Opinion: On The Training Ground and Hamlet

The Folly in Youth
by Nanette Soucy
@NetSoucy

Montreal is home to at least half a dozen theatre programs. Consequently, its relatively small Anglo theatre scene is inundated with recent grads in search of challenging work to build up their résumés and hopefully pay the rent. With an arguably educational mandate, several local companies have elected to meet this demand for work by choosing to work almost exclusively with erstwhile students, offering them opportunities to perform roles they wouldn’t otherwise have been cast in.

I must confess, I am past the point in my career when I could reasonably refer to myself as a “recent graduate” of my Alma matter. But I am only so far along that the bulk of my working experience is with companies that value employing emerging artists as a matter of mission and method. As young artists, we are all grateful for the existence of these companies to a point. Yes, we can say we held a major role in a classic piece of theatre, that we might not have otherwise been cast in for lack of experience, or because we simply weren’t right for it. Yes, we can say we’ve gotten paid work, but at what cost? Let’s be frank. Companies who choose to employ recent grads, however altruistic their intentions, do so in large part because they are willing to work for cheap, and are invigorated by youth to work hard.

First-Person: Liz Truchanowicz on The Butler Did It (Lakeshore Players)

(photo credit: Kim Doucet)

I kinda, sorta, really like theatre
From Prompting to Murder most foul
by Liz Truchanowicz

So picture little ol’14 year old me. Grade 9. First year of high school in the suburbs of Toronto. New school. Big School. Going from being a part of the oldest students in elementary school to being the youngest in high school. Not knowing where I’ll fit in, if anywhere. Only knowing I kinda, sorta, really like theatre. And then there it is – a posting for auditions for the school play. Oh! The play is The Butler Did It by Tim Kelly. Yes, this is where I belong.  After a heart-wrenching audition based on a speech from that semester’s English class reading of To Kill A Mockingbird (yes, I had cut and pasted to create my own monologue) I waited. Alas, and to no surprise, I didn’t get cast. I have only graced the stage as an actor once – in Grade 10 – such a traumatic experience (for the audience!) that it has not been repeated since. But I so wanted to be involved with the play that year, I applied to be a member of crew – and I was given, what I considered at the time, a terribly important job. I was the prompter. I went judiciously to every rehearsal, ready to prompt the older students (who were cast in the roles of course) when they forgot a line. I had the best time, and I am pretty sure I was upgraded to stage manager at some point, but not really knowing what that entailed I just did what I was told – which was hangout backstage during the show and help the actors – and since it was a high school play – prompt them during the show when they forgot a line!

So when I saw Lakeshore Players post their season and then a call for directors for Tim Kelly’s The Butler Did It I knew right away that this was the play for me. I had to direct it! I didn't think anyone else had even heard of this play, let alone had an interest in producing it. I dusted off my script and off I went. Lakeshore Players is one of the most established community theatre groups in the Montreal area – having been producing theatre for over 45 years – they continue to have a strong following and continue their support of the local community by assisting the fundraising efforts of other not-for-profit organizations through their benefit nights.

CharPo's Real Theatre! November 2, 2012

The Image, November 1, 2012

Lucinda Davis and Dave LaPommeray in Tristan Brand's beautifully captured moment from Harlem Duet. 

(Read our review)

Beyond The Fourth Wall, October 31, 2012

MAP Project - Part 1 of performance trilogy

Play it Again Phaedra

November 6 &7 - 21h

MainLine Theatre

Shows of Interest
by Estelle Rosen

Third in Quarantaine triptyque Danse-Cité

TERMINUS
Nov. 14 –24 - 20h
Ateliers Jean-Brillant

Book/CD launch

annunciations

Nov 11 Launch: 15h-17h / Concert: 20h30 

La Sala Rossa

Bluegrass and Folk
Friday Night Hootenanny
Nov. 9 - 22h
MainLine Theatre

After Dark, October 30, 2012

Why We Must Care
An election is coming and it could hurt
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

It was an awful time. Ronald Reagan was president and Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney were prime ministers. Moreover, the three loved each other. There was a pall over the world. When we were not preparing for the end of the world, small-l liberals were watching everything they cared about go into the toilet.

