Praxis theatre fundraiser photos!

Thanks to everyone who came out to Praxis Theatre’s fundraiser this past weekend. We’ve got more photos from the event than we know what to do with. Check some of them out here.

Build Your Own Theatre – Part II

Next steps
by Michael Wheeler

Okay, so, eight months after my original Build Your Own Theatre (BYOT) post, I’m back with a new proposition.

The original proposition, which basically bartered help improving The Lower Ossington Theatre for rehearsal space, went pretty well. We got the building into much better shape over the summer and fall: The entranceway and lobby got a new coat of paint. A dance floor went down in Studio B. A massive 300 sq-ft blackboard wall was installed. The skylight and doorways in the theatre were fitted with removable plugs. All of this was accomplished with the help of people who traded their labour for rehearsal space.

We also changed the name: No longer the Queen West Arts Centre (QWAC), we are now the Lower Ossington Theatre (The LOT). QWAC was whack. The LOT is hot.

Here’s the new idea:
The LOT Workshop Performance Series.

Monday through Thursday evenings many of our studios are booked solid with everything from Capuera to Sexy Strut classes. Friday and Saturday nights past 8pm are free. This building is smack dab in the middle of where everyone in Toronto is going on Friday and Saturday night anyhow (Ossington between Queen and Dundas), so lets put some shows on in the theatre here.

It works like this:
No rental fee. We split the box office 50/50. Ticket price TBD.

You provide whatever you need. We have a few instruments, but not many. Whatever you set up has to be strikeable at the end of the night. You also provide you own box office staff and operators for whatever equipment you will be running.

Schedule is as follows:
Day 1: Thursday. Tech/dress. 6-10pm
Set up whatever you can in a couple of hours and give it a practice go. Our Technical Director, Dennis, works with you to integrate your best ideas with the realities of the space.

Day 2 : Friday Set up 6-8pm Performance 8:30pm

Day 3: Saturday Set up 6-8pm Performance 8:30pm

How do you do this?
Email me at space(at)lowerossingtontheatre.com

We need to know:

1) What the piece is and in general terms how you would stage it.
2) Who the artists involved are with short bios.
3) What the technical requirements would be (remember, we don’t have much).
4) Why you think you can draw an audience.

I will look over all submissions with our TD, let people know what we think is feasible and a good idea.

That’s it. If you think you can run multiple weekends and draw a reasonable sized crowd it is also a possibility. The Toronto Youth Theatre, One Reed Theatre, Geek Girl Productions and even us at Praxis Theatre have transformed the space for exciting performances. We know this is entirely doable. Who’s interested?

Thank you for coming!

Please join us for a
Praxis Theatre fundraising party

This Saturday, February 16.
At the Lower Ossington Theatre.
100A Ossington Ave. Toronto.

DJ. Silent auction. Raffle. Alcohol.
Surprises. $10 at the door. 9pm - 2am.
We are trying to raise money for our
upcoming production of Stranger.

We love you. Please come.

All are welcome.
Click here for directions.

Praxis Theatre party this Saturday!

Please join us for a
Praxis Theatre fundraising party

This Saturday, February 16.
At the Lower Ossington Theatre.
100A Ossington Ave. Toronto.

DJ. Silent auction. Raffle. Alcohol.
Surprises. $10 at the door. 9pm - 2am.
We are trying to raise money for our
upcoming production of Stranger.

We love you. Please come.

All are welcome.
Click here for directions.

A new play

Pretty Tough
by Brendan Gall

White. A baby sings the highest and lowest audible notes simultaneously for one minute.

Lights fade down. The baby hovers next to an operating Rube Goldberg machine.

(in Basque) This perpetual-motion machine is calculating π.

Time.

The baby whistles. A wolf appears.

This is my pet wolf. (petting him) I’m the only one who can do this. (roughhousing with him) I rescued him from hunters so he’s completely loyal to me.

The wolf sits stage-right.

Time.

A crow lands on the baby’s shoulder.

This is my pet crow. I found it on the ground one day. I set its wing and nursed it back to health. Now it refuses to leave me.

The crow caws and flies to the wolf’s head.

Does anyone have someone they’d like me to murder?

Time.

An audience member points at another audience member, whom the baby kills. Fleeing. Mass panic.

Order restores.

(to the audience member who pointed) It’s lucky you know Basque. It’s a pretty tough language.

