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Posts Tagged ‘Theatre’
On the Future of Fringe: HM Scheerschmidt and the inspiration behind the Lunchtime Artist Series
Heather Marie Scheerschmidt has a profound love for the Fringe. At times it borders on the maternal.
She was, after all, the General Manager of the Ottawa Fringe Festival for two years. Before that, she had a long history of involvement in theatre and the Fringe, stretching back to the Edmonton Fringe in Alberta, where she grew up. If someone can claim to have seen it all, it’s Heather Marie.
This year, she’s trying something new—the Lunchtime Artist Series. Every day from Monday, June 21 through Friday, June 25 at noon in the Courtyard, some of the creative people behind the Fringe productions will be taking part in panel discussions that promise to be lively and insightful, revealing aspects of the creative process that aren’t normally seen. We met on the patio at the Bridgehead (coincidentally, one of the co-sponsors of the Series) on Dalhousie to talk about the future of the Fringe, the business of art, and the purpose of her project.
Heather Marie has spent a lot of time examining the role Fringe plays in theatre. There is a stereotyped perception of the Fringe; the kind of production that many people associate with it is, as she puts it, “characterized as either ‘on the Fringe’—stuff that is virtually unproduceable anywhere else, so that’s where it ends up—or as an end unto itself.” Undoubtedly, some productions do fall into those categories, and the Fringe serves to provide these shows with a chance to be produced. It also serves a third, more relevant and vital purpose, “the development of new work and new artists.”
Indeed, for the playwrights, directors, and actors who find their feet at the Fringe, it’s the crucible for new works and the testing ground for emerging talent.
The Fringe as a model is not that old; there hasn’t been a lot of formal research into the subject. Even in its short history, it has undergone a startling evolution, from a grassroots word-of-mouth festival to advance ticket sales, corporate sponsorship, and a staggering online presence.
Canada has more Fringe festivals than any other country, with Edmonton at the vanguard of the model. This is due in part, according to Heather Marie, to the touring opportunity presented by having cities spread out across such a vast territory.
How have things changed over the years? “It used to be that you showed up at the Fringe and found the longest lineup.” The general trend towards online advance ticket sales marks a distinct shift in the way people interact.
Purchasing tickets in advance means people want to know what they’re going to see is worth the money. To Heather Marie, this raises the question, “How long can you keep it non-juried?” Take, for example, the fairly recent phenomenon of Bring Your Own Venues (BYOVs), where production companies that do not win a spot in the regular lineup (the “traditional” Fringe method is to award by lottery) can choose to host their own performances away from the main venues, still under the Fringe banner. “That’s programming,” she points out, “that’s not a lottery anymore.”
Does she think that’s taking away from the essence of the Fringe?
“Purists would say yes,” she said, but she doesn’t see it as intrinsically a negative evolution. “Fringe festivals can’t survive unless they find ways of making money. They can’t survive on grants alone.”
“Sponsorship is difficult because you can’t control the content.” Corporate sponsors shy away from association with shows that could be controversial or even just weird. They’re more comfortable with popular content and shows that cater to the lowest-common-denominator audience.
Fringe festivals, and the artists involved, are constantly faced with this seeming dichotomy of artistic integrity versus economic viability, amongst other issues.
The concept for the Artist Series evolved, simply put, from the beer tent.
Rather, as Heather Marie explained to me, it came from the dynamic that arises when artists are mingling freely with the media and the general public in the Fringe Courtyard (almost universally referred to as “the beer tent”). “The Ottawa Fringe is at this perfect size where we can appreciate both sides. Here, the artists are accessible. There’s no separate beer tent,” referring to other Fringe festivals where the artists socialize separately from the public.
“So many of the shows are things that people are creating themselves,” and talking to the artists directly is a “huge opportunity to find out what drives them, what inspires them.” With the Artist Series, she intends to recreate that “networking that naturally, organically happens in the beer tent, to provide an alternative to that, separate it out from the beer tent, because that kind of networking doesn’t work for everybody.”
“It’s just an idea I pitched to Nat [Natalie Joy Quesnel, the Fringe Executive Producer] less than a week after last year’s Fringe wrapped up. I think it’s amazing that she’ll let me do it.”
Although she’s thrilled that the Bare-knuckle Debate is gaining momentum, with participants e-mailing her already very seriously into it, Ignite the Fringe has her most excited. This panel takes the familiar Ignite format (where speakers make their point in only five minutes), which she chose because she loves the model. “Every artist I’ve asked to participate has a positive response. I chose people I knew would ‘bring it.’”
Heather Marie is confident that it will be a successful series. “I can’t help but think… the things I’m interested in might be interesting to other people.”
Does she think social media is helping to preserve the grassroots nature of the Fringe? It’s hard to say. Some performers “still want to see their picture in the paper.” But Heather Marie recognizes the potential of social media tools as a promotional medium.
“What I’m doing is… obviously I’m using the same kind of methods as the Fringe in reaching people. I hope that what I’m doing capitalizes on that.” Social media provides a way that artists can “promote what they’re doing without having to perform.”
For those involved in the Fringe, Heather Marie hopes the Artist Series will mark the beginning of the Fringe day. “It’s like our morning. Except it happens to be at noon,” She mentions that it gives out-of-town artists (many of whom are being billeted with local families) something to do and something to be a part of outside of their performance.
Heather Marie makes it clear that she’s not necessarily trying to reach everybody.
“Essentially it’s an industry event,” she says, “you have to be interested in the Fringe to begin with.” Artistic integrity is paramount for Heather Marie. She recounts a potential sponsorship that didn’t pan out because the other party wasn’t interested in a “non-audience-building” event. “I wasn’t going to dumb this down.”
