to make an audience complacent, and instead we are meant to be critical of what we have seen on the stage, to ask questions and to self-reflect. By displaying the characters’ realities as constructions, the audience is reminded that theirs too is a constructed reality, and therefore equally malleable.

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APPRAISE of the Theatre: Daniel MacIvor’s “This is What Happens Next”

Ken Godmere
[Ken is an Ottawa-based freelance actor/director with 35 years experience and offers his theatre reviews as an unbiased professional appraisal. www.kengodmere.com]

* Opening Night, Thursday May 26, 2011 *

In 2007, Daniel MacIvor, actor and playwright (The Soldier Dreams, Cul-de-Sac, House, and Monster) announced that he “would no longer be doing solo shows”. Two years later when his life imploded, the award-winning playwright approached collaborator Daniel Brooks to do “one more”. With Brooks’ condition that the stories in this one be true, MacIvor set himself to question truth and real characters in his exploration of true feelings and fears and joys. The result – This is What Happens Next – is layered, complex, and at times, obscure.

In his most autobiographical piece to date, MacIvor began by discussing at length, his arrival, what he’s going to be talking about, and why he’s telling us a story — a story about people telling stories. Is it theatre? Is it meta-theatre? It felt more like “MacIvor in concert”. A CBC Comics Special. It was definitely an interesting look at the life and into the mind of the writer. But I suppose I arrived at the restaurant expecting a meal. What I got was a description of the chef, the menu and the complex preparations, a few juicy samples and then a glass of port to wrap things up. The set and lighting were also in the style of those character-based standup routines of, say, Cathy Jones or Sandra Shamas. Sharp and quick, but static and spotlight-y. Co-creator and dramaturg, Daniel Brooks also directed the piece and he kept things brisk. But with MacIvor’s own mile-a-minute rants and the recurring self-commentary breaks, that briskness made it difficult for us to get right in and stay onboard. Even the ending (that “glass of port”) was an odd fit of instant theatricality and sentimentality in their world of  bare bluster.

On stage this evening, MacIvor’s writing was stronger than his performance. The writer’s sense of the human script (what characters say, what they don’t say, and what they change in the middle of saying) was absolutely brilliant. While the actor’s fluid comfort, consistent connection and confidence only landed near pretty good. I do understand firsthand how it can be most difficult in that kind of autobiographical exposure. Where all the elements did align and light up the night was during the fully-felt character monologues of the female lawyer and the drunken ex-husband. Daniel MacIvor hit deep and high and broad.

I don’t know if it was the project, the script or the performance that had me feeling as though we walked through some very long hallways with lots and lots of doors. And only a few were opened.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a tricky locket.

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This is What Happens Next runs through June 12, 2011.

A Necessary Angel Production
Created by Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks
Written and Performed by Daniel MacIvor
Directed and Dramaturged by Daniel Brooks

At the Great Canadian Theatre Company

Tickets available at the GCTC Box Office
www.gctc.ca
613-236-5196

This production is also part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival
www.magneticnorthfestival.ca
613-947-7000

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

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Take Pleasure in Variety: The GCTC 2011–12 Season Launch

What could a singing aviatrix, a pair of clowns chasing ice cream, and the son of a Nazi doctor possibly have in common?

All these, and more, are coming to the main stage of the Great Canadian Theatre Company in its 2011–2012 season, which launched officially Tuesday afternoon.

On the main stage of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, still set for current production The Middle Place, Associate Artistic Director Brian Quirt joined Artistic Director Lise Ann Johnson to reveal the program for the coming year, with selected previews of each production to whet everyone’s theatrical appetite.

Brian Quirt invites us to take a flight of fancy with Amelia Earhart (Eliza-Jane Scott).

The first production of the season slated for September, Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly (Festival Players of Prince Edward County), is somewhat of a departure for the GCTC. For starters, it’s a musical. Conceived by John Gray (Billy Bishop Goes to War) as something that would have the flavour of a radio play, this is the story of Amelia Earhart told in story and song, with Ottawa actress Eliza-Jane Scott playing the legendary aviatrix.

