Category: opera Page 27 of 29

Hopes Bud; Get dashed. Sort of.

On January 27, 2009

The Federal Budget was released this afternoon. Every television channel and radio station in Canada was covering the announcement; this is a big one for us, because it could mean the fall of the current Conservative government over a vote of non-confidence by opposition parties, if they don’t like what they see. And the dissolution of Parliament could mean an election within months.

So far, there’s been reaction from two of Canada’s opposition parties: the NDP and the Bloc. Verdict for both? Thumbs down to Jim Flaherty et al. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff (leader of the third opposition party) spoke briefly with reporters too; the rise or fall of the Stephen Harper’s Conservatives essentially rests with Ignatieff and the Grits. What did he say? He didn’t. While he likes some elements, he and the party have issues with other things tabled within Flaherty’s report. He’s going to announce the Liberal reaction tomorrow at 11am.

It was with particular interest that I’ve been noting the expectations and hopes centred around the release of today’s budget; in some ways they very much mirror the expectations and hopes surrounding the start of the Obama presidency. Lord knows there are many, many issues at hand right now -the economy being the biggest. But as an arts-lover, I don’t necessarily think art and the economy are at odds. James Bradshaw reported on the connections between the two recently. Arts economy is economy, period. It’s work, it’s money, it’s energy. It seems like Heritage Minister James Moore understands this. There’s been a nice allocation of money ($160 million, in fact) put towards the arts sector. President Obama gets the relationship between the two as well.

But in the same way there’s an inherent connection with arts and economy, there exists the same between the latter and environment. Everything is everything, and it seems like more people are aware of that, even as there are those who cling desperately to the old ways. James Clancy, President of the National Union of Public and General Employees, lays out the intimate connections between environment and economy in a convincing piece on Green Nexxus. He says: “This is the opportunity of our lifetime; to lead the transformation to a stronger economy and a cleaner environment.” I’d add, “and a vibrant arts scene” to that.

Binding everything is our access to share and deseminate information. The Globe and Mail created a Wiki on Public Policy in anticipation of the budget, and it was a neat bit of interaction. CBC and Cisco started One Million Acts of Green back in the fall (encouragingly, they’re seven months ahead of schedule in hitting their target, too). The budget announcement this afternoon featured live blogging by various media. Part of President Obama’s stimulus package includes money for technology. Now that’s forward-thinking… make that present-thinking, and present-embracing. Michael Geist has thoughts about the Conservatives’ allocation of money for technology and comparisons to spending in other countries. It all underlines the ways in which the internet have re-shaped our perceptions and understandings around the most vital issues of the day.

Now, let’s wait to hear what Mr. Ignatieff will say tomorrow morning. I’ll be watching online, and wondering who will be adding voices to the discussion.

Previewing Groundswell

By Catherine Kustanczy

On January 20, 2009

In opera

The Next Stage Festival may be wrapped up for another year, but Toronto’s theatre scene is hopping. The Groundswell Festival, celebrating Canada’s incredible female playwrights, kicks off January 26th at the Berkeley Theatre.

Wednesday morning I’ll be speaking with one of the writers featured at this year’s fest: Florence Gibson.

Originally trained as a medical doctor, Gibson is known for her powerful portraits of family and relationships. Her new work, Augury, revolves around the 1879 abortion trial of Emily Stowe, one of Canada’s most important historical figures.

Tune in, just after 9am ET.

Toronto local:
89.5FM

Listen live online:
http://ciut.fm

Click the “listen live” button on the top right.

http://take5.fm

them & us & TPM

By Catherine Kustanczy

On January 16, 2009

In opera

Now here’s a neat example of the power of online media in the arts world.

Mention this blog to receive a $15 ticket for Tracy Dawson’s Them & Us, on now through January 31st. That’s for any ticket, any night, any time.

Them & Us is made up of a series of vignettes exploring the ins and outs of modern relating. By turns funny, poignant and… well, salty (the skit involving a 16-year-old propositioning her father’s business partner is one you won’t soon forget), Dawson’s work goes way past the boring “relationship drama” cliches. That can only be a good thing. And it features a quartet of awesome Canadian talent; as well as Dawson, there’s Sarah Dodd, Gray Powell, and Michael Healey (A comment about his performance I overheard at the opening: “If he were any more dry, he’d bleed sand…” True story.)