If the Artist Series is as successful as Heather Marie believes it will be, she plans to take the idea to other festivals. She has already spoken with (Lunchtime Artist Series co-sponsors) Magnetic North Theatre Festival, the NAC, and a few others.
For Fringe and theatre enthusiasts, the Lunchtime Artist Series is pretty much a mandatory event. Anyone with a healthy curiosity as to what really goes on from the artist’s perspective will find it a valuable experience, and time well spent. Artists from other disciplines might find something that resonates with them. Even people from outside the arts community who want a first-hand understanding of how that world works would do well to consider attending.
The Lunchtime Artist Series is Pay-What-You-Can, and food will be available on site.
Appetite for Productions: the 14th Annual Ottawa Fringe Festival
In the dim light of the Academic Hall theatre, an impossibly tall man in a dark suit and tie locked eyes with me and leaned across the front row. His penetrating gaze froze me to my seat.
Ever since I started masquerading as a theatre journalist, I knew this day would come.
“Are you aware of the Communist threat here in Ottawa?”
Of course, it was only Sterling Lynch of G-Men Defectives, stack of promo cards in hand.
See, this is why I love the Fringe: everyone’s already in character, and it’s still over two weeks away.
The 14th annual Ottawa Fringe Festival is playing host to 60 production companies, at an unprecedented 16 venues (most within about 20 minutes’ walking distance from each other) over ten days. It works out to just under 400 events, if you count the parties. That’s a lot of theatre.
Ottawa Fringe Festival Executive Producer Natalie Joy-Quesnel took the podium to kick things off with an explanation of this year’s theme: food. The “Fringe Feast” advertisements are up everywhere around the city and online; like the best hotel buffet, the Ottawa Fringe Festival “always has something for everyone.” Indeed, this year’s offerings span the spectrum from puppet shows to phone sex, from poetry to dance, from intimate vignettes centred on Ottawa to surreal comedy from Japan.
Yes, Japan. We’re on the cultural map, folks: start building hotels.
Competition for spots in the Fringe was particularly fierce this year; the expansion from five to eleven Bring Your Own Venues outside of the main five venues is a result of this, and even then the Fringe had to turn away some applicants. Margo MacDonald’s Shadows only made the program at the last minute, as a spot opened up.
Ottawa festivals are usually a stretch for parents, especially on the weekends; this year the Orleans Young Players Theatre School will be running Mini-Fringers—an afternoon-long drama camp—in the Courtyard on both Saturdays. Drop your kids (aged four to thirteen) off, see some shows less than five minutes away, and return to be treated to a performance at the end of the afternoon.
This also marks the first year that the Fringe is a registered charity. As always, 100% of box-office sales go to the production companies—the Fringe makes no money from ticket sales. This year, the Fringe has teamed up with three charities to form the Fringe It Forward fundraising campaign; donation boxes will be at each venue, with the proceeds being split half between the Fringe, and the other half to partners Hopewell, Jer’s Vision / Day of Pink, and Big Brothers Big Sisters Ottawa.
If you’re looking for a souvenir of the Fringe (which you should), there will be more merchandise options available than ever before: bracelets (that I’ve been repeatedly assured are fabulous, but have yet to see), T-shirts (for the first time T-shirts will be available for purchase; previously you either had to be a volunteer or staff, or plead really hard with cash in hand to get one), and even Fringe beer steins that you can have labelled with your name and store in the beer tent, in the name of convenience and waste reduction.
We were treated to a video preview of some of the local Ottawa shows, including Deliver’d from Nowhere, Mixing Boal: Kitchen of the Oppressed, and The Initial Reaction. Of course, there were performers, playwrights, directors, and producers on-hand in the audience including, but not limited to, Wayne Current and Nadine Thornhill (Prisoner’s Dilemma), Jessica Ruano (Capital Poetry Rocks the Fringe), and Emma Zabloski (Six: At Home).
Pat Gauthier, Community Manager, took the stage to mention the Fringe’s Facebook and Twitter presence, as well as FullyFringed, a combined initiative of Apt. 613 and the Wellington Oracle (with help from OttawaTonite, via yours truly) to review every single Fringe show—a phenomenal undertaking, beyond the scope of any one website, and another first for this year.
We think about the Ottawa Fringe Festival as being a local event; it’s easy to forget that it showcases acts from across the country. Emily Pearlman previewed a selection of the 20 shows from across Canada that will be a part of this year’s Fringe, including nine from Toronto. Of particular note are It’s Raining in Barcelona, a Saskatoon production translated from the original Catalan, and The Duck Wife, in which a dance troupe brings an ancient Inuit folk tale to life accompanied by live band Grub Animal.
Not that we’re not doing amazing things here at home: Heather-Marie Scheerschmidt, for one, will be presenting the Lunchtime Artist Series. These five sessions are pay-what-you-can, each showcasing a different aspect of the theatre art through interviews and discussions with playwrights and performers. (Her indescribable video interview with herself was also the most hilarious thing I’ve seen on a screen in some time.)
Did I mention Japan? Pierre Brault gave a taste of the international flavour that the Fringe has to offer. Productions from Boston, Glasgow, Melbourne, and all over the globe will be visiting Ottawa. I’m particularly interested in seeing David Gaines of Arlington, Virginia, in his one-man show 7 (x1) Samurai, in which he plays 47 different characters, as well as Breaking Down in America, from Burbank, California, chronicling a cross-country roadtrip taken in a $500 car. And it would be rude of me not to see A Day in the Life of Miss Hiccup, seeing as how Infinity Live Productions is coming all the way from Japan to perform.
