theatre

Beyond Eden by Bruce Ruddell
Music by Bruce Ruddell and Bill Henderson
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Music Direction by Bill Henderson
Choreographer Jacques Lemay
Fight Director JeanPierre Fournier
Co-produced by Vancouver Playhouse and Theatre Calgary
Jan 16 to Feb 6 th, 2010

Photographs by David Cooper

Vancouver, BC:  Just imagine. You dream  an "impossible dream" for 25 years and finally one exhilarating night, your dream explodes into  reality in a visually and musically stunning production. Beyond Eden had  its world premiere last week on the Vancouver Playhouse stage as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and it is  a "tour de force".  Bruce Ruddell  and his creative collaborators, cast and crew can truly be proud of how his dream has been actualized.

Nelly Boy   by Dave Deveau
Directed by Cameron Mackenzie
Zee Zee Theatre and Screaming Weenie Productions
PAL Theatre
Oct 22- Nov 1, 2009

Vancouver, BC:   For 75 minutes you could have heard a pin drop in the small space of the PAL theatre.  As the actors exited and the lights went to black, the words "brave, terrifying, sad"  competed in my head with "so that's the real Allan Zinyk".  I think this is the first time I have seen him playing a normal person in a straight as opposed to a comedic role, and it brought to mind a handsome Allan Rickman - as Steven Spurrier (Bottle Shock) not the infamous Snape, of course.

  But I digress.  Zinyk plays the Man/ Father of Nelly/Nelson (Amitai Marmorstein) a fragile young teenager who is struggling to come to terms with gender identity.  As Man (not a social worker, a cop, a teacher, a lawyer-  therapist maybe?),  who is simply there to get Nelly to tell his story,  Zinyk conveys flashes of compassion, mixed with irritation and impatience, with sudden switches of character to become Dad.

Via Beatrice
Written by Jenn Griffin
Composed and musically directed by Peggy Lee
Directed by  Matthew Bisset
Fugue Theatre
Playwrights Theatre Centre, Granville Island
13th - 22nd August, 2009

Vancouver, BC:  Almost exactly a year ago  I watched a staged reading of an early version of Via Beatrice at the Playwrights Theatre Centre. At the time I commented on my Works in Progress page commentary that  " It is always a privilege to get a peek into the creation of a new work, and then, hopefully, to see a full production of the finished version." And it really was exciting to see the polished production that this work has become in a year.

Often workshopped plays  will have a totally different cast in final production but  the original cast  at the staged reading,  Laura Di Cicco (Beatrice /Nicole), Lucia Frangione (Diana/Lucrezia) and Marco Soriano (Alessandro/Francesco/Amato),  and musicians, Peggy Lee and Rob Samworth form the ensemble that has lived with this work for the year, and it shows in the smoothness and ease of their interactions. Di Cicco was utterly charming as the waitress/Beatrice character and Frangione played Diane's  emotional fragility very well.  Soriano, was equally charming as mercurial tour guide Alessandro who has problems of his own.

The Creators: One-on-one with Emil Sher, author of Mourning Dove and Hana's Suitcase

Among the many excellent productions in Vancouver in 2008, Pacific Theatre’s staging of Emil Sher’s Mourning Dove touched my heart and mind most deeply. I loved the play and the restrained sensitivity with which the writer addressed the unfolding of a tragedy that no parent should ever have to experience. When I realized that Sher was also the author of Hana’s Suitcase, another very moving play that I had recently read, I was compelled to read more of his work. These experiences raised a whole lot of questions that I wanted to pose to the playwright. To my delight, Emil Sher generously agreed to be interviewed for “Creators and Communicators,” the section of  Theatre Seen that highlights the creative artists that “make theatre.”

One-on-one with Emil Sher

Emil, I note that your undergraduate degree from McGill was in English and that you taught English in Botswana before returning to do an MFA in Creative Writing at Concordia. Was it your experiences in Botswana that stimulated your desire to write or were you compelled to write from childhood?

