Sunday Feature: Dahlia Katz and a Theatre Photography Mini-Masterclass

(photo credit: Scarlet O'Neil)

Theatre Photography Mini-Masterclass

by Dahlia Katz 
@DahliaKatz

[Dahlia Katz is a Toronto photographer, theatre director/dramaturg, and winner of the Charpo-Toronto Photo of the Year 2012.]

Putting on a play?  If you want an audience, a buzz, a memory, a record of your work... then you need a photographer.  Here's a quick lesson on how to incorporate professional photography into your production.  Plan ahead and consider the following.

There are three times when you should ideally be hiring a photographer:

1. Immediately after casting (The Branding Image),
2. Halfway through the rehearsal process (Rehearsal hall shots)
3. The day of your tech-dress rehearsal (Production stills and archiving)

Sunday Feature: Natalie Gershtein on Godspell (Montreal)

                                          (photo credit all photos: Eric Chad)

Two Beautiful Cities
by Natalie Gershtein

As I write this from my New York apartment in the Upper (extremely Upper) West Side, I am overwhelmed by the stronghold Montreal has on my heart. I moved to Montreal just over four years ago, and fell in love quite instantaneously. I know it was an emotional blow to my family in Toronto every time I called Montreal “home,” but that is exactly what it was. A youthful city, Montreal is constantly abuzz with the sound of driven and ambitious individuals bringing new ideas and initiatives to an already thriving cultural hub. In a city so vibrant and alive, who wouldn’t want to jump in and make noise?

Montreal has that special something, the “it” factor that makes it so remarkable. As a theatre artist, Montreal was the perfect place for me to grow and develop. The way I see it, Montreal has the look and feel of a large metropolis, yet maintains the intimacy that is only possible within smaller cities. I didn’t know it until I left the city, but I was blessed to be able to experience theatre the way I did in Montreal.  I was able to develop my own work through an institution that supported me (I owe a great deal to the support of the McGill theatre community), and could also take part in the larger Montreal theatre scene – from smaller groups like Teesri Duniya, to the larger theatre companies such as the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. After immersing myself in the Montreal theatre community for a few years, I reached a point where I yearned to collaborate with other artists I connected with in order to make our own contribution.

The Abominable Showman, January 19, 2013

The Prince of Tenors

CharPo sits down with Marc Hervieux for a no-holds-barred interview just days after the famed Quebec tenor walked out on rehearsals for Die Fledermaus at L’Opéra de Montréal to protest the company’s publicity campaign for Die Fledermaus, which opens on January 26

By Richard Burnett

@bugsburnett

Famed Quebec lyric tenor Marc Hervieux was starring as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini’s classic opera La Boheme with another well-known Quebec opera star, Marie-Josée Lord, who was playing the part of Mimi, when Lord fell ill during her performance at L’Opéra de Montréal back in January 2004.

“She wasn’t performing like the other nights, so I began to worry that something might be wrong,” Hervieux recalls. “So I whispered in her ear, ‘Are you alright?’ and Marie-Josée replied, ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’”

There was panic on the set as – with Mimi on the brink of death in Act IV – Hervieux carried Lord offstage, as both opera stars remained fully in character. Hervieux then returned onstage carrying Lord’s understudy in his arms.

“I placed her in the bed and of course, the audience then realized that something was up, because Marie-Josée is black and the understudy was white. 

“But like they say,” Hervieux adds, “The show must go on.”

creating a/broad, January 19, 2013

Yes, It's Fucking Personal
by Cameryn Moore
@camerynmoore

I got dumped this week. We had the phone call on Wednesday, met on Thursday. We’re talking, we’re on good terms, but this thing between us is not going to go the way either of us thought it would. Long-term, it just wasn’t going to work. Things have changed. It wasn’t me, it was him.

My director dumped me.

I wasn’t really surprised. I only knew the barest aspects of his departure from a theatre space, but I knew that the odds were not good for our relationship, if our rehearsals and readings and tech time and performances were all supposed to be at that space. Of course it would be hard for him to be there.

I wish he hadn’t overestimated, three weeks ago, how quickly he would be able to move on. But I’m not mad. No. I know what it’s like. I have been involved in “artistic differences” and in-house disputes and organizational break-ups, we’ll just go ahead and use that word, and it all sounds one way in print and it is so much fucking harder in real life. My previous performance company folded three and a half years ago, and the scars are still tender. For a year and a half after the split, I had to leave before curtain calls, furtively wiping tears from my eyes, when I saw former members performing elsewhere. But I did my best to keep my public self neutral. It’s just a business decision. They were drawn to other projects. It’s just the way things are. It’s artistic differences. It’s not personal. 

Theatre For Thought, January 19, 2013

CAN THE MOVIE MUSICAL EVER TRULY SING?
joel fishbane
@joelfishbane

“Have you seen it yet?” 

This question permeated my recent holiday season. Ever since Christmas Day, it has been asked of me by family and friends. It’s asked with the same tone a lawyer uses in court when conducting a cross-examination; in other words, they think they are asking a question whose answer they think they already know. 

The “it” in question is the film version of the musical Les Miserables. I am, as so many know, a musical theatre connoisseur; Les Miserables is one of my favourite shows. I imagine my friends and family assumed that I have been awaiting the film version with the same breathless anticipation that theatre fans await the discovery of one of Shakespeare’s lost plays. But the truth is, I awaited the film with the same minor curiosity I have regarding my credit card bill. I know it’s going to be something unpleasant; the only question is how bad the damage is going to be.

Review: (Montreal) Pervers

(photo credit: Rolline Laporte)

One Tight Knot
A dense entanglement of issues leaves us jangling.
by Nanette Soucy
@NetSoucy

With all the ambition, work ethic and foresight of a film grad who lives in his mom’s basement, young Gethin decides to take the world of cinema by storm by tackling an edgy subject: the pedophile on the block, and the neighbourhood’s reaction to his presence. He’s devised some sort of perverted Rosenhan experiment, wherein he twists the rubber arm of his kid sister Sarah into spreading vicious rumours about him through school.

Review: (Ottawa) Blue Box

Carmen Aguirre's Blue Box
It's Not About Recycling
by Jim Murchison

Last night was the coldest night of the year so far. There was a certain anticipation I had of what one might refer to as Latin heat. Anything remotely warm at that time would have been inviting but hopefully I was going to experience something that sizzled. When the play starts the first surprise for the audience is that the play they are seeing is not actually called Blue Box. That is merely a title more suitable for marketing purposes. I do not wish to destroy the play's first revelation, so you will have to see it to discover for yourself the actual title.

The sanitized for public consumption title is likely the only compromise that this production made. As Carmen Aguirre recounts her underground life in the resistance of Pinochet’s oppressive Chilean regime, she discusses how one might have to select comfortable clothes to be tortured in. She engages directly with the audience to the point where her body is leaning into the front row inches from the face of an audience member discussing the passionate fucking she received by someone she calls Vision Man. She pulls people from the audience to demonstrate surveillance techniques and invites them up to dance as well.