After the presentation, as I was siphoning fruit juice over at the well-appointed refreshments table I spoke with Louisa and Julie, the Fringe’s Volunteer Co-ordinators. Good news: they have received a lot of interest from people ready and willing to volunteer. Better news: they still need more—it’s not too late for you to sign up! Best news: I agreed to take at least one volunteer shift this year…
The variety of different shows—and different styles of shows—that this year’s Ottawa Fringe Festival has to offer staggers the imagination. To help you navigate all of your Fringe options, stay tuned to OttawaTonite for insight into the backstory and the artists behind some of these productions, the Ottawa Fringe Festival official website for previews and updates, and visit FullyFringed for independent reviews.
Andrew Snowdon is a theatregoer, concert attendee, writer, and proud returning Ottawa Fringe Festival volunteer living in Lowertown, Ottawa, sandwiched between a MacBook and a typewriter, with a cup of coffee.
The Ottawa Fringe Festival needs YOU!
The Ottawa Fringe Festival is less than a month away.
With 65 different shows at 16 different venues over ten days (June 17–27), it promises to be the biggest, most ambitious Fringe that Ottawa has ever seen. The theatre community is in overdrive.
Performers are rehearsing and perfecting their shows. Playwrights are making last-minute changes to scripts. Stage managers are sourcing props. Set designers are painting, sawing, stapling, and gluing. The Fringe staff are working long hours in the office (dubbed “the kitchen” in keeping with this year’s Fringe Feast theme) proofing the Festival brochure and making things work behind the scenes. Families are preparing to host out-of-town performers in their homes. Theatre reviewers are sharpening their pencils.
You’d like to be part of that, right?
Louisa and Julie from the Ottawa Fringe Festival Volunteer Co-ordination Team invite you to volunteer with the Ottawa Fringe Festival. As someone who spent last summer volunteering for the Fringe, I strongly suggest that you take them up on the offer.
Two happy Ottawa Fringe Festival volunteers. This could be you!
Each volunteer gets:
I still regularly wear my Fringe volunteer shirt with pride. The free admissions let me see shows I wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to see (like the fabulous Pitch Blonde). As for meeting people, I met other volunteers, local performers, performers visiting from across Canada, the US, and from the UK, and plenty of local media. It was an immensely rewarding experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Sign up to volunteer by visiting the Ottawa Fringe website or e-mailing volunteer@ottawafringe.com.
Tell them OttawaTonite sent you.
Andrew Snowdon is busily sharpening his pencil in preparation for a tight review schedule, but may take a few volunteer shifts too.
GCTC launches a 2010-11 season full of character(s)
The GCTC is calling the 2010-11 season of drama (its fourth season at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre) “Theatre with Character.” You might as easily call it “Theatrical stew” for the melding of ingredients. The season includes a singularly appropriate play for this time, Vern Thiessen’s Vimy; two plays translated from French texts (“The List” by Jennifer Tremblay and translated by Shelley Tepperman and “Strawberries in January” by Evelyne de la Chenelière and translated by Morwyn Brebner), “The Shadow Cutter,” a new two-man production by Ottawa-based force of nature Pierre Brault about Ottawa-born magician Dai Vernon, and a play called “The Middle Place”, taken from source material gathered from homeless youth in Toronto, and a play by Canadian favorite Daniel McIvor.
In fact, theatergoers in Ottawa can see “The List” in September at the GCTC, then see “La Liste” en francais at the NAC in March. How often do you get to do that?!
Mix in to that co-productions with Theatre Passe Muraille, the NAC English Theatre (the first such collaboration between the two organizations ever), and Magnetic North, season sponsorship by Domicile Developments, which is putting a new condo tower up across from the GCTC’s home base, and the new “Undercurrents” festival in the smaller Studio Theatre and you have what promises to be a tasty gumbo.
The season launch featured excerpts from a number of the plays being produced read by a number of actors familiar to Ottawa Theatre audiences — including Pierre Brault, Annie Lefebvre, John Jonathan Koensgen (oops — too used to seeing and thinking of John!) and Kelly Rigole. Author of “The Middle Place” Andrew Kushnir Skyped in from Edmonton to talk about his play.
The graphic look for the season is a bold one, and one that some more conservative theatergoers may find childish. The GCTC asked graphic novelists from across the country (Ray Fawkes, Ethan Rilly, Faith Erin Hicks, Jeff Lemire, Salgood Sam, and Sadax) to render the plays in their own style. My only worry is that if I spend the year looking at graphics for a play, will the graphic look be so strong as to colour my perception of what actually happens on the stage.
Let’s hope this stew tastes as good in a few months as it smells now. But for now, let’s just enjoy the aroma and anticipate…
(The next play in the current season is Arthur Milner’s Facts, a “politically-charged murder mystery”, opening April 13.
Cube Salon: tempus
Tempus fugit. Time is fleeting.
That’s what I was thinking as I looked down at my iPhone, hand freezing to it in the cold wind outside Cube Gallery, waiting for my friend Crystal (recruited as a last-minute photographer) to join me for tempus, the first installment in the current Cube Salon series, and the last performance at Cube’s Hamilton Avenue location.
Once inside, we were greeted by Evan Thornton, whom we’d both met in his role as theatre reviewer for the Wellington Oracle while we were volunteering for the Ottawa Fringe Festival this past summer. He welcomed us to the Salon, showed us where to put our coats, and recommended the Qu&ecaute;bec cider cheese.
