December 12, 2011 – 11:18 am

A Very Lupe Invitation to Mayor Ford

Lupe interviews former Mayor David Miller

by Aislinn Rose

Former Mayor David Miller faced some tough interviews during his two terms as Mayor of Toronto, but perhaps none quite like this 2008 interview with one Lupe Dominguez (aka Melissa D’Agostino).

Since that time, the City of Toronto elected a new Mayor, Rob Ford, and Lupe would like to get to know him better. She’s having a Christmas party this year and has put out a passionate plea to ask Mayor Ford to join in the festivities:

Lupe extends an invite to current Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

Click to Enlarge



Mayor Ford is a tweeter, so perhaps he’ll attend Lupe’s A Very Lupe Xmas this Wednesday, December 14th, at 8pm? It will be a twitter-friendly performance, complete with tweet seats.

As Co-Producer of Lupe’s party, I will be there tweeting from my personal account @AislinnTO.We’ll be using the hashtag #LupeXmas, and I’d love to be able to add another hashtag: #FordXmas. See you there Mayor Ford?

Click here for all the relevant production details on the A Very Lupe Xmas Facebook event,

Click here to see the entire offering of promotional videos highlighting each of the “wise men”, and her right-hand man, Pepe, on their Indie Go Go page.


By Aislinn | Posted in Melissa D'Agostino | Comments (0)
November 23, 2011 – 3:35 pm

Mark Rothko: brought to you by webcam

by Aislinn Rose

Has anyone handed you a paintbrush dipped in red paint recently? We got one. Canadian Stage has upped its marketing game recently, with some interesting interactive elements for Red in particular.

Click to enlarge

Those red-tipped paintbrushes came tagged with the website EXPERIENCERED.CA and the site offers an opportunity to “interact” as artist Mark Rothko’s assistant using your computer’s own webcam. There are a series of different video responses from Rothko based on how each user responds, so theoretically you could have a different experience every time you interacted with the site.

An experiment in partnership with Toronto ad agency, Zulu Alpha Kilo, Canadian Stage tells us they are interested in exploring how pre-recorded video can be used in different ways to promote a live performance. Most of us have already discovered that staging live scenes for video just doesn’t work.

The site features Red‘s lead actor Jim Mezon in the role of Rothko, allowing users to get a sense of the play, without having to watch pre-recorded stage scenes on film. Check it out!

Red opens tomorrow night at Canadian Stage.

By Aislinn | Posted in Canadian Stage Company, Theatre & Interactivity | Comments (3)
November 18, 2011 – 11:46 am

Jesus Chrysler at Theatre Passe Muraille: Everything you need to know

Margaret Evans (l) Plays Jim Watts, Aviva Armour-Ostroff (r) plays Dorothy Livesay in Jesus Chrysler ~ Photo by Will O’Hare

JESUS CHRYSLER

Written by: Tara Beagan & Directed by: Michael Wheeler
Starring: Margaret Evans*, Aviva Armour-Ostroff* and Jeffrey Wetsch*
Produced by: Aislinn Rose
Costumes & Set Design by: Scott Penner
Sound Design by: Verne Good
Lighting Design by: David DeGrow
Stage Managed by: Dini Conte*
Assistant Director: Laura Nordin
Movement Coach: Leora Morris
*Appearing courtesy of CAEA

Legendary activist and director Eugenia “Jim” Watts and poet Dorothy Livesay are embroiled in a mix of socialist organizing, sexual relationships, theatre rehearsals, and personal betrayal…

A world premiere by Dora-Award winning playwright Tara Beagan, Jesus Chrysler is an immersive production that revolves around Toronto activist and director Eugenia “Jim” Watts and poet Dorothy Livesay. An unsung icon of 1930s Toronto theatre, Jim had her work banned by a Prime Minister before enlisting in The Spanish Civil War, becoming its sole female ambulance driver. Livesay went on to become a two-time Governor General Award winner for poetry and an Officer of The Order of Canada. Jesus Chrysler invites you to explore their complex relationship in a show that engages with and questions the intersection of art and politics.

Location
Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace
16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto ON

Click here to buy tickets

Dates
Tuesday November 29th & Wednesday November 30th:
Previews – 7:30pm
Thursday December 1st: Opening Night – 7:30pm
Tuesdays through Sundays – 7:30pm
Saturday & Sunday Matinees – 2pm
Closes Sunday December 11th – 7:30pm

Tickets
Tickets available though Arts Box Office
www.artsboxoffice.ca
416.504.7529
$15 – $30

*Due to the immersive nature of this production, seating in the Backspace is limited*

Do you enjoy praxistheatre.com?

