Anti-Fascist activists at The Battle of Cable Street (London, 1936)
by Michael Wheeler
This post continues my efforts as a director of Senora Carrar’s Rifles to stage the piece as per Brecht’s instructions “with a documentary film showing the events in Spain, or with a propaganda manifestation of any sort.”
First made famous by French GeneralRobert Georges Nivelle at the Battle of Verdun in WW1, They Shall Not Pass became an expression associated with anti-fascist movements around the world during The Spanish Civil War. It became the central refrain by La Pasionaria (Dolores Ibárruri Gómez) in her speech to Republican forces defending Madrid while it was under siege by Franco’s fascist troops in 1936.
A militant activist and communist politician, La Passionaria was widely regarded as one of the greatest public speakers of her era. When she returned to Spain after Franco’s death forty years later, she was re-elected as a deputy to the Cortes – the same region she had represented during the Second Republic when she delivered ¡No Pasarán!
Only months after the speech was first delivered it became the rallying cry of more than one hundred thousand anti-fascists who flooded the streets of London, England during The Battle of Cable Street, which successfully thwarted a march by The Union of British Fascists through Jewish neighbourhoods.
The phrase recently leapt back into international awareness when it adorned the T Shirt of Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova during their August 2012 trial in Russia for creating anti-Putin art.
¡No Pasarán!
Speech by Dolores Ibárruri, translated by Fabien Malouin.
Confronted with the fascist military uprising, all must rise to their feet, to defend the Republic, to defend the people’s freedoms as well as their achievements towards democracy! Through the statements by the government and the Popular Front (parties), the people understand the graveness of the moment.
In Morocco, as well as in the Canary Islands, the workers are battling, united with the forces still loyal to the Republic, against the uprising militants and fascists. Under the battle cry ‘Fascism shall not pass; the hangmen of October shall not pass!’ workers and farmers from all Spanish provinces are joining in the struggle against the enemies of the Republic that have arisen in arms. Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, and Republican Democrats, soldiers and (other) forces remaining loyal to the Republic combined have inflicted the first defeats upon the fascist foe, who drag through the mud the very same honourable military tradition that they have boasted to possess so many times.
The whole country cringes in indignation at these heartless barbarians that would hurl our democratic Spain back down into an abyss of terror and death. However, THEY SHALL NOT PASS! For all of Spain presents itself for battle. In Madrid, the people are out in the streets in support of the Government and encouraging its decision and fighting spirit so that it shall reach its conclusion in the smashing of the militant and fascist insurrection.
Young men, prepare for combat! Women, heroic women of the people! Recall the heroism of the women of Asturias of 1934 and struggle alongside the men in order to defend the lives and freedom of your sons, overshadowed by the fascist menace! Soldiers, sons of the nation! Stay true to the Republican State and fight side by side with the workers, with the forces of the Popular Front, with your parents, your siblings and comrades! Fight for the Spain of February the 16th, fight for the Republic and help them to victory!
Workers of all stripes! The government supplies us with arms that we may save Spain and its people from the horror and shame that a victory for the bloody hangmen of October would mean. Let no one hesitate! All stand ready for action. All workers, all antifascists must now look upon each other as brothers in arms. Peoples of Catalonia, Basque Country, and Galicia! All Spaniards! Defend our democratic Republic and consolidate the victory achieved by our people on the 16th of February.
The Communist Party calls you to arms. We especially call upon you, workers, farmers, intellectuals to assume your positions in the fight to finally smash the enemies of the Republic and of the popular liberties. Long live the Popular Front! Long live the union of all anti-fascists! Long live the Republic of the people! The Fascists shall not pass! THEY SHALL NOT PASS!
The news met mixed reaction on social media with some commenters noting that a mediation session with Ken Gass had been scheduled later in the week. For these commenters, making this announcement ahead of these talks reinforced the notion that the board was heading into these talks in bad faith.
