Picture of the Week, April 3, 2014

Nope, what you are seeing is not the trickery of Photoshop, it is photographer David Cooper capturing Adam Kenneth Wilson and the theatre magic that is Helen Lawrence (now on tour, and stopped at Arts Club Theatre). It is, indeed, a new way of looking at theatre.

(Read our review)

On The Fringe With Nancy Kenny, April 2, 2014

The Evolution of a Show by Nancy Kenny  2009 – The idea of a roller derby show  comes to mind. I start researching the sport, interview people involved and writing scenes. My show is nowhere near ready for Fringe so I decide to do something else. Something else bombs and I give up writing for a whole year.

2011 – Opportunity to be in the Ottawa Fringe Festival presents itself and I take it. I dust off the old scenes and start writing a show. It goes… not that well at first.

Regardless, it becomes an unquestionable success. And after Ottawa, I took all the feedback I got and wrote another draft for the Hamilton Fringe, where things also went well. Did one more performance in Ottawa that year with a few minor changes and that was that. As I needed money, I took a self-imposed break from the arts to work a few full-time jobs. I was not going to tour in 2012.

2012 – A roller derby lady in Swift Current, SK had heard about the show and wanted it for a theatre festival she curates. Barely any changes are made to the script. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I set up a successful Indiegogo campaign to take the show on a full cross-Canada tour in 2013.

In a Word... Playwright/Performer Jennifer Ansell-Clark on Speak Truth of the Dead

Speaking for the Unknown

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Jennifer Ansell-Clark was born in Quebec City and grew up living by the docks with her mum, aunt, uncle and her dog Lady. From her first time on stage as a stick in The Three Little Pigs in kindergarten she kept performing right through elementary, high school and on into CEGEP. Once she moved to Montreal she continued her theatre studies with the Phoenix Theatre Workshop. A published author she also worked in independent cinema behind the scenes and has recently been a stalwart volunteer for both Mainline and The Fringe Festival. After a very long hiatus from acting she decided to dip her toes into the theatre waters again and has appeared many times at the Confabulation Storytelling events. One of those performances has led her back to the stage to create her first multidisciplinary performance piece.

CHARPO:  I know about your ongoing battle with cancer. Would you mind sharing it with our readers? Clearly, this battle marks the elegiac themes of the play - what drove you to actually write a play, and more, gave you the energy to rehearse and perform it?

ANSELL-CLARK: What drove me to write the play is a series of events directly related to my conquering cancer. From the second week of December 2012 when I found the lump (and if your readers don't know how to do a self-exam I strongly insist that they learn) until October 2, 2013 when I had my operation, my life was torn apart. I had promised Matt Goldberg that I would perform a story at the Confabulation show on October 6 and intended to do so no matter what but...  On October 4 we had tickets to a Steve Hackett show at Place des Arts. I went, a corpse in all but name and the music resurrected me, redeemed me and re-animated me. So, for the Confab story, I told of this death and resurrection. Al Lafrance saw the show and got in touch and asked me if I'd be interested in doing a show based on that story. I said yes faster than I have ever said yes to anything other than marrying my life partner. And the story has written itself almost. (cont'd) 

Video of the Week, April 2, 2014

Maverick director Peter Sellars is bringing his production of Hercules to the COC. Here, he discusses the genesis of the original production as staged at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; returning home from war (a subject that has resonance as Canadian troops leave Afghanistan).
(Read also Joel Ivany's first-person piece about working with Sellars)

Sunday Features, 2012-13

jackDawe, April, 2014

Colour, comedy, sex and new work
by TJ Dawe
@TJ_Dawe

Does colour blind casting do any good?

Or gender blind casting? 

Actually, I don’t know if gender blind casting is even a thing. 

But years ago I saw a play in which a woman played a male role. It was a supporting role. It was supposed to be a man. And every time she was on stage, you couldn’t stop yourself from analyzing her. Does she have breasts? Is that a woman’s voice? It was a well intentioned attempt to counteract how male-centric most plays are. But it was distracting.

Because:

After Dark, April 1, 2014

The Myth of Culture
Thoughts on Quebec and all the rest
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Many won't say it out loud, though many others will, but it has been a commonly held belief for over four decades that Quebec culture is superior to culture in the Rest of Canada (ROC). (This will not be the only irritating idea I will share here, so if you can't handle that...look away. And, no, this is not an April Fools joke.)

The fact is: I was one of those who believed this at one time because I was one of the artists within this milieu and I was so arrogant about it that when I went elsewhere in the country with my plays, I would drive people nuts. I know this because a couple of people told me I was doing precisely that. 

There was a time when this may have actually been true. It was when artists in Quebec saw - in their government - a reflection of their hopes and dreams for the future and the government (especially as embodied by René Lévesque) took artists into its heart and promoted them, defended them and supported them. The premier felt that artists were symbolic of a culture - of a nation. Lévesque had the same concerns as the present government about language, yes, but there was no xenophobia in him. Culture was all of us.