The Sunday Read: Part V - Iris Lapid on MAP

Part V: January, 2012

The clown in me

by Iris Lapid

I recently finished Clown 2, a workshop taught by Francine Cote in which we developed our own unique clown through emotional state and physical gesture. The goal of Clown 1 was to open up and let what already exists within us come out, and in Clown 2 we worked at accepting it and developing it. Clown is all about discovering what you personally have a lot of, and then finding a way to let people laugh at that. I, for one, had a lot of difficulty understanding this concept in the first workshop because I had all sorts of ideas about what I wanted to play or how I wanted to be seen, without being able to simply let out what was already inside myself. 

Theatre For Thought, January 28, 2012

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: Carmen Aguirre and Blue Box

joel fishbane

Even the briefest of chats with playwright / actor / novelist Carmen Aguirre can be a refreshing experience. “I do not write for personal catharsis,” she told me in an all-too-brief email exchange. “I haven’t been trying to tell my story. I have been telling stories.” 

All her answers are like this: precise and taut, like a fine haiku. 

The Friday Five, January 27, 2012

FIVE THINGS TO DO WHEN A BLACKOUT OCCURS DURING A PLAY

by Matt Raudsepp of Matt and Kyle and Matt

Give someone near you the middle finger

We've all been there before... you arrive at the theatre and run into that acquaintance you secretly despise. You're forced to be pleasant with them before the show begins, making small talk, secretly interior monologuing pure hatred and anger at your misfortune. Well, when the house opens, mark where your "friend" sits down. At the first blackout, stand up in your seat and violently flip the bird at your unassuming target. Do it stealthily and silently, but extremely forcefully for maximum enjoyment.

CharPo's Real Theatre!, January 27, 2012

Review: Phone Whore

Into the Electronic Brothel...

...eyes wide open...

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

The way I have covered the Montreal Fringe is to split the venues up among reviewers; each has to cover everything, for good or ill, at their venue. So I did not get to see one of the hot tickets of last year's edition, Cameryn Moore's solo Slut (r)Evolution. Nor have I seen Phone Whore (which toured - and will be touring - the North American Fringe circuit). When I mentioned into Twitter that PW was coming here this week, the Twittersphere ignited and I was told (nay: ordered) to see it.

Review: Three Sisters

Mara Lazaris, Kayleigh Choiniere, Chantale Demole as the sisters (Photo credit: Hombeline Dumas) 

CHEKHOV'S MIX OF SADNESS AND HUMOUR STILL APPEALS

Someone takes on Chekhov...finally!

By Byron Toben

The Dawson theatre program strikes again with a classic revisited. After staging Shakespeare's “Merchant of Venice” last November, it has now mounted a fine “Three Sisters” by Chekhov. These classics still resonate with us despite the distance of place and phrase. That's  why they are called classics (it also helps no royalties need be paid).

Review: Il Trovatore

Hiromi Omura (photo credit: Yves Renaud)

Bugs clears the aria

The Remount has arrived

By Richard Burnett

Montreal audiences have been clammering for a remount of  Il Trovatore (The Troubadour) since it was last produced by L’Opéra de Montréal way back in 1998. Even amateur opera fans will recognize many of the songs in Giuseppe Verdi’s classic opera which, since its debut in 1853, has been known as the opera with hits. 

Thus the need for Il Trovatore to be sung by an ensemble of four top-notch leads. So L’Opéra de Montréal evidently spent much of their budget hiring four terrific singers: Canadian baritone Gregory Dahl as the Count di Luna, Italian mezzo Laura Brioli as Azucena, Korean tenor Dongwin Shin as Manrico (and his golden voice really warmed up in the second half), and Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura, making her debut in the role of Leonora.

CPM's Picture of the Week, January 26, 2012

Kirsten Rasmussen playing Tough!

at Theatre Ste-Catherine

(photo by Weronika Kowalska)

Blog: Crystle Reid on ArtHere!

Bedbugs! (photo: Julian Stamboulieh)

January 25, 2012

The concept

by Crystle Reid

You’re in a hotel in downtown Montreal where you come across a bellhop on stilts crouching in the elevator, behind him is a very pregnant woman and her husband yelling back and forth at each other, they appear to have stepped out of a Christopher Guest movie.  The couple has a small crowd of people quietly following them.  When they leave the elevator the pair leads the crowd into a hotel room.  Down the hall you can see a large puppet escorting people out of another room; and you can hear sounds of laughter.  Have you found yourself in some sort of weird wacked out crazy parallel universe?  No, chances are you’ve come upon an ArtHere! event.

Beyond Our Fourth Wall, January 25, 2012

An older woman lives alone in the forest…

Le maitre de la rosée 

Feb. 8 – 25  Salle Fred Barry

Theatre...en français 

by Estelle Rosen

Two brothers in a hospital room - one has an incurable illness, the other is obsessed with religion.

Frères

Feb 21-Mar 10 – Théatre Prospéro

A head injury accident causes Annette to relive most intense moments of her life.

Annette

Feb/ 21-Mar. 3 – La Grande Licorne

Multi-disciplinary event

Leit Motiv

Feb.2 – 22 La Chapelle