Greta takes on one of her most difficult interviews yet. Although the Prime Minister seems rather disappointed that it is Greta and not Peter Mansbridge, she does manage to cajole him into singing a song that shows his love and support for the arts.
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.
Kate Fenton guest blogs for Praxis Theatre about the interactive photography exhibit inspired by the themes of Mister Baxter.
by Kate Fenton
Lost 2 by Akas Tarmaji
Set in Toronto’s subway system, Mister Baxter is a new work I’ve written, which had a previous run at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival.
One of the themes that emerged for me while writing the play was that of displacement. In the play, I look at displacement from a psychological perspective, as a sub-conscious defense mechanism. Often a character feels something or experiences something that they are unable to deal with and as a result they transfer that emotion on to another person in potentially harmful ways. In my experience, social crisis, conflict and trauma are endlessly displaced into sexuality, often resulting in a chain-reaction, with people unwittingly becoming both victims and perpetrators of displacement. In Mister Baxter, a teacher crosses an inappropriate boundary with one of his students and as a result many people are traumatized and left to deal with the aftermath of his actions.
Loss Connection by Jim Mallen
As I continued to explore this theme, I thought it would be useful to hear what other people thought or experienced when struggling with displacement. The Bring the Buzz Festival at Theatre Passe Muraille, Which Mister Baxter is a part of, is dramaturgical in nature and we will be hosting a question and answer period and live discussion after every performance to encourage audience feedback about the play and the ideas it presents. To follow this interactive concept further, we came up with a campaign that we could create with our audience.
Photography is a beautiful art that captures a moment in time. In a photograph, the experience is frozen. Similarly, a traumatic experience can hold a person captive in a particular time or experience. The events that lead to that moment cannot be changed but what will happen after is what defines us and is what fascinates me most about being alive. There is no other art form that can distill a real and immediate experience in quite the same way as photography.
So here is what we did….
Photographers, artists and creative people were encouraged to submit up to three photos to The Quickening Theatre Photo Contest reflecting their experience of displacement. Their photos are posted on our website. A jury of professionals selected five winning photographs. Those photos are being used by Artist Mariuxi Zambrano to create an art installation that will transform the Mainspace to reflect ‘displacement’ in an interactive and compelling way.
Two Worlds Meet by Karl Janisse
Mariuxi has taken the winning photos and created a collaged image that will make up the walls of a tunnel structure that the audience will be encouraged to walk through on their way to their seats. The installation will be accompanied by a soundscape and live music performed by Melanie Brulee.
Winners will be announced at the Opening Night Art Gala.
opensSeptember 20 and closes September 29 at Theatre Passe Muraille’s Mainspace as part of their Bring the Buzz Festival. The run also includes an Opening Night Art Gala on September 20, beginning at5:30pm and features anart exhibitandphoto auction.
In the construction of a country, it is not the practical workers but the idealists and planners that are difficult to find…powerful people have liberty.
~ Sun Yet-Sen, revolutionary who help throw down the last emperor of China
Image:
Sound:
Gein Wong is an interdisciplinary director, playwright, composer, poet and video artist. Her show Hiding Words (for you), delves into nushu, a secret language created in 400 A.D. when Chinese women were not allowed to read or write. It runs from September 13 – 23 at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, and tickets can be purchased here.
Devised in collaboration with youth from Eva’s Phoenix, the production explores the area’s relationship to homelessness, mental health and regeneration.
In this production, a small area of Queen West in Toronto is the theatre for audience members wearing headsets. As they move through and participate in Queen West, they are not necessarily aware of who they encounter are part of the production and who are other Torontonians going about their lives.
Costuming The Directors Project at the Shaw Festival, as with any show, presented unique challenges. We rely on making the best use of the incredible stock of garments we have at our costume storage, and must create a unified look that helps to elevate the work and enhance the experience for audience and actor alike.
For Señora Carrar’s Rifles, I had the opportunity to get great inspiration from historical documentation of the Spanish Civil War, and the flexibility to take cues from – but not necessarily strictly recreate – the images I found. Images of militia fighters in work wear, children in oversized jackets, and group photos from orphanages helped to inform the look for Carrar’s son Juan, a primary figure in the play.
