Openings We're Tracking, March 5-11, 2012

Sunday Read: First Person - Rose Cullis on The Happy Woman

Hap-hap-happy!

...it began in a small village in Spain...

by Rose Cullis

The Happy Woman began a number of years ago, when I was briefly living in a small village in Spain.  Every morning I went to a little, clattering café and watched two burly men and their mother preside over an extraordinary cast of characters.  The mother, in particular, fascinated me.  She was a big woman, and clearly very hard-working, but she wore a lady-like knee-length skirt and a delicately-crocheted sweater, and she beamed with satisfaction as she served customers.  

I was fascinated by her stalwart happiness, and so I began a play where a woman (Margaret) is returning home from the market dragging a cart behind her.   She stops to mop her face and marvel at the beauty of the day and delight in having a grandchild on the way.  Margaret encounters her more cynical neighbour, (BellaDonna), on the street.   When Margaret leaves, BellaDonna turns to the audience to reveal both her role as “chorus”, as well as the news that Margaret’s life is not as idyllic as it seems:  her daughter is acting out, and her daughter -in-law seems to be going mad with her pregnancy.  

From this opening scene I stitched bits and pieces from my own life, until the play took on a shape that helped me understand my fascination with Margaret.  Cassie, Margaret’s daughter, appeared, suffering from some kind of mysterious angst.  She finds her mother’s joyfulness implacable; Margaret can’t hear anything, Cassie complains, if it’s not in a major key.  Then, Margaret’s perfect son, Christian entered the story - apparently contented and happy – much like Margaret herself.  His pregnant wife, Stasia, is troubled, however, and her fears and obsessions will prove to be uncannily related to unspoken tensions in the family.   

First-Person: Rick Miller on Critics

“We should not seek immortality in reproduction. But if you contribute to the world’s culture, if you have a good idea, compose a tune, invent a spark plug, write a poem, it may live on, intact, long after your genes have dissolved in the common pool.” 

(Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene)

“This one’s done, Rick. Stick a fork in it and let it go.” 

(Richard Ouzounian, from a Toronto Star review of HARDSELL 2.0)

by Rick Miller

My last article dealt primarily with ‘control’, specifically control of the creative process and one’s career in the arts.  This one deals with ‘survival’.  

Survival in the entertainment industry conjures up images of a plasticized Wayne Newton or a Botox-ed Liza Minelli but I want to explore something closer to home: why I keep pushing my shows to survive in a competitive market instead of just “letting them go”, to paraphrase our esteemed Toronto Star critic. Granted, I wish we hadn’t invited critics to that show (which was still trying to find its form) but the sheer gall of a theatre critic dispensing The Last Judgment on something I have been working on for 5 years astounds me. The fact is that HARDSELL 2.0 is not only surviving but thriving: I am premiering the French version at Festival le Carrefour in June, we’ll be shooting a short film that will hopefully lead to a TV series adaptation, and I’ve already premiered the in-school info literacy workshop. My point is that the fate of a show shouldn’t lie in the hands of a critic. If I had listened to the ‘critic within’ in 1994, I would have killed the cast-party joke that was to become MacHomer, which is still on tour and is premiering in New York and at Stratford this spring. More on MacHomer and critics later…

The Abominable Showman, March 4, 2012

Mae West

The Old Boys Club

Men still dominate showbiz – but from Mae West to Barbra Streisand, from Julie Taymor to Canada’s very own Ellen David, the times-they-are-a-changing. 

By Richard Burnett

Every woman performer in showbiz I’ve ever interviewed – from Sandra Bernhard to Bonnie Raitt, from Anne Rice to Joan Rivers – has a story about battling the old boys' club. 

Once, when I asked Lily Tomlin if showbiz is still very much a boys' club, she replied, “It’s a little better. Men still think they are the dominant figures in the culture. I mean, I’ve been in meetings where [my business and life partner] Jane [Wagner] or I would say something and then a young guy producer in the room working with us will say the same thing and suddenly everybody would understand it. [But] they didn’t get it when we said it! We’ve been through so much over the years that now we don’t respond emotionally. Now we laugh out loud. That moment is always ironic and funny and predictable!”

Interview: Patrick Kwok-Choon of War Horse

click photo to enlarge: The cast of War Horse (Patrick Kwok-Choon kneeling centre)

(photo credit: Brinkhoff / Mögenberg)

Riding the Horse to History

One of the puppeteers/actors in the country's biggest hit tells how

by Dave Ross

CHARPO: First, I’d like to say that I was at opening night this past Tuesday, and what an amazing show. I was blown away by the power of the performance, and it’s probably the best piece of theatre I’ve ever seen.

KWOK-CHOON: (Laughter) Well, thank you very much, that’s always wonderful to hear.

CHARPO: My first question for you is, what is it like to portray both a human and an animal character in this play? Is it particularly challenging or different in any way?

KWOK-CHOON: It’s amazing to be able to do both. I signed on to this production to work with the puppets. As you know, I help play baby Joey, but I also work with the muster horses during the cavalry charge. Creating an animal character is really not that different from portraying a range of human characters in a given performance. The difference is in the level of focus and detail. When working with baby Joey, there are three of us. You know the choreography and the steps, but you have to be constantly aware of the other puppeteers and of the space you’re in. The puppets take on a life of their own, but the most important thing is learning to work together as a team with the other puppeteers, breathing together and working to bring that life into the puppets. The puppeteers also rotate—sometimes I’ll play baby Joey’s head, sometimes the front legs, and sometimes the hind. 

Review: (Ottawa) Rent

La Vie Bohème

Rent rises in the Capital

by Jim Murchison

I probably knew less about Rent than most of the audience last night. Oh sure I knew it was set in New York, based on the Pucinni opera La Bohème, so I knew it was about Bohemians and someone would die. You can’t have an opera without at least one great death scene. Among the dedicated “Rent Heads” however, I may have been the only person in the packed house that hadn’t even seen the movie. 

So, last night I finally crawled out from under my rock and joined the faithful for Orpheus’ production of Rent at the Centrepointe Theatre. The passion that the audience has for this play is as exciting as the play itself and it certainly was in the house full force last night. The incredibly talented ensemble gave back to the audience and earned every cheer, laugh and ovation they received. 

Review: (Toronto) Night of the Iguana

David Ferry (photo credit: Jaclyn Zaltz)

The Tennessee Waltz
Hart House delights with Williams
by Gregory W. Bunker


Tennessee Williams’s Night of the Iguana may be a rather pessimistic view of how to handle life’s twists and turns, but it is hard to be anything but optimistic about this Hart House production. Upon the fade-in of upbeat, softly static ‘40s music, the audience is treated to a superbly designed cabana scene (Scott Penner) complete with cleverly screened rooms, a well-used hammock, and a middle-ground view heading down to the beach. It is in this rustic, charming setting that director Jeremy Hutton unravels Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon: a down-and-out American “man of God” who struggles to come to terms with his past and, finally, his nature in the sweltering heat of Mexico.