Initially, I had contemplated becoming an actor, and focused on theatre as an undergraduate at McGill. But during my time there I became increasingly drawn to the written word, and wrote a fair bit for the McGill Daily, the school newspaper. And as much as I enjoyed journalism (I still find creative non-fiction very gratifying), there is something about the latitude of fiction that always appealed (and I use the word ‘fiction’ loosely to include work for stage and screen). I went to Botswana naively believing I would have time to write, though I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to write about (never a good start for a writer). I soon discovered that teaching is a craft like any other, and required substantial amount of time, energy and care if I was going to do it right. I knew the only way I would be able to write meaningfully was to immerse myself in an environment where I would have to write on a regular basis, and graduate school was the ideal opportunity to do just that. I focused on fiction (my thesis was a collection of short stories) and made a decision upon graduating that I would write in different genres, as the spirit moved me and as opportunities surfaced.

You have written plays for both radio and stage. Could you comment on how your approach differs between writing for radio - theatre of the mind - versus a play that is intended to be physically staged?

Every genre of writing comes with its own toolbox, and I’m still learning how to take advantage of the tools at my disposal. Indeed, I’ve come to see the writing life as a lifelong apprenticeship. What I love about radio is how the narrative is distilled to sound, or silence: a voice, a sound effect, or a moment when nothing is said, when nothing is heard, and yet it is a moment that speaks volumes. Radio has been called “theatre of the mind” for good reason, and it insists that the audience actively engage with the story. Engaging an audience or a reader is essential to how I write, regardless of the genre or the audience I am writing for (which is sometimes as young as pre-schoolers). It is this objective that dictates my approach to radio dramas and stage plays. With radio, I’m more conscious of how dialogue is the foundation upon which the story rests. There is nothing else to create the world of a radio play but for sound, human or otherwise. And so the challenge is to make sure each word and sound can be justified. The intimacy of the medium demands it. With a stage play, I feel the text is but one part of a larger narrative. The set, the lighting design, the very presence of an actor significantly alters our interpretation of the story being told. When I write a play I’m mindful of the varied elements that will ultimately shape it, and am inspired by the collective energies that fuel a stage work. And while it takes a team effort to create a radio play, the process feels more contained, compared to the open-ended development of a stage play, which is often defined – and enriched – by the detours that surface during roundtable, workshop discussions about the text, generating questions that challenge me to justify my creative choices, revisit them, or reject them.

Have you ever directed any of your own plays?

I’ve yet to direct one of my own plays, and feel more drawn to directing a film. I’m especially drawn to the editing process. I said as much to a talk I once gave to a group of theatre students, and one student remarked that editing is not unlike writing, in that it speaks to the importance of structure. It’s often said that writing is rewriting, and that’s not dissimilar to sitting in an editing suite, rearranging a narrative so that it’s a structurally sound as it can be.

As a working contemporary Canadian playwright do you always present a completed script or do you ever work with a director as a dramaturge to massage and shape the script on its feet?

When it comes to a new play, I offer directors a completed script insofar as it’s a draft we can build upon. Initially, the conversation is between myself and the director, who may or may not double as a dramaturge. In some instances, the three of us – playwright, director, dramaturge – have discussed a script in its formative stages. That process is further enriched through workshops, where the script is given a reading by actors who may have their own insights to offer. I see this process as very fluid: changes are made to the script that usually stem from questions posed by the director, an actor, or myself. Scenes are dropped, or rearranged or cut. It takes several drafts before I’m satisfied, and often there’s a substantial rewrite somewhere along the way. My guiding principle when developing a script with collective input can be distilled to a simple question: “Does it serve the story?” Not an actor’s ego or a director’s agenda, but the story.

Or from another perspective: When you hand over your work to a director do your scripts feel complete? Or do you find that as you watch them unfold, there are changes you want to make or other stories that grow out of what you see on stage?

Is a script ever complete, or completely finished? There comes a time when the creative process has run its course and it’s time to let go. There’s always the liability that a script can take too long to gestate, that it can be overwritten and overworkshopped. That said, I have made script changes from one production to the next for all my plays. There is always a word or a phrase that can be tweaked or parsed, and I find this aspect of playwriting very gratifying: the script isn’t static. It can become stronger with each successive staging, and thus become a different play each time.

