After Dark, September 4, 2012

The Tribes
There are lessons we must learn from politics
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Today Quebeckers vote. It has been a rancorous and unpleasant campaign and I'm glad to be rid of it (though suspect by midnight we will have a minority government and be heading back to the fucking polls in no time).

I've heard all the hyperbole I can handle. It didn't come close to the scum thrown in the US, but it did approach it. Because of the confluence of the student uprising and the burgeoning strength of the sovereignist Parti Québécois we were treated to ugly epithets hurled on one side and another not just on Facebook and Twitter - bad enough - but in editorials too. One idiot editorial in anglo Montreal trotted out "fascist" to describe the PQ leader's aspirations. When you've heard that one thrown at the Liberals for nine months, it becomes meaningless.

US politics are uglier than ever. But that seems to be a refrain we repeat every election.

The Upstage Interview: Kaitlin Hickey on the National Theatre School and Moment Factory

                                        Kaitlin at work on a ceiling concoction. Courtesy Moment Factory.

The birth of a project from design conception to production and completion

Upstage Host Eric Sukhu spoke with third-year National Theatre School (NTS) English section Production program student Kaitlin Hickey about a unique first-time collaboration between NTS and Moment Factory on a training workshop.

UPSTAGE:  Tell us about the collaboration project.

HICKEY: Twenty-four NTS students from the third-year Productions program in French and English as well as second-year Scenography students have all been brought to Moment Factory. We’re participating in a week-long immersion  project  in installation creation and production process. We’ve been divided up into teams and we’re in the final push before presenting what we’ve been working towards all week.

Tour Whore, September 2, 2012

On a Starless Night

by Cameryn Moore

A few weeks ago I titled my blog post “What would you do if there were no stars”, wherein I talked about the star system  and its potential problems for some of the major shareholders in the Fringe community: reviewers, audience members, and performers. I thought I would be following up on that piece with something on the flip side, about what the review system would be like and how those shareholders might have to change the way they operate, if there were no stars or pictorial rating systems attached to Fringe reviews. And how that might be better.

I was going to write that piece, but as I kept talking with other artists, in little clumps around tables in beer tents or online in private artist groups, one on one over dinners, I understood what I think we all understand: the star system is not going to change any time soon. Everyone is too invested in the way things are. Newspapers will keep churning out the stars, and no artist is going to NOT use stars when that’s the system: it’s too financially risky. We have a system that flows down certain well-defined channels, and it’s choking out risk.

Theatre For Thought, September 1, 2012

THE ART OF TRANSLATION
joel fishbane

“I think translators have done their job when they aren’t noticed,” remarked Bobby Theodore. “The moment someone compliments me on the translation, I worry the script needs another draft.” It was a smart remark from a veteran translator / writer, one that encompasses both the goals of a translator and the problems in being one in the first place. As important as theatre translators are, if they do their job well, people forget they were ever in the room. 

This talent for invisibility has had an unfortunate consequence within the Canadian theatre industry: there currently exists no standard contracts that outline the translator – writer relationship. “What’s missing is dialogue,” Theodore revealed. “No one ever talks about money. There needs to be something that outlines the legal relationship.” 

Review: Changing Room

Beyond the stage and into the back
by Rebecca Ugolini

From the moment audience members enter Espace Libre’s performance space for a showing of the Nous Sommes Içi collective’s celebrated piece Changing Room, they know they aren’t in for just another night at the theatre. 

Hostesses are carrying trays of a blue-coloured, sweet-sour shot called Androgyne back and forth from the theatre’s well-stocked bar. Tables and chairs are arranged around the stage mimic a show club set-up, and a red-velvet-curtained stage complete with elaborate runway stands awaiting its performers. As soon as the lights dim and the disco ball starts spinning, Délice (Anne-Marie Coté) a big-haired, foul-mouthed, instantly-lovable drag queen hostess appears on stage and welcomes the audience to a night of cabaret numbers, laughs, and heart-to-hearts. 

CharPo's Real Theatre! August 31, 2012

Picture of the Week, August 30, 2012

Changing Room à Montréal from Collectif Nous sommes ici on Vimeo.
Website

Review: The Pillowman

Show logo

The Pillowman is a must-see, must-experience at MainLine theatre

by Rebecca Ugolini

Fairy tales appeal to young ears because they promise adventure and deliver a comforting moral that reaches into everyday life from a land far, far away; in the thrill-seeking stage of adolescence where late nights with friends replace bed-side story-time, urban legends weave the same kind of enchanting, this-worldly-yet-otherworldly weft that lies at the base of all satisfying, if not particularly good, storytelling. 

Whether the tales of Cinderella or the hook-handed killer are plausible or implausible is immaterial to the importance of the story to both the teller and the listener; yet somewhere in the dispiriting world of 9-to-5 jobs and paying bills, we forget that we exist to be moved and thrilled by a really good story. That’s where the MainLine theatre and Lifelong Productions' staging of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman steps in and jolts us uncomfortably, brilliantly, into remembering that at our core, we love being an audience.

Beyond The Fourth Wall, August 29, 2012

Grain(s) 

(French version of Porte Parole Seeds)

Sept. 4 – 22

La Licorne

Shows Of Interest this Week

by Estelle Rosen

Zoo

To Sept. 3
Musée d’Art Contemporain

Montreal Burlesque Month
Lovers & Other Strangers
Sept. 16
Upstairs Club

Duels
Agora de la Danse
Sept. 12-21

After Dark, August 28, 2012

Outside the (Poor) Box
Reflections on money in a penniless world
by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

If you're on Facebook or Twitter you have been seeing two trends: projects - especially theatre projects - crowd-sourcing funding for shows; a backlash against professionals - actors, journalists, musicians - working for nothing except the joy of working, experience and exposure.

These two trends interest me profoundly. As we, at CharPo, have said - out loud and constantly - we pay nothing to our writers (nor do editors, nor publishers, receive any payment). Crowd-sourcing money has been considered so that we can at least offer honorariums.

However, what is happening out there is sometimes exciting to us, and sometimes discouraging. Whereas, as little as a year ago, crowd-sourcing funds was a fascinating idea, we now see a lot of projects who go the Indiegogo route (to name one fund-raising organization) failing to raise even close to what they were aiming at. Some of these companies are solid, even magnificent, organizations. They cannot - for a variety of reasons - get government funding or when they do it's a pittance. Right now, without much research, I know at least four theatre organizations crowd-sourcing money and having a bitch of a time of it.