In the general context of Boehner and Obama's waltz ever closer to the financial precipice, I'm reposting a very interesting ArtsJournal blog entry forwarded to me by Lydia Marston-Blaauw (former PuSh Board President), about the contiguous cliffs facing arts organizations these days.
Click here to read more.
P.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Memos to Self
Two re-posts (ripostes?) to share from the wider theatre-writing community that nonetheless gave me local pause.
The first comes from the Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner, whose wonderful contributions to that paper's Stage blog usually keep me up-to-date with what's on the boards in the UK. Today, however, she was talking about a recent incident at our very own Vancouver East Cultural Centre, when the actress Miriam Margolyes, in town with her one-woman ode to Dickens' Women, apparently berated an audience member in the front row for refusing to join with her fellow patrons in giving the performance a standing ovation. Am I ever glad we decided to give a pass on that one. And now I have one more reason not to capitulate and start watching the Harry Potter movies. I just wonder why the incident hasn't received more play in the local press.
Then, in the Globe and Mail, it was J. Kelly Nestruck's turn to offer his annual Canadian theatre round-up, which basically turned into a catalogue of all the sins committed by different organizations' Boards of Directors over the past year. Included alongside indictments of the Factory Theatre Board (for canning Ken Gass) and the Tarragon Board (for apparently censoring longtime playwright-in-residence Michael Healey for his satirical play about Stephen Harper) was a sharp (and, I have to say, deserved) rebuke of the Vancouver Playhouse Board for closing up shop after 49 years at an eleventh-hour, in camera meeting, leaving the community without the time or resources to mount a rescue plan in response. Not that any of this should find me looking over my shoulder as President of the PuSh Festival Board. I serve with 17 other incredibly talented and professional and supportive directors, all of whom have absolute faith in the vision and talents and fiscal responsibility of our ED and the entire staff. This year's Festival is our biggest yet. And my only worry as Board President right now is how I'm going to see everything.
You can join the fun by purchasing tickets here.
P.
The first comes from the Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner, whose wonderful contributions to that paper's Stage blog usually keep me up-to-date with what's on the boards in the UK. Today, however, she was talking about a recent incident at our very own Vancouver East Cultural Centre, when the actress Miriam Margolyes, in town with her one-woman ode to Dickens' Women, apparently berated an audience member in the front row for refusing to join with her fellow patrons in giving the performance a standing ovation. Am I ever glad we decided to give a pass on that one. And now I have one more reason not to capitulate and start watching the Harry Potter movies. I just wonder why the incident hasn't received more play in the local press.
Then, in the Globe and Mail, it was J. Kelly Nestruck's turn to offer his annual Canadian theatre round-up, which basically turned into a catalogue of all the sins committed by different organizations' Boards of Directors over the past year. Included alongside indictments of the Factory Theatre Board (for canning Ken Gass) and the Tarragon Board (for apparently censoring longtime playwright-in-residence Michael Healey for his satirical play about Stephen Harper) was a sharp (and, I have to say, deserved) rebuke of the Vancouver Playhouse Board for closing up shop after 49 years at an eleventh-hour, in camera meeting, leaving the community without the time or resources to mount a rescue plan in response. Not that any of this should find me looking over my shoulder as President of the PuSh Festival Board. I serve with 17 other incredibly talented and professional and supportive directors, all of whom have absolute faith in the vision and talents and fiscal responsibility of our ED and the entire staff. This year's Festival is our biggest yet. And my only worry as Board President right now is how I'm going to see everything.
You can join the fun by purchasing tickets here.
P.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
EL Vez
EL Vez has got to be the hardest working holiday entertainer ever. The self-styled "Mexican Elvis" brought his Merry MexMas show to the Fortune Sound Club last night. It's a hilarious send-up of classic standards from the season (an East LA version of "Jingle Bell Rock" about getting through Christmas at lighting speed thanks to a little blow).
Despite the myriad costume changes that constituted EL Vez's most theatrical homage to the King (the one from Memphis, not Bethleham), the very fit and energetic 52 year-old seemed to be channeling more of a James Brown vibe, what with all of his high kicks and stage splits and booty work with the lovely Elvettes, his nubile back-up singers. But it was largely lost lost on the Vancouver audience, most of whom seemed to be there for the after-party, when I gather the venue turns into a meat-market of a dance club.