Other commenters (myself included) applauded the selection of two artists that had a long history of working at Factory Theatre and were capable of carrying Ken’s vision forwards while infusing the institution with new ideas.
The news came later in a day when another Artistic Director, Buddies in Bad Times AD Brendan Healy, posted a popular Facebook note inspired by his first vacation after three years at the helm of the institution.
The note lays out “Four thoughts for my future self” (that are not about Ken Gass or the Factory Theatre but that have certainly been affected by Ken Gass and the Factory Theatre). They are expanded upon in the note, but the four thoughts are:
I am not the theatre company and the theatre company is not me.
The theatre company owes me nothing.
I will lose everything.
My work exists inside the people that I have shared it with.
Los Cuatro Generales (The Four Generals) – an anti-Franco song from The Spanish Civil War
by Michael Wheeler,
As mentioned in my last post, because Senora Carrar’s Rifles is atypically Aristotelean in its structure, Brecht recommends it be shown “with a documentary film showing the events in Spain, or with a propaganda manifestation of any sort.” Doing this at the actual performances would be nigh impossible for a number of reasons.
Online is a different story though, and I hope to post some relevant info about The Spanish Civil War in a way that relates to the piece between now and when we open on September 20th.
French members of the International Brigades
Early in the play, Senora Carrar’s house is passed by The International Brigades. These were made up of volunteers from Western countries who wanted to stop the spread of Fascism in Europe and often paid their own way to join the fight against Franco. Orwell, Hemingway, and Jim Watts (the principal inspiration behind Praxis Theatre’s Jesus Chrysler) all went to Spain in the 30s to join the fight. Orwell would later write Homage To Catalonia about his experience, while Hemingway would pen For Whom The Bell Tolls.
The Canadian contingent were The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. Canadians are one of the few contingents that don’t pass by the house in the play, but many other nationalities do, and each is identified by the song they are singing on the way to the front. In our production, all of the sounds are made onstage by Beau Dixon who acts as a drummer/foley artist/performer, so we took these songs and distilled them down to a few core rhythmic bars that are played on a snare drum as each brigade passes.
Due to the magic of YouTube, anyone can hear these songs now. If you have a favourite, let us know why.
Hoarding of Resources and Deprivation of Government Funding: For the 2012 fiscal year, the NEA awarded $3,216,000 in grants to 119 theater companies. Only 7 (5.88%) have been in existence for less than ten years. Government funding is essentially not available to the under-35 set.
Exploitation of Young Labor through Un/Underpaid Internships: Out of the sixty LORT companies that advertise professional internships/apprenticeships/fellowships, only thirty–four of these companies (56.66%) claim to pay interns a weekly stipend. The average weekly stipend offered by these companies is $149.50.
Profiting from the Peddling of Impractical Degrees: Similar to Mike Daisey’s American MFAs as Ponzi Scheme critique. Botvinik wonders if many US MFA programs would meet the standards of The Gainful Employment Act which is applied to new programs and asks them to prove that their students will be able to find work in their field after graduating in order to be eligible for financial aid.
Toronto Theatre: 5 Points of contention
U of T prof Holger Syme and director and artistic director Jacob Zimmer have had an in-depth discussion that has bouncedback and forth between Syme’s dispositio and Zimmer’s Small Wooden Shoe site. The 5 Points of contentions with ‘approved’ summaries are:
Our theatre needs classics: There are not enough plays from before the 20th century done in Toronto. This is in part due to false notions of relevance and nationalism.
Our theatre is predictable: There is not enough diversity of practice and approaches to work – new or old. Every play should be treated as new. Timidity is bad and a healthy competition for innovation would help.
There is never enough time: You can’t be innovative, or radical, or especially deep, or especially thoughtful in a three-week rehearsal process. It’s just not enough time.
Our theatre is a deeply immoral institution: It is immoral and unsustainable for theatre to be in a continual semi-pro status. It leads to under-realized projects, one person self directed shows and jack-of-all-trades master-of-none “theatre artists.”
