Fringe Festival

Photo courtesy of www.facebook.com

This summer's St- Ambroise Fringe Festival kicks off June 11th to the 21st.

The Fringe Festivals Four Principals

- There is no artistic direction. Artists are selected by lottery.
- Artists have freedom in what they are presenting. No Censorship
- Accessibility to the artists. Anyone is allowed to apply.
- Accessibility to audience. Ticket are kept low.

Jeremy Hechtman has been the producer of the Festival since 1996. He is also the Artistic director of MainLine Theatre .

Teesri Duniya Theatre: Change the World, One Play at a Time

Image by: typeleft

Through the creative works of theatre, Teesri Duniya, (which means "third world" in Hindi) is committed in producing and casting a multi ethnic, culturally diverse theatre. In supporting a multicultural agenda this professional theatre company promotes socially and politically relevant material.

Rahul Varma

Photo credit: eapnetwork.ca

A playwright, director and community activist, (born in India) Rahul Varma co-founded Teesri Duniya in 1981 and has been the artistic director since 1986. Mr Varma's plays, including his most recent works, Bhopal and Counter Offence have been produced in French, English and Hindi . A culturally diverse playwright, Mr Varma lives in Montreal with his wife and daughter.

Bhopal

Photo credit: Canada Council

Teesri Duniya's four inter-connected activities

- Main stage productions of original works that are translated into other languages.
- New play development.
- Publication of a quarterly magazine, alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage.
- Community based projects to help emerging visible minority artists.

Dr. Edward (Ted) Little

Photo by: Bo Photo


Dr. Edward (Ted ) Little is the associate artistic director of Teesri Duniya Theatre and Editor-in-chief of alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage. Dr Little is also Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre at Concordia University . Dr Little is author of many publications and articles including, "Avoiding the Missionary Position: Ethics, Efficacy, and Interculturalism in a New Undergraduate Theatre Program and "Towards an Aesthetics of Community Based Theatre...Part II: Avoiding the Missionary Position."

Up coming event: Wednesday, March 25, 2009-7:00pm-Saturday, March 28, 2009-11:pm

Teesri Duniya Theatre Presents Untold Histories .

"Courageous life stories of making home anew in Montreal"

Repercussion Theatre

Photo courtesy of www.canadahelps.org

Founded by Cass Anvar in 1988, Repercussion theatre is Montreal's famous outdoor summer time Shakespeare in the Park festival. Producing classical theatre and bringing their productions into the communities,thereby introducing theatre to audiences that might not other wise have a chance to experience theatre.


Photo courtesy ofwww.repercussiontheatre.com

Artistic director Paul Hopkins, graduated from Concordia University with a BFA in Theatre performance.

Summer Theatre in the Park

William Shakespeare's As You Like It
July 23rd - August 16th, 2009. Directed by: Paul Hopkins.

Free - Donations accepted. For more details please call.
Information: 514-931-2644

Remember to bring a blanket or a lawn chair.

Centaur Theatre

Photo courtesy of www.tourisme-montreal.org

The Centaur Theatre company , which is housed in the old Stock Exchange building in old Montreal , was founded by Maurice Podbrey in 1969. Podbrey who was noted for supporting new emerging artists and their works, retired in 1997.

The next artistic director and executive director of Centaur Theatre was Gordan McCall. The current artistic director is Roy Surette.



Now Playing

Age of Arousal By Linda Griffiths. Dir. Sarah Garton Stanley March 24 - April 19th, 2009.

Coming Up

with bated breath World Premiere By Bryden MacDonald . Dir. Bryden MacDonald and Roy Surette . April 21st - May 24th, 2009.

ELVIS: One Night With You. Starring Stephen Kabakos . Saturday May 2nd, 2009. 8:30pm.

Centaur Theatre
453 St. Francois-Xavier
Box Office: 514 288-3161
Metro: Place - d'Armes

Black Theatre Workshop

Photo courtesy of www.themonitor.ca

Founded in 1972, Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) is the longest standing professional Black theatre company. Between 1972 and 1973 one play was produced due to financial struggles. Dream on Monkey Mountain. The newly formed theatre was then under the direction of Jeff Henry and Errol Sitahal.

BTW Artistic Directors To Date

- Terry Donald
- Don Jordan
- Winston Sutton
- Fleurette Fernado
- Nancy Delva
- Kate Bligh
- Rachael Van Fossen
- Tyrone Benskin

Other works presented by BTW are My Children, My Africa by Athol Fugard (1998), The Crossroad/Le Carrefour by Kossi Efoui (2000), Africa Solo by Djanet Sears (2002), and Wade in the Water by George E. Boyd (2004).


