Help us pick a caption! Best caption in the comments section, or via #PraxisCaption on twitter will win two tickets to a preview of our production of Jesus Chrysler at Theatre Passe Muraille.
We’ll post the results and the best caption at the end of the day. Happy captioning!
UPDATE: And the tickets to Jesus Chrysler go to @CBTstage for best caption!
Ride The Cyclone is quickly becoming a Canadian indie theatre legend. Exploding onto the Toronto stage at SummerWorks, it is already selling out houses at Theatre Passe Muraille with a show that opened on Monday night with more buzz than any indie-produced musical in recent memory.
Cyclone creator Atomic Vaudeville is engaged in a robust social media strategy with a convincing YouTube Trailer, Storify for production-related tweets, a recent live twitter chat with the cast via #AskTheCyclone, and apparently their own video game.
Also worth noting is that the show was first performed in Toronto via the infamous Heritage funding earmarked specifically for national companies that would be cut by the Harper Government six months later.
Looking forward to sharing the theatre with Ride The Cyclonenear the end of its run, whenJesus Chrysler will be playing concurrently in the Theatre Passe Muraille backspace .
The piece concludes with 5 core points about why CAEA needs to reform its policies with regard to independent theatre that still remain true, valid, and urgent to this day:
The future of the theatre in Canada lies in a new generation of hybrid producer/artists. There are very few artists under 35 who categorize themselves solely as “actors”. We are all using the same computer software to create the script in Word, the budget in Excel and make a presentation to the board with Powerpoint. This engager/actor framing device Equity is using to talk about this is at least thirty years out of date.
The average audience for theatre in Canada is very old and this must change for us to survive and thrive. If there is going to be anyone to see the work we make in fifteen years, we are going to have to reach new and younger audiences. Unlike the fictional Youthquake of Slings and Arrows fame this is not going to be caused by a slick marketing campaign – it will be addressed when work by new, younger and more diverse artists is supported instead of punished.
We are at a competitive disadvantage with the US.Contracts like the Showcase and 99 Seat Agreement in the US make new and innovative work much easier to produce. Lots of these shows become nothing. Some become hits and tour to Canada. We are at a particular disadvantage given that our current complicated indie agreements don’t even address touring or TYA productions. Is our major contribution to world drama this decade going to be limited to exceptional remounts of Andrew Lloyd Webber?
Canadian theatre has really sub-par engagement with diverse communities. Both in terms of audience and practitioners our industry is overwhelmingly white. This despite Canada being home to several of the most multicultural cities in the world.Equity needs to wake up to the fact that when they curtail and limit indie theatre, whichis farmorediverse, they are actively making this problem worse.
This multi-year battle is wasting everyone’s energy and time. How much energy has gone into our multi-year internal battle to have CAEA stop treating its younger and self-producing membership like they are committing a crime for trying to create new plays subsidized by their sweat and hard work?
Yes, we’ve posted this before, but it’s still funny and, apparently, still relevant.
Our post from Spring of last year was motivated by the frustration that came from there being not one – but two consecutive votes at AGMs (One in Toronto and one in Montreal) by a combined vote of 138 – 5 to address the problems facing indie theatre.
After more than two years or stalling and delays, The Independent Theatre Review Committee was set up and commissioned a study to look into the indie issue. An executive summary of the report has recently been posted to the CAEA website, but moves to release the entire document have been met with more stall tactics.
In terms of the existing small-scale agreements, satisfaction levels are highest among the Festival Policy (formerly Fringe Waiver) and the Guest Artist Policy. [It is worth noting that the Festival Policy was recently changed to closely mirror the TorontoTheatreAgreement originally proposed by The Indie Caucus and presented to CAEA Executive Director Arden Ryshpan in 2008.]
45% of respondents had engaged fellow Equity members to work on a theatre project.
25% admitted to having worked off-contract
80% said working on small-scale projects is very important or somewhat important to their career.
Factors more than 50% deemed “very important” included the ability to “work in a flexible schedule that permits other work or commitments”, opportunities to “work with people they admire or respect”, and the desire to “create new/original work”.
More than 66% were willing to waive quotas of Equity vs. non-Equity members within a given show, as well as pay for a full work week regardless of their level of participation.
Equity members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of steps being taken to address significant dissatisfaction among members with regards to small scale and independent theatre creation at two consecutive AGMs, beginning in February 2008.
