The Sunday Read: Profile of Tonya Lee Williams

The World According to Tonya Lee Williams

Williams heads to Montreal this week as recipient of yet another big honour: Black Theatre Workshop's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award.

by David King

    

From her early days on TV's Polka Dot Door to producing and directing shows like Da Kink In My Hair and CBC's Gospel Jubilee, actress Tonya Lee Williams is one of Canada's few artists of colour who has successfully held down a career in Canada while keeping things real amidst the trappings of L.A.

    

The founder of Toronto's ReelWorld Film Festival, which provides opportunities for artists of colour to create film and television, Williams has kept the festival going strong for over a decade. Having dedicated her life to stage and screen since graduating from Ryerson in the late 1970s, she's showing us how positive focus, hard work and devotion to one's craft can truly pave the way to change.

      

Review: Countries Shaped Like Stars (Wildside)

A Constellation of Cabaret

Ottawa's Mi Casa Theatre may give us cavities, but who doesn't like a good love story?

by David King

There's a saccharine charm to Countries Shaped Like Stars at this week's Wildside Festival, right down to the homemade moustache cookies served up to the audience. 

Re-inventing simple objects and flirting with traditions of cabaret, vaudeville and buffoonery, Ottawa visiting performers Nicolas Di Gaetano and Emily Pearlman have been touring this musical storytelling piece now for about three years, along with others in the roster of their newly formed company, Mi Casa Theatre. Part of the mandate of Mi Casa is to break the walls down between audience and performer, and with Countries Shaped Like Stars, they show us how capable they are of doing just that.

Review: Small Talk (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by David King

Onstage, there's no such thing as small talk. Which is why when NYC's Talk Productions gives us five completely unrelated short scenes (call them one acts if you will), we immediately get excited about finding out what's really going on behind the water cooler.

Writer Eric Fallen, who has already worked with director Eric Michael Gillett on Fallen's plays THE MONSTER and PERFECT WEATHER at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, has already had SMALL TALK published by Samuel French this past winter, and it's his first collection of published short plays. Morphing locations from park benches and libraries to porn sets and family homes, SMALL TALK's scenes all explore that suspicious enemy called 'small talk', and what may or may not be lurking behind it. Using only folding chairs and a few props to make transitions, Gillet's chosen the KISS system (that's "keep it simple, stupid") to focus on Fallen's text and the performances of foursome Henry Farnam, Christopher Halladay, Carter Jackson and Sarah Kate Jackson, all

well cast for these roles.

Review: Neutral Hero

Photo credit: Michael Schmelling

The Hero In Maxwell

Acclaimed NYC director Richard Maxwell Brings Us This Year's Anti-Musical

David King

One by one actors appear, on a bare stage with a dozen chairs and a few musical instruments, all framed by a flat, white proscenium. One by one, each artist picks up where the other left off in telling us about a mid-west U.S. journey, tossing out redundant, small town snapshots that are about as interesting as the GPS in our car if it were to start having a conversation with us. Moving through the streets and into the suburbs, their voices take us towards a more intimate locale, a "home", if that even exists outside our heads. And in his quest to find out about his past, our hero will soon take a fall, while those around him remind him of his identity.

The Sunday Feature: Rebecca Singh

From Cheerleader to Cowgirl

Former Montrealer Rebecca Singh may have the right formula for the Montreal artist-entrepreneur in all of us: diversification

by David King

It's not often that CharPo gets to explore the lives of  "ex-pat", English-language Montreal artists who've left town to pursue their career elsewhere. But then, actress and producer Rebecca Singh has never truly left.

"I miss the people," says the Dawson grad of our island life. "I miss the humane pace, the french, the joie de vivre and the freedom. For me, it's important to work on new projects as well as the feeling that I'm making a difference. That's what drew me to Montreal from Edmonton - and also took me away from it."

Now Toronto-based, Singh has always been rather unique in her ability to generate new projects in her off-time as an actress. The Artistic Producer behind the Montreal All-Star Cheerleaders, her refuge in girl-power ensembles and Montreal choirs like Choeur Maha continues in Toronto these days, where she's managed to muster up an equally fun, silly choir devoted to cowgirls. After moving to Toronto a few years ago, Singh was fortunate to get involved in various internships at companies like Canadian Stage Company and Nightswimming, the latter of which gave her the opportunity to explore her interest in another historic ensemble: the theatre chorus.

