The Upstage Interview: Martin Faucher on Vigil

Marcel Jeanin and Kim Yaroshevskaya (photo credit: Andrée Lanthier)

In God's Waiting Room

Upstage Contributor Gaspare Borsellino spoke with Director Martin Faucher about the current presentation of Vigil by Morris Panych  at Segal Centre.  Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE:  This production of Vigil is a co-production with Théâtre du Rideau Vert.  Has it been performed yet at Théâtre du Rideau Vert?

FAUCHER: Yes we did it in French in January of this year. Now it’s in English at Segal Centre.

UPSTAGE:  Is it the same cast for both? 

FAUCHER: Partially different cast. In French  Kemp was performed by Éric Bernier. In English it’s performed by Marcel Jeannin.

Blog: MAP Project 2011-12

Part VII: Marathon

Performance suicide?

by Matt Zabusky

The Mainline staff approached MAP with the intriguing and terrifying idea of doing a marathon of our current year long episodic theatre series MAP Season One, on May 30th. When I first heard this idea proposed it felt to me like performance suicide, reminiscent of my feelings of hearing about a 48 hour run of Waiting for Godot in the Toronto fringe. Why would someone do that to themselves? But the more and more I thought about it I realized this is going to be the most challenging performance of my life.

Tour Whore, March 25, 2012

You Can't Have a Bad Day in a Tutu

So what’s a broke-ass, nomadic Fringe fatshionista to do? 

by Cameryn Moore

How cold does it get in Nashville in November? How wet does it get in Edinburgh in August? What are the odds of finding a pair of red, mid-calf, fully ruffled bloomers in my size? 

Bizarre questions, but not random (answers at the end of this post). These are the sorts of things I ponder as I pack my bags for the road.

Bags. I say “bags” like I have a four-wheel coach with a maid behind me, or even two checked bags allowed on the plane, but not even that, lovies, no, no. After everything else is in my car, the set pieces and props and kitchen bag and toiletry bag and merch bags and manual typewriter and pillow and box with all my phone-sex note cards, I have room in the Deerinator for … one roll-on suitcase. Maybe two. And I am going to be nomadic for 18 months. I can leave a small box of hard-core winter wear where my winter base will be, but it does not do to trespass too heavily on the kindness and square footage of friends. 

Review: 42nd Street

SEE THOSE DANCING FEET...

...on 42nd STREET!

By Byron Toben

What a wonderful show this is! The Hudson Music Club, which staged the  highly regarded The Drowsy Chaperone last year, has topped that with their rendition of this multiple award winning Broadway classic.

42nd Street originally began as a film gamble by Warner Brothers in 1933. Financially troubled despite their success as a film noir producer, they hired away Busby Berkely from MGM to produce some of the most kaleidoscopic over the top dance numbers for this backstage drama of Broadway musical types. Canadian born Ruby Keeler, recently married to Al Jolson, was hired to play Peggy Sawyer, a naïve chorus hopeful, who becomes a star. Ginger Rogers played Anytime Annie, a wisecracking chorine who befriends Peggy and the then newbie tenor, Dick Powell played Billy Lawlor, the male tenor.

Theatre For Thought, March 24, 2012

SUNDAY IN THE PARK.

joel fishbane

Bennett and I are walking through the park when she remarks that she thinks it’s ridiculous for Montreal arts reporters to review any show that doesn’t come out of the Segal Centre or Centaur Theatre. Being the two largest Anglo theatre companies in Montreal, she argues that their audiences are large enough that they can risk a bad review. But the smaller theatre companies are struggling to survive and while they should be supported through preview articles, reviewers should stay away. 

I frown as she speaks. Usually I agree with Bennett, which is why I spend time with her. When you’re a curmudgeon, it’s good to find people who keep you calm. 

I try to explain the artistic value of theatre critiques. In my view, it’s insulting to independent theatres to treat them differently than larger companies, as if they aren’t worthy of the same scrutiny. “The only question is whether a show deserves to be seen,” I postulate. “Championing a company just for existing degrades a city’s cultural landscape.”

Interview: Centaur Theatre Artistic Director Roy Surette

(photo credit: Yannick MacDonald)

Beyond The Launch

After announcing his 2012-13 season, the Montreal AD talks candidly about Healey, Rose, Vancouver Playhouse and the challenge of here and beyond

by David Sklar

CHARPO: So you just had your season launch. How did it go?

SURETTE: It went well. It’s always a bit intense. I think I talked for about an hour about the season and all our upcoming activities. 

CHARPO:  What goes through your mind when picking a new season? How do you choose what shows to pick?

SURETTE: It’s a mystery.  As they say in Shakespeare In Love, my favorite theatre quote, “it’s a mystery how it ever works”.  There are so many factors that go into selecting a season. And there are many questions that I am always asking myself, still feeling relatively new to Montreal. I’ve been here for almost four and a half years now and as someone who programs a theatre in a unique city like Montreal I think, needless to say, it’s challenging. You need to know what’s evolving with the audience.  I’m always of the belief that you want to do a season that people want to come and see. There is no point in doing it for yourself and in fact when you get to the scale of operation like us, you have to sell a lot of tickets. We’re about 50 percent run by our box office.  We do a lot of fundraising as well as applying for government support. But we’re still white knuckling it terms of, are going to make our box office targets? And usually in a year, it’s a real rollercoaster ride. Some shows are quite a bit under, some are over so in terms of balancing a season, you've got to compromise. I wish I could say I have the magical formula but I don’t. I feel I've got a pretty good track record and the confidence of the Board, the staff and the city but you never know. We don’t do the same thing over and over again. Every time we embark on a new production it’s a risk, especially if it’s a new play. Even if you are doing something that was very successful somewhere else, it doesn’t necessarily translate. Having the privilege of working across this country and outside of it as well, there is no guarantee.  You can’t go, “Oh ya this was a really big hit in Australia, it’s just going to rock in Montreal, or it did really well in Vancouver, it doesn’t mean anything for here.”

CharPo's Real Theatre! March 23, 2012

Review: Oklahoma!

 

Landmark “OKLAHOMA” Still Resonates

Students give a Beautiful Evening

By Byron Toben

Is there a more rousing song in American musical theatre than the title refrain of the seminal Rogers and Hammerstein classic “Oklahoma”? At the conclusion of its opening at the John Abbott Casgrain Theatre, many of the audience (including a sizable number of Francophones) were heard humming and mouthing the waving wheat that sure smells sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain.

CPM's Picture of the Week, March 22, 2012

The great Kim Yaroshevskaya in Segal's production of Vigil

EVENT: Playwrights' Development Showcase, April 15-16