It was a pity, because EL Vez put on a great show. Thanks to my colleague Diana for dragging me out on a rainy Saturday.
P.
Despite the myriad costume changes that constituted EL Vez's most theatrical homage to the King (the one from Memphis, not Bethleham), the very fit and energetic 52 year-old seemed to be channeling more of a James Brown vibe, what with all of his high kicks and stage splits and booty work with the lovely Elvettes, his nubile back-up singers. But it was largely lost lost on the Vancouver audience, most of whom seemed to be there for the after-party, when I gather the venue turns into a meat-market of a dance club.
It was a pity, because EL Vez put on a great show. Thanks to my colleague Diana for dragging me out on a rainy Saturday.
P.
Friday, December 14, 2012
VAG Saga, Part 999
The latest salvos from the opposing camps on the future of the Vancouver Art Gallery played out in today's Vancouver Sun and Globe and Mail.
On one side, we have details of developer Bob Rennie's 22-page plan (co-written with urban demographer David Baxter) for a new multi-site VAG, with the current Robson Street location its hub.
On the other side, VAG Director (and Rennie arch-nemesis) Kathleen Bartels has announced a new artist advisory group to provide "high-level input" on the development of a new single-site, purpose-built building at Larwill Park.
Stay tuned for the musical.
P.
On one side, we have details of developer Bob Rennie's 22-page plan (co-written with urban demographer David Baxter) for a new multi-site VAG, with the current Robson Street location its hub.
On the other side, VAG Director (and Rennie arch-nemesis) Kathleen Bartels has announced a new artist advisory group to provide "high-level input" on the development of a new single-site, purpose-built building at Larwill Park.
Stay tuned for the musical.
P.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
There's Something About Fairy
A brief shout-out to the PuSh Festival's Development Manager Jocelyn Macdougall, who is currently starring in The Broadway Chorus production of There's Something about Fairy, on at Performance Works through this Saturday. A patchwork pastiche of songs from Broadway musicals past and present (with the odd pop standard thrown in), around which Artistic Director Ashley Lambert-Maberly has constructed a whimsical confection of a plot, There's Something tells the story of Terry (the lovely Jocelyn), a misfit fairy who discovers from her all-powerful mother, the Queen of the Fairies (Catherine Shaw, in superb voice), that she's actually a foundling from the human world.
So off Terry goes to said world (along with a rag-tag of fairy friends), whereupon through a series of twists and turns too complicated to relate she lands a job at Helle magazine working for the Anna Wintour-like terror of an editor Greta (a finely comic Yvonne Connors). Who, it turns out, has a secret of her own...
I won't spoil any more of the plot, though that should be the least of your Aristotelian worries in checking out this show, which is all about paying due homage to the show tune. And if all the voices are not always in tune, no matter. Because there can be no doubt that all the performers are feeling each number--and the charismatic Jocelyn, who is in almost every scene, no more than any other. Consequently, we exit the theatre in the way all Broadway shows wish us to: humming along.
P.
So off Terry goes to said world (along with a rag-tag of fairy friends), whereupon through a series of twists and turns too complicated to relate she lands a job at Helle magazine working for the Anna Wintour-like terror of an editor Greta (a finely comic Yvonne Connors). Who, it turns out, has a secret of her own...
I won't spoil any more of the plot, though that should be the least of your Aristotelian worries in checking out this show, which is all about paying due homage to the show tune. And if all the voices are not always in tune, no matter. Because there can be no doubt that all the performers are feeling each number--and the charismatic Jocelyn, who is in almost every scene, no more than any other. Consequently, we exit the theatre in the way all Broadway shows wish us to: humming along.
P.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Back in the Groove with Ballet BC
Ballet BC's 2012-13 season opened in bravura style on Thursday, introducing audiences to some bright new faces on stage, as well as behind the scenes. I had a chance to speak with recently hired Executive Director Branislav Henselmann following last night's show, and was very impressed by his already considerable knowledge of the local performing arts scene, not least the PuSh Festival.
