Be wise...

Party season! Be wise. Call Nez Rouge. Happy holidays from CharPo!

Ford's Focus: GG-winner Kent Stetson

                             

Kent Stetson: Tip of the Iceberg

By Barbara Ford

As I entered Kent Stetson’s study I felt as if I was stepping onto hallowed ground.  This is where the Governor General Award-winning playwright, appointed to the Order of Canada, sits down at a monster of a desk to create some of Canada’s best theatre, bridging several genres and decades and working with some of the most notable names in the industry.  As one fascinating story after another unravelled in that cozy room, I was enthralled by the richness of his life, his unbridled curiosity and expansive knowledge of Canada’s diverse people and history.  Sipping Earl Grey tea and munching on the muffins he had run out to buy at the last minute, it was abundantly clear that between the research I’d collected to prepare for the interview and the material that was surfacing in the course of our exchange, squishing it all into one measly article was going to be a challenge, but I was up for it.  

Here follows the account of the prolific PEI baby-boomer who grew up in a home without electricity (until he was thirteen) on one hundred and forty acres of farmland, sharing cow-milking and other assorted chores with his three siblings and attending a one-room schoolhouse.

Once Stetson graduated, with a B.A. in Literature, with honours, from the Prince of Wales College, he embarked on the “de rigeur” hippie tour of Europe where he came upon Lunchtime Theatre in Edinburgh.  As soon as he returned to PEI, he started his own in Charlottetown but was abruptly scouted for the director’s program by CBC/BBC while John Hirsch (Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival) was the head of the drama division.  Almost as quickly as he had got into theatre, he was propelled out of it and plunked into television where he made a decent living directing short dramas until early one morning in October, without warning, he sat down to write.  Several hours later, lost in time, he had seven pages of his first play, Warm Wind in China, the first Canadian play to address the AIDS issue at its peak in the mid-eighties.  

Gifting Theatre: CharPo Contributors help you finish your shopping

Gaëtan Charlebois
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
When I saw the raw, unpleasant, hilarious power of Martin McDonagh's first play to be presented here, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and then his brilliant film, In Bruges, I knew he was writing for me. This, from all reports, is a similarly difficult night of theatre but I bet you won't leave the theatre unmoved. Absurd Person Singular Going to a play by Alan Ayckbourn is like opening a Christmas present from a dear friend; it will always be a surprise, sometimes make you laugh until you cry...or just cry but it will always be something you really wanted.
(BTW: You still have a chance to win tickets to this show)

BARBARA FORD
It’s a no-brainer … Centaur’s Wildside but don’t ask me to choose one play out of the lot!  Just buy that special someone a pass so they can go nuts and see everything … best deal in town AND you can work off the turkey, mash potatoes and gravy walking up that hill from the Place d’Armes Metro to get there!  If I HAVE to choose, either Miss Sugarpuss Must Die or Hynogogic Logic to inoculate against the inevitable onslaught of winter blues.

PATRICK GODDARD
Neon Nightz at WildSide. Give your loved one a table dance at Centaur!

CharPo's Picture of the Week; December 22, 2010

The Ladies of Neon Nightz - once described as "where fantasy, feminism, sexuality, art and athletics meet in the world of stripping" - are at WildSide.

News: NTS students in Ottawa top ten

Ottawa Start blog has named the NTS's Romeo and Juliet in a top ten.

"9) The National Arts Centre’s English Theatre Company collaborated with the National Theatre School’s graduating class in the production of Romeo and Juliet. Twelve students from Montreal worked with the professional actors of the NAC’s English Theatre Company and Artistic Director Peter Hinton to produce a gorgeous rendition of Shakespeare’s classic."

Read the entire list here.

After Dark, December 21, 2010

By Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Holiday season approaches and CharPo has much to celebrate, after a mere three weeks. Barbara Ford's column is a huge success, becoming the third most popular feature at the site...on its first day. After Steve Galluccio's hilarious piece, Keir Cutler's fascinating article last week, we got Kate Bligh to share her story on her work. Meanwhile the page view count for the whole site, so early in its life, is phenomenal (even compared with the last hugely successful site with which I was involved, canadiantheatre.com). Best of all, people are talking.

It's party time! 

CharPo's Aggregator, Year-end, 2010: Theatre things

-The Guardian looks at Richard Eyre's production of A Flea in Her Ear and calls it "heartlessly funny"
-The Guardian's controversial Michael Billington discusses The Greatest Actor Ever
-A stage version of It's a Wonderful Life.
-If you can get past the culturally incomprehensible first sentence, we think this is a rave. Get Santa at London's Royal Court.
-Because we like reunions...in Facebook or real life. Julia at LA's Pacific Resident Theatre
-Brook does Magic Flute...sold out. (Needless to say) Flûte Enchantée at Paris' Bouffes du nord
-The top-? lists continue...

Video: Keir Cutler on the Shakespeare Question

Keir Cutler, who offered CharPo a terrific First Person piece, has allowed us to post this video here. It is his take on the question of authorship.

News: Gordie goes Indie

Ex-Centaur artistic director, Gordon McCall, is about to present his production of Norway in Indianapolis' Phoenix Theatre.

Read the interview here.

Interview: Alexandre Marine

We are presenting this interview as part of CharPo's new partnership with Upstage—Theatre on Radio on CKUT.

By Estelle Rosen

Adapted and Directed by Alexandre Marine,  …the itsy bitsy spider.. is based on Fyodr Dostoevsky’s Demons. Intending to show that Russia was being destroyed by radicals, Dostoevsky was overcome by wanting to fictionalize personal experiences associated with a real-life political conspiracy murder.

In an interview with Alexandre Marine, conducted by CKUT Upstage contributor Alison Louder, Marine said.  “The play revolves around a missing controversial  chapter from Demons that had been censored for decades in Russia.”