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:
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.
“The rich people have their lobbyists and the poor people have their feet.”
Nathalie Des Rosiers, General Counsel of Canadian Civil Liberties Association speaking at a post-show panel at after You Should Have Stayed Home at The 2011 SummerWorks Festival.
This summer I directedYou Should Have Stayed Home, a play about theatre artist Tommy Taylor’s experience over 48 hours of the G20 weekend in Toronto presented at the 2011 SummerWorks Festival. While trying to return home from his first ever protest as a law-abiding citizen at the “Free Speech Zone” at Queen’s Park, Taylor was swept up in a mass arrest, caged with 40 other people in a 10ft by 20ft cage and denied drinking water until he passed out from dehydration.
Taylor contacted me in February to talk about collaborating on a piece of theatre adapted from his Facebook note, How I Got Arrested and Abused at G20 in Toronto. Having read the post, I knew the story presented an excellent opportunity to dramatize and address the deterioration of civil rights in Canada.
Click the logo to read the rest of the article on Rabble.ca
Tommy Taylor reads from the script at one of our BIG rehearsals
In the current configuration and story-telling methods this means we have probably room for 5-7 more guys in the cage. It will be just fine without them – there are some objects on stage that did not exist in reality, and what we are doing is much more representative rather than a re-creation, at this point, but why stop now?
You can either do it, or you can’t. If you can do it, we want you, especially if you are a guy. We are pretty good with women, though we could probably take two more.
Here are the details. Email info@praxistheatre.com to let us know you’re coming – or heck – just show up to rehearsal #3. Today at 6pm.
All rehearsals and performances @ The Theatre Centre.
REHEARSALS
July 29 – 6-10 PM & July 30 – 1-5 PM
TECHNICAL REHEARSAL –
Aug 4, 11 AM – 3 PM
PERFORMANCES – The Theatre Centre
August 4, 5 PM
August 6, 2:30 PM
August 7, 10 PM
August 10, 7:30 PM
August 12, MIDNIGHT
August 13, 10 PM
by Michael Wheeler
Director – You Should Have Stayed Home
Rehearsals are sometimes an unpredictable place. Ideas come and go, scenes are rearranged, staging is adjusted, and sometimes, as was the case yesterday, you can arrive at a fundamental realignment of your strategy:
We don’t need just men to tell this story – we need at least ten women to tell a ten-minute section of You Should Have Stayed Home at Summerworks.
So it goes. It makes sense artistically. It makes sense practically. And we were also growing uncomfortable with excluding half the population from participating in this project.
So, new game plan:
If you are a guy – still get in touch. Although we have had huge a number of men express interest, we still don’t have enough confirmations. We still NEED to hear from you.
If you are female – we currently have at least 10 open slots, open on a first email first reserved basis. You don’t have to be a performer, you do have to be able to work with others in a safe and structured environment.
Relevant Details:
(If you can’t make one of the rehearsals – we can still make it happen.)
If you are available for 3 or 4 rehearsals next week – you can join the cast for a 10-minute scene with 39 other people. You don’t have to be an experienced performer- as long as you can work with other people.
To learn more email info@praxistheatre.com.
2 – Form a strategic partnership with the production
Strategically, what we need to make this piece go is cash. Funding cuts to Summerworks by Heritage Canada have increased ticket prices, but artists involved in the festival don’t receive that increase – the festival does. So we have the same product at an increased price, with no increase in revenue. Strategically we need to pursue multiple revenue streams, like partnerships with engaged citizens just like you. Click here to get strategic.
3 – Come to the show
Dates: Aug 4th @5pm, Aug 6th @ 2:30pm, Aug 7th @ 10pm, Aug 10th @ 7:30pm, Aug 12th @ midnight, Aug 13th @10pm
Location: The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. W. Click for Map
Tickets: Info on how to buy tickets available via Summerworks.
4 – Follow us online
The show has a Facebook Page and Praxis has an active Twitter Account – both of which will be full of info and stories surrounding the production.
5 – Spread the word
Do you know someone who may be interested in this sort of thing? Tell them about it. Word of mouth is the single most powerful factor that can drive awareness of a production. Use Facebook, drinks with old friends, Twitter, family dinner, sports practice, etc. There are a lot of venues where you can say, “Hey did you hear about this G20 play where….”.
Looking forward to your involvement with the piece!
We played the second of our three games on Thursday night, and saw our players – made up of members of Toronto Area Gamers – defeat a cursed manticore by tricking it into killing his own minions. The final epic battle was against a many-eyed rubbery octopus-like creature, in the midst of which I tweeted the following:
Apparently this is the kind of thing I tweet without giving it a second thought these days.
Tonight is our final game, and we’re bringing together members of Toronto’s theatre and gaming communities in a brand new adventure, taking place in the basement of Snakes & Lattes from 5pm until 11pm. Now that we’ve resolved some of the logistical challenges of the experiment our focus tonight is audience experience. We’ve brought you closer to the action, now how do we get you involved in that action?