In/verse opens with the North American premiere of Jacopo Godani's A.U.R.A (Anarchist Unit Related to Art). An independent artist who is a self-described polymath, Godani is responsible not just for the choreography, but for the costumes, lighting design, and overall dramaturgical concept of the piece. It shows, as the moveable florescent lighting tubes, together with the TRON-like body suits worn by the dancers, lend the work the feel of a three-dimensional, animated video game. Set to a pulsating electro-acoustic score by the experimental German duo 48nord, the choreography is--as the work's title suggests--at once physically anarchic and conceptually integrated. The 15 dancers (including apprentices Emily Chessa and Scott Fowler, and standout guest artist Thibaut Eiferman) whirl about the stage with controlled abandon, breaking apart in patterns that defy any logical bodily line or grid, and coming back together in tableaux that are always off-centre, cores rooted but limbs splayed.
Next up was the world premiere of American choreographer Nicolo Fonte's Muse, which opens with a lone female dancer on point in a vertical shaft of light emanating from an open doorway upstage right. Over the course of the piece's opening movements, the men in the company interact with her and other of the women who occupy this space, but only from either side of it. They themselves never jump into the light, only over it. Until, that is, the light starts to get rolled up, and we realize what we have been observing is a clever trompe l'oeil effect created by the careful placement of some white stage matting, and its even more subtle illumination by lighting designer James Proudfoot. Rearranged horizontally along the stage, the mat then occasions the central movement of the piece, a duet between Dario Dinuzzi and the excellent new company member Darren Devaney. As technically complex as it is tender, the sequence features the men traveling the length of the mat and back again, guiding each other by the ankles, willing themselves to walk together, though only one of them will walk away.
Finally, the evening concludes with Artistic Director Emily Molnar's own world premiere, Aniel, a crowd-pleasing, eye-popping feast of danced whimsy set to the klezmer-inspired music of John Zorn. Into an empty, all-white box set the full company of 17 dancers race out, wearing Linda Chow's neon-coloured costumes, a riot of oranges and pinks and yellows and blues and greens. From this literally dazzling opening, which was greeted by instant applause, to Gilbert Small's closing kiss to the audience, this is a dual valentine from Molnar, one directed not just to her patrons, but also to her dancers. And those dancers are clearly having a lot of fun, bobbing and shuffling and grooving on and off stage in ways that telegraph their own personal kinesthetic responses to the music, but also coming together as a company for some highly structured choreography, especially with respect to Molnar's rhythmically complex hand and arm movements.
From beginning to end this was a program that announced: we're back.
P.
In/verse opens with the North American premiere of Jacopo Godani's A.U.R.A (Anarchist Unit Related to Art). An independent artist who is a self-described polymath, Godani is responsible not just for the choreography, but for the costumes, lighting design, and overall dramaturgical concept of the piece. It shows, as the moveable florescent lighting tubes, together with the TRON-like body suits worn by the dancers, lend the work the feel of a three-dimensional, animated video game. Set to a pulsating electro-acoustic score by the experimental German duo 48nord, the choreography is--as the work's title suggests--at once physically anarchic and conceptually integrated. The 15 dancers (including apprentices Emily Chessa and Scott Fowler, and standout guest artist Thibaut Eiferman) whirl about the stage with controlled abandon, breaking apart in patterns that defy any logical bodily line or grid, and coming back together in tableaux that are always off-centre, cores rooted but limbs splayed.
Next up was the world premiere of American choreographer Nicolo Fonte's Muse, which opens with a lone female dancer on point in a vertical shaft of light emanating from an open doorway upstage right. Over the course of the piece's opening movements, the men in the company interact with her and other of the women who occupy this space, but only from either side of it. They themselves never jump into the light, only over it. Until, that is, the light starts to get rolled up, and we realize what we have been observing is a clever trompe l'oeil effect created by the careful placement of some white stage matting, and its even more subtle illumination by lighting designer James Proudfoot. Rearranged horizontally along the stage, the mat then occasions the central movement of the piece, a duet between Dario Dinuzzi and the excellent new company member Darren Devaney. As technically complex as it is tender, the sequence features the men traveling the length of the mat and back again, guiding each other by the ankles, willing themselves to walk together, though only one of them will walk away.