As part of its mandate, the GCTC strives to present at least one world premiere per season. At the end of October, Whispering Pines will see Brian Quirt direct Richard Sanger‘s narrative of life before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain from the perspective of two East German artists and their Canadian visitor.

With the approach of the holiday season, the mood will get lighter with Ottawa’s own A Company of Fools remounting their award-winning A Midwinter’s Dream Tale under the direction of Al Connors. This quirky fusion of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Winter’s Tale is given a characteristic Company of Fools spin with clowns Pomme (Scott Florence) and ‘Restes (Margo MacDonald), who stopped by the launch in search of ice cream and a few laughs.

If A Company of Fools is quintessentially Ottawa, Maja Ardal is equally international. In You Fancy Yourself (Contrary Company), she brings to life Elsa, a young Icelandic girl transplanted to working-class Scotland in the 1950s. This mirrors Ardal’s own upbringing, and the show came full-circle when she performed it in Edinburgh at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. From the sample performed on the spot, eliciting gales of laughter from the crowd, this will be something to look forward to in the coldest part of Ottawa’s winter.

Director Joël Beddows asks East of Berlin playwright Hannah Moscovitch about her inspiration for the piece.

Spring will bring a different kind of production entirely; the Hannah Moscovitch (The Children’s Republic) play East of Berlin, directed by fellow Ottawa native Joël Beddows. At the launch, Moscovitch spoke to Beddows (for the first time, apparently) via Skype to elaborate upon the inspiration behind the work; someone she met during her four months on a kibbutz in Israel when she was eighteen—a young man whose grandfather had been an SS officer. That evolved into this story of the son of a Nazi doctor and the daughter of a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Despite (and because of) the nature of the material, there promises to be a strong component of humour to help light the way into the darkness.

The season will wrap up as summer draws near, with American playwright Annie Baker‘s Circle Mirror Transformation, an off-Broadway success that tells the quirky story of inadvertent group therapy achieved through a theatre class.

In addition to its regular season offerings, the GCTC officially announced the return of the popular undercurrents festival for its sophomore year. Without going into too many specifics, Festival Producer Pat Gauthier hinted that this festival highlighting the best independent local and national work would feature at least one of Ottawa’s most innovative companies, as well as one of Canada’s best new work companies. undercurrents returns to the studio space at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in February (between You Fancy Yourself and East of Berlin).

If the theme of this season is variety, the GCTC is definitely aiming high and broad: a musical show, a clown show, local and international fare, stories of accusation and of redemption. To inquire about subscription packages, call the GCTC Box Office at (613) 236-5196, e-mail info@gctc.ca, or visit their website.

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Obsession’s Effects: The Shadow Cutter Opens March 10th at the GCTC

Dai Vernon.

To the average person, the name’s unfamiliar. Yet this Ottawa native who lived to the age of 98 was an internationally renowned master of close-up magic—good enough, apparently, to stump the famous Harry Houdini. How did this unassuming, intellectual man—who was also, amongst other things, a remarkable silhouette artist—become one of the most respected stage magicians of his time?

Harry Houdini (Pierre Brault) meets his match in Dai Vernon (Andy Massingham) Photo: Andrew Snowdon

The Shadow Cutter, presented by the Great Canadian Theatre Company and Sleeping Dog Theatre, casts 2010 Rideau Award nominee Andy Massingham as Vernon in a new play by Pierre Brault (who plays an assortment of supporting characters), under the direction of GCTC Associate Artistic Director, and longtime collaborator, Brian Quirt.

This production marks new territory. It’s Massingham’s debut on the GCTC main stage, and he’s undergone quite the magical transformation to take on this role. Bringing him on board has also, in effect, doubled Brault’s usual cast of one. Ottawa audiences will be perhaps most familiar with Brault and Massingham as primarily comedic actors, yet this play promises to be a drama—not a play about magic, nor strictly a biography of Vernon, but an exploration of the forces that drive someone to pursue an obsession, and the effects that pursuit has on their life and relationships. Brault, who has been working on the play for the last couple of years, goes so far as to say that The Shadow Cutter is, above all, a mystery.

