Crowds arriving for the 7 p.m. party
QDF launches its spring calendarSchmoozing, fragments of plays, music, drink and eats
by Estelle Rosen
Earlier this evening, the Montreal theatre community were out in full force at the Rialto Theatre for the Quebec Drama Federation (QDF) Launch of their Spring 2011 calendar.
Unlike the film community, theatre folks are known for casual dressing – read jeans and anything black! Guilty…
Many of the performers in the excerpts of upcoming plays were wearing white – coincidence? They looked good.
Part of the masses appearing in The Drowsy Chaperone, opening this week
The plays look pretty good too!
It would be unfair to critique plays of which we only saw a short excerpt. Rather I will give overall impressions and highlights of the upcoming Spring theatre season.
Many new companies on the theatre scene bring us new approaches to theatre; experimental, multimedia, storytelling via song like Edges: A Song Cycle for example.
Classics include Neil Labute’s The Shape of Things and Peter Shaffer’s Equus.
Judging by the dramatic entrance for Concordia’s presentation of Wajdi Mouawad’s Scorched, I am looking forward to seeing their take on this powerful story. (Scorched is the English translation of Incendies, which, in movie adaptation, was nominated for an Oscar this year.)
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| Free food - always popular |
Musicals are popular; Schwartz’s The Musical, is one. Another to watch for is The Drowsy Chapeone. Nothing drowsy about this one. And it has quite a back story. Written as a spoof of old musicals by friends for the wedding of a pal, it went on to be presented at The Rivoli in Toronto, then on to Broadway, and to several Tony Awards. These things do really happen!
Other plays to watch for:
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
A Beautiful View by Daniel MacIvor
Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Quincy Armourer and Lucinda Davis gave us a really good précis)
Festival TransAmerique is always a treat. Look for it in May.
We would encourage everyone, theatre community or not, to check out the QDF calendar, available at libraries, hotels, and theatre venues. You’ll find details about more plays than there is room to mention here as well as information about workshops, lectures and much more. The calendar is also available online.
Also, Bravo! to Ezio Carosielli for restoring the gorgeous Rialto Theatre.
See also our video covering the event.
See also our video covering the event.
The next QDF Launch will take place June 6 at McAuslan Brewery.
One additional comment about QDF Launch: Performerss should be sure microphones remain on stage. In the case of Mary's Wedding, when the floor mics were moved aside, one would think it was because they were wearing mics. They weren't. Might have been extraordinary text. Wouldn't know; couldn't hear one word. Excerpts are short; not to hear what is being said defeats the purpose.
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