Deadlines have come and gone, and Equity seems no closer to action. It must be asked: how much more time does Equity need to implement the clearly expressed will of membership?
This question goes to the heart of the future of Canadian theatre. Will we see more theatre made for a predominantly wealthy, white, elderly audience created by major institutions, or will we see more theatre made for and by the vast, diverse and eclectic population of Canada?
Membership has already clearly stated which option they would like to pursue, the question now is whether Equity will listen and adapt or continue to ignore and deflect.
The CAEA Ontario RAGM is Sunday, November 20th at 7pm at the Wychwood Barns, located at 601 Christie Street. All members in good standing are welcome, and it’s recommended you bring your membership cards with you.
As a result of the City of Toronto’s KPMG Core Service review, and the city’s public consultation process, Council recently voted in favour of looking into selling its city-owned theatres.
Mayor Rob Ford has since created the Mayor’s Task Force – Arts & Culture to investigate the “city’s rationale for owning and operating live theatres”. You can read the announcement of the task force here, and the press release announcing two public consultations on the issue here.
From the press release:
The panelists will investigate the impact of these theatres on the local economy and make recommendations on what changes may be required in terms of their operations to meet the City’s objectives. We will consider a variety of options. As part of the process in making recommendations, we need the input of the community and stakeholders like you.”
Praxis Theatre Artistic Producer Aislinn Rose will be Live Tweeting one of the two public consultation sessions today, from 9:30am to 11:30am at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Join in the conversation whether you are there too, or following along from home or work.
Last month I was able to spend an afternoon with Frank Cox-O’Connell and Evan Webber (and Christopher Stanton on the sound board) as they worked on their piece Ajax.
This intimate piece will be staged alongside Little Iliad this spring. I was able to watch them work through two sequences – the beginning and the end – of the piece. The show will only accommodate a very small audience so I’d urge you to book tickets really early – all of the tickets for this year’s World Stage season have just gone on sale on November 1st.
Materials: Vellum, Tape
About the show: Ajax & Little Iliad will play from April 4-8, 2012 as part of this year’s World Stage season at Harbourfront Centre.
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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.
Her website is here and she collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Our 1930s-themed, open-bar, live art, performance and music soiree is shaping up to be the most memorable Praxis Party so far. Email info@praxistheatre.com to reserve your sliding scale $50-$75 ticket today while they are still available.
761 Bay Street on Friday November 4th from 6:30pm to 10pm.
Who wants to hit the open bar with Jim Watts? Photo by Will O'Hare
Artwork created on the spot to be auctioned off by:
As the production rehearses, The Company is releasing short documentary films by Michael Schultz about the creative process behind putting the show together. You can view Part 1 of 4 above and click here to view Part 2. The first mini-doc already has over 1000 views, it will be interesting to see if this translates in to actual in-person views.
What do you think? Is this an effective audience engagement strategy? Does getting a an insider’s peek at putting the show together make it more likely you will see it? For theatre creators – would having a camera in the room impact your creative process? Would you like to see more or less of this?
The People's Mic was used to communicate St. James Park as the destination for Saturday's Occupy Toronto march
by Kaitlyn Riordan
At the General Assembly for “Occupy Toronto” Saturday evening in St James Park, there were no loudspeakers, no microphones, no mass produced signage for people to hold or even a coherent message for people to tweet. The General Assembly was communicated by one person standing centre stage and slowly delivering their message.
The speaker would yell: “Mic check” and the crowd would respond in turn, a quick way of announcing their intention to say something. They’d continue: “I’m Kevin, a volunteer facilitator.” And those closest would repeat his words, sending the message about 10 feet away where the message was picked up and re-delivered by the next group that heard it and so on.
It took time, but worked effectively and you could feel the raw power of the crowd, unaided by technology. Guidelines were laid out about how keeping things positive was key and about what kind of talk would not be tolerated, ie nothing racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. The organizers admitted that they were still learning and that the process was still evolving.
The People's Mic works better if everyone who can sit down, sits down.
The people I heard speak asked for volunteers and donations, and by 6pm they announced that a generator had been donated that would allow them to run a live stream 24/7. The crowd gathered was a mixed bag of generations and interest groups.
“Just a bunch of hippies standing around, smoking weed and waiting for something to happen.” Was how it was described to me by a journalist who had been there as they day began on Bay and King at 10am this morning.