View of the board from our Ranger, Mike Riverso
We also want to further explore the relationship between the design elements and the players, so that sound and visuals become a genuine and integral part of the conversation happening in the room. Our friend Amy will be joining us again with her iPad and will be live-drawing throughout, with a direct feed into the projectors.
Join us tonight in the final game of this phase of our experiment. We’re always happy to provide a recap, so don’t be shy about stopping by at any time.
Around the table you’ll find theatre nerds Michael Wheeler – Praxis Theatre’s co-Artistic Director, award-winning playwright Nicolas Billon, and Dora-nominated actor Colin Doyle. Rounding out the group is hybrid theatre/gamer nerd Becca Buttigieg, along with gamer nerds Kate Bullock and Ben Santos. Playing the role of God (or Dungeon Master) is, again, the wonderful Ryan Stoughton.
You can follow and join our tweets via #DnDPT. On Thursday night, our Ranger tweeted his experience when not smoking his Ranger pipe, or being saved by a flumph. Apparently a flumph is a thing.
Dungeons & Dragons (not) The Musical– Toronto Fringe Festival, 2011 Final game:
July 16th, 5pm to 11pm Venue:
Snakes & Lattes – 600 Bloor Street West. Tickets: Click Here to purchase, or here for more information.
*PLEASE NOTE: there is a maximum allowable attendance of 20 people at any one time; the box office will be located at the venue and will be open for the entire 6 hour performance time.
We had our first game of Dungeons & Dragons (not) The Musical at the Toronto Fringe Festival on Sunday evening in the Snakes & Lattes basement. For our first attempt at what we’re calling a performative experiment, it was fun, it was problematic, and I learned a hell of a lot. Oh, and apparently it was really hot.
Our team of theatre-makers and improv performers set out on a quest (along with their precious donkey) to find a manticore, meeting a copper dragon and battling gargoyles along the way. We started out with a packed house, but by the end of the six hours we had a rather more intimate audience. Despite our smaller numbers there was an audible gasp across the room when our beloved donkey met a tragic demise.
One of the main things I noticed as I watched the audience watching the game, is that many people were inching to get as close to the table as they could. Some of the braver audience members simply picked their chairs up and moved them next to the gamers, which I was happy to see. As a result I have plans to significantly reconfigure the placement of the game within the room, and where the audience will be seated. The gamers will be almost entirely surrounded by onlookers.
One of Amy's live (and un re-touched) ipad drawings from Sunday. Catch more of Amy's work throughout our final presentation on Saturday night
We also discovered some unexpected sound challenges. Considering the relatively small room in which we’re playing, I didn’t think sound levels would be a problem. However, we’re battling an air conditioning unit, so sometimes the voices were lost. This also limited our ability to really build in the sound design elements, in fear of further drowning out the action.
Our Dungeon Master, Ryan Stoughton, is an important and compelling element as he plays the various goblins and gargoyles, so I want him to be heard no matter what. Tonight he’ll have his own wireless mic, with an area mic to pick up the voices of the other players. This will also allow Lyon Smith our Sound Designer to further distort and play with their sound.
Finally, towards the end of the game when our players were more comfortable with one another, we had some really wonderful moments where they reached out to the audience for wisdom and advice. “Let’s ask the audience.” I’m hoping that tonight’s new seating and playing arrangement will further encourage this kind if interaction. Tonight will also see serious gamers at that table, and I’m excited to see how that alters the audience/player relationship.
I’d love to have you join us for our next six-hour session. We’ll be at Snakes and Lattes from 7pm until 1am and you can drop by any time for as little or long as you like. Our live-drawer for tonight is Jody Hewston, who created our D&D Dragons, and also just took 2nd place in the Fringe’s 24-hour playwriting contest!
Given the experiment, your feedback is really important to us, and I was thrilled to receive an email from a gamer who joined us for the entire 6 hours on Sunday to let us know what he thought. I hope we get more of those.
Before the show on Sunday, someone in line outside the venue said “are we allowed to heckle the players?”. Absolutely.
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Image by Jody Hewston
Dungeons & Dragons (not) The Musical– Toronto Fringe Festival, 2011 Remaining dates:
July 14th, 7pm to 1am
July 16th, 5pm to 11pm Venue:
Snakes & Lattes – 600 Bloor Street West. Tickets: Click Here to purchase, or here for more information.
*PLEASE NOTE: there is a maximum allowable attendance of 20 people at any one time; the box office will be located at the venue and will be open for the entire 6 hour performance time.
This July 1st marked the first Canada Day in four years that I did not spend in a marathon rehearsal session for a Toronto Fringe production. And yet, I do have a Fringe show this year… it’s just that I can’t exactly rehearse for it.
What I can do is tell you what – and who – I will be putting in the basement of Snakes & Lattes and what they will be doing. What I can’t do is tell you what’s going to happen once everyone is there.