Money isn’t doing what money should be doing: The funding distribution is broken and supports an unsustainably large number of companies with unsustainably small amounts of money. There are options other than direct Council funding to projects.
This conversation seems significant to me not because Syme and Zimmer agree about all these ideas, but because I’m hoping it could denote a turning point in the Canadian theatrosphere: Maybe long-form intelligent discussion and exchange of ideas is possible online after all?
Factory Theatre Battle for Hearts and Minds Continues
Some major pieces of information have come out about the ongoing controversy surround the firing of Ken Gass, The Factory Theatre and its Board of Directors:
Board chair Ron Struys confirmed: “We recently met with Ken with the help of an outside facilitator and agreed to get the wheels in motion for mediation in order to find common ground.” No information was given as to whether the search for a new artistic director, which is still on the Factory Theatre homepage, has ben halted.
The Actors Fund of Canada is accepting donations for the artists who just lost their jobs weeks before opening, with little hope of finding a replacement gig this late in the game. Social media commentators estimate lost wages to artists from the show’s cancelation to be approximately $80,000.
Greta talks to Philip Akin, the Artistic Director of Obsidian Theatre, about Summerworks and how being a martial arts expert helps him run a theatre company.
Philip Akin is the director of Violent be Violet currently playing at Summerworks. Next Shows: Fri August 17 at 3:00 pm ansd Sunday, August 19 at 10pm. For tickets and info CLICK HERE.
Greta Papageorgiu is an actor, writer, teacher and director. She performs and teaches throughout Ontario and Quebec. Greta loves the theatre and hopes to share some of her love with you through 2 Minutes With Greta Papageorgiu.
When Sunny the SummerWorks mascot was down on his luck, he applied for a job at the Toronto Sun (logical). Click the image to learn Sunny's Story.
by Michael Wheeler
Sunny’s here. Every year SummerWorks seems to have an increasingly stellar and creative line-up.
Let’s set aside this evidence new and experimental work is increasingly made gratis by indie artists (with a faint hope that institutions might one day program it) and celebrate this awesome festival currently the hottest thing going in Toronto theatre because it is artist-driven.
Here are three one-off SummerWorks ancillary events that are interesting you may not be aware of, including one I’m directing.
Hold for Applause
Staged reading of the winner of the high school drama competition, The Ontario Sears Drama Festival
Lower Ossington Theatre, Monday August 13 @ 3pm. Free
The question of artistic integrity and how far one someone will go to feed their creative needs is explored in this drama split between a violent robbery and playwright trying to finish a draft of a new work.
Written by Sam Godfrey a drama student in the Claude Watson Arts Program entering grade 12 who has just completed a dramatic writing course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Godfrey has written and directed two plays at the Paprika Festival in 2011 and 2012. Hold for Applause, went on to win both the B.J. Castleman and Wayne Fairhead best new play award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. He is the recipient of a MIRA award for excellence in playwriting.
Performed by Tony Nappo, Pip Dwyer, Greta Papageorgiu, Julian DeZotti, David Tompa and James Murray. Directed by Michael Wheeler.
Through The Gates
Concert Reading of a new original musical about Siddhartha as part of The SummerWorks Musical Works in Concert Series.
The Theatre Centre, Monday August 13 @ 9:30pm. $15
Prince Siddhartha comes of age in a palace where all sign of sickness, old age, suffering and death are forbidden. A musical adaptation of the Buddha’s youth by Daniel Cummings (Kid Cosmic, Act Now!) and Scott Christian (Hero and Leander).
This concert reading is directed by Adam Brazier and features Ma-Anne Dionisio, Sterling Jarvis, Evan Alexander Smith, Jonathan Tan and Julian Richings. It also features additional pit singers and a five-piece orchestra. You can check out the blog here.
Artaud Symposium
TheatreRUN hosts a symposium on the legacy of Antonin Artaud and his influence on contemporary thought and theatre practice in conjunction with Artaud: un portrait en décomposition.
