SENORA CARRAR'S RIFLES BY BERTOLT BRECHT: Directed by Michael Wheeler. Wendy Thatcher (c) as Teresa Carrar, Sharry Flett (r) as Old Mrs Perez, Wade Bogert-O'Brien as Juan Carrar.
IF MEN PLAYED CARDS AS WOMEN DO BY GEORGE S KAUFMAN: Directed by Krista Jackson. (l-r) Peter Millard as John, Kevin Bundy as Bob, Neil Barclay as George and Martin Happer as Marc
SENORA CARRAR'S RIFLES BY BERTOLT BRECHT: Directed by Michael Wheeler. Benedict Campbell (l) as Father Francisco, Wendy Thatcher (c) as Teresa Carrar and Ben Sanders (r) as Jose Carrar
OVERTONES BY ALICE GERSTENBERG: Directed by Krista Jackson. (l-r) Julia Course as Harriet, Kiera Sangster as Maggie, Claire Jullien as Hetty and Ijeoma Emesowum as Margaret
Set and Costume Design by Erin Gerofsky. Lighting Design by Conor Moore. Photography by Mark Callan.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Trailer for His Girl Friday the 1940s film. Directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant
by Krista Jackson
It’s hard to believe it is the middle of July and in less than a month we begin rehearsals for our own Directors Projects. Despite the long hours in the rehearsal hall, being in all three theatres tech-ing, production meetings, teaching academy sessions and joining the audiences of Present Laughter and His Girl Friday on the terrace for my pre-show chats, this internship has felt like a sabbatical. I have had the time to read novels and plays from the mandate.
I am learning phonetics from the amazing voice and dialect coach Laurann Brown. (we are using the IPA while working on an American Southern dialect). I have regular Alexander sessions with the Victoria Heart; a technique I have not explored since theatre school. I have also had a Manners of The Mandate tutorial from Sharry Flett and look forward to a more intensive workshop with Guy Bannerman and Sharry before the season ends to incorporate these details into my project.
My first choice for the project was approved! I I will be doing two shorter American one acts with the same set. George S. Kaufman’s If Men Played Cards As Women Do will transition into Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones. Kaufman has four men meeting to play cards and Gerstenberg has two childhood friends – with a history – meeting for tea. She gives each woman “a primitive self” who speaks what she is really thinking and feeling. The shows compliment each other even though they are very different in style.
Trailer for His Girl Friday by John Guare. Directed by Jim Mezon, assistant directed by Krista Jackson
I submitted Tina Howe’s translation of The Bald Soprano by Ionesco as my third choice and a John Galsworthy’s short Punch and Go. It turns out it was also Associate Director Eda Holmes’ second choice when she was did this internship in 2001. I am in the process of casting and have lined up some fantastic ensemble members so far, but i’ll let you know the full cast in the next post and let you in on some design ideas as well. It is a very small budget but we have the furniture, props and costume warehouses to pull from. This past winter, all the costumes at the warehouse were barcoded and ensemble members who have been here for many seasons have their own closets.
The Festival celebrated a second round of openings the first week of July which included His Girl Friday! Tonight is our first dress rehearsal for Hedda Gabler. Bill Schmuck’s set and costumes, Kevin Lamotte’s lights and Todd Charlton’s sound design are gorgeous and I can’t wait to see everyone in their costumes. Investigating Ibsen again (I played Regina in aproduction of Ghosts) from the other side of the table with Martha Henry has been a masterclass. Martha has put me to work staging the two transitions and I have been soaking up her vocabulary of over fifty years in the theatre.
A few of her insights from my notes…
“Props have a life of their own – once they expose themselves. Don’t put them away until they have finished accomplishing their purpose.”
“All the motivations come from the other person.”
“Actors’ technique is knowing how to arrange your being so that you are emotionally availablein the moment.”
I have also learned that the key to a characters’ journey can lie in a single word and thatsometimes the pronoun as the operative word is your friend!
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.
Present Laughter by Noel Coward launched The Shaw Festival 2012 Season. Click to enlarge.
by Krista Jackson
May 28, 2012
I just did Tara Rosling‘s yoga class on the day off. Delicious. Opening week has ended! Six shows opened with dinners and parties while we continued to rehearse and set levels for His Girl Friday and assembled for the first day of Hedda Gabler on Thursday. I was only able to see Wednesday’s opening of Present Laughter– which was fabulous and I attended the pre show dinner and performance with old pal Neil Barclay.
I cannot write this post without mentioning how humbled and honoured I am to be in the room assisting Martha Henry on Hedda Gabler. She brings such compassion, insight and humour to the table. We begin blocking tomorrow.
Krista Jackson photo by David Cooper
Meanwhile, His Girl Friday: Jim Mezon and I will be spending 24/7 together in the coming weeks. He is playing Judge Brack in Hedda and we will run back and forth to rehearse, tech and preview his production of His Girl Friday – Heis a goldmine of Farce 101. I have loved my rehearsals with the reporters – who act as a Greek chorus in the play – hashing out the text and drilling the lines while Jim works on other scenes. It is a huge play that demands a lot of precision.