One million Grade 8 students enter. A disco-ball lowers. Alphaville’s “Forever Young” plays. The students pair off and slow-dance.

“Forever Young” ends. Everyone has their first kiss, falls in love, and exits.

I’m glad I got to see that.

Time.

The upstage curtain ignites and burns, revealing a blue whale swimming in an aquarium beyond. The water catches fire. The flames shine through the aquarium, filling the theatre.

He’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t surface. Blue whales can hold their breath a pretty long time.

Time.

Does anyone have any questions? I can speak any language.

The Basque-speaking audience member explains this. The baby fields questions in various languages. The answers are true. Tears. Laughter.

The machine dings and starts to spit ticker-tape.

Intermission.

House lights. A sustained recording of a rabbit screaming.

Intermission.

Rabbit screaming ends. Audience returns. The theatre is filled with ticker-tape. The water still burns. House lights out.

Here’s what happens when you die:

Darkness. A PowerPoint presentation plays across the aquarium.

Lights up. The baby reads out π from the ticker-tape.

The crow eats the wolf.

Inside the aquarium, the blue whale begins to thrash…

Time slows down.

Infinity.

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(Pretty Tough was inspired by a stage direction in Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child.” Performance rights inquiries can be made to the playwright through Praxis Theatre.)

Watch this space for new work by playwright Brendan Gall

Coming this Thursday, February 7, Praxis Theatre is thrilled to present a world wide web exclusive: a brand new short dramatic work by Canadian playwright Brendan Gall.

The piece is called Pretty Tough. And we’ll be posting the entire text right here on this blog on Thursday morning.

If you are familiar with Gall’s work, you know to expect the unexpected. You are not going to want to miss this.

Tonight in Toronto . . .

Please join Praxis Theatre for the next entry in our series of original play readings. This month, we are pleased to present Taylor Sutherland’s The Sand Factory.

WHAT: Reading of Taylor Sutherland’s The Sand Factory

WHEN: Monday, February 4 @ 8 pm

WHERE: The Concord Café – 937 Bloor St. West
(Just West of Ossington subway station on the south side)

CAST: Shaun McComb, Greta Papageorgiu, Ross McKie, Justin Friesen, Cayle Chernin.

All are welcome. For more information, please contact Laura Nordin.

Play reading roundup

Two cool-sounding play readings coming up:

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1) Tonight @ 8pm @ The Tarragon Theatre’s Near Studio

Best/Before Theatre is reading Natalia Goodwin’s There You Go And Here You Are – directed and dramaturged by Cole J. Alvis.

Cast: Carrie Hage, Brandon Thomas, Assumpta Michaels, Nadiya Chettiar, Ryan G. Hinds and William Poulin.

Click here for more info on this reading.

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2) Monday, February 4 @ 8pm @ The Concord Café





Please join Praxis Theatre for the next entry in our series of original play readings. This month, we are pleased to present Taylor Sutherland’s The Sand Factory.

Cast: Shaun McComb, Greta Papageorgiu, Ross McKie, Justin Friesen, Cayle Chernin.All are welcome.

For more information, please contact Laura Nordin.

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What a great way to spent a couple of wintery nights in Toronto. Hope to see you there!

The Montreal Interviews: Eric Amber

The final entry in our Montreal-focused interview series by Praxis Theatre Associate Artist Greta Papageorgiu.

1) What does Montreal mean to you?
Montreal is a living city. An old piece of the new world. I love its history and share a bit of its heartbreak. Its multicultural diversity, European flavour and Canadian lifestyle makes Montreal one of the best cities in the world.

2) How did you end up moving to Montreal and building Theatre Ste. Catherine with your bare hands?
On a cold winter night there was a fire that destroyed the building. As there had been no insurance it sat in near complete disuse until such time as I happened to inherit. I was on a tight budget, so the demolition and rebuilding took five years.

3) Your free improv classes have a huge following among the actors here in Montreal. How did they come about?
They’re free so . . . that’s cool and of course they are a lot of fun, but mostly because there is a skill to improv that can be observed and crafted.

4) How did Keith Johnstone and the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary influence your approach to theatre?
The magic is in the method and the depth of understanding. Improvisation is not comedy. Improvisation is a philosophy that can unlock your mind and imagination. At a point we learned that I didn’t even need a theatre and performed to people on streets and outdoor festivals all over the world.