What was worse was the utter lack of organization on the left and by the opponents of the unholy trio. Lesbians and Gays were fighting, feminists and free-speechers were fighting - each other! It was all over the issue of pornography. Miners in Britain were treated like Mongol hordes and sometimes acted like that. The IRA was blowing up innocents when they weren't starving themselves to death in prison. A play about Margaret Thatcher caused consternation - even on the left! - because it was called Ditch the Bitch. (This before a play called The Happy Cunt toured the Fringe circuit.)

Review: Harlem Duet

Photo Credit: Rodolfo Moraga and François Dupraz

Othello's Cast-off

by Anna Fuerstenberg

Harlem Duet is a wonderful piece written by a master playwright,and deftly directed by Mike Payette. Lucinda Davis gives a terrific performance, she has grown into a strong and subtle artist who can make you laugh and then wrench your heart. Nothing compares to the weft and woof of this complexly woven drama. From the proposition of a black woman who must have been abandoned by (the traditional) Othello, the play posits a mythopoetic tale interweaving the speeches of Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, and Malcolm X with the stories of slaves who plan to escape to Canada, a house that is passed from a rich Dutch New Yorker to a black slave, and a father-daughter reconciliation which is heart breaking. 

The Question, October 29, 2012

Picture Perfect
by Estelle Rosen

Joseph Ste. Marie is a graduate of Dawson College's Professional Photography program and Vanier College's Communciations program. He was the recipient of the Spirit of the Fringe award at 2011 St. Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival, and has since performed in the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company's productions of Titus Andronicus (2011) and most recently Macbeth. Over the past few years, he has put his D.E.C. in Photography to good use by photographing the QDF's calendar launches, the Montreal Improv Festival (MPROV), the 2011 Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival, Freestanding Room's Maydays 2012 and has done press photos for Blackbird (Shadowbox Productions) as well as the press & poster image, rehearsal and show images for Macbeth (M.S.T.C.). He has also taken improv classes through Montreal Improv and at Theatre Ste. Catherine, and has taken acting classes at the M.S.O.P.A and currently at I.O. Acting Studio.

What makes the difference between a good theatre shoot and a bad one?

To me a good theatre shoot has always been about capturing the moment, capturing the facial and the best physical expressions of the performers whether it's a dramatic scene or a comedic scene, without that it's just not worth presenting.

Lighting is always a key issue especially when the action is fast-paced because if you don't get a good light source, all you get are blurry shots and even if you do get them in focus, you'll run the risk of getting a lot of colour noise on your pictures. Never use flash. Not only is it distracting to the actors, in addition the results are not good if you use the pop-up flash on your camera.

First-Person: Iris Lapid on the return of MAP

Pencil Shavings and the Fat Vogue...then Phaedra
by Iris Lapid

Although I have been out of school for two and a half years now, I think I will always associate September with new Beginnings. Something about the smell of pencil shavings and the extra big edition of Vogue always fills me with anticipation. Well, It's officially autumn, I've turned the heat on in my apartment, and MAP is back in rehearsal! 

Last season The MAP Project fused Theatre with Reality TV to bring a monthly episodic serial to MainLine Theatre's Mini-Main. Throughout the eight episode arc, Season One followed the lives of three Montreal actors and their crass alter ego personas. MAP, however,  has long been known more for its form than its content. The project began several years ago when we decided to introduce a camera into our social gatherings; the genesis of the project was taking verbatim scripts from our lives and finding ways to stage them. 

Tour Whore, October 28, 2012

Pride and prejudice
by Cameryn Moore

Last weekend I was out on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans, just as I will be by the time anyone reads this, plying my trade, as it were, with the Sidewalk Smut. My two-night run of slut (r)evolution isn’t for another week, and sidewalk pornography is bangin’ business here, in the middle of one of the busier nightclub streets of this 24/7 party town. 

As usual, tourists from around the world are astonished, in that loud, tipsy way of people given license to drink on the streets. They are amazed at what I do, and proclaim it a marvel of this debauched city. “Only in New Orleans!” they yell appreciatively and stagger on down the street, narrowly missing the puddle of puke that one of their debauched colleagues has neatly deposited in the gutter. When a partier does stop and talk, I will happily correct their assumptions and tell them that Sidewalk Smut in fact happens anywhere that it’s warm enough and I have time enough on my tour. But if they don’t stop, I let them roar and let the mistake go. Let them think I’m from here. I’m fine, in fact I’m kind of flattered, about being considered part of the local color, a quick Instagram on a score of smartphones, a drunken tweet featuring my tits and the typewriter.