Review: Hot Pepper (FTA 2011)

(Photo: Toru Yokota)

Can We Add Some Salt To That, Too?

Japan's HOT PEPPER… needs a bit more spice

By David King

To fully understand Japanese creator Toshiki Okadia's theatre triptych HOT PEPPER, AIR CONDITIONER, AND THE FAREWELL SPEECH, one has to not only be open to a lesson in Japanese language and culture, but to keep in mind that each work in this theatre trilogy originated with one successful, much-shorter creation HOT PEPPER. In this production, it's definitely important to read the programme notes from the writer / director before the piece opens. As a little experiment for myself, I intentionally didn't, just to see how much this theatrical painting could stand alone without explanation.

Review: PHOTOG (FTA)

(Photo Credit: Farah Nosh)

PHOTOG Needs More Time In the Darkroom
the company wanted to create a character with..."total absence of sentimentality or idealism"
by David King

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a wartime photograph should be worth ten thousand. 

Exploring the rare perspective of conflict photojournalism in their newest multi-media piece PHOTOG: AN IMAGINARY LOOK AT THE UNCOMPROMISING LIFE OF THOMAS SMITH, Vancouver-based Boca del Lupo's Sherry J Yoon and Jay Dodge take on Place des Arts' Cinquième Salle and the FTA with a one-man show that's co-created and performed by Dodge. Dedicated to Tim Hetherington, who was killed this past April while covering the Libya conflict, PHOTOG is a documentary-theatre hybrid, basing much of its material on the testimonials of Hetherington and other embedded photographers who were interviewed by Yoon and Dodge in the early stages of their creation process.

Sunday Feature: Festival TransAmériques

Yume No Shiro (photo: Klaus Lefebvre)

And We're Off!
Festival Transamériques takes on today's youth with an unpredictable blend of new hybrids in the performing arts
David King

If there was a way to describe what to expect at this year's Festival Transamériques (FTA), it would first be to expect shows about our youth - and then expect the unexpected. Although the Festival makes some pretty clear delineation between its theatre and dance offerings, there's an increasingly fine line between the two each FTA as disciplines overlap.

Until June 11, CharPo will be reviewing more than a handful of the English-language related (spoken or subtitled) international theatre highlights at this year's FTA, including the Berlin / Amsterdam work Trust (read Joel Fishbane's review here), the always exciting Vancouver company Boca del Lupo with Photog, world renowned director Richard Maxwell's Neutral Hero, the much-anticipated Gardenia (see our preview by Bugs Burnett) and the contemporary Buenes Aires adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House entitled El Desarrollo de La Civilizacíon Venidera, by the brilliant Argentinian director Daniel Veronese.

The Sunday Feature, April 17, 2011

"HOUR" COMMUNITY: OR IS IT?

by David King

On April 9, the staff and alumni of HOUR Magazine reunited at Mainline

Theatre for a toast to the magazine. Closing its pages after two decades,

the writing went on the wall: HOUR became as thinned out over the last year as its contributing staff. A former theatre critic for HOUR (just before Gaëtan Charlebois, in fact), it's been a nostalgic week for me, particularly reading the massive outpouring of anecdotes and memories from staffers on Facebook, many of whom kicked off their journalism careers in the alt weekly.   

Kevin Laforest is the new Editor-In-Chief of HOUR Community, HOUR's print and online replacement. After several rumours circulated that HOUR would simply become a supplement within the pages of its parent VOIR, Laforest puts that to rest.

The Sunday Feature, April 10, 2011

From The Frog and The Princess

DISMANTLING DISABILITY

Concordia's Centre for the Arts in Human Development Turns 17by David King

Back in 1994, I volunteered backstage on the first production of what is now called the Centre for the Arts in Human Development (CaHD), entitled OH, THAT ALADDIN! It involved spraying a fire extinguisher from the sidelines every time Aladdin magically appeared on stage. The low-budget effects were useful enough, but the real magic was watching creative souls with developmental disabilities tap into the power of their confidence and imagination.