5) What are TheatreSports?
Theatre Sports is team on team competitive improv. First created in Calgary at the Loose Moose Theatre, TheatreSports and improv comedy is now popular all over the world as direct result of Keith Johnstone’s work and forms the basis of similar improv groups such as Canadian Improv Games and League National D’ Improvisation.

6) Can you teach someone to be funny?
Define funny.

7) Any words of wisdom from your twelve years as a street performer?
A smile goes a long, long way.

8) What advice do you have for someone just starting to run an independent theatre space?
Get some friends.

9) Where would you like to see Theatre Ste. Catherine in 25 years?
Still open and teaching a whole new generation of people.

10) If you had a million dollar no-strings-attached production budget, what would you do with it?
Hmm...I have to keep some secrets.

Out and about

Toronto-based actor Beatriz Yuste
spotted here leaving Swan Restaurant.

Yuste then hailed a cab.

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Spotted any hot theatre talent out and about
in your neighbourhood?
Send us your starstruck theatre photos:
celebrity@praxistheatre.com

Sentences 95-101

The series concludes:

95) Where are the new forms of theatre that give way to exciting changes and that shock and titillate?

96) Are we simply recycling bad ideas?

97) The heart of exploring what one bottles up and censors.

98) Theatre is stymied by the fact that it is an insider’s game that rewards connections over merit.

99) Theatre ought to get its game face on, as there is a lot of competition for entertainment dollars.

100) Nobody is going to give you a medal for being poor.

101) Theatre is being comfortable with asking those uncomfortable questions.

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Well? That’s it.
Praxis Theatre’s 101 sentences about theatre. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project, including Andrew Zadel, Danny Waugh, David Galpern, Greta Papageorgiu, Ian Mackenzie, James Murray, Jo Chim, Laura Nordin, Leah Wahl, Meredith Scott, Michael Wheeler, Paul Hardy, Shaun McComb, Simon Rice and Tania McCartney.

And thanks again to George Hunka, whose 95 sentences about theatre was the inspiration behind this project.

Click here for the series introduction and for the complete list of 101 sentences.

So. What are we going to talk about now?

10 First Nations comedians

Here’s a quick follow-up to a discussion that’s happening in the comments section of our interview with Ryan McMahon. For your reference, a list of 10 contemporary First Nations comedians (provided by Mr. McMahon, and in no particular order):

1. Don Kelly
2. Don Burnstick
3. Gerry Barrett
4. Charlie Hill
5. James & Ernie
6. Jim Ruel
7. Craig Lauzon
8. Mark Yaffee
9. Drew Lacapa
10. Ryan McMahon

That’d be one hell of a ticket!

Sentences 90-94

The series continues:

90) Theatre is the medium that requires the most cooperation and the most conflict.

91) Movies are better than theatre because they can reach a wider audience.

92) Theatre is better than movies because each show only happens once.

93) Think about it.

94) Is it possible to understand theatre that’s performed in a language I don’t speak?

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Big gay play from small university town

Graeme Gerrard takes to Toronto's gay village in drag to promote his new play.

Small town theatre artist Graeme Gerrad has gamely answered Praxis Theatre’s call for guest bloggers. In a series of posts, Gerrard has been documenting the production of his company’s new play Going Back In & Getting Dragged Out – which premieres at Toronto’s Factory Theatre this January.

Finding audiences is a real drag
By Graeme Gerrard
Going Back In & Getting Dragged Out opens in less than two weeks. We’ve resumed rehearsals since our holiday break to the expected hazards of the occasional forgotten line, but the cast has really gelled in terms of chemistry.

Although rehearsals had been on temporary hiatus, the promotion of the play and distribution of the book has not slowed down at all. I’m happy to say the book is now available in Toronto at both Theatre Books (11 St. Thomas Street) and This Ain’t The Rosedale Library (483 Church Street).

In order to promote the play, my assistant director, Cody Rus, and I hit the gay village this weekend to spread the word in drag.

We offered people the chance to win a copy of the play by putting on some of our drag queen costumery. Some scoffed. Others were already putting on the faux-fur. What’s even more exciting is we’ll be back next weekend for more town-crying.

For more opportunities to win, tune in to Proud FM (103.9) afternoons on the week of January 7th for a chance to win your tickets to the Factory Studio performances of Going Back In & Getting Dragged Out.

In the mean time there still is the matter of getting the play on its feet.