He looks young, unprepared for war. We can understand why his mother tries to shelter him and keep him from the front. His clothes are not a perfect fit; perhaps they were once his father’s. Despite how bad things have become around them, Juan Carrar and his mother appear to be doing okay; as she says, “while it lasts, it lasts”. By keeping her fishermen sons at home, Señora has managed to stretch their food and clothing much longer than other families. The other families have suffered greatly and begrudge Señora this selfish act.
Click to enlarge
Manuela is Jose Carrar’s girlfriend. A young woman in town, she is a strong militia supporter, and believes above all that their cause must be upheld; that freedom is worth dying for. I researched young women who fought for the militia, as well as the Nationalist army for inspiration.
Seeing the stark difference between the two groups of women was incredible. The Loyalists defiant, solemn, and rather rag-tag; the Nationalists exuberant, crisp, clean and uniform. It would only suit to put Manuella in clothes that made clear her poverty. As with Juan, she looks ill equipped for battle in impractical shoes. Perhaps the root of her anger at Señora’s pacifism is her anxiety over the sense of helplessness she feels over the war; there are few rifles left, and when the enemy arrives, the townspeople will have nothing to defend themselves with.
There’s a significant tonal change from Señora Carrar’s Rifles to “FourPlay”, a set of two pieces directed by Krista Jackson. FourPlay consists of If Men Played Cards as Women Do and Overtones. Overtones was a very interesting show to design, because it splits its primary characters into two halves: The refined, reserved “domestic” side, and the abrasive, primal “feral” side.
Harriet is the “domestic” side of the woman married to Charles. Her costume fits into the period the show was written in, 1915. She is constrained by her narrow skirt, a collar that comes up her neck, and she generally oozes a sense of rigid formality. Just from looking at her you’re not too sure if you should trust her. She’s too sweet, too well put together, you know that effortlessness is just a mask. She reveals that it is. Her outfit has been carefully selected to look beautiful but not gaudy. She must be attractive but not appear to be fishing for compliments; she’d rather manipulate you into giving her what she wants. She is the version of Harriet that is easy for us to swallow.
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Hetty, on the other hand, may leave a bitter taste in one’s mouth. She is wild, free and rebellious. Krista and I talked very early in the process about setting the primals forward in time from the domestic women. Their 1920’s outfits are less restrictive, allowing the women to move freely and express themselves more boldly.
The feeling that they are unstuck in time adds the fantastical visual element that a show like this needs. The concept of the private face and public face is deeply rooted in the Japanese culture, which was one of the major inspirations for the primals, as well as for the set of the show.
Through this process it has been exciting for me to see the breadth of what we are capable of creating in The Directors Project. Using almost exclusively what already exists in Shaw’s costume storage, the directors and I have created cohesive looks for two vastly different pieces.
As all the design elements come together in these final weeks, it is reassuring to look back on the inspiration that has brought us here and the messages we are trying to express. Above all else, I hope the sets and costumes can help to convey the stories being told in this season’s Directors Project.
A recent grad of York University’s Theatre Production and Design program, Erin Gerofsky is thrilled to be completing her first season at The Shaw Festival with her solo design for the Directors Project. The Toronto native documents her creative endeavours and new-found small-town life, among other things, at her blog Predictions for the Past.
The cast and creative team of Iceland walked away with 2.5 Summerworks awards: the NOW Audience Choice Award, Outstanding New Performance Text and an honorable mention for producer Renna Reddie for the Arts Professional Award.
The NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award ($3000):
Iceland
SummerWorks Prize for Outstanding Production (free trip back to the festival next year):
Terminus, Outside The March
Contra Guys Award for Outstanding New Performance Text ($1,000):
Iceland, Nicolas Billon
National Theatre School Award for Set or Costume Design ($750):
When It Rains, 2B Theatre Company
Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation ($500):
Jeremy Taylor,Playwright: Big Plans; Director: My Pregnant Brother
RBC Arts Professional Award ($1,000):
Motion Live Presents in association with Cric Crac Collective, Aneemah’s Spot; Honorable Mention: Aislinn Rose: Fierce Monsters, France or, The Niqab; Renna Reddie: Iceland
Written in 1937, Senora Carrar’s Rifles is heavily inspired by Synge’s Riders To The Sea, moving the action to a fishing village on The Mediterranean Sea during The Spanish Civil War.
