Review: Theatre For One

Unique

Theatre For One is precisely what it says it is

by Estelle Rosen

Picture this: you’re sitting in the Concordia University Sculpture Garden Courtyard, chatting with others waiting in line.

You’re escorted into a small telephone size booth. Makeup mirror lights are on; music is playing. Lights gradually lower. Music fades.  All reminiscent of  a theatre experience. Except usually other theatregoers are there as well.  But this is Theatre For One. And you’re the One.

The Upstage Interview, Christine Jones

A video clip from the current Broadway production of American Idiot with Christine Jones' Tony-winning work in full evidence

It Doesn't End With a Tony

Upstage Producer and Charpo Editor-In-Chief  Estelle Rosen spoke with Christine Jones Artistic Director of Theatre For One being presented at Concordia Faculty of Fine Arts Sculpture Garden Courtyard. 

Sunday Feature: Christine Jones, Tony-winning designer

A video clip from the current Broadway production of American Idiot with Christine Jones' Tony-winning work in full evidence

The Little Montrealer That Could
"...there are a thousand ways to have a life in the theatre...you just have to find your tribe."

David King

In the 1980s, Christine Jones was a bored English Lit student at both Marianapolis College and Concordia University. American born and raised in Montreal, she found her thrills assisting Marianopolis theatre professor Victor Garaway with design, set building and scenic painting at the college. It was Garaway who suggested she apply to Concordia's Theatre Department and become a scenographer.

"A stenographer?" asked Jones. "No, a 'scenographer,'" Garaway told her.

Interviewing at Concordia with a primitive portfolio and a prayer, Jones landed herself a spot in Concordia’s Design For the Theatre Program, where she graduated in 1989. Hugely self-critical of her own work, says Eric Mongerson in a recent interview for Concordia University Magazine, Jones eventually found her path with the constant encouragement of mentors like Mongerson and [professor] Ana Cappelluto.