Sentences 85-89

The series continues:

85) The best theater happens unplanned.

86) True theatre experience: I clenched my fists and alternated between wanting to fall asleep and wanting to scream.

87) Theatre is not now, nor has it ever been, in trouble.

88) The tingle in my arm hair when theatre transcends the gap between performer and spectator – to be truly challenged and truly included even for a split second.

89) You have to want to make the other person feel good.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

The Montreal Interviews: Andrew Shaver

While our “10 questions” interview series is on its year-end hiatus, we are pleased to present a short interview series by Praxis Theatre Associate Artist Greta Papageorgiu: The Montreal Interviews. Enjoy!

1) What does Montreal mean to you?
All the greatness of New York and Paris minus the idiots and sharp elbows.

2) Do you feel that SaBooge Theatre is currently living up to the spirit of its mission statement?
That’s a day-to-day query. Today; sure do.

3) You’ve studied clown in Paris at Lecoq as well as with Fusetti in Italy. Are French clowns different from Italian clowns?
The French clowns must be left to simmer for a minimum of 90 minutes while the Italians can be eaten straight off the vine.

4) How does your clown training inform your approach to acting?
It created a capacity for failure and a desire to really, actually play.

5) Having had the opportunity to tour a few of your shows, what is the strangest or funniest thing that has happened to the company or one of your shows along the way?
Having the American authorities confiscate rice-filled juggling balls at the Minnesota border.

6) What would you say to someone who told you “theatre is dead”?
What a shame; my buddies have a show coming up.

7) What would you like to see more of in Canadian theatre?
The undead.

8) Your production of The Dishwashers (Sidemart Theatrical Grocery Production) took place in the basement of a bar. How did the location affect the production?
It made every difference. I had no intentions of doing it elsewhere; the show belongs in the basement of a restaurant. Even if the economics of a 25-seat house boggle the mind.

9) What’s next for SaBooge?
Babies.

10) If you had a $100,000 no-strings-attached production budget, what would you do with it?
Produce the show in Rio. Then make the movie. In Helsinki.

Holiday party

Totally casual. All welcome. Click here for directions.

The Montreal Interviews: Paul Hopkins

While our “10 questions” interview series is on its year-end hiatus, we are pleased to present a short interview series by Praxis Theatre Associate Artist Greta Papageorgiu: The Montreal Interviews. Enjoy!

1) What does Montreal mean to you?
I think Montreal is the soul of Canada, the home and example of the original accommodation between two cultures, that laid the frame work for the Canadian experiment. Today, Montreal, is a living testimony to that experiment – it doesn’t always seem like it’s working but it definitely creates an energy that is vibrant and resonates through the rest of Canada.

For me, personally, it’s the place I call home no matter where I happen to be working.

2)As the recently appointed Artistic Director of Repercussion Theatre in Montreal, where would you like to see the company go under your direction?
I’d like to evolve Repercussion Theater into a centre for classical theatre in Montreal; a place for people who love the classics. From that centre, we will continue to do what we do, producing classical theatre in the park various parks, but also finding ways to reach other communities besides the obvious geographic ones; exploring the a new reality to our modern sense of community.

3) What would you tell a kid who said, “Shakespeare is boring”?
I would agree with him, if his only experience with it was in a classroom environment where he is made to read and study it by himself and then write essays about the themes, plot, etc., for which he will be tested and judged. His plays were written to be. The truest form of a Shakespeare play is created in one’s imagination when it is spoken by people who know how to act it and heard amongst a crowd of people. At the same time we should be grateful that the school system keeps his work alive and that there are many teachers out there who really know how to bring his work to life and peaks the interests of certain student.

4) What are the challenges of putting on a traveling outdoor production?
The cost and maintaining people’s attention. We travel, set up and take down our stages everyday. Transporting a show that can been seen by a potential crowd of 1,200 people outdoors is expensive. Arranging the park space and dealing with different presenters at individual parks also requires a lot of administration.

Artistically, I guess it’s like acting on stage with an animal. The park, the background to your stage, is alive. To work with that environment and still maintain the focus necessary for the work is the key to success. Fortunately, the plays we produce were originally performed with similar distractions and are often set in a forest, field or some Italian piazza

5) What can we do to increase audience sizes in the theatre?
I don’t know. Perhaps by letting people into the process of making a piece of theatre so that they love it as much as the people doing it do. Fundraisers that use lawyers as actors draws a lot of attention. Ad agencies, through the advent of YouTube, are now using consumers to sell themselves products. Attention, the thing which often draws actors to the profession, has become the new commodity. Everyone is fascinated by acting. Perhaps there’s a way to share the experience.