The premise started out simply enough: What happens when you put Dungeons & Dragons, a character-based role playing game, in front of an audience? Is it interesting? Does it become performative? How does the presence of an audience affect the playing of the game? And… how the heck do you play Dungeons & Dragons? I have no idea, and I want to find out.
Previously on this page we have described the project as “part performance experiment, part research project”. Well, as the idea developed, its inherent ‘liveness’ and unpredictability – the fact that the story is created on the spot through the collective imagination of its players – became very exciting, and I wanted to open up this experiment to other members of the theatre community.
Snakes & Lattes on Bloor (click to enlarge)
Enter Trevor Schwellnus and Lyon Smith, Dora-winning lighting and sound designers respectively. While lights and sound are usually fixed features in a theatrical presentation, with set levels and fade in and fade out times, Trevor and Lyon will be experimenting with creating live light and soundscapes for each of the stories as they develop. Trevor and Lyon are also D&D nerds from way back.
Over the course of the Fringe we’ll also get to see how different kinds of players and their different backgrounds affect the game, and what that will mean to their relationship with the audience.
Our first game on the 10th will be played by members of the theatre and improv community, all with a background in playing D&D. The team includes one of my Toronto improv favourites, Carmine Lucarelli, winner of a Canadian Comedy Award as part of the ensemble of Show Stopping Number: The Improvised Musical, as well as Scott Moyle, Artistic Director of Urban Bard Productions, and dramaturg Stephen Colella, among others.
The second game on the 14th will be made up entirely by members of Toronto’s gaming community. Big thanks go to Kate Bullock and the Toronto Area Gamers for fitting me out with players and our Dungeon Master.
Our third and final game on the 16th will see these two brands of nerd join forces for a final epic game. Don’t miss Praxis Theatre co-Artistic Director Michael Wheeler as he returns to his D&D roots, playing alongside award-winning playwright Nicholas Billon, and Dora-nominated actor (and everyone’s favourite guy) Colin Doyle. You can also catch Colin at this year’s Fringe in The Godot Cycle, and we thank them for not scheduling his performance during our game.
Finally, I’ve also invited visual artists of various aesthetic styles to join us in our adventures to live draw/sketch the scenes and characters as they develop. If you’re an artist, please don’t hesitate to bring your sketch pad with you.
Oh, and about our title? It’s possible Michael and I were being nerds of another kind that day. Hope to see you in the basement.
Dungeons & Dragons (not) The Musical– Toronto Fringe Festival, 2011 Dates:
July 10th, 4pm to 10pm
July 14th, 7pm to 1am
July 16th, 5pm to 11pm Venue:
Snakes & Lattes – 600 Bloor Street West. Tickets: Click Here to purchase, or here for more information.
*PLEASE NOTE: there is a maximum allowable attendance of 20 people at any one time; the box office will be located at the venue and will be open for the entire 6 hour performance time.
iPhone photo of a recent Toronto Star editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis
1 – Play Games With Us
“Do you need my bag of miniatures?”
Toronto Fringe Exec. Director Gideon Arthurs
Ever since we started talking about our site-specific Dungeons & Dragons project at this year’s Fringe Festival, theatre people from every part of the industry have been coming out of the closet as former players of the game, with some even revealing they still regularly get together with friends to play.
We’re looking for players for our 6 hour marathon sessions in the basement of Snakes & Lattes, so let us know if you play, or used to play, and if you’re free on July 10th or July 16th. We’ll also be playing a trial game in advance of the fringe to experiment with our live sound and lighting designers, so even if you can make it to a Fringe game, there is the possibility of using you as a guinea pig whilst we quest to save our enchanted donkey. (This is not a joke – we lost our Donkey in the first trial game and we still plan on getting it back.)
2 – Get Locked in a Cage With Us
“Don’t worry – I promise we won’t get arrested.” You Should Have Stayed Home writer and performer Tommy Taylor
We have been rehearsing our 2011 Summerworks show You Should Have Stayed home off-and-on ever since we presented part of it at Buzz in April. Recently, we decided to include a scene that explores the conditions in the g20 detention centre on Eastern Ave. that requires 40 performers. No – that is not a typo: four zero. If you are A) Male and B) want to be in Summerworks – this is your chance.
You don’t need to be an actor, but you do need to be available for 4 rehearsals over evenings and weekends at the end of July, as well as all 6 performance dates (which are also mostly evenings and weekends). We will do some improvisational exercises to get a sense of each other, and Tommy and other detainees will give some presentations about their experiences. Then we will create a 10 minute scene that will be integrated with Tommy’s story. Mostly your job will be to act like someone surprised at and exhausted by being locked in a cage.
In either case all you have to do is send us an email to get the ball rolling to info@praxistheatre.com
If you want to play games make the Subject: D&D Player. Tell us in 150 words or less what your connection to the game is, what you do now, and why you want to play.
If you want to experiment with what it is like to be locked in a 10 x 20 ft cage in a safe theatrical setting make the Subject: G20 Detainee. Tell us in 150 words what you do with your time on this planet and why you’d like top be involved.
“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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