Now the hippies are in their tents in St James’ Park, having dined on a donated vegetarian meal and hunkering down for the night. The day began with little planned out, but with a willingness to see what would happen.
The day ended with various committees formed, a commitment to continue the protest, to learn how to do it better and to maintain solidarity; with the Occupy Wall Street Protesters, with Air Canada flight attendants denied the hard-won right to collectively bargain, and with the rest of the 99%.
Watch the video below of the The People’s Mic in effect at Occupy Wall St. when thousands of New Yorkers flooded Zuccotti Park on October 14th to turn back the movement’s potential eviction:
It’s been a while since I had the pleasure of sitting down to tea with some Toronto theatre folks to specifically NOT talk about theatre. I’m happy to report that I got to do just that with some folks from The Original Norwegian to talk about everything BUT their latest show, Guns & Roses. Remarkably, we also did not address the topics guns, roses or the 80’s super rock group (and legends) Guns AND Roses. I can’t tell if that means I’m doing a good job, or a bad job at this, but regardless, welcome back to Tea with D’Agostino!
Guests: Julian DeZotti (Artistic Director and Writer/Director of Guns & Roses), Rebecca Applebaum (Actor), Brendan McMurtry-Howlett (Actor), Peyson Rock (Actor)
On the menu: Earl Grey Tea, Croissants, Brie baked with sundried tomatoes and garlic, crackers, carrots and some chocolate-covered almonds (cause…why not?)
Thumbs and Apps
Melissa: How do you think High School is different now than when we were in school?
Julian: Well, now kids have phones, and apps and video cameras with them. I didn’t have that.
Melissa: And how has that made school life different, do you think? Or has it?
Brendan: I did recently hear that kids are developing their thumb as the dominant finger.
Melissa: Oh.
Rebecca: What was our dominant finger before?
Brendan: The index finger. So, instead of pressing an elevator button with the index finger, the younger generation is pressing it with their thumb.
Peyson: Because of video games and cell phones.
Rebecca: And then they’re going to start mutating and get longer?
Brendan: Right.
Melissa: I wonder how they measure that, though. There must be some test.
Rebecca: I’ve done enough paid tests to know they have tests.
(LAUGHTER)
Melissa: You have?
Brendan: Have you ever done one of those sleep tests?
Rebecca: I’ve done that one.
Melissa: Really?
Rebecca: Well, I didn’t do that one for money, I did that for myself.
Julian: Where you have to sleep in a controlled environment?
Brendan: Yeah. I could not do that.
Peyson: Well now they have that iPhone app that registers what’s happening when you sleep and if you’re waking up.
Rebecca: What? Really?
Melissa: Yeah, I just read about that in Toronto Life. It’s connected to these sleep clinics – you can determine your sleep pattern.
Peyson: Yeah.
Rebecca: How does it sense it? I mean – where do you put it on your body, or…
Peyson: No, I think you just set it on your bedside so it can register it. I think it’s the camera, or maybe it’s the gyroscope.
Rebecca: What’s that? The gyroscope?
Peyson: A gyroscope can sense where you are, like, spatially. Like, in a driving game, video game—
Rebecca: Oh. Then it would have to be on you.
Peyson: Yeah, and I don’t think it is. So…I think it’s just beside you.
Melissa: We’d have to do some research.
Julian: Is there an app you wish existed that doesn’t?
Peyson: I have an idea for an app. It might actually exist – I never looked into it. I remember when I was a kid I’d hear a song on the radio and think ‘Oh man, what’s that song?’. And then they came out with—
Melissa: Shazam, right?
PEYSON: Yeah, Shazam. But what about the times that you don’t hear a song, but you have one in your head? And you know a couple of notes and you’re like (hums a tune)…
Melissa: Yeah.
Peyson: And you’re like, ‘But I don’t know’ –
Melissa: So you want a mind reader app?
(LAUGHTER)
Peyson: Ha. No, no. I mean you can put in the genre of it to narrow it down. Do you know any lyrics to it? You can narrow it down. Then you sing whatever notes you know and it just keeps narrowing it down. And you keep making selections and eventually it offers you a song and you’re like, ‘Yeah! That’s the song I keep singing!’
I don’t know how that would work, but…
Melissa: That would be an AMAZING app. I guess you can’t just sing into your Shazam, right?
Julian: Nope. Will not compute.
Melissa: That’s right. Cannot identify.