As we were deciding where to sit, a very tall man with a sheaf of papers in his hand walked out of the back section of the gallery. It was Sterling Lynch, holding a copy of his play Home in Time; I waved, and he came over to shake our hands. Although I’d read the play (thoroughly, making notes), seen him perform (particularly in Nadine Thornhill’s Oreo this past Fringe season), read his blog Movement, and had numerous interactions with him over Twitter, this was my first time meeting him in person.
We chose seats in the second row, to stage right. Wayne Current dropped by to say hi; we had sat together at the GCTC for the opening night of BASH’d! and had a conversation about social media during the afterparty. Now, in suit and striped tie, he was preparing to read the stage directions for Home in Time. Wayne is producing Sterling’s companion play, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, for next year’s Ottawa Fringe. For once, I detected a touch of nervousness in Wayne’s normally entirely confident demeanour.
Curator Don Monet welcomed us with a brief explanation of how the salon concept started in 16th-century France, and how the Salon series put on by Cube were an attempt to recapture that sharing and co-operation between the arts. He went over the agenda for the evening, which included music, poetry, and theatre, as we enjoyed our wine and basked in the presence of the art on the gallery walls.
John Carroll, wearing a fedora and wool sportcoat, sat down and picked up his guitar, starting the show with a song by Dan Weisenberger from Vancouver Island, then his own Lost Radio (available on his CD ), before going on to play New Leaf, and finishing with Boldly When I Go.
Next, Jonathan Koensgen took the stage, and performed a reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, but with such clear emotion and theatrical cadence that this familiar poem seemed to take on new depth of meaning. The poem, describing as it does a state of immortality and timelessness, was well-chosen, perfectly in keeping with the evening’s theme.
We took a break, and I took the chance to chat with Breanna, about to play her part in Sterling’s Home in Time. She, like everyone else in the Ottawa theatre scene, has some pretty insightful things to say about theatre and the arts, and we ended up talking about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, of all things.
Don came out to introduce Sterling and the other actors. Before he did that, he asked us to look up at the ceiling. I could see plastic glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to wood planks. Don told us that those planks were the reason that musicians, particularly jazz musicians, loved to play in this room; the ceiling being made entirely of old-growth BC red cedar, there was no echo, and the timbre was perfect.
“You’re some of the last people to enjoy this,” he said.
I was eager to finally see Home in Time, even as only a partial staged reading. The centrepiece of the evening brought the words of the play to life, with a crisp, well-rehearsed reading by Wayne, Breanna, Colleen Sutton (who was also in Oreo), and Sterling himself.
Having read the play (which I highly recommend), I was acutely aware of the audience’s reactions to nuances of the plot and the dialogue for which I was already prepared. I also wondered (since the play in full is supposed to run just short of an hour) at what point they would cut it; the dialogue flows at a pace that makes it difficult to find a lull or natural break in the action. The point they chose was extremely effective, and definitely left the audience wanting more.
Sterling mentioned that, due to the attention the recent award had brought to the play, Peter Hinton of the NAC had arranged a full staged reading of the play for April.
Koensgen came out again holding a thick book, which he explained had been given to him that day by his mother as a gift; it was the Norton Anthology of Poetry. Having been called in at the last minute to fill in for Kel Parsons, due to illness, it turned out to be a well-timed gift indeed. Jonathan performed a stirring, brilliant interpretation of Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, a poem in stark contrast to Kubla Khan, dealing with the ephemeral, transitive, impermanent nature of experience.
John Carroll set down a glass of red wine beside his chair and took up his guitar to finish off the show with more of his inspiring blues and roots vocals, lap steel, and acoustic guitar. It’s tempting to go catch him some Wednesday evening at the Chateau Lafayette, where he is something of a fixture.
We went over to chat with Sterling, Evan, and Don over at the bar. We talked for a while about arts blogging in Ottawa, particularly the necessity of covering each and every one of the Fringe Festival’s shows this year. I turned the Salon promo piece over in my hands and asked, “Why this?” Banksy’s well-known image of the protester about to overhand a bouquet of flowers in place of a Molotov cocktail was the image they’d chosen to represent the series. The general consensus was that the image was meant to convey the idea of artistic revolution.
I leaned on the bar and asked Don what was going to happen to the Cube Gallery space. “We’ve got it until March 1st,” he said. After that, it would be an antique furniture showroom until the owners had it torn down to make way for a condo development. I hung my head.
As we left, I looked up at the red cedar ceiling, wondering how many fleeting moments like this those beautiful strips of wood had witnessed over the years.
The next installment in the series, memento, will be at Cube Gallery’s new location, 1285 Wellington Street West, on March 13th at 7:30 pm. In the meantime, I recommend listening to pretty much anything by John Carroll, Paranoid Android by Radiohead, and, although it’s tempting, not Iron Maiden’s Two Minutes to Midnight.
Andrew Snowdon is a theatregoer, concert attendee, and writer. He lives in Lowertown, Ottawa, between a typewriter and a MacBook, with a cup of coffee.
Tickets to GIVE AWAY to see STOMP on March 2nd! WINNER has been chosen!
Thanks to everyone who replied to our contest for FREE TICKETS to see STOMP at the NAC on Tuesday, March 2nd!
The draw has been completed and the WINNER has been contacted. Enjoy the show!
Many thanks to Shana Levin and Broadway Across America for the tickets!
STOMP is explosive, provocative, sophisticated, sexy, utterly unique and appeals to audiences of all ages. The international percussion sensation has garnered an armful of awards and rave reviews, and has appeared on numerous national television shows. The eight-member troupe uses everything but conventional percussion instruments – matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters, hubcaps – to fill the stage with magnificent rhythms.