We need your help.

Click here to donate & receive a charitable receipt

This is an exciting time for Praxis Theatre. It’s our first production as part of the season of an established Toronto theatre, and the first time we have employed our artists as signatories to the Canadian Theatre Agreement.

All of this costs money and we couldn’t do it without the support of our donors. We are so close to reaching our goal, but we need your help to get us there… so we’re calling on our friends across Canada to help this indie company out.

For a short time, you can donate to Praxis Theatre via Theatre Passe Muraille and receive a charitable receipt. We promise, after Jesus Chrysler, we can leave you alone for a while!

Hope to see you at the theatre.

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Jesus Chrysler has been generously supported by:

By Aislinn | Posted in Jesus Chrysler, your contribution matters | Comments (3)
November 1, 2011 – 9:38 am

Adam Seelig on other people’s plays & opening lines

LIKE THE FIRST TIME Cast l-r: Cathy Murphy, Dov Mickelson, Elva Mai Hoover, Jessica Salgueiro, Andrew Moodie ~ Photo by Yuri Dojc

by Adam Seelig

O.P.P. (Other People’s Plays)

Last spring, while living on a kibbutz in Israel, I sat down and rewrote — yes, stole — a little known play by Italian theatrical innovator and Nobel Prize winner, Luigi Pirandello. “Come Prima, Meglio di Prima,” Pirandello’s play from 1920, the year before his obscenely famous “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” has been transformed into “my new play,” LIKE THE FIRST TIME.

The good news is that I have Pirandello’s blessing. In his own words:

Theatre is not archaeology. The text remains intact for those who want to read it at home for personal pleasure; those who want to enjoy themselves will go to the theatre, where the text will be presented cleansed of withered parts and unfashionable terms, and adapted to contemporary taste. The work of art in the theatre is no longer the work of a writer… but an act of life to be created moment by moment on the stage and together with the spectators.”

Thank you, Luigi.

Looks Hard Sounds Easy

These two pages from my new play might look hard at first, but the actors make it sound easy. And it is easy: to the ears of an audience the dialogue of LIKE THE FIRST TIME is totally basic. Most folks won’t know it’s written this way, and that’s just fine. What’s important is that the text has given the actors (Elva Mai Hoover, Dov Mickelson, Andrew Moodie, Cathy Murphy, Jessica Salgueiro) the freedom to emphasize what they want, when they want.

The text isn’t king, it serves the actors. It’s up to Andrew Moodie, playing Sylvio, to deliver his opening line — “dog shit” — however he likes.

Two pages from LIKE THE FIRST TIME by Adam Seelig:

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Click to enlarge

For those who want read the text at home, it’s free online from BookThug:

For those who want more information on when and where to see LIKE THE FIRST TIME, onstage now until Nov 13, at the Walmer Centre Theatre, visit www.OneLittleGoat.org

By Aislinn | Posted in One Little Goat | Comments (1)
October 27, 2011 – 9:37 am

Theatre & the Internet: A roundtable discussion at UofT

Praxis puts Section 98 on the internet in 2010
– Photo of Melissa Hood by Hugh Probyn
by Aislinn Rose
Later today, I will be joining NOW Magazine‘s Glenn Sumi, The Globe & Mail‘s Kelly Nestruck, and Mooney on Theatre‘s Megan Mooney for a Roundtable Discussion: Theatre Criticism and the Internet.
The panel will be moderated by The University of Toronto’s Michelle MacArthur, a PhD Candidate and Instructor for DRM 231H: Theatre Criticism. Michelle will be leading the discussion around questions of how blogging and social media are changing the nature of theatre criticism, and whether the internet has democratized reviewing, altering the traditional relationships between artists, audiences and critics.
Representing Praxis Theatre on the panel, I’ll be talking about our use of the internet and how it directly feeds our work and relationships with audiences and the indie theatre community.
The event is open to the public, and – inspired by Praxis’ twitter friendly performance of You Should Have Stayed Home – our moderator is encouraging live-tweeting throughout the discussion. So if you can’t attend the event in person, feel free to join the discussion online.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Thursday, October 27th
1-3pm
Robert Gill Theatre
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama
214 College St., 3rd Floor

How to follow the panelists on twitter:
Megan Mooney, Mooney on Theatre – @mooneyontheatre
Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail – @nestruck
Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine – @glennsumi
Aislinn Rose, Praxis Theatre – @praxistheatre, @AislinnTO

By Aislinn | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
October 24, 2011 – 4:17 pm

Praxis Theatre Occupies Bay Street

Margaret Evans (r) Plays Jim Watts, Aviva Armour-Ostroff (l) plays Dorothy Livesay in Jesus Chrysler. Photo by Will O’Hare

On Friday November 4th, Praxis Theatre is throwing a 1930s-themed party on Bay Street in the lead up to our premiere of Jesus Chrysler by Tara Beagan at Theatre Passe Muraille. We may have booked the location long ago, but in the spirit of our play, and the recent emergence of The Occupy Movement we’re going with: Praxis Theatre Occupies Bay Street.