"The core belief of creative arts therapy is that everyone has something to create and contribute," says co-founder and Executive Director Lenore Vosberg, a social worker at the West Montreal Readaptation Centre (WMRC). "There is no right or wrong, nor are things based on insight or verbal skills. By using our imagination, we see the ability emerge, self-esteem built on seeing the results, and a vast opportunity to see that growth."

The Friday Five, April 8, 2011

The early bird catches the bookworm

Five pros (+1) on six books they turn to

by David King

There are always a few choice theatrebooks I tend to revisit when I'm in the process of  creation. As I'm currently writing a play, I recently reread a chapter from Louis E. Catron's The Elements of Playwriting, a practical book on dramatic construction more than anything else. It was a book I once worked with as a tool in a dramaturgy course.

It's funny how a few years can change your perspective. Catron's book wasn't helpful at all on this re-read, and over-emphasizes Aristotle as well as aspects of playwriting that are out-of-date, premise or plot driven, and what should be considered "stageworthy". In the right context, the book is helpful in introducing a writer to playwriting, but as a career evolves it becomes like "Playwriting for Dummies".

Video, FTA 2011, Press conference

Video by David King

News: Festival TransAmeriques 2011 Press Conference

(l-r) Karine Denault, Marie-Hélène Falcon, Martin Faucher

(photo: David King)

More Eclectic Than Ever

31 shows, including five world premieres

by David King

The fifth Festival Transamériques (FTA) of theatre, dance, and performance kicked off yesterday with a press conference conducted by Artistic Director Marie-Hélène Falcon alongside artistic associates Karine Denault and Martin Faucher.

At the busy press conference, the eclectic nature of this year's presentations was perhaps most evident as productions branch out from theatre and dance into new exploratory installation work and multi-media technology. That technology was made available to most of us journos at the conference via a DVD of promotional excerpts from the FTA's productions, broadcast in segments by Falcon and her entourage as the trio reviewed each of the festival's 31 shows, including five world premieres, four free performances around the city and the festival's always exciting "meet-the-artist" discussions and symposiums.

The Friday Five, March 18, 2011

Friday Five Wants You! This week on Friday Five, we want your top five choices for Friday Five itself! Whether it's theatre etiquette, silly anecdotes or your all-time five favourite shows in Montreal, tell us your suggestions for "Top Five" topics in the comments section below. We'll jury your suggestions, and not only publish our top five picks from you, the readers, but we'll go ahead and create them for you! Meanwhile...

Theatre of Cruelty

Five anarchist phrases to get your rehearsal back on track

by David King

Let's face it, whether you're exploring all your animals in the rehearsal hall or creating a lighting cue for a scene while everyone's whispering around you, the power of silence and listening are often underestimated in the theatre. 

Eventually, you'll need to speak with that costume designer about the five buttons he hates on the actor, get the lighting designer to refocus a light or let the actress know you'll squeeze in extra time for the scene in the rehearsal schedule tomorrow. For now, it's silence time! And there's nothing like taking it to the extreme with five phrases you can always count on to kill a room!

CharPo Twee-atre, First script: One Voice

One Voice

A Twee-atre play by François Vincent and David King
Edited by Gaëtan L. Charlebois
(All rights to this work - including performance - remain with the authors. Please contact CharPo to secure permissions)

Sunday Feature: Annie Sprinkle

(l-r) Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens 

(Photo credit: Mark Ritchie)

Sprinkle On The Annie!

Edgy Women opens with Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle 

by David King

When I last interviewed Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, they were getting married for the third time. 

The California-based couple’s yellow-themed wedding, a performance at One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, was one of seven wedding ceremonies celebrating love and equality as part of their Love Art Lab Series. Spectators participate as guests, and the weddings’ chakra-based, colours and themes are inspired by New York artist Linda Montano, who encouraged other international artists to participate in ‘durational’, living performance entitled 7 Years of Living Art and Another 7 Years of Living Art.

In Canada this month for a Montreal performance and their final, silver wedding in Ottawa (“you’re all invited!” says Sprinkle), the Stephens-Sprinkle, third wedding in Calgary still remains significant: in Canada, it legalized their vows. And while the pair doesn’t necessarily believe in the institution, they have more than enough reason to make it part of their experiments as Californians, who recently had the plug pulled on their state-sanctioned, gay marriages. 