Tarragon Theatre, Tuesday August 14th @ 7pm. Free
Joining host Adam Paolozza as panelists are Richard Rose (theatre director and artistic director of the Tarragon theatre), Jacob Zimmer (director, dramaturge and choreographer), Tatiana Jennings (theatre director, choreographer), Marc Lemyre (poet, theatre maker) and Aaron Rotbard (psychotherapist).
If you were in Toronto this summer it was hard not to run into the two weeks of heavy construction at Queen and Spadina. In this video, long-time friend of the show Amy Pagnotta serenades the construction with a dedicated version of ‘Downtown’ filmed by Vanessa Guillen.
The Toronto Star reports that Toronto appears poised to adopt run-off voting in 2018. In this video, Dave Meslin, who spearheads RaBIt (Ranked Ballot Initiative), explains what the deal is with run-off voting on The Morning Show. Separate from the information, it’s fun to watch how ‘Mez’ slowly wins over the hosts who seem unimpressed with his props at the top of the piece – before realizing this guy is totally truthing them.
Actress Amy Rutherford has established herself as one of the top theatre artists in Toronto appearing recently in shows by Studio 180, Volcano Theatre, Necessary Angel, Tarragon Theatre and The Wrecking Ball. She also adopted a starling briefly and wrote/filmed a v-log for Ryeberg about it. The above is of the moment she releases the bird back onto the world. You can read/watch the whole piece here.
The Pop Group’s Fierce Monsters at Summerworks is the most Praxis non-Praxis show ever created. Produced by Artistic Producer Aislinn Rose, starring frequent Praxis performers Margaret Evans and Laura Nordin, directed by Tim Buck 2 performer and You Should Have Stayed Home illustrator Jody Hewston and written by Dungeons and Dragons participant Becca Buttigieg – it’s a no-brainer to end up on the blog. Check out the video they made about weapon training for the show (It’s a Western!)
When Praxis Artistic Producer Aislinn Rose responded with a letter of her own, this went to a whole new level, with more people coming to the site in one day than saw all three of the shows we presented in 2011 combined.
The pieces, as well as the intelligent and thoughtful comments that followed them have motivated a few responses on the internet:
* Producer and marketer Sue Edworthy put together a Wordle for all four of the major notes written on the subject including Facebook notes by Chris Coculuzzi and Lisa Norton.
* Director and Artistic Director Jacob Zimmer used the Small Wooden Shoe blog to reference this conversation and also apply for the position of Factory Theatre Artistic Director. One condition: The Board of Directors must resign by the end of the year.
* A number of prominent artists are calling for a boycott of The Factory Theatre. They have set up a website: savethefactory.ca which outlines why. In reference to artists boycotting the theatre’s season, Ken Gass had this to say in the comments of a recent Torontoist article on the story:
I just want to make clear, I would NEVER ask artists to pull their work from the season, no matter who is running the theatre. […] there are many arenas of protest other than ones that will impact on the financial welfare of artists.
Okay so things have been busy here at The Shaw Festival.
My last post had come as I had just finished my work as an assistant director on the musical Ragtime. I still remain connected to the show through hosting pre-show talks on the terrace of The Festival Theatre at 730pm before evening performances until September. My talk is a mix of musical, production and early 20th Century history.* There’s a lot to go over in roughly 20 minutes and the content is evolving over the summer. Emma Goldman, played by Kate Hennig, is a big hit with audiences as a historical figure many were unaware of – background on her and Booker T. Washington is becoming more emphasized as the talk develops.
Hennig as Emma Goldman. Photo by Emily Cooper
From a rehearsal standpoint, I spent much of my spring at The Court House Theatre working as assistant director with director Alisa Palmer on A Man and Some Women by Githa Sowerby. The production is the third Sowerby play produced by The Shaw Festival under Jackie Maxwell’s Artistic Direction. The first, Rutherford and Son,was a hit when it opened exactly 100-years ago with an author simply known as G. Sowerby. When her gender was revealed, although it lent Sowerby some fame and notoriety, her subsequent works were not produced by the theatre establishment.