The return of the percussive hit also brings some new surprises, with some sections of the show now updated and restructured and the addition of two new full-scale routines, utilizing props like tractor tire inner tubes and paint cans.
As USA Today says, “STOMP finds beautiful noises in the strangest places.”
STOMP. See what all the noise is about.
Check out STOMP here! (official show site)
Peter Pan Soars at Carleton University
It’s the classic story of the boy who refuses to grow up, leading a band of boys to battle pirates, while aided by a rather cheeky fairy. Carleton University’s Sock ‘n’ Buskin Theatre Company brings Peter Pan to life over the next two weekends, and does so delightfully.
Director Zach Counsil, a Rideau Award nominee, achieves a fine balance between presenting the upper middle-class domesticity of the Darling household, and the fantastical world of Neverland. He emphasizes the sense of make-believe and child’s play in the production, where days are spent hunting pirates and mermaids, food fights at the dinner table are mandatory, and during sword fights, pirates are killed and then get back up again at the end to fight another day.
Ashley Robinson as Peter Pan ably leads the 35-strong cast with a boyish bravado and daring-do, continuing a long-held theatre tradition of casting a woman in the role. Robinson, a student in the University of Ottawa’s Theatre department, has obviously been paying attention in swordfighting class, bringing an effortless physicality and skill to the play’s assorted fight scenes.
Jody Haucke is the second lead, playing the dual roles of the daffy George Darling and the villainous Captain Hook. As the pirate leader, he’s mad, bad and dangerous to know, Shakespearean in his delivery, and all but twirling his mustachios as he relishes the character. There is a real sense of danger in the fight scenes with Peter Pan, which keeps the audience on the edge of its seat.
Amber Melhado plays Wendy, the surrogate mother the Lost Boys long for. She makes the most of a potentially thankless task of acting out everyone’s mummy fantasies, with maturity and a deft sense of comic timing.
While Tyler McClure deserves a special mention as the main comical foil to Captain Hook, all of the actors who make up the various ‘gangs’: Peter Pan’s Lost Boys, Captain Hook’s pirates, and Tiger Lily’s Indians must be congratulated on their ability to bounce off one another, allowing each other their moment to shine. It is a shame, though, that the Indians were not allowed more stage time, and indeed more to say and do. Blame J.M. Barrie for that oversight.
An amusing touch was the improvised repartee between pirates during scene changes; one to watch for is Chris Wardell and his naughty tiger puppet.
The sets by Phil Johnston contrast the safe world of the Darling nursery, with the fantastic and often dangerous world of Neverland: the Lost Boys’ forest grotto and the mermaids’ harbour deserve special mention for ingenuity.
The costumes are highly imaginative, ranging from Peter’s Puck-inspired forest wear, to the beautiful gowns worn by Mrs. Darling, an Elvis-wannabe pirate, sexy mermaids and Indian warriors, and Captain Hooks’ 18th century frock coat and feathered hat (which deserves a role of its own).
The fight choreography is of the Errol Flynn school of swashbuckling, very physical, and in close quarters, looks damned dangerous. Everyone gets into the act with great gusto, no doubt spurred on by the accompanying soundtrack of heroic Hans Zimmer film music.
It is not a perfect production: the cast on opening night were still coming to grips with props and trying to make unobtrusive backstage exits and entrances, but they are all so obviously enjoying themselves, that the audience is swept along for the ride. I give this production two enthusiastic hooks up.
Peter Pan is playing now at Carleton University’s Kailash Mital Theatre
January 21-23, January 28-30 at 8:00pm
Matinée on Sunday, January 24 at 2pm
Tickets:
Available at door or by reservation
Students, Children, and Seniors $10/ General Admission $14
To reserve tickets or for more information, call 613-520-3770 or email snbreservations@gmail.com
Photo credit – Jenny Downing on Flickr
Don’t Fear the Rapper: BASH’d! A Gay Rap Opera opens at the GCTC
Left to right, Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow as rapper angels T-Bag and Feminem. Photo: Alan Dean Photography
They are polished as performers, adorable as a couple in love, and even believable as a pair of rapping angels.
Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow have been performing BASH’d! A Gay Rap Opera (playing at the Great Canadian Theatre Company until January 31st) since the fall of 2006, and it shows. Dressed head-to-toe in blazing white and pink, they run through an excerpt from their show for the television cameras, giving those of us present for the media call a taste of what’s to come. As they move seamlessly from character to character at a breathtaking pace, they evoke a whole scene, despite the spartan stage arrangement and obvious lack of props. This was, after all, originally a Fringe production, and in a lot of ways it still is. Chris and Nathan perform with all the energy and freshness of improv comedy, engaging the audience at every turn.
BASH’d! may have a strong element of comedy, but it deals with a serious theme, conceived as it was in the wake of a rash of homophobic violence in Alberta following the gay marriage debate of 2005. I eavesdrop avidly as the mainstream media ask the pair of performers the standard interview questions, taking notes. Watching the dynamics between the two, it strikes me that they have the same interlocking fluidity when they speak candidly as they do when they are performing. One thing is quite clear: There is no way I’m getting a verbatim quote.
The subject of hip-hop, and why it was chosen as a medium, inevitably comes up. It catches me slightly off-guard to hear Chris and Nathan spring forth with both criticism and praise for Detroit rap artist Eminem; this, on the heels of an explanation of how hip-hop’s roots are synonymous with social activism. They acknowledge, and indeed draw particular attention to, the harmful influence of the misogynistic, homophobic sentiment laced through mainstream rap and hip-hop, expressing pride in bringing gay-positive white rap to the stage.
