Review: A Thousand Paper Cranes (Wildside)

Why Sadako Sasaki?

The Bomb's impact and metaphors continue

by Nanette Soucy

Geordie Productions made a brief stop at the Centaur for the last weekend of the 15th Annual Wildside Festival to present A Thousand Paper Cranes, The Weapons of Peace, the high school version of their annual school tour.  Created by Paula Wing and Micheline Chevrier, A Thousand Paper Cranes tells the story of an ambitious 11-year-old runner named Sadako, growing up in the years following the attacks on Hiroshima, and the impact of the catastrophe on her family.

Content removed at request of writer.

Theatre For Thought, January 14, 2012

POP-UP THEATRE: EVOLUTIONS IN STORY

using technology to create an entirely new form of storytelling

joel fishbane

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Lothar Meggendorfer – sort of. For those unfamiliar with Herr Meggendorfer, he’s a 19th century German illustrator generally credited with inventing the pop-up book. Or, looked at another way, with using technology to create an entirely new form of storytelling. This point was brought up in a whimsical presentation by Joe Sabia over at TED.com, the website for the international conference of new ideas in technology, entertainment and design. 

Storytelling is, of course, the essence of theatre and my brief encounter with Herr Meggendorfer got me thinking: what is the theatrical equivalent of the pop-up book? What revolutionary advancement changed the theatre forever?

The Friday Five, January 13, 2012

Five Ways To Trick People Into Thinking You're A Good Theatre Actor

Don't know how to act? Don't worry! These five indispensable tips will not only get you through your next production, they'll earn you an armful of accolades and a hospital bill full of broken legs!

by Kyle Gatehouse of Matt and Kyle and Matt

1. Obnoxious Vocal Warm-Ups

Before every show, make sure to slowly walk around the stage ("explore the space") while humming, popping, screaming, barking, singing and generally being a loud nuisance. Why should you be the only one suffering for your art?

CharPo's Real Theatre, January 13, 2012

First-Person: Matt Goldberg on Confabulation

Montreal Confidential

(Intimate) True stories are what Confabulation is all about

by Matt Goldberg

I've been trying to write about Confabulation since I started it last year. It's funny to me how tricky it's been to write about an event whose main rule involves performing solo with no notes. But this week is special. Friday night at Mainline will be Confabulation's 22nd event. If you've missed our first 21, Confabulation is a showcase of all-true stories. Each month, we get six storytellers to share stories of their lives, without notes, props or gimmicks. In these first 21 events, we've had over 120 full-length stories, plus 23 micro-stories (at February's The Shortest Story challenge). We've played at six venues -- Freestanding Room, The Grand Bayou, Mainline Theatre's Mini-Main and Mainstage, Shaika, and Shift Space.  We've had lawyers and lay-people, librarians and students, actors and directors, journalists and editors, comedians, dancers, artists and unemployed people. We've had confessions, tell-alls, revelations, refutations, analyses, analogies, and apologies. And now, for the first time ever, we'll have a show hosted by someone other than me. Which feels so good.

Profile: Arthur Holden on his play Ars Poetica

POETS DO IT IN RHYMING COUPLETS

Arthur Holden and his new play Ars Poetica

joel fishbane

“I can think of nothing more completely useless and utterly indispensable than a poetry magazine,” says playwright / actor Arthur Holden. “When the stakes are simultaneously high and low, people get twisted in knots.”

The remark is typical of Holden, whose wry tone often hides a clever theatrical mind. A Montreal success story, Holden is putting his pithy observations about poetry magazines to the test with Ars Poetica, his latest work which will have its world premiere at the Bain St. Michel at the end of January. The comedy pits the employees of the eponymous magazine against one another as they try to save their beloved magazine from the slaughter.

CharPo's Picture of The Week, January 12, 2011

Another chance to evaluate Arthur Miller's early work, 

All My Sons, at Casgrain Theatre directed

by Terry Donald

Review: Bliss (Wildside)

Trent Pardy, Jean-Robert Bourdage, France Rolland 

(photo credit: James Lavoie)

The Oracle of Walmart

Engaging, shocking, powerful, bliss

by David Sklar

I had the experience of seeing Bliss two years ago at the SummerWorks festival in Toronto. The story written by Olivier Choiniere, a graduate of NTS (National Theatre School of Canada) playwriting program on the French side, explores the extremities of the world as seen through a Walmart cashier/oracle. The play moves about in a quick, quirky and unpredictable way, edging on disturbing. Its director, Steven McCarthy, who also doubled as one of the actors in the summer production, believes that “Céline Dion is the goddess of the play”. (Thanks Pat Donnelly).  Having won the CanStage award for Best Direction, you should take him at his word.     

First Person: Anna Hopkins on All My Sons

When a Company Forms the Process

As rehearsals progress, it is the beauty of the play itself rather than its tragedy that has become most apparent to me.

by Anna Hopkins

The Montreal Theatre Ensemble will be putting on Arthur Miller's "All my Sons" from January 12th until the 28th at the college's Casgrain Theatre. The company is being hosted by John Abbott College through its Stage II program initiated by Terry Donald. This program allows for professional theatre students to audit rehearsals and partake in talk-backs, while giving MTE the opportunity to mentor Montreal's future actors. Although I had never been a student at the college, I heard about auditions and made my way out to Sainte-Anne de Bellevue from my apartment in the Mile End (for the first time!). To my delight it was a trip that would be the first of many.