Senora Carrar has already lost her husband to the war and struggles to prevent her sons and guns from going to the front as the Nationalist fascist forces approach. First published in Prague one year before the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, written by Brecht at the same time as Fear and Misery in The Third Reich, it is a play that was written to explore an immediate moral dilemna facing pacifist progressives everywhere as Fascist forces took over Europe.
The style of performance is an anomaly for Brecht -it was what he called, “Aristotelian (empathy) drama” – complete with a rendition of Ave Maria during the tragic climax. To mitigate any negative effects created by theatre of this nature, Brecht recommends the play be shown with “with a documentary film showing the events in Spain, or with a propaganda manifestation of any sort.”
Starring:
Wendy Thatcher
Ben Sanders
Gray Powell
Kelly Wong
Alana Hibbert
Benedict Campbell
Sharry Flett
Jeremy Carver-James
Wade Bogert-O’Brien
Peter Millard
Neil Barclay
Martin Happer
Kevin Bundy
Kiera Sangster
Ijeoma Emesowum
Julia Course
Claire Jullien
Roy Lichtenstein Modular Painting with Four Panels No 2
Set and costume design by Erin Gerofsky
Lighting Design by Conor Moore
Original Soundscape performed live by Beau Dixon
Stage Managed by Breanne Jackson
FourPlay by George S. Kaufman & Alice Gerstenberg
Roy Lichtenstein Modular Painting with Four Panels No 2
Directed by Krista Jackson
Thanks to Peter Millard for the title of my two show project: FourPlay. George S. Kaufman’s If Men Played Cards as Women Do linked with Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones.
The show begins with four men meeting for poker and transitions into four women meeting for tea in a New York City flat in the early twenties. Gerstenberg’s most famous one-act first played in 1915 in NY and went on to a vaudeville tour starting in her hometown of Chicago a year later. The Kaufman premiered at Irving Berlin’s third Music Box Revue in 1923 at his Music Box Theatre in New York.
I have discovered in my research that Broadway Revue’s were different from musicals or vaudeville of that period. Revue’s were editorial cartoons on a certain topic curated by the director usually with a theme in mind. We are incorporating elements of the Great American Revue into the music and design of both pieces. I’m thrilled to be collaborating with this amazing team of actors and designers and to be presenting it with Brecht!
Starring:
Wendy Thatcher
Ben Sanders
Gray Powell
Kelly Wong
Alana Hibbert
Benedict Campbell
Sharry Flett
Jeremy Carver-James
Wade Bogert-O’Brien
Peter Millard
Neil Barclay
Martin Happer
Kevin Bundy
Kiera Sangster
Ijeoma Emesowum
Julia Course
Claire Jullien
Roy Lichtenstein Modular Painting with Four Panels No 2
Set and costume design by Erin Gerofsky
Lighting Design by Conor Moore
Original music performed live by Scott Christian
Stage Managed by Marie-Claude Valiquet
* Are you an Artistic Director? Would you like to be invited to the industry performance of these works on Friday September 21 at 2PM? Send an email to let us know. Click here to read more posts about The Directors Project by Krista and Michael.
Greta learns about a not to be missed tourist attraction in Niagara Falls from Barrel Crank’s Amy Nostbakken.
Barrel Crank is the latest creation from Suitcase in Point productions. It is currently playing as part of the Summerworks Festival. For more information about showtimes and tickets 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.
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.
SummerWorks 2012 Special- Margaret Evans and Laura Nordin
Greta gets some tips on how to handle firearms from the leading ladies of Fierce Monters. She goes a little overtime…but it’s worth it.
Fierce Monsters is the latest production from The Pop Group. For information on showtimes and to purchase tickets 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.
“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.”
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.
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