It’s fascinating to watch these two actors with incredible stage presence answer the interview questions. In response to each question asked, Nathan cocks his head to the side, listening attentively. When he starts to answer, he considers all the aspects of the question in detail, aloud, while Chris looks on. At the opportune moment, Chris jumps in with a short, pithy summary of his viewpoint. From there, the two of them banter back and forth freely and easily. These are not stock responses; these are men thinking on their feet under hot, bright stage lights, never missing a beat.
I had my own chance to speak with Chris and Nathan, both still glistening with sweat, after the mainstream media had finished grilling them and put away their equipment. Chris and I are almost at eye-level, with Nathan towering over us.
We chat a bit about the last time they were in Ottawa together, putting on 3… 2… 1 at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival in 2005, and Chris’s well-received pornStar, which graced last year’s Ottawa Fringe Festival. Ottawa is the second stop on their Canadian tour of BASH’d!, after October’s successful run in Toronto and to be followed by a run at Vancouver’s 2010 Cultural Olympiad. I ask why Montréal isn’t on the itinerary; the answer is that they’d love to go but they haven’t received an offer yet. Besides home-town Edmonton and New York City, they’ve played to audiences in Victoria and Dublin, Ireland, and hope to take the show to San Francisco.
This leads directly into my question: Where, in that impressive catalogue of cities with thriving, open, active gay communities, does Ottawa stack up? Nathan admits, after some consideration, that they’re not altogether sure what to expect. Chris chimes in that Ottawa has the stereotype of being a conservative, quiet city, although he notes a few areas of society where a strong gay contingent is present—unfortunately, he requests that kept off the record.
The next question: Who do you take to this show? From what I’ve seen so far, the message isn’t specifically geared to the gay community; the stereotypes addressed are fairly mainstream. Do I bring my mother? Nathan says that the show works best when the audience is very diverse: young and old, gay and straight. Chris puts forth that it’s probably going to make the biggest positive impression on borderline homophobes; people still possessed of the usual cultural homophobic stereotypes that permit more dangerous hatred to keep its foothold in society. He also mentions gay teenagers should see it, and bring their parents. They tell a few stories about how it’s helped strengthen the relationship in these families. Nathan relates that a student at the University of Victoria told them that seeing the show made him proud to be gay for the first time.
If there’s a hard-and-fast rule of theatre journalism, it’s this: Never mention Shakespeare. It’s a rookie move, indicating that you have nothing of substance left to talk about. Luckily, Nathan brings the subject up first. With phrases like “Romeo and Romeo” and “star-crossed lovers” in the promotional material, how much does BASH’d! owe artistically to Romeo and Juliet? Nathan readily admits that, both in content and in form, there are a lot of parallels. (You don’t realize just how true that is until you see the performance, either.)
I ask them one last question: What is the one thing they would say to get people to come to the show? Nathan’s response is instant: “Look at our reviews from New York.” That may seem like a rather dry answer, but it’s bluntly honest. BASH’d! has left in its wake a string of rave reviews. Chris’s answer is more pithy: “Don’t fear the rapper.”
I thank them for their time and take my seat again. Now that the television cameras are gone, we’re treated to a run-through of part of the introduction to the piece. I understand immediately why this was left to last; the lyrics are a string of guaranteed CRTC fines. Although loaded with swearing, it’s not foul or crude, it’s engaging and poetic.
Chris and Nathan pose for a series of shots as the media call winds down. Kevin Falkingham (the GCTC’s Marketing & Communications Manager) and Nancy Kenny invite me out to the Upper Lobby to answer some more questions; I’m particularly interested in the special BASH’d! Bash fundraiser on Friday, January 22nd.
As Kevin explains the fundraiser (a partnership between the GCTC, TotoToo Theatre, Lambda Foundation, and the Village), my gaze wanders to the paintings on the walls of the Fritzi Gallery around us. They have been commissioned specially for the show, and are the work of Peter Monet. Perhaps the most striking piece, a triptych entitled Pink Wedge, is right at the top of the stairs, taking up most of the wall. We talk about the gay community’s reclamation of this former symbol of Nazi oppression. Kevin mentions that the paintings have a tactile aspect; they’re meant to be touched. That’s about right, I think, they’re already touching me.
Left to right, Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow as rapper angels T-Bag and Feminem, on the set of BASH'd! Photo: Alan Dean Photography
Opening night is the 100th performance of BASH’d!, and completely sold out. My plus-one is a good friend who identifies as bisexual; I’ve chosen to bring her along because I want to see an alternate perspective on the performance and the issues (and, besides, I owe her a favour). The theatre is packed with media, bloggers, some familiar faces from the theatre community, and GCTC members of all ages. I can’t help wondering how some of them are going to react to the material. We wander around, mingling with the crowd. I show my companion the paintings; she touches them.
Not even a minute into the performance, it becomes clear that the brief glimpse provided during the media call doesn’t begin to do justice to the performance itself. I mentally shred half of my draft for this article. The audience is instantly engaged; there are arms in the air and everyone is transfixed by the music, lighting, and most importantly by the slick poetic narrative. Chris and Nathan, first as T-Bag and Feminem, then as Jack and Dillon, then as, well, everyone else, lead us through a hilarious sequence of scenes, sending up every cultural stereotype—heteronormative and otherwise.
