Blog: Christine Rodriguez on The Arrangement (Part V)

Five

The Whirlwind

By Christine Rodriguez

For two months, the production was running along quite smoothly.  That is until we lost one of our actors to the TV gods two weeks before opening night.  I stepped into the role.  I was the most logical choice.  I wrote the play.   I’d been to most of the rehearsals.  I can act.  

It’s been a whirlwind ever since: interviews, load in,  last minute errands, Q to Q, dress rehearsal/preview night, opening night, managing reservations, seeking volunteers, acting, counting up box office, more acting.  Did I mention getting my son to school on time (darn!); getting his homework done (where is that homework agenda?!); and parent-teacher interviews?

Review: The Arrangement

(Photo credit: Jaclyn Turner)

Five women, five friends, and lots of fidelity issues.

...a proposition will either rip the group apart, or solidify it.

by Sarah Deshaies

The Arrangement, written by Christine Rodriguez and directed by Jacqueline van de Geer (both Montreal fixtures) invites us into the world of five, diverse middle-aged women, a group supposedly tight-knit since university.

Empathetic, lovely Faye (Rodriguez, filling in last minute) is dying, and her actions threaten to polarize her group. Two of them are already at each other’s throats most of the time. Barbara (Marie-Noëlle Dufour)  is a rigid, perfect stay-at-home mother and is a natural clash to the flamboyant, working woman Inez (Julie Barbeau). On the fringes are Jaya (Michaela Di Cesare) and Anca (Luiza Cocora), who both have secrets. 

Blog: Christine Rodriguez on The Arrangement (Part IV)

Four

Role models?

By Christine Rodriguez

I tweeted Steve Galluccio on Twitter the other day to let him know about The Arrangement.  To my 

surprise, he replied.  He told me that he was familiar with Espace 4001 as he had self-produced shows in that space many times before.   Me  :)

Am I being a sell-out for wishing for the same kind of success Steve Galluccio’s had – from self-produced theatre to films seen all over the world?  Of hoping for the same kind of success as Trey Anthony whose Da Kink In My Hair went from Toronto Fringe to a Global television series?

Blog: Christine Rodriguez on The Arrangement (Part III)

Blog: Christine Rodriguez on The Arrangement (Part I)

One

“What’s The Point?”

by Christine Rodriguez

This past June, I was in an off-Fringe production of a play entitled Callback about life in the theatre written by Bill Svanoe.  At one point in the play, Ed, the director, tells my character Judy, an actress, that in his last production, the playwright “kept asking everybody:  Will the New York Times like this?”  I guess, as the playwright, I’m at that point in the production of The Arrangement wondering: Will The Charlebois Post like this? Will the Charlebois Post even show up? Will anyone show up..?