Recent productions of The Stepmother and A Man and Some Women at The Shaw Festival have served to re-ignite interest in Sowerby and her body of work beyond Rutherford and Son. Unearthing this practically un-produced gem from a century ago was exciting for all of the artists involved. The text is clearly influenced by Chekhov (subtext and a passion for capital W Work) and Ibsen (the plot is akin to a neo-feminist A Doll’s House), but there is also a high-stakes quality to the writing which is uniquely Sowerby’s. Along with my regular assistant responsibilities, I also worked closely with eight-year-old cast member Jordan Hilliker, who has three scenes in the play complete with Victorian-era costume and dialect. Man did he nail it on opening.
Jordan Hilliker has three big scenes at the same age I was moving from Lego to Robotix.
I have also begun rehearsals as assistant director of Helen’s Necklace by Carole Fréchette, directed by Micheline Chevrier. Poetic language permeates this two-hander about a Western woman searching for her possibly metaphoricallost necklace in Beirut. It is a piece that requires imagination and interpretation by director and designers. It is the only show playing in the Studio Theatre this season, which has given us a blank palate not normally available in the repertory model to create Helen’s experience of Beirut through a detailed but minimalist set by Judith Bowden defined by light (Michelle Ramsay) and sound (John Millard).
Guess I approved this shot? Photo David Cooper
Currently, I am half-way through a Mamet/Churchill/Stoppard scene study workshop I am leading with twelve performers here. On Wednesday mornings three actors work on a scene from Glengarry Glen Ross as well as a three-hander from Cloud 9. On Thursday there are three two-handers from Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Oleanna.
Our tablework has concentrated on given circumstances, awareness, and events – so hats off to Stanislavsky. As each of the scenes moves from table work to ‘on its feet’ I am staying focused on clearly defined actions and beat changes that necessarily change those actions. This part is more Practical Aesthetics influenced. It’s a blast to be doing this work with such talented pros.
Finally, I have submitted my top three plays for Directors Project and had my top pick approved. This fall I will be directing Senora Carrar’s Rifles by Bertolt Brecht in The Studio Theatre. I had also submitted Shaw’s The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet, and a collection of early drama by Chekhov as alternates, but I really was most excited by Rifles (as I may start calling it). It is Brecht’s very loose adaptation of Riders to the Sea by Synge – but set in The Spanish Civil War.
Senora Carrar’s Rifles is many things: A mini Mother Courage, Brecht’s most serious attempt at realism as a mature artist, a play he regretted writing, an incredibly popular play with East-German cultural authorities, a Call to Arms, and a serious conversation about the limitations of pacifism in the face of fascism.
I will be working with musician and composer Beau Dixon to create the sounds of the approaching battle (and everything else) through percussion. It is looking unlikely we will be calling any sound cues from the booth, but you never know. Hopefully by next blog post I will be able to announce the cast. Thanks for reading along. It really is an incredible opportunity to be here. Lots to learn and so many talented people to learn from.
* Material for this talk is actually a combination of research by Obsidian Theatre/Shaw Theatre Interns Beau Dixon, Ray Hogg and myself. Thanks guys.
Last fall I spent a bunch of time at Occupy Toronto and Occupy Wall St.
In Toronto, I marched in the streets as well as scheduling meetings in St. James Park with various Praxis collaborators (free wifi!). In NYC, I did a lot of reading in the library, reviewed Alan Filewod’s book Committing Theatre for rabble.ca, and went to some offsite meetings about how Occupy Wall St. was organizing itself online.
During all of this I had my camera-phone with me which I used to snap pics with throughout. Below is a gallery of the best 20 and one photo that someone else took and was spotted by a friend on Facebook. Thanks for sharing Kelly Ricketts!
Not sure what will happen to the movement now that the frost has lifted. Looking back at these made me remember that whatever happens will happen because we made it happen.
“After the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations, we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage. It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good.”
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