Then things get serious. The homophobic violence, central to the plot, is not handled in passing or offstage. These performers bring as much to the stage with their physical performance as they do with their words; together with the dynamic lighting, the impression is vivid, visceral, and tense. Nothing is sugar-coated as we are drawn into the pain, conflict, and grim reality of the violent spiral of homophobia.
For a moment my attention flickers; I realize my companion for the evening is wiping away tears. She’s not alone.
Any questions I had as to how deeply and effectively the issues would be addressed through the vehicle of a rap musical are put to rest. It is neither a light, glossy treatment, nor an effort to convince or preach to the audience; it’s a dialogue, encouraging you to think rather than telling you what to think.
The end of the performance is met with a standing ovation.
I catch up with Nathan, now wearing a black-and-white checked shirt, enjoying a St. Ambroise Blonde Ale in the Upper Lobby. I thank him for the performance. Even after an obviously physically demanding performance, he is as warm, gentle and personable an actor as you could ever hope to meet.
BASH’d! is a musical. It’s entertainment. It’s meant to be enjoyed. It is also, maybe more importantly, a weapon against complacency in the face of cultural homophobia. Homophobic violence is real, and an important part of changing that is showing its causes and effects. The creators of BASH’d! succeed in doing this, in a way that’s accessible, not preachy, and thoroughly enjoyable.
As I fall asleep, still possessed by the images of rap angels T-Bag and Feminem, I can’t help remembering what happened to Dixie Landers.
See BASH’d! A Gay Rap Opera until January 31st at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. To satisfy your appetite for gay-positive white hip-hop tracks in the meantime, I suggest MC Frontalot’s I Heart Fags and Jesse Dangerously’s A Single Gay Male on his Thirtieth Birthday.
Andrew Snowdon is a theatregoer, concertgoer, and writer. He lives in Lowertown, Ottawa, sandwiched between a MacBook and a typewriter, with a cup of coffee.
Learning to drive Mother Courage’s cart
For a play that is often referred to as one the theatrical masterpieces of the 20th century, Mother Courage and Her Children is a play that is not staged very often. I suppose, like many plays that have had long lives, it comes in and out of fashion. But I also suppose that we don’t see it more often because a respectful and passionate mounting of the play requires more meticulousness and care than most theatre companies can provide. This past fall, even the National Theatre in London, England, had to cancel one preview performance and do partial performances for another. Fiona Shaw, who played Mother Courage in that production, wrote a terrific rehearsal diary for the Times Online, and two days before first preview, she wrote the following during a tech rehearsal:
I am called for a change into scene 4. We are moving on. Stephen Kennedy, who is playing the pastor, and I spend every spare moment crunching lines and discussing the essence of what we might try in the impending performance. It is so terrifying I wish we were the Berlin Ensemble and had six months to rehearse. If we get this on in the time it will be a miracle.
As I write this, during my day off before our final week of rehearsal, I could be the kind of ingratiating theatrical shill who promises that our NAC English Theatre production has effortlessly resolved all issues and is on the triumphant road to this year’s must-see coup de théâtre, but that would be a hollow and patently false statement. I’m exhausted and a little depressed, but although I’m part of a tight ensemble, I have absolutely no claims on the job of carrying our production. I can only relate empathetically to the stress and fear that are simmering in those in our company who have to do more of the heavy dramatic lifting. We finished our last rehearsal of the week at midnight on Saturday; whereas the end of the work week is usually celebrated with a group trip to the bar, many of us decided to head straight home to rest.
So what the hell is it about this play that makes it so daunting? I’m hard-pressed to come up with a single answer, which somehow seems a propos to play whose scope defies any concise description or aphoristic synopsis. David Hare, who is one of many folks who have adapted the work from its original German, said that Mother Courage is a play that was written in three months and refined for twelve years. What is absolutely clear to us, in lifting the play off the page in Peter Hinton’s new adaptation, is that we could fill our lives with a years’ ceaseless work illuminating its infinite facets and paradoxes… after which we’d finish looking at scene one and give scene two a try.
Whole libraries full of books have been populated with analysis of Bertolt Brecht’s approach to theatre (you can even read about my three-week Ark experience here), but one significant aspect of our production focuses on Brecht’s love of dialectic construction. Basically, this means that Brecht gleefully presents both sides of an issue as equal and opposite. He takes great pleasure, I suspect, in finishing one scene with Mother Courage saying “I curse the war,” and starting the next scene with Mother Courage saying “I won’t let anybody spoil my war for me!” Both statements, in their respective contexts, make sense; audience members are left grappling with the contradiction and must arrive at their own opinion of which statement they prefer.
Back to the problem at hand, though. Scene 5 stands out for me as prime example of the immense booby-trap in which we find ourselves. On one side of the stage we see Mother Courage’s canteen-cart, where business is doing well and drinks are being served to soldiers who can pay for them. On the other side of the stage we see the chaos of a house barely standing after it’s been sieged and looted by those same soldiers. Injured people are hauled out of the house as soldiers and Mother Courage watch; a helpless baby is trapped inside the house. The dynamics of action on stage are complex enough:in the presence of soldiers, clergy, and even a daughter who runs into the burning house, Courage is publicly called upon to sacrifice business for the sake of helping strangers. And on top of the dramatic horror of dismembered civilians and the danger inherent in running into a burning house, Brecht layers the sounds of an army’s victory parade. It’s less than five minutes of theatre that executes with the precision of a fight sequence, and whose morality could be the subject of a Master’s thesis. It’s downright daunting. There are many productions where scene 5 is cut altogether.