That being said, you can’t tell Vernon’s story without showing some of the sleight-of-hand that made him famous. To this end, the production has engaged the services of a magic consultant, Greg Kramer; Massingham and his deck of cards have become inseperable. It’s difficult to say how much of the magic in the show will be “real”—Quirt, Brault, and Massingham each answer that question a little differently—but I’m pretty sure they have more than one surprise up their collective sleeve, and behind that mysterious red curtain.

The Shadow Cutter opens on Thursday, March 10 (previews on March 8 and 9) at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. Tickets available from the GCTC box office.

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Navigating the Undercurrents: an interview with Pat Gauthier (part 4)

With the undercurrents festival ending its successful inaugural run, Pat Gauthier probably has a chance to sit down, put his feet up, and relax for a while, right? Maybe not. . .

I’m directing The Crucible, which is the GCTC Lawyer’s Play, which is really fun. You don’t get to direct plays like The Crucible when you’re my age, and not in school, and not in community theatre. You don’t get to direct The Crucible. It has a cast of twenty-five. But the Lawyer’s Play is great because it’s a fundraiser and the lawyers all act for free. They get professional directors, designers, stage managers. . . we’re all professionals, we’re all being paid, great. I get to work on a play that I love, and would not get to do under any other circumstance. It’s a fun thing to do. The money raised goes to GCTC and a partner charity, so it’s a nice community thing. And they’re fun to work with. Lawyers are fun to work with.

What’s that like?

It’s interesting. There’s different dynamics, because you have people who’ve done it for years and years and years with the Lawyer’s Play, and some of them had acting backgrounds; they’d acted in university. A couple of them have BFAs in Acting, because they did it, they tried it—

Acting’s not that different from. . .

Well, exactly. They took their BFAs and did their Acting undergrad and then either decided at the end that they didn’t want to do it, or they tried it for a couple of years and then got frustrated with the business—which I absolutely understand—and then went to law school. GCTC’s done the Lawyer’s Play for. . . this is the twelfth one. They also have a base of actors who’ve been working with professional directors for twelve years, so they’re people who are, you know, pretty good actors. You’ve got a great kind of working relationship with them, and they understand you when you talk, and you say things like “What’s your objective in this scene?” and they know what you mean. You can talk to them almost like you could to a professional actor. So it’s super-fun. It’s a long process, right? It’s been in rehearsal since February, and it opens in May, so it’s three nights a week, or two nights and a weekend, for all that time. It’s a long process, which I prefer—another reason I like independent theatre, because I can dictate the terms that I work on. A traditional rehearsal process is two weeks in the rehearsal hall, one week in the theatre, opening night. I hate that. To really explore a play in two weeks plus tech is not enough time. But to work with an actor on Tuesday, and then again on Thursday, and then again on Sunday, the amount of time that they can put into thinking about it outside of rehearsal, the time I can put into thinking about it—I’m making that decision, but I don’t need to make it today, I can make it in two days, whereas if I were in a rehearsal hall, I’ve gotta make that decision today, because the crew’s got to build the thing because it’s got to get on set ready for us to be on stage in five days, right? I’d like that time for things to kind of marinate. Which is how it worked for Airport Security. We did a week of rehearsal, and then took ten days off, and then we did eighty hours spread over four weeks? [calling to Kate Smith, in the other room working on grant applications] Kate? Four weeks, I think, instead of doing eight hours a day for two weeks, we did five hours a day for three-and-a-half or something, or did a rehearsal and took two days off. Two days in a row. We had a staggered schedule which, again, just allowed everything to take the time that it needed, or that we could give it. So, there’s the lawyer play, we’re doing the [Ottawa] Fringe [Festival] thing again. . . I love the Fringe. I think the Fringe is great. It’s two weeks where I’m getting paid to sit around, watch plays, and drink beer with my friends. It’s pretty much a great job. “Okay, I’ll tweet about [Ottawa Fringe Festival Executive Director] Natalie [Joy Quesnel], sure, whatever you said. Alright, and I’ll organize the Wine and Cheese; that’s annoying, but you know, organizing it. I’ll plan events.” And [Gruppo] Rubato just had a big thing. We planned out our next five years; we did our five-year plan, and we’re hoping to produce in three consecutive years: 2012, 2013, and 2014. We’ve got three new shows lined up. The trick with Rubato is we do all new work, so it’s not as easy as finding plays, reading a play, and liking it. There’s so much more that goes into it. We’ve got a new play by an emerging artist coming up in 2012, something by Kris Joseph in 2013, and by me in 2014. Which gives me a lot of. . . because I take forever to write.