Photo courtesy of www.cbc.ca

More recent works produced by Black Theatre Workshop include, Shifting groung/Creons un Monde (2005), Blacks Don't Bowl by Vadney Hayes(2005/06, and The Lady Smith by Andrew Moodie (2006).

Currently playing is Le Code Noir , Directed by Richard Donat. Starring Tyrone Benskin. To April 5th, 2009.

Artist as Creator: The Role of Director

Photo by: electrichouse

Bryan James is both a playwright and a director , and he says this, "Could be a hindrance or a blessing." If you happen to be involved in a piece that you have written and are directing it could get a little hectic. James goes on to say that, "The two are really different."

Writing and Reading

As the director of any production you have to know what you want. This might seem obvious, but if the person directing the show doesn't know what they want, it doesn't work very well for the show or the other people working on the production.The process begins with knowing your material .

As James puts it, "read the script! reread, rethink, reread, research. What is it that you like about it? What is this thing about? Get reams of paper, start to write it out, disposable ideas. Sooner or later, and it better be sooner than later, we make choices, strong choices."

Breathing life into a script is an ongoing process with many creative people involved from pre to post production (strike set). James also says, "Be ready for change! things will and the more you try to hold on too tight."

This is where the team working on the project is important to be on the same page so to speak. James says," A great stage manager will make life sweet."

Ultimately, it is the director's vision that ties all elements into a finished piece. A director must be organized and be able to draw out the actor's potential. Paying attention to the many details is also a must for a director's success.

Geordie Productions Theatre for Young Audiences

Photo courtesy of www.geordie.ca

A professional theatre company for young audiences Geordie Productions was founded in 1980 by Elsa Bolam . The current artistic director is Concordia theatre graduate, Dean Patrick Fleming. Aside from their mainstage productions, Geordie's school tours continue to enlighten and entertain both children and adults across Quebec and Ontario.

Coming Up

Alice Through The Looking Glass. By Lewis Carroll. Adapted by Harry Standjofski . Dir. Dean Patrick Fleming. May 1 - 10. 2009.

Telephone: 514 845-9810

SaBooge: Thought Provoking Physical Theatre

SaBooge's Co- Artistic Director and founding member Andrew Shaver, along with fellow performing artist Attila Clemann, are dedicated in sharing their expertise through creative training workshops.

Creating Walls

Climbing a wall can be difficult. Climbing a wall that doesn't exist can be more difficult. Drawing on their training in mime both Attila and Andrew demonstrated to us how the climbing of a wall was not about the actor's struggle in climbing the mimed wall at all, but rather the focus being the mimed wall itself. As this workshop was made up of Concordia theatre students this proved to be somewhat of a challenge. A tip of the hat to both leaders who demonstrated the patience of Job with this particular exercise.

Miming

The introduction of a mimed improvisation swimming pool sketch was another exciting, creative, and educational experience. As this exercise progressed I felt the sudden urge to speak. This urge for dialogue was so strong that it was unbearable. I ended up forcing an untimely and unneededconflict into the scene to help ease, what I felt was an uncomfortable silence. Ultimately, this did not work for the scene or the audience.

When Less Means More

Attila explained that in waiting for an opportunity to present itself, rather than forcing a contrived conflict, we open ourselves up to more opportunities. With this perspective the "less is more" approach gives a chance for a more natural conflict to arise. In delaying unnecessary dialogue and therefore not rushing the scene, we keep ourselves open to giving the audience the conflict they would like to see happen instead of our own.

Throughout the SaBooge week-end workshop, Attila and Andrew taught us the benefit of using Lecoq's building spectrum of reactions to different sound levels while performing a movement. As Attila points out, "It's quite a bit different from just being aware because it is transmitted through the performers relationship to their actions. This is critical to make it visible and not just an intellectual or psychological range or 'gamme'." In using these different levels during a performance, an actor can build up to a moment in a scene realistically.