Our last party at the same location was a big hit.

This fundraising soirée, full of gourmet food and drink alongside art, performances, and 1930s inspired music by local artists will take place in a gorgeous reception room located at 761 Bay Street on Friday November 4th from 6:30pm to 10pm.

Tickets are available on a sliding scale of $50-$75 depending on what part of the 99% you are a part of. (Don’t worry, we welcome the 1% as well – and perhaps you’d like to donate to Occupy Toronto.) This is an all-inclusive ticket, and you’ll be provided with a charitable receipt for the price of your ticket minus the value of food and drink ($25). To reserve, please email us at info@praxistheatre.com.

More information on the fundraiser and other options for making a donation to Jesus Chrysler can be found here on the facebook event, and information on Jesus Chrysler and purchasing tickets can be found here on the Theatre Passe Muraille website.

Click here to go straight to Theatre Passe Muraille’s Canada Helps page.

Hope to see you November 4th!

By Aislinn | Posted in Dorothy Livesay, Jim Watts, Praxis Theatre 2011 Season, Praxis Theatre party, praxis theatre fundraiser | Comments (1)
October 11, 2011 – 1:26 pm

Love and sexual awakening… at Tarragon Theatre

by Aislinn Rose

I recently started working as the Community Manager for a project called The Conversation About Love. This interactive experiment revolves around an online art gallery based on the themes of Sarah Polley’s new film, Take This Waltz. Participants are asked to take a tour around the gallery and join the conversation on the topics of love, fidelity, lust and heartbreak. The conversation has taken on many forms including songs, photos, original artwork and personal anecdotes. In addition to the website, conversationalists can also join in via Facebook and twitter.

As someone with a personal and professional interest in this notion of using social media and other online tools in an effort to build community and develop audiences for your work, I was immediately drawn to the project. The big question posed to me was, “how do you feel about chatting and tweeting about love for the next several months?”

Then along came a facebook invitation to a post-show social for Tarragon Theatre’s production of In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, asking participants to submit “stories of sex, love and all the rest of it”. The stories submitted will be read aloud at the event this Thursday evening, but submissions will remain anonymous to protect the not-so-innocent.

I don’t think anyone will be surprised to learn that my first instinct was that this event called for a little live-tweeting. The twist in this case, is that I plan to bring the Take This Waltz-inspired Conversation About Love into the next room, for a joint online conversation about love and sexual awakening.

Want to follow along? Perhaps join in? Here are the facts you need to know:

  • You can get $10 tickets to see the show this Thursday, October 13th at 8pm. Click here for all the info you need on buying tickets and submitting your tales of love and/or woe. The social after the show is free.
  • Follow the tweets via www.twitter.com/ConvoAboutLove. You don’t need to be a tweeter to keep tabs on the discussion, but if you are, I’d love for you to follow me in this new experiment. Let me know what you think!
  • Don’t be shy about submitting your stories. I won’t be tweeting all the sordid details… if you want those you’ll have to join us at the theatre.

Side note: as I finished composing my email to Tarragon suggesting the addition of live-tweeting at their event, I received a message from Tarragon asking if I might like to live-tweet at their event. I’m really excited to see a company like Tarragon embracing these new tools to engage their existing audience in new ways, while reaching out to develop and cultivate a new community of followers and fans.

Hope to see you online or in the theatre on Thursday night!

By Aislinn | Posted in ConvoAboutLove, Tarragon Theatre, twitter | Comments (0)
September 9, 2011 – 5:13 pm

Update on Dufferin Grove Park closure

Toronto Stop the Cuts Network’s flyer for tomorrow’s meeting in
Dufferin Grove Park

by Aislinn Rose

Earlier today, a communiqué was released because The City of Toronto appeared to be trying to shut down a meeting in Dufferin Grove Park, organized by the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network.

The meeting was intended to bring Torontonians together for refreshments at 12pm, and then break into smaller groups from 1pm to 5pm to come up with a “a clear set of demands to deliver to City Hall”. The Facebook event can be found here.