It’s cold and wintery. You’re not in Utah. So go to the theatre already.

Call the Arts Box Office (416.504.7529) or check out the TPM website.
Tell ’em Play Anon sent ya.

Pinter’s Dance

By Catherine Kustanczy

On January 14, 2009

In opera

He thought “choreographically.”

I knew it.

Lovely Ladies

By Catherine Kustanczy

On January 7, 2009

In opera

With the openings of Them & Us, Bear With Me, and East of Berlin, it could easily be argued that Toronto’s theatre scene is in the throes of an all-out estrogen fit. And that’s not even counting the works in this year’s edition of the Next Stage Festival; Julie Tepperman, Sarah Michelle Brown, and Kate Hewlett all have works being produced there.

Tracy Dawson is the woman behind Them & Us. Opening at Theatre Passe Muraille this week and directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones, it explores the ins and outs of relationships in 30 different vignettes. I can hear the guys (and some gals) yawning: Oh great, another woman writing about relationships. But wait… Dawson’s caustic, funny, and sarcastic. She freely admits she isn’t Dr. Phil. In fact, in a recent interview, she named John Cassavetes as the single-biggest inspiration on Them & Us. She also said her work isn’t shying away from one big aspect of relationships: sex. “Oh yeah, we’re going there,” she told me. Good. About time a woman playwright did -with gusto, passion, ferocity, joy and hilarity. Sex should involve those things, onstage and off.

Over at the Berkeley, Diane Flacks is doing a solo show about her first pregnancy (Flacks is now a proud mum of two). Bear With Me started out life as a series of columns, and then a book. It turned into a play when Nightwood Theatre AD Kelly Thornton approached Flacks about the possibility of adapting Flacks’ work for the stage (Thornton also directs). Will Flacks pull it off? Solo shows can either be great or dreary; as an audience member, you only have one person to guide you through the sometimes-labyrinthine world of the writer. As well as being curious about how the show will be presented, I’m also wondering what the play offers non-moms in the audience, beside an insight into the wonderful worlds of big-belly-sex, flatulence, and epidurals. Hmmm.

The Tarragon Theatre is remmounting East of Berlin, Hannah Moscovitch‘s hugely acclaimed 2007 show, with the same cast and director (the awesome Alisa Palmer). For me, Moscovitch’s writing is a neat mix of classical and contemporary; she freely, easily mixes recognizable elements of modern life with more classical structures and ideas, and the result makes for great, capital-D drama. East of Berlin is the story of Rudi, a young man forced to deal with his Nazi parentage. I’ll be interviewing Moscovitch Friday morning on CIUT‘s Take 5; we’ll discuss the work, and the surprising reaction it received during its first run, particularly from Toronto’s Jewish community. Tune in.

And, among the many goodies at this year’s Next Stage Festival is Kate Hewlett‘s Humans Anonymous, which details what happens when “a businesswoman who prefers lattes to love meets a sexually experimental young genius looking for Ms. Perfect.” First presented as a Fringe show and then in New York City, the work has garnered serious praise. You might know Hewlett from her work on Stargate: Atlantis, or from Don’t Wake Me, which ran at last year’s Next Stage Fest. As mentioned, this year Festival also features Julie Tepperman’s Yichud (Seclusion) and First-Hand Woman, by Sarah Michelle Brown. Reports as I see ’em.

Add the various productions from this past year that featured the incredible talents of Anita Majumdar, Anusree Roy, Brooke Johnson, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, Marcia Johnson, Tara Beagan, Oonagh Duncan, and Jennifer Tarver (to name only a few) and I’m left asking the same question I have for a while: when is Toronto getting a Women In Theatre Festival? There is a surfeit of amazing, inspiring talent here, and so many great stories worth sharing -and not just of the “if-my-vagina-could-talk” variety, either. These are stories for men and women alike -for children and parents and families of all kinds, that has a meaning and relevance everyone can dig. Talent is talent, and it’s time the female theatre artists of this city had a proper festival in which to fully, loudly, proudly promote and celebrate theirs. C’mon now. You know both Aphra Behn and Bill the Quill would heartily approve. What are we waiting for?