Last night I made my way gingerly along a dusty, construction-damaged Granville Street, to the Commodore Ballroom where Vancouver's theatre community gathered to celebrate another year of amazing theatre.  It is always interesting to see how the nominations and the final award winners stack up against what I thought during the year of play-going, and  what details I can remember of the many productions. As well, the productions nominated are only a portion of the many shows staged here - Vancouver has a great theatre scene, and often I find that there are more things available to see than hours to see them in. Any way here is the list of finalists with links to those plays I managed to review during the year and featured pictures. Congratulations to all the nominees, and of course to the Jessie winners

Jessie Richardson Awards Large Theatre  2008-2009

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role
Jay Brazeau, The Drowsy Chaperone, Playhouse Theatre Company

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role
Jennifer Lines, The Tempest, Bard on the Beach

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Simon Bradbury, Titus Andronicus, Bard on the Beach

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Margo Kane, Where the Blood Mixes, Playhouse Theatre Company & The Savage Society

Outstanding Lighting Design
Alan Brodie, Miss Julie: Freedom Summer, Playhouse Theatre Company

Outstanding Set Design
Ken MacDonald, The Constant Wife, Arts Club Theatre Company

Outstanding Costume Design
Nancy Bryant, The Constant Wife, Arts Club Theatre Company

Outstanding Sound Design or Original Composition
Alessandro Juliani, The Tempest, Bard on the Beach

Outstanding Direction
Max Reimer, The Drowsy Chaperone, Playhouse Theatre Company

Outstanding Production
The Drowsy Chaperone,Playhouse Theatre Company

Significant Artistic Achievement
Alan Brodie, Patrick Clark, Jamie Nesbitt,
Exceptional Integration of Visual Design,
Frost/Nixon, Playhouse Theatre Company

The best laid plans ...

Well here I am back in Vancouver after a fantastic 7 nights of dance, food, wine and meeting new friends on board the Sapphire Princess. The cruise was a great success - I had a blast! My feet may need a week to recover from dancing till midnight most nights. But on the other hand, despite eating great food and not stinting on the wine, i did not put on any weight! Ballroom dancing is the key!

I walked off the ship early Saturday morning dragging my heavy suitcase - yes I packed too much! Was home by around 8:30 and after putting in a load of laundry went up to Urban Fare to stack up on grocery essentials like cream for my coffee, fruit and yogurt. On both Saturday and Sunday I had arranged to get together with friends I had met on the cruise, so between that, unpacking, seeing True Story at the Cultch and dinner at  r.tl (regional tasting lounge) , I am only partially through creating the record of my trip.

Yes - my intentions of posting a daily travelblogue fell victim to my decision to "live it now and write it later." I have decided that I will post the log of my trip in one single post. That will also help with the issue of chronology that blogging messes up. But watch for it - I intend to have it posted early this week as I have 5 more plays to review by Saturday.

True Story
Written and directed by John Murphy
Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch
5-17 May 2009

Sebastian Kroon and Kayla Deorksen in True StoryVancouver, BC: It's a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver. Since I arrived home yesterday from my Dancing at Sea Cruise (three hours of dance each night and an average of 5 hours sleep) I have barely had time to unpack. I have 6 days of travel writing to finish and a busy evening ahead. But before I left two weeks ago I had committed to attending the 2 pm performance of this show so I hopped in my little car and cruised over the Georgia Viaduct to The Vancity Culture Lab at Venables and Victoria Drive. And I am glad I did.

I found Murphy's play wickedly clever and entertaining. The story - you have to tell a story, right? - ostensibly revolves around a mother whose 4 year old daughter disappeared twenty years ago, and who still clings desperately to the hope that she is still alive somewhere. At least that's how the play is advertised. But it is not as simple as that.

Brandyn Eddy as Jon: Photos by Devin Karringtentick...tick...BOOM! by Jonathan Larson
Directed by Ryan Mooney
Musical Direction by Melissa Braun & Sarah Jaysmith
Fighting Chance Productions
Jericho Arts Centre
April 6 - 22, 2009
Monday through Wednesday, at 8 pm

Vancouver, BC: It is 1990 and Jon (Brandyn Eddy) is a promising young composer living in Manhattan. Jon is about to turn thirty and he is agonizing about his career in music and theatre, and fretting that  he is over the hill. This premise for the show would ordinarily be a trifle irritating to me. I left 30 behind some years ago (alright, many years ago) yet I still feel that I am on the way up  to the summit of a career hill.  Albeit a different hill from the one I was climbing at 30. No existential angst is allowed in my mind. To safeguard  myself  against the upcoming angst, I booked for dinner at DB Bistro Moderne on Broadway: Our Broadway of course!