Finally, the evening concludes with Artistic Director Emily Molnar's own world premiere, Aniel, a crowd-pleasing, eye-popping feast of danced whimsy set to the klezmer-inspired music of John Zorn. Into an empty, all-white box set the full company of 17 dancers race out, wearing Linda Chow's neon-coloured costumes, a riot of oranges and pinks and yellows and blues and greens. From this literally dazzling opening, which was greeted by instant applause, to Gilbert Small's closing kiss to the audience, this is a dual valentine from Molnar, one directed not just to her patrons, but also to her dancers. And those dancers are clearly having a lot of fun, bobbing and shuffling and grooving on and off stage in ways that telegraph their own personal kinesthetic responses to the music, but also coming together as a company for some highly structured choreography, especially with respect to Molnar's rhythmically complex hand and arm movements.
From beginning to end this was a program that announced: we're back.
P.
Friday, November 23, 2012
10 Lies and a Truth
A quick shout-out to the program of SFU Contemporary Arts student directing projects on now through December 1st at Studio T, SFU Woodward's. Grouped under the collective title 10 Lies and a Truth, these 11 short works showcase the talents of the next generation of Vancouver theatre artists, giving senior students in the Theatre Program a chance to helm their own production.
Last night's pairing of one-acts featured two absurdist works of political theatre from the 1960s. The first was Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek's Striptease, about two similarly attired men trapped in a room, and forced to answer to a giant prosthetic hand. Director Sarah Bernstein handles the mix of humour and critique within Mrozek's irony with a sure touch, balancing physical whimsy with respect for the rhythms--linguistic and ideological--of the characters' speechifying. And lead performers Robert Andow and Marc Castellini have great chemistry.
Next up was Chilean playwright Jorge Diaz's Love Yourself Above All Others, a biting satire about class-consciousness whose central conceit is that the aristocrats--Carmine Santavenere as The Gentleman and Sharon Ramirez as The Lady--ride their servants--Kiki Al Rahmani as Placida and Wesley Rogers as Epifanio--like animals, all the while spouting rhetorically empty maxims about revolution and democracy. Layering on the Latin American stereotypes and iconography with wildly inventive theatricality, director Manuela Sosa creates a hot-house dance-musical (complete with breakout salsa steps and a climactic hip hop number) that doesn't let its knowing smirk get in the way of a clear-eyed presentation of some big ideas. Not the least of which are the representational and material inequities that continue to beset the relationship between the "West" and the "Global South." All the performers throw themselves into their parts with absolute abandon, and the entire piece is as visually and physically stunning as it is intellectually stimulating.
The Directing Projects continue tonight and tomorrow night at 8 pm, with offerings from Conor Wylie, Janelle Reid, and Sean Marshall, Jr.
P.
Last night's pairing of one-acts featured two absurdist works of political theatre from the 1960s. The first was Polish playwright Slawomir Mrozek's Striptease, about two similarly attired men trapped in a room, and forced to answer to a giant prosthetic hand. Director Sarah Bernstein handles the mix of humour and critique within Mrozek's irony with a sure touch, balancing physical whimsy with respect for the rhythms--linguistic and ideological--of the characters' speechifying. And lead performers Robert Andow and Marc Castellini have great chemistry.
Next up was Chilean playwright Jorge Diaz's Love Yourself Above All Others, a biting satire about class-consciousness whose central conceit is that the aristocrats--Carmine Santavenere as The Gentleman and Sharon Ramirez as The Lady--ride their servants--Kiki Al Rahmani as Placida and Wesley Rogers as Epifanio--like animals, all the while spouting rhetorically empty maxims about revolution and democracy. Layering on the Latin American stereotypes and iconography with wildly inventive theatricality, director Manuela Sosa creates a hot-house dance-musical (complete with breakout salsa steps and a climactic hip hop number) that doesn't let its knowing smirk get in the way of a clear-eyed presentation of some big ideas. Not the least of which are the representational and material inequities that continue to beset the relationship between the "West" and the "Global South." All the performers throw themselves into their parts with absolute abandon, and the entire piece is as visually and physically stunning as it is intellectually stimulating.
The Directing Projects continue tonight and tomorrow night at 8 pm, with offerings from Conor Wylie, Janelle Reid, and Sean Marshall, Jr.
P.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