In preparation for writing my His Girl Friday pre-show chat – some thing both Intern Directors do before evening shows at the Festival Theatre – I dug up Neil Munro‘s directors notes from The Front Page’s production program. This show is the 1928 Ben Hecht/Charles MacArthur play His Girl Friday is based on.
I was SO inspiredby those notes, that I took a list of all the shows Neil has directed here to Jean – who creates all the Shaw programs. She gave me copies and I spent an afternoon with Neil Munro – reading his brilliant notes on Ibsen, Miller, Chekhov, Williams, Barker, Shaw etc. Here is his definition of farce from The Front Page notes:
“Farce feeds on insurrection, and its characters stand outside the boundaries of civilized behaviour. Farce also contains elements of rage – rage at the inability to better one’s circumstances, rage at the deceit of false friendships, rage at why Right seems Wrong and the other way around. All of this is usually coupled with a healthy dose of domestic violence and almost always capped with the power of True Love to rise above all and serenely conquer.”
I also started my Academy classes last week. We have chosen Act 1: Scene 1 from Shaw’s Candida and John Bull’s Other Island to work on. I love Shaw! As for my one act choices for the project, I have more than three and am trying to narrow it down. Ionesco, Inge, Williams, Gerstenberg, Kaufman and Galsworthy… Thanks for reading!
xo Krista
Krista Jackson and Michael Wheeler are the 2012 Neil Munro Intern Directors at The Shaw Festival. You can read all their blog posts about this by clicking here.
Michael Wheeler & Krista Jackson. Photo by David Cooper
Since mid-February I have been working along with Krista Jackson as one of two Neil Munro Intern Directors at The Shaw Festival. The Theatre Ontario and Sun Life Financial sponsored program inserts us into three shows at the festival as assistant directors, as well as running sessions with the Shaw Academy. It concludes with The Directors Project: we choose a one-act from the Shaw Festival mandate and create with festival actors and designers.
Krista and I will present our top three picks for this text to a committee led by Program Director Eda Holmes in mid-June. In early-July once the selection has been approved and confirmed, we discuss with the committee appropriate actors for specific roles who are then asked if they would like to volunteer to be part of our project. Rehearsals begin in August for invite-only presentations in September.
We both hope our thoughts as we go through this process will be interesting to theatre blog readers and thus we have elected to write the occasional co-blog on The Directors Project and what is going on with us at The Shaw Festival.
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Krista Jackson
April 27, 2012
Writing on a rainy afternoon in my little cottage in Niagara-on-the-Lake – Misalliance directed by Eda Holmes is in previews and we are in the thick of blocking His Girl Friday directed by Jim Mezon– the second of three shows I am assisting on. I am staring at my pile of one act plays on my coffee table which includes the large red binder Neil Munro assembled of “good ones”, wondering which one to crack this afternoon. I have read nineteen so far bypassing the shows done in the director project’s recent past.
So what is swirling around in my head? Translations are always an issue with pieces that aren’t American or British, but at this point I’m not ruling out anyone. When chatting with ensemble members and stage managers about the project many have talked about comedies being preferable to work on – and see – by the end of a long season. Still, I want to narrow it to three shows that excite me and make me ask the most questions.
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre just celebrated Shaw in this year’s Master Playwrights Festival and I directed a production of Village Wooing for my company, zone41 theatre. So, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to do a Shaw again, but after working on the brilliant Misalliance I was seduced into reading some of his other one acts and have found one I really like. Michael and I have made a pact to use both music interns Beau Dixon and Scott Christian to compose some original music for our shows, so I am also keeping that in mind as I read. A one act with multiple scenes perhaps? More reading to do…
Today I’ll dive into Feydeau, First to Last – a compilation of 8 one act farces. Bring on any suggestions – and thanks for reading!
Click image to enlarge
Michael Wheeler
May 4th 2012
So far the majority of my experience here has been working as an assistant director with Shaw Festival Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell on Ragtime at The Festival Theatre and with director Alisa Palmer on A Man and Some Women at The Courthouse Theatre.
I am learning a ton – it is a very different creative process when you are rehearsing a show for half-days over a two-month period with some of the best actors in the country. Not that Praxis actors aren’t some of the best in the country also, in fact Tim Buck 2 co-creator Ben Sanders stars in The Shaw Festival’s production of Misalliance, but I digress.
In terms of picking a one-act, so far my reading has begun with classics one would expect to read if picking a play written during Shaw’s lifetime (1856-1950). Shaw, Chekhov, Brecht, a little Synge and Coward. I have already come up with a few texts that fascinate me. The size of cast is a question I am considering currently: Do I want to work with an ensemble or with a smaller cast on some really detailed work? Either way we get the same amount of rehearsal time. I think the answer to that question will inform my eventual choices for texts and the process that we work with.
In any case, look forward to more specific posts as the deadline approaches and I have to make some choices. I don’t intend to be too coy about the whole thing and will throw out some titles that I am considering next time around. Please feel free to leave us your thoughts and ideas about what to read next in the comments.
“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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