6) What is the strangest thing that has happened to you on stage?
Mask work can be very strange and wonderful. Some of the experiences I’ve had performing in a classroom with a mask have made believe in that I’m not always the one who’s in control.

7) Who is you favourite Shakespearian character?
I wish I could be more clever then this but, off the top of my head, I’d have to say Prince Hal or Henry V. I still feel like a boy who’s misjudged, longs to grow up, get the approval of his father, have adventures and marry a French girl. (My English wife’s last name is Guy – so I’ve got that covered!)

8) Why should a young actor study the Classics?
The way I’ve studied it has given me a process that I can apply to all my work. Through that process I get to ingest the beauty of his work. You know you’ve succeeded if, through the process, you are inspired by his work. If one follows that process in all there work with the belief that that potential beauty lay there – the well will run deep. That being said, I’ve felt the well run dry at times – maybe that’s why my career has led me back to doing the Classics.

9) What plays will you be doing next season?
Will be doing The Tempest and, hopefully remount our production of Les Fourberies de Scapin/Scapin the Schemer. Plus, I’m pushing to produce a two hander that’s is made of some of Shakespeare’s greatest wooing scenes woven together with sonnets and a Christmas show, that revolves around Yorick. Yorick is the deceased court jester whose skull is exhumed by the gravedigger in Hamlet.

10) If you had a $100,000 no-strings-attached production budget, what would you do with it?
Great question – when is one given a $100,000 without strings? I’d do a simple play that I love surrounded by people I love to work with and pay them lots of money. I love Shakespeare. How about 12 actors and one director? Four five-day weeks of five hours rehearsal days (people have children and other commitments), and then perform for three weeks (reasonable) – so I guess that’s about $1,000 a week that’s… pretty good – ooops! I forgot about the designer, a stage manager, space rental, lights, set, union dues, RRSPs, box office administration. Okay, I guess that would bring us to around $600 a week for everyone. Gees, $600 a week . . . Professional Theatre’s a ball of strings.

I’d do it for free and give everyone an amazing vacation – probably in Montreal.

Now offer me a million...

Sentences 80-84

The series continues:

80) Where are my glasses?

81) Theatre is better than movies because it can respond to the now (if you’re not waiting for a grant).

82) If a company does become larger and acquires more funding, hopefully they don’t fuck things up by using money to take the short cut around a problem.

83) I’m always afraid that someone is going to forget their lines.

84) Standing ovations aren’t always necessary, it’s nice to take a moment to absorb in silence.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

The Montreal Interviews: Emma Tibaldo

While our “10 questions” interview series is on its year-end hiatus, we are pleased to present a short interview series by Praxis Theatre Associate Artist Greta Papageorgiu: The Montreal Interviews. Enjoy!

1) What does Montreal mean to you?
It’s the place I grew up. It gave me a cultural identity and a view of the world that lives outside the mainstream. I see life as vulgar and beautiful. Full and empty. Exciting and horribly dull. I see the summer and the winter, the warm and the cold. All this comes from this city that embraces you with open arms and shuts you out when it feels like doing so.

2) As one of the first graduates of the National Theatre School’s directing program, how do you feel about the experience?
The program had been dormant since the mid nineties. As such, this new program was open to us as its co-creators. We had quite a say in how the program was structured and also had to navigate the territory of uncharted pedagogical terrain. It was great, exciting, at times frustrating but always challenging. I am forever thankful for the people I have met.

3) What is Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal?
It is a national new play development organization for the Canadian stage. We are a member-based organization that works with playwrights from across the country to ready new scripts for our stages. We work with emerging playwrights as well as established playwrights with programs like workshop readings, public readings, one-on-one dramaturgy, masterclass, playwright units, residencies (including Tadoussac) and production dramaturgy. We also work with theatres to disseminate the work.

4) As its new Artistic Director, what new initiatives are you hoping to bring to the company?
I’m working towards a creative centre that will allow us to push the boundaries of dramaturgy further into the multidisciplinary. We need to allow our playwrights to work with designers and other artists much earlier in the development process. I’d also like to have a much longer developmental relationship with new theatrical projects.