The Friday Five, March 4, 2011

The Importance of Being Online

Whether you’re a theatre artist or practitioner, whoring yourself online is just as important as, ahem, whoring yourself in person.

David King

Almost two decades ago, I embarked upon a three-year program in Theatre Performance at Concordia University. Knowing full well I would never be able to pay back $30,000.00 in student loans after graduation, I did the program over four years while begging, borrowing, pleading, researching and even ironing one of my professor’s clothes to make ends meet. In the end, I came away with not one but two families of fellow performance peers, and only $10,000.00 to torture me for the rest of my career.

Long before online social networking became a daily activity, not one course at Concordia in the mid 1990s was aimed towards students’ post-grad careers as self-employed artists. While the kids at National Theatre School had their resumes mailed across the country before graduation year after year, we second-class Concordians begged our own department to help us do the same as we jumped into our final productions.

The Sunday Feature, February 26, 2011

Although they share the same waters, Magdalene Islanders swear

their lobster is better than PEI-ers'!

Allons-y!

Quebec’s English-language regions want a taste of our anglo Montreal theatre. So how do we get there, and how do we get them here? 

by David King

Ten years ago, an Interim Executive Director at the Quebec Drama Federation, I had the amazing opportunity to represent QDF and our English-language theatre at the Quebec Community Groups Network. At the time, Sheila Copps was Heritage Minister; Dyane Adam was newly-appointed Commissioner of Official Languages; the Quebec Farmer's Association's Hugh Maynard was QCGN President, and Alliance Quebec was doing an internal shuffle to re-establish its voice and place within the newer, QCGN network.

My travels while representing our English-language arts community led me to Hull and Parliament Hill; to rapid-fire meetings in Montreal and Québec City; and to an important Annual General Meeting in Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine. Connecting with representatives of Quebec English-language communities in and outside of Montreal, I was amazed to see a side of Quebec I had only witnessed in franco-Canadian regions: pockets of official-language minority communities (in this case English-language minorities) fully integrated into Quebec society yet starving for at least an occasional cultural reflection of themselves in their first language. "Theatre would be great!" I heard time and again, "but how can we help bring it here when our school has no budget for it and our auditorium only has two lights?" My taste of anglo arts and culture outside of Montreal was more than just limited. The Community Association for Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (CASL) was selling cookbooks at the time, featuring recipes by members of its community (it's a cookbook I still use today for Tortière, Banana Nut Loaf and a chocolate chip cookie recipe stolen from Neiman-Marcus.) In the Maggies, or Magdalene Islands, I checked out the intricate sandglass designs of locals on one developed side of the island, before heading over to the "anglo" side, where I stayed with a lobster fisherman renting out rooms in his off-season (it appears a fisherman's struggle to make ends meet is not dissimilar to our own, except that their Employment Insurance system is a little better set up in the off-season). 

The Friday Five, February 25, 2011

Five Ways to Get Your Play Produced

by David King

You want to write a play. You're writing a play. You've written a play. 

During your process, how many times did the following thoughts roll around in that hamster wheel of your brain and distract you from your writing?

"Is this produce-able?"

"Nobody's going to produce this."

"EVERYONE is going to want to produce this."

"Who's going to produce this?"

"I wonder who would be interested in this?"

"I wonder what this play needs for its next draft."

"I really have to get on this."

"I think I need a deadline."

"I need a dramaturge or someone to help me with this."

Review: The Silicone Diaries

The Art of Artificiality

by David Allan King

It hurts to be beautiful. And in Nina Arsenault's one-woman show The Silicone Diaries, that's both literal and figurative.

After a successful run at Toronto's Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Arsenault takes the Montreal stage this week for a performance that has captivated critics and earned itself a run in Ottawa's upcoming Magnetic North Theatre Festival (celebrating the cream of the crop in contemporary creation). All rightly so: The Silicone Diaries, written and performed by a transgendered beauty well beyond 'passable', takes on that last bastion of queer theatre we still haven't fully explored: trans, post-op life and culture. And as Arsenault nails it, the notion of a 'woman 'trapped in a man's body' barely scratches the surface of the transgendered experience.