Drama Is…

By Catherine Kustanczy

On December 3, 2008

In opera

There’s certainly plenty of great drama out there lately.

If you’re in London, there’s the Tony Award-winning August: Osage County. New York has the recently extended one-man show Taking Over, while Chicago has Lynn Nottage’s Ruined. If you’re in Toronto, there’s no shortage of goodness either, with the disturbingly brilliant Festen running into next week, and Frank McGuinness’ timely (timeless?) Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me opening this Saturday.

But oh, the best drama for us Canucks right now is in our own Parliament. The drama! The speeches! The fist-shaking fury! It would all be very entertaining, if it weren’t also real. Ouch. The best part is the level of engagement it’s provoked among average Canadians; considering our last election saw some of the worst voter turnout rates in electoral history, being a part of something so starkly different in terms of mood and passion is… refreshing. The downside is the deep cracks in unity the Ottawa drama is revealing to all of us. Forget the “one” part; we’re just simply “not the same.” Or so we’re being told.

Objectively interesting as it all may be, the cause of national unity isn’t helped by our politicians giving deeply dramatic, occasionally hysterical Bernhard-meets-Kean performances. Makes the fuss over the use of a real skull in an RSC version of Hamlet seem tame by comparison. Then again, I can think of a few people who feel as if their own skulls have been bashed around, watching the frantic arm-flapping of Canadian politicians over the last week. I can only hope there’s a great playwright (or two) watching, listening, and writing. We’re going to need someone to make sense of this for us, and I can’t think of any other way to see it, other than a dramatic presentation in the theatre. If Frost/Nixon taught me anything, it’s that human behaviour is often at its most desperate and revealing when put through the fire of politics. Stay tuned for it: Harper Hears A Hoard, on tour soon.

Staging War

By Catherine Kustanczy

On November 29, 2008

In opera

I came across a fascinating piece on the art of staging warfare yesterday. Written by British freelance journalist and indie theatre director Imogen Russell Williams, the piece explores the whys and wherefores of staging war onstage, noting, quite rightly I think, that most theatre directors revert to some kind of cinematic equivalent in depicting fights. In reading her description of shadow play and slow-motion moves, I couldn’t help but think of the innumerable productions I’ve sat through where both were utilized, along with pyrotechnics. To quote Williams:

Bang! Flash! Up goes a huge pile of money in undulating smoke. We’re supposed to find it impressive that such crashes, bangs and wallops can be achieved even though we’re in a theatre, not a cinema. But it’s probably the uniting factor in bad stage warfare that director and production team are determined to pull off the cinematically spectacular even though they’re making a play, not a film.

This explains (at least partly) why I didn’t like Black Watch, part of Luminato this past summer. Or why so many productions of Shakespeare (and one of Marlowe) in Stratford have been disappointing; lost in the wonder of great acting, design, and staging, I’ve found myself jolted out of the spell by ridiculous, over-the-top fight/warfare scenes.

Note to theatre directors: try talking with some of this city’s awesome puppeteers. Work with them. They’re super-creative. Incorporating puppetry is just what The National Theatre in England has done with War Horse. Williams says this production changed her mind about the depiction of war onstage, and from what I’ve read, the piece seems genuinely moving, and thought-provoking. Puppets aren’t just for kids, and never have been.

A Good Investment

By Catherine Kustanczy

On November 28, 2008

In opera

Link Love

By Catherine Kustanczy

On November 27, 2008

In opera

A few gorgeous tidbits of theatre-rama from around the web today:

Gerald Schoenfeld, Chairman of the American Shubert Organization, has died. He was responsible for bringing many of the big shows (like Cats, Phantom, and A Chorus Line to Broadway. His obituary from the New York Times is here (you’ll have to register, but I guarantee you, it’s worth it). Schoenfeld was an interesting figure; while he had a lot of detractors, no one in the industry would deny his importance within the theatre world. Rocco Landesman, President of rival Jujamcyn Theatres, credits Schoenfeld with saving commercial theatre. He may not have been popular in not-for-profit circles -“There’s no profit like not-for-profit,” he used to say -but reading his obit, I can’t help but think that his approach is such a good model for theatre, all theatre, anywhere. From the big things to the small things, Schoenfeld never left any detail to chance, and he fought for his productions. He also gave a lot of people jobs and consistent work. And, to quote the article, “Mr. Schoenfeld argued tirelessly that the theater was an economic engine for the city and deserved greater help from City Hall.” Now there’s something we can get behind.

