My Fellow Creatures – Now playing

Absit Omen Theatre in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
presents the world premiere presentation of

My Fellow Creatures

At Theatre Pass Muraille
16 Ryerson Street, Toronto

For tickets, call Arts Box Office @ 416-504-7529
or online, here.

Special offer

Click image to enlarge, or download your special edition Praxis Theatre Beer desktop wallpaper here:

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Play reading: Tonight!

Please join Praxis Theatre for the next entry in our series of original play readings. Tonight, we are pleased to present two short works: The Progressive Apparatus by Hugh Spencer and Dark by Simon Ogden.

WHAT: Reading of The Progressive Apparatus (Hugh Spencer) and Dark (Simon Ogden).

WHEN: Monday, April 7 @ 8 pm

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

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

Out and about

Actor/Director Hume Baugh (The Girl in the Picture Tries to Hang Up the Phone, Child Hood) wasn’t happy to see photographers while leaving this house on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street East.

His production of All’s Well That Ends Well opens March 26, 2008 at Alchemy Theatre.

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

Out and about

Eric Peterson (Necessary Angel’s Half Life, TV’s Corner Gas) and Caroline Gillis (Tarragon’s How It Works, da da kamera’s A Beautiful View) outside the Capitol Event Theatre before Necessary Angel’s 3 Plays/1 Day Gala. (Thanks to Daniel MacIvor for the photo.)

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

Out and about

Elsa Perez (right), Artistic Director of the Théâtre Bilingue de Montreal (TBM), was seen out celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Trattoria Piatto Pieno in Montreal’s Little Italy.

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

Out and about

Celebrity fight director Joe Bostick (Dirty Dancing, A Nanking Winter) and Derrick Chua (left) co-producer of Studio 180’s Stuff Happens seen chatting it up and the opening night party of A Nanking Winter.

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

Out and about

Courtenay Stevens – who played the Architect/Sailor in CanStage’s The Overcoat – was spotted chatting on his cellphone outside Bread & Circus theatre bar in Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Word on the street is that he’s remounting his production of Lawrence & Holloman at this edgy, downtown theatre in early April.

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

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!