That’s sort of encouraging for those of us that take a lot of time.

I started writing Airport Security when we were touring Churchill Protocol in 2007. We got back from tour and I sent Kris the first scene, and I was like, “Hey, this is the stuff I was working on tour but didn’t show you for some reason.” And he was like, “Yeah, let’s do this next.” It just took three years from that. But part of that was writing, part of it was getting the funding together, and part of that was the space at the GCTC. I like that space; it’s expensive, but again, being in that building, an audience trusts you more, I think, right now, than being in Arts Court. Not that that’s right. But, it’s just what happens, right?

A certain level of consecration.

Totally.

You’re paying for the packaging.

Pretty much. Box office is paid for, and all that stuff’s included. It’s included too at Arts Court, but the fact that people don’t call Arts Court, to my knowledge, and say “Hey, what’s playing?” whereas people will call the GCTC box office and say “Hey, what’s on right now?” “Oh, this is in our Studio. . . this is on our main stage. . .” And if you’re really nice to the box office, they’ll push your show a bit harder.

How much do grants, and the grant application process timing, and that kind of availability of semi-public funds drive what you do and when you do it?

It doesn’t drive when we do it. It drives when we talk about when we’re doing it, and it drives when you really think about it. I’m writing grants now. Rubato has gotten into a bit of a rhythm in terms of how we like to work, how we like to develop where we like to do. We like to write, and we like to do stuff kind of privately and not get granting art regions involved; do writing, do private readings with just us. “Hey, we’re doing this play and come read it and drink beer.” Very informal kind of stuff. Then we get to a place where we like it; we get the granting regions involved then, we get involved in the granting process then. We like to do workshops; we like to do one, maybe two, but one is usually enough by the time we’re going for grants. One is enough workshops, plus the ancillary stuff that we’ll do without getting paid to. One is usually good for us, and then we go for production. But we’re very grant-dependent because we’re independent. We don’t have that subscription base. Not getting a grant won’t necessarily mean the project won’t happen, but not getting multiple grants means it won’t. We apply for three and get two? Oh, yeah—totally fine. We’ll just have to make a few. . . we’ll have to trim some things, clearly, but we’re fine. We get one? Erm, tight. . . mmm. . . scale back. . . might have to cut an actor, but possible. We get none of them, we can’t. We just can’t rely on ticket sales alone, because we can’t charge—I’d feel bad charging if we charged what was the actual cost. It’d be $75 to see a show in the studio at the GCTC. No f—king way, right? In Vancouver. . . all this arts funding cut stuff was happening in BC, right? I don’t know if you heard about any of it?

Refresh my memory.

It was about a year ago now, pre/post Olympics, and the BC Arts Council, the government of BC decided to rethink how it funds the arts, and funding was cut by 91% or something. You know, something ridiculous. It was how lottery and gaming money was distributed; because a lot of lottery money and legalized gambling money went to arts groups. There was all that money and “How are we going to distribute that?” too, so a lot of these small companies were either going to be cut off from their operating funding, or there would be so little project funding—which is what a company like Rubato works on; we don’t have the consistent operating funding, we apply per project—for a lot of the groups that apply on a per-project basis, the pool would be shrunk so greatly that it would be next to impossible to get any amount of funding that would be worth anything. A thousand bucks is a thousand bucks, but it’s not going to put a show up for you. I think it was an opera company in Vancouver who were like “Well, okay, so we’ll just ticket what the market will bear, we’ll start charging what we need to cover our costs,” and the cheapest ticket was $261. The cheapest upper-upper-upper balcony, you need two pairs of opera goggles to see the stage.