CBC Arts Online reports that British Columbia arts groups are buckling down in light of this week’s B.C. Ballet layoffs. They’re also thinking more about marketing -which probably makes sense for all arts groups right now, really. For example:

Ballet Victoria, a smaller ballet company than Ballet BC with just 10 dancers, is very aware of the need to attract new audiences.

Artistic director Paul Destrooper said he always programs unusual works that might attract audiences that don’t normally come to the ballet.

“We draw in the audience with a bit of a surprise. I always build my season with one big ballet that will draw a crowd that might not necessarily see classical ballet, and then when they see the level of the dancers and the choreography they’re drawn to other works,” he said.

That’s just how it’s done.

Over at the Guardian, Christine Bacon, the Director of Actors For Human Rights with UK-based theatre company iceandfire, rebuts the notion that theatre can’t respond with appropriate swiftness to current events. Not only is theatre able to do this with the required fast action, but, she argues, it should. And it doesn’t depend on funding, either:

Because we use a rolling cast of actors who donate their time and have no technical requirements, we can provide a “rapid response” event for whichever organisation asks us to turn up. We normally perform in churches, village halls, pubs and lecture rooms – anywhere we’re invited, really – eliminating the usually prohibitive cost of hiring a theatre space. This method allows us to act as messengers; rushing the urgent news to audiences who need to hear it now – not, in two year’s time, when the Arts Council funding has come through. It’s the economy and portability of the concept that really allows us to deal directly with some of the most pertinent issues of the day…

It reminded me of Kelly Nestruck’s columns from earlier this year about the lack of current events being portrayed on Canadian stages lately (if anyone can find that link, post it please). Theatre is Territory has opened up the discussion about politics and theatre because of the article. Hopefully it generates a good discussion. Theatre can be, and is, many things to many people, and I believe there’s room for all of us -to learn, to grow, and to expand.

Off to see Soulpepper’s A Christmas Carol tonight; I’ve not seen their production, or indeed, any production of Dickens’ classic tale, onstage, ever. Friday’s booked for Canstage’s It’s A Wonderful Life, the staging of which I find greatly intriguing; it’s set as a radio play, which hits a personal/professional interest-button. But thematically, both are more than just jovial feel-good tales. As Richard Ouzounian wrote, no two works could be more relevant in this economically harsh festive season.

Lovely Peggy

By Catherine Kustanczy

On November 26, 2008

In opera

Amidst a day filled with news of job loss, bombings, and gloomy predictions, I found myself meditating over the final scene in Radio Play. Dancer Peggy Baker and actor Michael Healey sit together, on a raised table, their faces nearly touching, their hands joined. It’s the end of a beautiful, poetic journey, and a powerful symbol of connection.

Though I’m not well-versed in modern dance, I found myself entirely entranced with the movement-meets-theatre piece. It asks nothing more than turning off that part of your brain that constantly seeks to understand, to make sense of, to explain. As Marcel Duchamp said, “This desire to understand everything fills me with horror.” Like art, there’s something resoundingly primal about dance -particularly modern dance. One either reacts by shutting down at its confounding nature, or opens up entirely to its instinctual roots. I found myself willingly knocking down my walls of intense rationalism watching Radio Play, frequently relating to the trials and frustrations faced by Marnie (played by Peggy Baker); the changing nature of her relationship with Angus (played by Healey) was equally compelling, and was expressed with brushes of subtlety and grace.

I also found myself connecting some of the issues Radio Play raises -namely the idea around how artists make a living -with yesterday’s layoff of the members of the B.C. Ballet. There is still a predominant attitude, at least in certain circles, that working as an artist doesn’t constitute “real art.” I’d argue that a dancer is every bit as vital to the economy as a Magna employee. And after seeing a piece like Radio Play, I’m more convinced than ever of the importance and vitality of culture in harsh times. It’s only by turning that needling, analytical voice off, and allowing a few subconscious realizations, that one finds any sense of clarity. If you’re in or around Toronto, run -there are only three more performances.