Review: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Processed Theatre spells success with Bee musical 

A spelling champion manqué contemplates the glories of Putnam County

by Sarah Deshaies

I’m a spelling bee champion manqué. Always an overachieving know-it-all in elementary and high school English, I now copy edit my campus newspaper, own my own special edition of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, and follow the AP Stylebook on Twitter. Sad to say, I narrowly avoided the advent of the Canspell competition. 

Sunday Feature - The Last Fringe Blog: Nichole Carlone & Christopher Pineda (Edges: A Song Cycle)

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and have just closed the first show of our second season, “EDGES: A Song Cycle.” While it was definitely a big departure from a show like “Reefer Madness,” we got a lot of great response and are more excited than ever to deliver our mainstage show in September: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

The Fringe is over. We've moved on. Rehearsals for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee began the day after the Fringe ended. But, like most of the Montreal theatre scene, we are still recovering from our Fringe experience. Here are some of the things we learned in that whole crazy process.

Processed Theatre's Journey to The Fringe Part IV

Week 5: Our First Week of EDGES: A Song Cycle

By Nichole Carlone and Christopher Pineda

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and are now preparing for the debut of our second show, blindly hoping that we can continue to produce the quality and popularity of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” 

So far we've had two sold out-shows, two half-full shows and a show with eight people. We have had press coverage online, in print and on the radio and most importantly, BUZZ! Fringe is a fickle beast where one person’s “masterpiece” is another’s "worst piece of shit ever". That's Fringe baby! No matter how good, or bad, or in between a show is, someone is always going to love it, or hate it, or in between it, and they get to tell the world through the always popular Fringe Buzz. 

The Processed Theatre Journey to The Fringe Blog, Part III

Journey to the 2011 Montreal Fringe
Processed Theatre – EDGES: A Song Cycle

Week 4: Fringe is Here! (Kind of …)

By Nichole Carlone and Christopher Pineda

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and are now preparing for the debut of our second show, blindly hoping that we can continue to produce the quality and popularity of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” 

While the 2011 Montreal Fringe starts on May 30th with the Fringe-For-All (which rocked!), we all know that things don't really start getting funky until the beer tent opens. This year, there are more events, companies, and OFF venues than ever. Being in an OFF venue has the advantage of us getting to do as many shows as we like, with the disadvantage of providing everything ourselves (venue, tech, "staff,” volunteers, etc). We are in Venue D, which is upstairs from the MAI, and is essentially a room with a big pillar in the middle of it. 

Review: EDGES: A Song Cycle (Fringe 2011)

Reviewed by Gaëtan L. Charlebois


Fringe success is about setting the bar at exactly the right height. Too high and you look foolish, too low and you look like amateurs. Processed Theatre, The Edges company set the bar just right in terms of music (with some key problems sometimes), dance and performance. This is a series of songs about young people dealing with - forgive me - the zeitgeist and because the four performers are fresh and talented the show is often very funny and very touching. Shayne Gryn's accompaniment is generous to the mic-less singers, and cognizant of the hall.

But the hall...

The way the director, Nichole Carlone, decided to present the show - in this hideous space with no stage lighting (indeed, under ugly fluorescents) - wrecks everything. Though intimacy with the audience seems the goal, that is precisely what goes lacking as we are always distracted by the rest of the audience, the uncomfortable chairs and the ugly hall itself. We are never completely pulled in, even when - in one heartbreaking moment, a woman sings to a leaving boyfriend "I'll be perfect" over and over again. The actual piece merits a solid four-charpie rating...but...


Show Info 
Rating:

Processed Theatre's Journey to The Fringe Part III

Week 3: The Theatre Space
In a market so full of artists and patrons, it’s always been sad to me that more venues haven’t launched to serve this massive need.

By Christopher Pineda

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and are now preparing for the debut of our second show, blindly hoping that we can continue to produce the quality and popularity of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” 

I’m the General Manager at Processed Theatre. Niki thinks this post is too business-y, so she made me preface it with that. You’ve been warned.

One of the greatest headaches in any young theatre company’s journey is the struggle to find a suitable place to rehearse, perform, and conduct business. Especially in Montreal, the spaces available to artists like us are not exactly inviting to those who are operating with basically no capital on hand. In a market so full of artists and patrons, it’s always been sad to me that more venues haven’t launched to serve this massive need. My guess is that it’s too hard of a business model for artists to run successfully, and not lucrative enough for those on the business end to invest their energies into. What do you think?

Sunday Feature: Processed Theatre's Journey to The Fringe Part II

Week 2: Our Rehearsal Process and EDGES: A Song Cycle

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and are now preparing for the debut of our second show, blindly hoping that we can continue to produce the quality and popularity of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.”

By Nichole Carlone 

Rehearsing is a tricky bitch. 

You have some directors who demand performances from day one. You have directors who recognize that this is a time for growth, play, discovery and that it's a process. A huge part of our mandate is "process over the product,” because a strong process yields a strong product. This core value was present in our decision postpone our show EDGES: A Song Cycle to the 2011 Montreal Fringe, rather than try to pump something out last minute with a new cast member. 

Blog: Processed Theatre's Fringe Journey, Part I

We asked Processed Theatre to share their journey to Fringe 2011 with their piece, EDGES: A Song Cycle. They will be blogging from time to time, before, during and after this year's edition of the Fest.

Week 1: Why Fringe?
At one point, Fringe crosses my mind and everything begins to point us in that direction.
by Nichole Carlone and Christopher Pineda

We are Processed Theatre. Last September we produced a very successful “Reefer Madness: The Musical” at Mainline Theatre, and are now preparing for the debut of our second show, blindly hoping that we can continue to produce the quality and popularity of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” 

The pressure is on.