The 6 Steps of Reactions to a Growing Sound

1. A sound is heard and there is no notice and no change in the movement. (No importance)
2.A sound is heard and it is noticed but there is no change in the movement. (Little importance)
3.A sound is heard and is noticed, the movement does not change but the person checks where it came from and whether it will happen again. (Some importance)
4.A sound is heard, noticed, and the rhythm of the movement changes. The person checks for the sound source and is reassured that all is okay and resumes the normal rhythm of the movement. (Important)
5. A sound is heard, noticed but is not what was expected; a dramatic shift. The movement stops entirely but might resume. This is a moment of suspension. (Very important)
6. A loud sound is heard and the movement has to be completely abandoned. (Absolute importance)

Collective Visual Narratives

Another class exercise was concentrated on a filmic image - based approach. In this creation each group presented a scene from a movie of their choice. My group's pick was the film Titanic . We presented several key scenes that would be easily recognisable and opened with Jack Dawson winning the tickets onto the ship. We then transitioned into a jump cut image forming the outline of the Titanic. Another filmic image we used was in the scene with Jack drowning.

Imaginative Physical Performances

Because we couldn't have Jack sink into the floor, it was suggested we create his drowning by having him slide down onto the floor and rotate his body while being pulled off the stage area . At the same time we also had members of our group drowning and rotating in unison. This helped to sharpen the close up effect we wanted. We also transitioned ourselves in and out of the various scenes by turning ourselves away from the audience or action and freezing.

Andrew Shaver and Attila Clemann are two experienced, dedicated, patient and committed professional theatre artists whose enthusiasm for teaching their physical theatre techniques, created an ideal atmosphere for an amazing collaborative learning experience.

Montreal Playwright: David Fennario

Photo by: montrealmirror.com

Montreal born author and award winning playwright David Fennario (Wiper) was raised in the working class neighborhood of Pointe- St- Charles. His pen name, Fennario was taken from a Bob Dylan song titled,"Pretty Peggy-O."

In the early seventies Fennario enrolled in Dawson Collage. With his teachers encouragement, Fennario developed and fine tuned his creative writing skills. His journal, Without a Parachute caught the attention of then Centaur artistic director Maurice Podbrey , who introduced Fennario to the ins and outs of theatre.

On the Job, Fennario's first play was produced at Centaur in 1975 and became an overnight hit. As did his other plays, also produced at Centaur, Nothing to Lose (1976), Toronto (1978), Balconville (1979), Moving (1983), The Murder of Catherine Parr (1986) and the controversial The Death of Rene Levesque in (1990).

Balconville

Photo courtesy of www.playwrights.ca

Fennario continued to bring the working class issues to the public's attention through his art. Breaking away from mainstream theatre and concerned that his plays were not being heard by his working class audience, he co -founded the Blackrock Community Group. His agitprop work , Joe Beef (1984) was influenced by Bertolt Brecht and produced the show in Verdun.


Photo courtesy of www.amazon.ca

Another play, this time a one man show, Banana Boots (1988), is based on his life, and was developed at the Playwrights Workshop Montreal . Gargoyles another one man show dipicts a historical and working class view of life in Pointe St. Charles.

With Fennario's long awaited return to Centaur, he revisited Balconville's success 26 years later with the premiere in Novenber, 2005 with Condoville .


Photo courtesy of www.go-montreal.com

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the invention of radio by CanadianReginald Fessenden , Fennario wrote Fessenden's Follies(2006). This was adapted for radio and performed live in December 2006 across Canada.

Stage Managing

Photo courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com

A stage manager's position is that of an organizer . An efficient stage manager(SM) is prepared for everything and anything. If your in a large theatre company there might be an assistant stage manager to help ensure the production runs smoothly. Usually though, you are one SM. The SM is responsible for the smooth running of the rehearsals . This job can be stressful given that you are working with many people and many different personalities.

Organization is Key

You can never have enough lists. Keeping a record of things will keep you ready for unexpected crisis that come up. So it's a great idea to keep everything handy, neat and available for verifying production and technical information. It does no good to have the necessary information if you can't get your fingers on it when it's needed right away. I suggest buying a clip board and a binder that you can put dividers in.

With your information divided into sections you will cut out unnecessary stress when you have to look up important information. This will save you valuable time and energy. Since one of your most important roles will be to record and document everything during the rehearsal process , I can't stress this point enough. Here are a few examples of lists that you will need to consider in order to be on top of the show.

Lists, Lists, and more Lists.

- Props
- Costumes
- Rehearsal schedules
- Lighting cues
- Sound cues
- Blocking
- Set changes or moves

The Stage Manager is always the first one to arrive and the last one to leave rehearsal. There is always something to do and to think about for the next day's work. The SM is responsible for contacting the actors regarding the call times for rehearsals. Also it is tradition that the SM supply and make the coffee during rehearsals. This also saves valuable time in the long run.