What we have in Peter Hinton, however, is an adapter and director of singular tenacity. I’ve worked with Peter on a few productions now, and I have never, ever, ever heard him utter the words “it’s good enough”. If a stage picture is unclear, it must be addressed. If a moment is imprecise, it must be examined. Time will be taken to ensure that attention is paid to every detail. And there is so much detail.
Our move from the rehearsal hall to the theatre has introduced new elements that have had earthquake-like impacts on all of the painstaking work we’ve been doing since October. The technical elements of this play are almost comically-simple relative to the work we presented in A Christmas Carol last month, but the focus and clarity and precision required on the part of our company of eighteen actors is of a scope many of us have never experienced. We want to get it right, and Peter wants to help us get it right, and so progress on stage has been slower than anyone anticipated.
When I described the technical rehearsals for Christmas Carol, I mentioned three hours spent on a single scene change. For Mother Courage and Her Children, we’re spending hours clarifying how the message of the onstage action is affected by everything from how far apart actors are to the way props are handled and every imaginable variation in between. The irony is that, like A Christmas Carol, Mother Courage and Her Children will be functioning at 100% when audience members wonder what all the fuss was about, because it all looks very minimalist and straightforward. To paraphrase Edward Albee, sometimes you have to go a very long distance out of your way in order to come back a short distance correctly.
Analogously, it reminds me of learning to drive a car. I remember sitting behind the wheel of my mom’s Ford Tempo for the first time, at age 15, terrified of how it was even possible to manage pedals, and steer, and check mirrors, and keep an eye on speed, and follow traffic signals, all at the same time. Now — like many — I can drive from home to work without even remembering how I did it.
And so I have gone a very long distance out of my way to say that I simply do not know how ready we’ll be for our first pay-what-you-can preview audience this week, and take some comfort in the knowledge that this play has conquered many, many companies before ours. With six very full and focused days of rehearsal on the stage, we have yet to finish working all the way through the play once, and I am only cautiously optimistic that we may manage to wrap it up some time tomorrow, during day seven. We’re still figuring out where the pedals in the car are, and how to adjust the mirrors, and hoping we never have to parallel park in the snow.
But it’ll get there.
This is a week when I must remind myself that there is a difference between a preview performance (which is still a rehearsal) and an actual performance; and even though we will have members of the public watching us work as of Tuesday, we don’t actually open until Friday. Our preview audiences will, I expect, get a few glimpses of the foundation as we put the finishing touches on the walls.
Blowout
Bad things come in threes. Number two tonight was a lit candle falling on my head onstage; number three was an apron falling off in the middle of the Fezziwig Christmas Party dance. The first bad thing happened before the show began, and is why I want to say that the National Arts Centre’s wardrobe staff are godsends.
We got the five minute call for the beginning of A Christmas Carol and, as is customary, the cast began to gather in the wings and voms of the theatre to start the show. Niall Patrick McNeil, who plays the beggar boy, was with me at stage left, running over the lyrics to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” softly, with his beggar-boy-cap placed jauntily askew on his head. In my capecoat and top hat — looking like Abe Lincoln after a few too many Christmas dinners — I chuckled and suggested that it might be fun to rap the song on stage. “God rest ye, merry GIN-el-minz!”, I said, and began to crunk for my own amusement. I worked my way down into a squat position in a fit of improvised choreographic bliss, and then heard a telltale ripping sound from my posterior. At this point it was three minutes to curtain, and I was to be one of the first actors on stage at the top of the show.
I exited the backstage area quickly and reported sheepishly to the wardrobe room. “I think I ripped my pants,” I said. “But I mostly wear a coat in the show, so maybe it’s okay for now?”
“Turn around and let’s see,” said Linda. I did, and lifted my coattail. Linda’s eyes went wide for all the wrong reasons. “Wow,” she said. “You blew the ass right outta those things.”
“Were you goofing around?” asked Ann, somewhat rhetorically.
“No,” I lied, and put on my innocent actor face. I could have argued that dancing is a great pre-show energy-booster and necessary for my craft, but crunking to a rap version of a 19th century holiday carol is not truly a part of my regular routine. I’m sure they both saw through my denial anyway. “I was warming up.” I smiled, for added cuteness.
We quickly determined that I couldn’t go on stage with the rip as it was, because the pants would likely split right in half before long. We also quickly clocked the fact that I have to wear the pants through the whole show, so there was no chance for me to get out of them to have them fixed. In addition, there’s the scene at Fezziwig’s Christmas party, where the apron I wear leaves my back end rather exposed. Finally, as Peter Hinton began his pre-show announcement on stage, I reminded them that I had to be in the wings again imminently.
“Well, then, I have to do something right now,” said Ann. Then, with a twinkle in her eye of the sort I’ve only ever seen on a few other occasions in my life, she said, “turn around and bend over.”
And so, under stern orders not to break wind, a makeshift, under-two-minute repair was made to my pants just so they’d hold together for the show. “I’ve done this before for dancers,” she said. I am SO not a dancer. “It’ll hold for a bit, but no more squatting. And warm up before you get into costume, okay?” I was back in the wings and ready to start the show with time to spare.
We have two wardrobe staff working with us on the show. They get about 90 minutes to do their setup for each performance, and the two of them are looking after costumes for 21 actors. In addition to looking after laundry, they need to make sure every item of clothing in the show is prepped and in its proper location in the theatre before we start. In short, they bust their asses for us, and I don’t help them much by busting the ass out of my trousers. But they grin and bear it and keep everything working for us, and so we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for literally making us all look good. SO here’s to them, and here’s to refraining from fantastic backstage choreography while wearing a capecoat and trousers.
–photo by AndyRob on Flickr