That was for an opera company?

Opera’s different; opera’s incredibly expensive, but still. When the cheapest ticket is that? A lot of it was to make a statement. I don’t know how far. . . I mean, I wasn’t living there at the time so I was following it, but peripherally. But it puts things into perspective.

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APPRAISE of the Theatre: undercurrents festival at GCTC

– by Ken Godmere
[Ken Godmere is an Ottawa-based freelance actor/director with 35 years experience and offers his theatre reviews as an unbiased professional appraisal. www.kengodmere.com]

My favourite moments of time occur when the house lights fade out in a theatre. After that, anything is possible. With raw, risky, new works on the programme for the undercurrents Festival at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, everything is possible. undercurrents, Theatre Below the Mainstream celebrates its inaugural festival January 26 through February 6, 2011.

* * * * *

Bifurcate Me
created by Julie Le Gal, Andy Massingham, and Kevin Orr
A Theatre 4.669 production
Directed by Kevin Orr
Featuring Julie Le Gal and Andy Massingham

Saturday January 29, 2011. The script for this production would probably look less like a typical sheaf of typed pages and more like the mathematical equations on the chalkboards used in the on-stage set. Based on scientist Mitchell Feigenbaum’s 1970′s experiments in fluid turbulence, Bifurcate Me expresses these “chaos theory” findings in the dynamics of why and how humans fall. Two scientific test subjects, Julie (who only speaks French) and Andy (who only speaks english) take directions from the loudspeaker voice in the lab as they follow the step-by-step instructions to fall in every variation imaginable. This “Cirque” of human movement and interaction doesn’t contain much narrative or deep character development beyond the premise, but the production is totally conscious of that. And it works. Andy Massingham’s interest, expertise, and experimentation has become the “experiment” in the plot itself. And while I was appreciative of the work and the fun, I felt that his mastery of the medium occasionally left him less subjective and innocent than was required by his character. Julie Le Gal, as well, literally threw herself into the piece with strength and fun, but was bumped out of the minimal character framework when she wasn’t convincingly able to keep a straight face in some of the comic beats. Director Kevin Orr found a fun control within the chaos; many beautiful images of bodies in space and time; and some warm human colours in a script with only a primary palette. Jon Lockhart’s elementally creative set design was inspired and interactive with two large chalkboard stands framing a chalkboard floor; opposite a clinical filing cabinet that produced the few necessary props in a Mr. Dressup tickle-trunk fashion.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | and precisely cut, but rather square.

* * * * *

Shadows
by Margo MacDonald
A Queen Mab/Parry Riposte production
Directed by Diana Fajrajsl
Featuring Margo MacDonald and Sarah Finn

Saturday January 29, 2011. This fascinating story about 1930′s theatre diva Eva Le Gallienne peers into her struggles with her art, alcoholism, disfigurement and sexuality. Ms MacDonald’s script boldly unravels many layers and lengths in an array of hard and soft moments in the actress’s life. And the staging of this play is both bright and brisk. Director, Diana Fajrajsl keeps the dozen or more scenes confident and clean; attractive and appealing. The dramatic set and lighting design by Lynn Cox not only supported the moods and moments, but actually ignited them. Sarah Finn, as Eva’s protege and lover, shared beautifully sensitive moments with her girlfriend and with us – this within quick scene changes and time jumps. Unfortunately, I was less enchanted by Margo MacDonald’s performance in the play. With all her daring and dramatic choices, there was a constant stagy/stodgy layer about it. It did not seem to fit with the other style choices, the raw truths of the text, and the context of stripping down (literally and metaphorically) in her private dressing room.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | with some flatter reflections.