The Toronto Stop the Cuts Network, a group made up of community organizations and individuals, released this statement:

In a blatantly anti-democratic move that smacks of Rob Ford’s authoritarianism, Toronto City is attempting to stop the Mass Meeting to Stop Ford’s Cuts from taking place. The city is shutting down programming at Dufferin Grove Park, where the meeting is scheduled from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday, September 10. Organizers from the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network say they are expecting thousands of residents to attend, to write a Toronto Declaration, ‘a vision for the Toronto people need and deserve’.

You can read the entire post here.

After a call to Councillor Ana Bailão’s office, I learned that the Toronto Police had issued a demonstration alert, and that the plan to close the park and its services was seen by the City as a “safety measure”. However, Bailão’s office felt this was unacceptable, and have ensured that the park will instead by kept open all day.

The park’s regular services will also be running in the morning and in the evening, but will be stopped only during the 5-hour meeting organized by Stop the Cuts. Bathrooms, however, will also be kept open during the meeting.

When asked why a demonstration alert would be issued for a meeting, Bailão’s office said they also believed the event to be a meeting rather than a demonstration, but that postings about the meeting on other sites had raised concerns.

Let us know your thoughts on these issues in the comments section. We also welcome anyone who has any updates regarding Stop the Cuts and their meeting in Dufferin Grove Park, to post them here.

By Aislinn | Posted in Toronto Stop the Cuts Network, your contribution matters | Comments (0)
August 9, 2011 – 11:58 am

Your process is showing: Brothers

Brothers – Click to enlarge

by Shira Leuchter

It’s SummerWorks! I can’t think of a better time to see some of the most innovative performance work around. And I’m so thankful that Philip McKee, Jeremy James and Rose Plotek invited me into their rehearsal room to watch them create a sequence of their show, Brothers.

If you’ve seen the show, feel free to let me know in the comments section if this image resonates with you in any way.

Materials: Paper, Plant Material, Wooden Dowels, Twine, Matches

About the show: Brothers plays at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the 2011 SummerWorks Festival until Sunday, August 14th. You can get tickets here.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.

By Aislinn | Posted in SummerWorks, Your process is showing | Comments (0)
August 6, 2011 – 10:25 am

You Should Have Stayed Home goes Twitter friendly

by Aislinn Rose

Earlier this year I had a conversation on twitter about social media, the arts, and audience development. One of the topics that came up was tweeting during actual performances. Many suggested that twitter didn’t belong in the theatre during a show, thinking it would pull the tweeters out of the performance and distract others in the audience.

When I asked a first-time theatre-goer who had been brought to the theatre via Twitter what she thought, she said tweeting would have made her feel more engaged and that she really wanted to know what other audience members were thinking throughout the show.

While some tweeters said Canadian theatre-makers were woefully behind the times when it comes to integrating social media in their work, some were adamant that tweeting during a show was a bad idea. Having already experimented with a show that incorporated live-texting throughout, I was adamant that it ought to at least be tried.

So here we are with our twitter-friendly performance of You Should Have Stayed Home at SummerWorks. We’re offering dedicated tweet seats, at the back of the audience so as not to be distracting for others, where tweeters can tweet away using our hashtag #G20Romp. All we ask is that you turn off any feature that makes a sound or vibrates, and darken your screens as much as possible – in a dark theatre you don’t really need much light.

Not sure what you’d tweet about? Our hashtag has already been in effect for some time, so here’s some of the conversation we’ve already been having.

Jonah Hundert and Praxis Theatre chat post-opening night:

Jonathan Goldsbie had a few thoughts after opening night as well:

We were pleased to have Davenport MP Andrew Cash join us for opening night and the SummerWorks opening night party after the show:

You Should Have Stayed Home performer/playwright Tommy Taylor with The Honorable Andrew Cash, Member of Parliament for Davenport

You Should Have Stayed Home

2:30pm at The Theatre Centre

Look for the marked tweet seats in the back rows, where you’ll also find the previously mentioned requests about turning off sounds, vibrations, and lowering lights.

Use the hashtag #G20Romp

Buy your tickets here or at the venue.

After the performance, we’ll be wanting to chat some more, both about the show and how you felt about tweeting during the show. Let us know if you met anyone new in the audience because of twitter!

Not a tweeter? Don’t feel left out.

We’re always happy to continue post-show discussions here in the comments of the blog. We welcome and look forward to your feedback.

If you’re not a tweeter but you are interested in this live-tweeting experiment, you can follow the hashtag even without a twitter account by clicking here.

By Aislinn | Posted in #G20Romp, #auddev, Aislinn Rose, Tommy Taylor, You Should Have Stayed Home, twitter | Comments (1)