I remember I was playing in my grandma’s backyard after some wedding or something. And um… I had this beautiful white dress and I was playing with some boys on the back lawn when I felt it. All hot all over my legs and I didn’t know what to do so I just lay down. I didn’t want none of them to see it you know so I just lay down like someone lays down when they’re reading a book or something with their head in the hands and all. Like I was just enjoying the day or something when really my guts are screaming and I think I’m dying I really did think this was it I was leaking all my insides out and I was just lying there in the grass smiling, feeling my blood pouring out from under me and mixing with the dirt. I felt my blood mixing with the dirt and I was just lying there getting my white dress all dirty underneath but none of the boys could see that. They just saw me lying in the grass and smiling like I was sunning myself or something and they said “Come on, let’s go to the park” and I didn’t move. And they called at me again and said “Come on Magpie, let’s go to the park” but I wasn’t getting up and showing them I was dying. I just kept lying there and they started getting mad at me and saying “Stop laying around like a cow” and they started calling me a cow because I told them I just wanted to lie there, maybe all day. (Pause) And then they got bored with me and left. And then… when I knew no one was watching… I went inside and made myself clean again. That’s what I did Cody. I made myself clean again.
Jordan is the founder of Suburban Beast, a company dedicated to the creation of ‘documentary-performance’.
He is writing and directing the company’s new show Post Eden, which will receive a workshop production at Ryerson Theatre School from April 14-18, 2010. For more info click here.
Jessica Huras is the founder of Heart in Hand Theatre. She will be performing in the company’s premiere production of Claudia Dey’s Trout Stanley, opening at Bread & Circus April 22, 2010.
The integration of the Praxis blog and website will likely cause some problems over the weekend. Regular programming will resume on Tuesday June 16, 2009.
OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY/MUSICAL Layne Coleman Tijuana Cure Brendan Gall, Mike McPhaden, Rick Roberts & Julie Tepperman The Gladstone Variations Tara Beagan Miss Julie: Sheh’mah David Yee lady in the red dress Anton Piatigorsky Eternal Hydra
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION You Fancy Yourself Produced by Contrary Company in association with Theatre Passe Muraille The Gladstone Variations Convergence Theatre lady in the red dress fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company in association with the Young Centre for the Performing Arts Eternal Hydra Crow’s Theatre Appetite Volcano in association with the Exchange Rate Collective
OUTSTANDING DIRECTION Mary Francis Moore You Fancy Yourself Rebecca Benson, Alan Dilworth, Ruth Madoc-Jones & Aaron Willis The Gladstone Variations Nina Lee Aquino lady in the red dress Chris Abraham Eternal Hydra Sarah Sanford Appetite
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE David Ferry Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me R.H. Thomson Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me Steven McCarthy Norway.Today Ins Choi lady in the red dress David Ferry Eternal Hydra
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE Maja Ardal You Fancy Yourself Janet Amos The Gladstone Variations Christine Horne Miss Julie: Sheh’mah Karen Robinson Eternal Hydra Liisa Repo-Martell Eternal Hydra
OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN Victoria Wallace Mourning Dove Teresa Przybylski Miss Julie: Sheh’mah Camellia Koo lady in the red dress John Thompson Eternal Hydra Gillian Gallow Appetite
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN Shawn Kerwin Miss Julie: Sheh’mah Julia Tribe + Reva Quam Wise.Woman Gillian Gallow Appetite Barbara Rowe Eternal Hydra Victoria Wallace And Up They Flew
OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN Andy Moro Miss Julie: Sheh’mah Trevor Schwellnus minotaur Michelle Ramsay lady in the red dress John Thompson Eternal Hydra Rebecca Picherack Appetite
OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN/COMPOSITION Christopher Stanton minotaur Romeo Candido lady in the red dress Richard Feren Eternal Hydra Robert Perrault Appetite Waylen Miki An Inconvenient Musical
The agreement, which is not technically an Equity contract, but is “promulgated by Actors’ Equity Association to allow its members to participate in productions in small theaters without the benefit of an Equity Contract.”
Members receive no salary or benefits and the performance and rehearsal schedules are limited in number. The terms of the code, created by and for the members, are designed to protect both the Equity actors and the interests of those theatres in New York City that operate under an Equity contract.