5) What play have you most enjoyed directing?
I’ve been fortunate enough to direct plays I really love so each has been my favourite. In terms of visual excitement I’d have to say Lifedream by Hérmenigilde Chiasson.

6) What do think is the most important thing Canadian theatre artists should be working on right now?
Metaphor and big ideas: The things the stage does best.

7) In a recent article in the Mirror you commented on the lack of works by female playwrights. Why do think that is and what should we be doing to fix the situation?
We need to be exposed to the work by women so that we grow to demand works by women. We are very conditioned by the male point of view. It is what we crave because it is what we know. We need to open our minds to the way women express their views of the world. These views are just as interesting and as profound as those expressed by men but like any artistic movement we have to be exposed to it to appreciate it. So, get the educational institutions to expand female representation in literary and drama courses. We all love Jane Austen because we all know Jane Austen, we have an appreciation for her work. Let’s raise that awareness for a multitude of other female writers. Women are just as exciting and experimental as men, really! Demand that Theatres produce more work by women and go out to see that work. Support it!

8) What do you think is unique about the Anglophone theatre community in Montreal?
Ummmm. People who live here come because they want to experience Quebecois culture. The city has two big theatrical institutions, National Theatre School and Concordia, so theatre artists come here to study and then leave to go back home or head for the big lights. The theatre community that remains struggles to find space, money and an audience. I don’t want to paint a gloomy picture because there are quite a few vibrant companies but it is a struggle. French theatre, on the other hand, has a great pool of talent, the most inventive artists work in this city, they have the structures to nurture their work if not the money. It is a great city because of the influence movement-based Quebecois theatre has on us as English language theatre artists.

9) As a director what is the strangest thing an actor has done during an audition?
Gosh, I’ve only worked with stable, committed actors.

10) If you had a $100,000 no-strings-attached production budget, what would you do with it?
Put up two plays by Montréal women playwrights.

Sentences 75-79

The series continues:

75) Applause.

76) Visual ecstasy explored.

77) Own your shortcomings.

78) Theatre is the playwright’s medium; film is the director’s.

79) Canadian theatre is in a deep, but not irreparable state of affairs: It has decreased funding, an aging audience base and a reputation for being boring and elitist.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Tonight!

Please join Praxis Theatre for the second in its series of original play readings. This month, we are pleased to present Matthew Gorman’s If You Could Be Anything (You’d Be Disappointed).

WHAT: Reading of Matthew Gorman’s
If You Could Be Anything (You’d Be Disappointed)

WHEN: Monday, December 10 @ 8 pm

WHERE: The Concord Café - 937 Bloor St. West
(Just West of Ossington subway station on the south side)

CAST: Riley Gilchrist, Greta Papageorgiu, Shaun McComb

For more information, please contact Laura Nordin.

Sentences 70-74

The series continues:

70) Where are our First Nations performance traditions?

71) Theatre can fail.

72) Movies are better than theatre because they pay you more.

73) Boring theatre is bad theatre.

74) Canadian theatre has unprecedented opportunity for growth: It takes place in a society that values the arts, has an educated and relatively wealthy potential subscriber base and a whack-load of talented artists.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Sentences 65-69

The series continues:

65) When the lights go down and I walk out on stage, I feel most alive.

66) Renewal.

67) To turn one’s stomach upside down and then laugh.

68) This shit is addictive.

69) Live bodies moving and making sound to tell a story to other bodies in the same space is a unique experience which has no comparable substitute.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

SUPERnatural in Toronto

A new workshop production written by
Michael Wheeler and the Toronto Youth Theatre senior cast.

Directed by Michael Wheeler.

Click here for tickets and more info.

Sentences 60-64

The series continues:

60) Please forgive me for my weak performance.

61) There are no lines across which good theatre is afraid to travel.

62) If one could truly do theatre by oneself, from scratch to sculpture, there would be a lot of more it.

63) There are numerous differences between going to the cinema and going to the theatre, but the most pressing difference that is endangering the life of theatre as a mass artform in North America is the respect needed/demanded by both the audience and performer(s) to exist in a room together selflessly.

64) Theatre is like throwing Christians to the lions, except the lions have to pay to get in.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

The Rice Report returns

Good news
Praxis Theatre Co-Artistic Director Simon Rice has resurrected his widely beloved U.S. politics journal The Rice Report.

