Theatre For Thought, March 3, 2012

CAEA STANCE INSULTING TO CANADIAN ARTISTS

joel fishbane

Earlier this month, Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA) raised a protest over a non-Union touring production of In the Heights, brought to Toronto by Dancap Productions. Speaking to the Globe and Mail, CAEA executive director Arden Ryshpan made the following remark: “We think that audiences shouldn’t be inadvertently misled into thinking they are seeing a Broadway calibre production – which we would say they are not, if the productions are non-Equity.” Ms. Ryshpan echoed these comments in a subsequent article for CharPo.

The CAEA is trying to stop the media from covering non-Union productions in the hopes of creating a backlash against producers who don’t hire members of the CAEA. These members lose work whenever a non-Union company comes to town and the CAEA hopes that with media support, they can dissuade these companies from performing in Canada. Although I am sympathetic to their dilemma, in framing their argument the CAEA has taken a position that is both misleading to the public and gravely insulting to all Canadian artists. 

News: Harper/Moore announce commitment to the arts/NTS

GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT TAKES CENTRE STAGE

joel fishbane

The Canadian government will invest $9.2 million dollars in the National Theatre School over the next two years, Heritage Minister James Moore announced today. 

“To invest in culture is to invest in Canada,” said Moore, speaking at a packed press conference in the lobby of the National Theatre School in Montreal. Quoting politician and gay activist Harvey Milk, Moore said “I am here to recruit you!” – though in his case, Moore was referring to encouraging the private sector to make a firmer financial commitment in arts and culture.

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 2, 2012

Review: (Toronto) La Liste

(photo credit: Suzanne O'Neill)

Sylvie Drapeau is on the list

One of the country's greatest actors in Toronto

by Adèle Charlebois

Jennifer Tremblay's La Liste begins with a woman alone in her house, seated somewhat uncomfortably on a simple wooden chair, visibly perturbed by the obsessive internal repetition of a list of chores that sound banal, but come to take on an importance of the highest imperative. This list is echoed to us, words crushed over words, mixed with sounds of suffocated breathing over a recording that sets the stage for the story and performance to come. 

Sylvie Drapeau is brilliant as a woman living in the country with three small children, suffocated by her own domestic perfectionism and disdain for the village she finds herself in. It also becomes painfully clear from the get-go that she is consumed by guilt over the sudden death of her neighbour Caroline. In this one-woman show, Drapeau tells us her story and the story of Caroline's tragic death through a beautifully controlled, physical and incredibly moving performance that is at times darkly funny. Her stellar portrayal is supported by seamless stage direction, by Marie-Thérèse Fortin, that totally immerses us in this woman's tormented world. A must-see.

La Liste continues at Théâtre Français de Toronto to March 4

Vancouver Playhouse - articles

On Friday, March 9, 2012, The Vancouver Playhouse announced it was going out of business for good. Here is an index of articles following the story and trying to discover answers. (In reverse chronological order)

Requiem for A Playhouse by Joel Fishbane
SERIES: What Went Wrong? Aaron Craven, "The city has no cultural soul whatsoever."
SERIES: What Went Wrong? Sabrina Evertt comments
Playhouse Memories collected by Mark Leiren-Young
SERIES: What Went Wrong? Mark Leiren-Young comments
SERIES: What Went Wrong? Frank Moher comments
NEWS: Nation reacts to Vancouver Playhouse Closure
BREAKING NEWS: Vancouver Playhouse Closes

Review: (Montreal) Ines Pérée et Inat Tendu

“S'il n'y avait pas d'enfants sur la Terre, il n'y aurait rien de beau”

-- Réjean Ducharme

(Photo credit: Nicolas Frank Vachon)

The Charms of Ducharme
A difficult play takes (verbal) flight in Montreal
by Nanette Soucy

At a time when visions of armies in riot gear are fresh in the memory, prime ministerial disregard for civil liberties is all that’s transparent about the government, laws change to interfere with the private lives of citizens, and a nation within a nation struggles to define itself in a country which at once disdains and seeks to own and profit from it, a story emerges.

It’s two individuals, at once dispossessed and self-possessed, wandering the universe in search of hospitality, to which, perhaps by clandestine prophecy, they are entitled. They meet, seduce, inspire, alter, assault, threaten and change a variety of unlikely characters along the way. They are Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza. They are le Petit Prince and his Rose. They show up, they change every thing, and wander off into the abyss to expire, leaving things so profoundly shifted that the sameness of the trashed room, the empty bottles, the popped balloons and the 70’s memorabilia strewn about is rendered absolutely eerie.

CPC's Picture of the Week, March 1, 2012

The magnificent poster art for Nightwood's

The Happy Woman