Approximately 1000 productions went on in NYC last year under this agreement, which does not forbid producers and actors coming to a sub-Equity standard agreement on pay. This code can only be used by Equity actors working in theatres with less than 99 seats in two types of situations:
A) The Basic Showcase Code for use on independent one-time productions.
B) The Festival Showcase Code that allows actors to work for not-for profit producers who create a season of work.
Some of the recent changes include:
Maximum ticket prices have been increased from $20 to $25.
Maximum rehearsal time has been increased from four to five weeks.
Maximum budget to fall under the basic code is increased from $20,000 to $35,000.
Performances may now be held over a six-week period.
These changes were the result of the Off-Off Broadway Committee, which is made up of members of Equity who have worked under the code and producers who have produced under the code.
Will this significant shift by AEA towards allowing its membership greater ability to leverage their labour to kick-start careers and productions have an impact in Canada?
The 2009 CAEA AGM held on February 24th in Toronto saw a massive turnout to support a Member Resolution calling for Equity to provide a Showcase-type agreement for use by its membership. The final vote in support of this motion was 96-1. The issue brought out so many members, that the minutes to several previous AGMs were passed by an assembly that had finally achieved quorum. Clearly CAEA has a mandate to come up with a new system that supports members that want to hustle to get something off the ground, but no one knows what will be proposed.
What do you think? Should CAEA adopt a Showcase-type code? Should the rules in the U.S. have anything to do with Canadian rules? Are these agreements “the thin end of the wedge” that will spell the end of reasonable protections for performers? Has that been the case in New York? Is this a good way to facilitate artists creating their own work?
There is a 10 question quiz making the rounds on Facebook that allows users to determine definitively Your True Theatre Calling.
Forget for a moment that almost all the theatre artists you know under 35 years of age do more than one thing, and that the new era of artists seems to be an entrepreneurial set that refuses to be defined by a single job desciption out of both necessity and ambition. The real question is, “Does the quiz work?” Judging by the results below, the technology may need some refining. (This may also be a window into why online dating results in so many ill-suited matches. It all makes sense on paper…..)
Praxis will be holding it’s biannual Praxis Gourmet on the evening of Thursday June 4th, 2009.
Praxis Gourmet is an exclusive fine-dining and wine-pairing event, featuring a gourmet five-course meal with wine pairings. This will be accompanied by a live jazz trio and a sneak-preview scene from the upcoming shows this summer. It has proven in the past to be a magical evening and is an essential part of how Praxis raises funds for its productions.
Here’s a look at the menu for June 4th:
Hors d’oeuvres Endive cups with blue cheese, pecans, dried cherry, and maple vinaigrette. Heirloom tomato and watermelon gazpacho
First Course Cured wild caught Rainbow Trout, with wild arugula, Bartlett pear and citrus vinaigrette.
Second Course BBQ locally farmed turkey with lemon, dijon, and smoked paprika. Roast fingerling potato BBQ white and green asparagus Wild leek aioli.
Cheese Course Locally produced sheep’s milk cheese from Monforte Dairy. Marmalade of orange, basil and balsamic.
Desert Home made Orange Spice Ice Cream in BBQ half peach with ginger white chocolate tuile.
The price is $110 per person, with all funds going towards our upcoming Summer Season. A limited number of reservations are still available.
Email simonrice(at)praxistheatre.com to reserve your spot today.
We hope you can make it for this evening of great food, wine and theatre!
If the belligerent relative that showed up late to your cousin Dora’s wedding to shout out horrible truths to the dismay of the assembled guests was an awards show, it would probably be the Harolds. It’s sort of like the Doras in the way that the Moon is sort of like a football. It’s happening on Monday. 14 Harolds are awarded – the recipient of last year’s award choosing who to pass it on to next, and the real trick is you have to trick them into going without knowing they’re getting Harolded. It works to varying degrees. Visiting, dancing and heckling is strongly encouraged, and although Harold didn’t drink, you probably will.
“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.”
Jordan is the founder of Suburban Beast, a company dedicated to the creation of ‘documentary-performance’. 
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