Tea: The Gateway Drug
Julian: So I was wondering…it seems that a tea party…I mean…would that have been a pre-drink for something? I mean, historically, instead of getting together to drink alcohol, they were like, ‘Okay we’ll get together and have tea, and then smoke opium.’?
Melissa: Were you hoping that there would be opium?
(LAUGHTER)
Julian: No, I just feel like this tea with ceremony feels like it’s a gateway to something else.
Melissa: Really? That’s an interesting theory.
Julian: I mean, not like a gateway GATEWAY.
Brendan: It was just an excuse for old ladies to socialize.
Rebecca: Back in the day when they didn’t have phones.
Melissa: Yeah.
Peyson: It was a gateway to gossip.
Drunk History, Tom Green & Pauly Shore
Rebecca: Have you guys seen the Drunk History web series?
ALL: Yeah.
Rebecca: I feel like I learn more factual things from those videos.
(LAUGHTER)
Rebecca: That one about Oney Judge? I almost peed my pants.
(LAUGHTER)
Julian: Has anyone actually ever peed their pants laughing?
Melissa: Oh yeah.
Rebecca: Definitely.
Julian: I don’t think I have.
Melissa: You’ve never peed your pants laughing?
Julian: I’ve almost had a heart attack, like, I literally couldn’t breathe from laughing, but—
Rebecca: And your bladder didn’t give out?
Julian: Nope.
(LAUGHTER)
Melissa: I’ve peed.
Rebecca: Me too.
Peyson: Like, a full-out pee?
Melissa/Rebecca: No./Not full out.
Melissa: Just a moment when everything releases and you’re like, “Oh! Shit!”
Julian: Oh, I see, so a little bit.
Melissa: Yeah.
Rebecca: I remember it happened once in my parents’ basement when I was watching Tom Green.
Julian: (guffaws) Tom Green!
Rebecca: The original Tom Green. On Rogers.
Brendan: Oh yeah.
Julian: Cable 10 on Friday?
Rebecca: Yeah. I lost it. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Brendan: You should write Tom Green a letter like that.
Rebecca: Are you friends with him?
Melissa: Do you have a direct line to Tom Green?
Brendan: No.
Peyson: Well, he probably has time to read fan mail.
Julian: Well he went back to writing a cable access show, but in the States. But he’s doing the same thing that he was 10 years ago.
Melissa: Really?
Brendan: Yeah.
Melissa: That’s kinda sad. Or maybe not.
Rebecca: Yeah, maybe it’s good.
Julian: Maybe it’s what he’s best at. I don’t know. Our DJ Fraser was saying that he was playing at the Thompson Hotel on Saturday and Pauly Shore came in with his girls.
Rebecca: His girls?
Julian: I mean, I haven’t heard from Pauly Shore for a long time. But apparently, his mother ran the Comedy Store in LA, right? And then he went to take it over and he bankrupted it.
Melissa: (feigning shock)You mean Pauly Shore’s not an ace businessman?
Julian: No, apparently not.
Melissa: I can’t believe it!
(LAUGHTER)
Julian: I thought after Son in Law, I mean –
Peyson: Son in Law’s probably the best one.
Brendan: Uh – Encino Man!
Peyson: Oh yeah! You’re right.
Melissa: (suddenly remembering something I was happy to forget) Encino Man? Wow. I have totally blocked out Pauly Shore’s entire career.
A play written & directed by Julian DeZotti, starring Rebecca Applebaum, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Alex Fiddes, Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, Peyson Rock, and DJ Fase
PREVIEW: Monday, October 17th @ 7:30pm – $10
GALA NIGHT: Monday, October 24th @ 7:30pm – $30
Proceeds from evening performance go directly to sending students from under-serviced high schools to see the show for free. You can also make a charitable tax-receipted donation by visiting their partner organization, Breakaway Addiction Services on the Canada Helps site here.
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Melissa D’Agostino is an award-winning actor, writer, singer and producer. She also likes tea. Check her out at www.melissadagostino.net
Readings in the Rough Play reading Series presented by Fairly Lucid Productions invites the audience to play a part in the dramaturgical process of writing a script. In an open discussion the audience helps to form what the play can become in this important stage of first public readings.
The playwright will present a few questions to you prior to the reading. Once you watch, you can then provide feedback for the playwright that will assist in their next stage of redrafting. The series will feature a new play every two months from around the world.
“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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