A Rice Report primer
The Rice Report started back in 2004 – a reaction to Simon’s growing distress with the state of American politics and its questionable foreign policies. His Rice Report newsletter series used the 2004 U.S. presidential election as a springboard to foster rigorous (and informed) discussion of an increasingly compromised democratic process.

His weekly reports became wildly popular among a small group of followers – and included a live play-by-play “performance” of the controversial Kerry-Bush showdown on election night: Tuesday, November 11, 2004.

A new blog
We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Rice to the blogosphere and announce the return of The Rice Report. Among the topics he’s promising will be in the cards:

Who’s running? From Hilary to Huckabee, the A-Z on 2008!
2004 Aftermath – Was the general election stolen?
The Hidden History of 9/11 – A weekly crash course for beginners and/or skeptics.

And if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with theatre, check Simon’s response to one of our 10 questions:

6) How has your interest in American politics influenced your ideas about theatre?
American politics have all the great elements of drama – farce, tragedy, absurdity, heroes, villains, clowns – the stakes are always high and although much focus has been put on the circus-like atmosphere of modern American politics, we all want to know what the next Act will bring. The Bush administration has felt like the usurping power in one of Shakespeare’s histories. With Donald “Rummy” Rumsfeld emerging as chief rhetorician, uttering such poetic lines as, “The absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence,” when no WMDs were found in Iraq. That’s a beautiful line!

I guess what I’m saying is that my passion for American politics deepens my understanding of theatre, and vice-versa.

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Click here to get to The Rice Report, then hit “Bookmark” on your browser. You’ll be glad you did.

Sentences 55-59

The series continues:

55) Why do I have to become a film star before people will come to see me in the theatre?

56) Theatre is better than movies because you can travel through time, space, gender and class using only the actors and the audience’s collective imagination.

57) One is transported to a different space and time with little recognition that one is simply watching a performance, instead they are experiencing and performing along with the artists.

58) The best theatre misses being terrible theatre by a hair.

59) Theatre creates dialogue and community.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Out and about

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and Catherine Hernandez
(both of Native Earth Performing Arts)
seen here leaving their offices in Toronto’s Distillery District.

The pair were seen later in the day shopping at
Toronto’s upscale MarieJosette wearable art boutique.

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Spotted any hot theatre talent out and about
in your neighbourhood?
Send us your starstruck theatre photos:
celebrity@praxistheatre.com

Sentences 50-54

The series continues:

50) Theatre is the art of bleeding in public.

51) What is most interesting about theatre is seeing/experiencing the collective mind in action – no right, no wrong, just the ‘attempt’ at working through a vision honestly.

52) The human spirit is viscerally attracted to and innately seeks out stories; theatre is just one medium to tell a story.

53) I’m tired of seeing B-list TV celebrities on Broadway who can’t act “taking a break” from their lousy careers and making me suffer.

54) To change the landscape of what is revered and what is questioned.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Sentences 45-49

The series continues:

45) Dialogue is useful but action is eternal.

46) Theatre is one of the few things in my life that is sacred and ceremonious.

47) It is theatre that stops me from having a 9-to-5 job.

48) Transgression and betrayal of the senses and the accepted reactions of society.

49) Theatre is pornography with your clothes on.

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Sentences 40-44

The series continues:

40) The theatre is one of last sources of mystery left in the modern world.

41) Theatre dies when it is not played HERE, NOW, TODAY.

42) If a single sentence could contain the essence of theatre, that sentence would surely cause the universe to collapse.

43) Alive: If it weren’t then this blog wouldn’t exist.

44) How many theatre artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.

Out and about

Actor Cole J. Alvis seen here leaving Equity Showcase Theatre.
(Toronto, Canada)

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Spotted any hot theatre talent out and about
in your neighbourhood?
Send us your starstruck theatre photos:
celebrity@praxistheatre.com

Sentences 35-39

The series continues:

35) Theatre is a museum of the human being’s visceral state; perhaps it could compete with the ROM or AGO if patrons had to observe the piece blindfolded.

36) Theatre is awfully fun to make when you’re working with good people.

37) Theatre is a singularity.

38) Theatre is usually the most magical when its practitioners have small budgets.

39) When someone tries to undermine an actor’s job by labeling it ‘easy’, an appropriate retort would be: “Making it look ‘easy’ is one of the most difficult parts of the job.”

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Click here for the series introduction and for a complete list of sentences so far.