* * * * *

Hard Ways
by Jason Cadieux
An Essential Collective Theatre Company production
Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley
Featuring Jason Cadieux

January 29, 2011. The script, at first, seems pedestrian and predictable. A man sits alone in an American Customs interrogation room. There are the cursory introductions — “Where am I?”, “Is there someone on the other side of this glass?”, etc – and the expected expository beats filling in the back-story. It kind of felt like dancing the box-step to a single instrument accompaniment. And it is this seemingly simple yet pleasant, average sort of pace that has us sit back and watch and wait. And exhale. It is then that we find the character, and ourselves, in a tightening grip that will not let us breathe in again until several minutes after we leave the theatre. I’m going to leave it at that. No spoilers here. A surprisingly affecting piece. The simple set of a locked door, a utilitarian table and chairs, and a fitting water cooler, were aptly familiar, strong and mostly un-obtrusive. Simple location-changing lighting and sound effects were subtle, but perhaps not strong enough to bring us back and forth cleanly. And I feel that that the “not quite strong enough” description may be part of the direction as well. Sarah Garton Stanley did well in the plotting and pacing, but was often awkward in the physical staging elements. And then, again, the “awkward physical staging” may have been in Jason Cadieux’s performance. A strong, energetic story-teller, Mr. Cadieux was powerful in his presence on the stage, but was less effective in the dynamic transitions between spaces and characters.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | with a good weight, yet a bit clunky.

* * * * *

This Is A Recording
by Kelly Rigole and Simon Bradshaw
A Ditto Productions production
Directed by Natalie Joy Quesnel
Featuring Kelly Rigole and Simon Bradshaw

February 5, 2011. The concept: audio interviews with real people are turned into monologues that the actors perform (including all the rhythm and music of the original human voice). Verbatim. And the concept is eerily intriguing — capturing true human moments too often elusive for the writer and the actor. This concept and the chosen passages have become the majority of the script in This Is A Recording; with the opening, middle transition, and closing segments coming directly from the actors’ words as they were developing the project itself. Although there were several powerful moments within the monologues, the structure and the pace of the piece, as a whole, sagged and lagged. Sadly, the presentation format was vague and director Natalie Joy Quesnel’s flow was inconsistent, with staging and transitions seeming more like acting class exercises than theatre for the audience. The individual performances from Rigole and Bradshaw found some nice hot spots and fun explorations of the real people, but were not enough to buoy the production physically or emotionally, leaving it feeling twice as long as it was.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | — an ore that could be more.

* * * * *

Spent
by Dean Gilmour, Adam Paolazza, Ravi Jain, and Michele Smith
A Why Not Theatre and TheatreRun Production originally produced by Theatre Smith-Gilmour
Directed by Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith
Featuring Adam Paolozza and Ravi Jain

February 5, 2011. The script is a crisp, clean, clever sketch-comedy look at the social economic world of finance and the characters that inhabit it. Picture the best of “The Daily Show” living in “The Second City” and multiplied by “22 Minutes”. The bare, tightly-lit staging was concise and concentrated. I salute the directing team for delivering a beautiful balance of the verbal, mixed with the physical, in an entire production of bounce and bite – some of the best I’ve ever seen in this style of theatre. One – or actually TWO – of the best choices they made was in casting Adam Paolozza and Ravi Jain to play the dozens of characters necessary to bring Spent to life. Both of these gentlemen were at the top of their game in the dynamic performance of this satirical material. But where they really impressed the audience was in their total commitment to each character; to each scene; to each beat. Their generosity was appreciated, applauded, and acclaimed for the entire 60 minutes. And beyond.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | polished, and seemingly lit from within.

* * * * *

The undercurrents festival continues at the GCTC through February 6, 2011

For more information or to buy tickets and multi-show passes:
Contact the GCTC Box Office, 613-236-5196
The Great Canadian Theatre Company
1233 Wellington St. W. (at Holland)

Ticket prices:
Single tickets = $15.00
3-show Pass = $40.00
6-show Pass = $60.00
__________

[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

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Navigating the Undercurrents: an interview with Pat Gauthier (Part 2)

The undercurrents festival is now well underway at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. When I spoke with Pat Gauthier a couple of weeks ago, he shared some insight into the decision process behind the lineup, and the spectrum of artistic creation that is represented across these six shows.

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