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Our last such party packed the Duke of York. This time we're taking all of our non-acts to The Cobourg.
Praxis Theatre heads to The Cobourg for a night of good tunes, friendly company, access to reasonably priced alcohol, and celebration!
TONIGHT:
533 Parliament Street
8pm to 1am
$10 @ le door
No variety acts. No acts whatsoever!
Come have a drink with us and celebrate the ridiculous summer schedule that only Praxis would be brave/insane enough to take on.
2 new Canadian works, 2 casts, 2 directors, 2 stage managers, 2 design teams.
1 SHOW DOWN, 1 TO GO:
Our production of Tim Buck 2 @ Toronto Fringe was a huge success.
Our production of Underneath @ Summerworks is fast approaching.
All powered by local artists leveraging their labour to get new original works off the ground.
Stop by for a drink, or stay for the evening. We’d love to see you there!
YEA: 19
NEA: 42
Were you at this performance? Let us know your thoughts and feedback. Hopefully this is the first stage of development for this project and we’d like to know what you thought.
Uncertain what this is all about?
These are results from a poll we conducted at the end of each performance of Tim Buck 2 at the Toronto Fringe Festival .
YEA: 21
NEA: 39
Were you at this performance? Let us know your thoughts and feedback. Hopefully this is the first stage of development for this project and we’d like to know what you thought.
Uncertain what this is all about?
Come check out Tim Buck 2 at the Toronto Fringe Festival to learn more.
YEA: 32
NEA: 38
Were you at this performance? Let us know your thoughts and feedback. Hopefully this is the first stage of development for this project and we’d like to know what you thought.
Uncertain what this is all about?
Come check out Tim Buck 2 at the Toronto Fringe Festival to learn more.
Yves Bélanger (currently starring in Moins 2 at the Théâtre du Bic) almost ripped the camera out of my hands when I ran into him in. As I ran off I heard him yell, “câlisse de tabarnac !!! ” Geez, I thought Montrealers were supposed to be nice….
YEA: 11
NEA: 50
Were you at this performance? Let us know your thoughts and feedback. Hopefully this is the first stage of development for this project and we’d like to know what you thought.
Uncertain what this is all about?
Come check out Tim Buck 2 at the Toronto Fringe Festival to learn more.
Text:
“Seen in profile, the human brain looks something like a boxing glove. The temporal lobes are where the thumbs would be…”
Image:
Sound:
Click here
Photo by Kristy Kennedy
BRENDAN GALL is one of three writers whose work comprises The Room’s inaugural production, “RED MACHINE: PART ONE,” running July 1st to 12th, 7 pm nightly at The Lower Ossington Theatre as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. (to find out more, click here)
To learn more about Praxis Theatre’s Variations on Theatre, click here.
Unconferencers get their dialogue on at the all-day event hosted by The Festival of Ideas and Creation and Small Wooden Shoe. Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard
by Michael Wheeler
When I looked out my bedroom window at torrential downpour at 8am on a Saturday morning, the first thing that occurred to me was, “Damn, I’m going to be one of five people at the Unconference.”
I was a little astonished to arrive at a lobby teaming with artists eating danishes and doubling down on coffee, ready to meet people and set their own agendas. The hell with traditional models and top-down thinking – these folks were all here looking for dialogue and the tools to create action-based solutions! Judith Thompson and Daniel Brooks were participants too. It was pretty cool frankly.
Here’s my highlight list:
- Getting the names and emails of 11 people that want to help me fix the back room of a gallery into a rehearsal/performance space. (Coming late summer/fall.)
- Misha Glouberman facilitating while sitting on the stage in a suit. (An appealing mix of off-hand professionalism.)
- An indepth conversation about how to get a new theatre company off the ground. (Artistic vs. administrative goals.)
- Feedback from several people about this new re-vamped website. (Range from great to overwhelming amount of information.)
- Several different and interesting conversations about how to not be overwhelmed by the administrative and logistical nightmares of being an Artistic Director. (With other ADs and people who don’t want to be because they don’t want the responsibility.)
- Some good non-theatre related stories over beers at the pub afterwards. (The biggest clue to the success of these things is enthusiasm to keep talking when the event is officially over.)
What is the deal with this so called “Unconference?”
It is a one day meeting of Toronto’s groundbreaking professional artists, arts workers and arts leaders to talk about the future(s) of performance practice and our city’s stages. Facilitated by Trampoline Hall’s Misha Glouberman using techniques drawing from open-space technology and world cafes (the “Un-” denotes a conference with no panels, guest-speakers or pre-determined outcomes), the agenda is crafted by participants and the issues on the table are the ones you want to talk about. All who have stake in the evolution of performance are encouraged to attend to strategize, explore and identify what we can do right now to address our most challenging and exciting opportunities.
Misha Glouberman will unfacilitate.
Click here to register.
Click here for more information.
Saturday, June 20, 2009, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m., $10 including lunch – Reception to Follow
by Simon Rice
Franco Boni is an organizer.
Or at least that’s the term The Theatre Centre’s current Artistic Director seemed to prefer when I asked him about producing. I met with Boni in his attic office high above the historical Great Hall Building at Dovercourt and Queen. The office is sparse but stylish, echoing Boni’s appearance. There is a picture of Barack Obama pinned to his bulletin board. The neighborhood surrounding The Theatre Centre known for its hipster haunts and booming nightlife can sometimes feel dauntingly pretentious. But Boni, as soon as we sit down by the window is disarming, at times passionate, and at other times displaying a self-deprecating sense of humour. “ Well initially, you know, everybody wants to be an actor, but I found out really really quickly that I couldn’t act,” Boni laughs heartily, “so that was over.”
Boni studied at York University, majoring in theatre and minoring in religious studies. And early on in his words he, “ just started running things.” Boni organized PlayGround, a juried fringe festival for York University now in its 17th year. “I was just trying to find a way for our voices to be heard.” And he continues that quest today. Since taking the reigns of the theatre Centre in 2003, he has started an artists residency program, “a two year structured creation unit offering artists the resources of space, dramaturgy, design input, financial and administrative support.”
Just after finishing university Boni volunteered at the Playwrights Union of Canada and undertook a complete reorganization of their collection. “ I got to know Canadian theatre through the playwrights.” It would be one of those playwrights who would give Boni his biggest break. After seeing Boni’s direction in a dress rehearsal for the Rhubarb Festival, Sky Gilbert decided to take him on as an Assistant Director, for his 1994 production More Divine, which would open the new space at Buddies and Bad Times.
Boni’s work at Buddies would continue as part of its Youth Outreach Program to, “ make young queer youth aware of their history.” The program, for which Boni ran the Theatre Division, connected local Queer thinkers and historians with young people. “ It’s hard being young and queer. I think it really made an impact on these young people.”
From there Boni would go on to run The Rhubarb Festival for three years and then Summerworks for five years, before inheriting the The Theatre Centre job from David Duclose in 2003. The Theatre Centre celebrated its 30th birthday and Boni is proud of its history, but before he hands the reins over to anyone else he would ultimately like to find it a permanent home. The Theatre Centre leases from the Great Hall building, a beautiful Victorian construction, with an interesting history of it’s own. Boni enlightens me that not only was it formerly the headquarters of the West End YMCA, (the actual theatre centre playing space was the basketball court) but famous Canadian runner Tom Longboat used its track to train.
History is important to Boni, but so is social justice, his early theatrical hero was Vaclav Havel, “I really keyed in to these people who were citizens first, but also happened to be artists with artists tools.” And The Theatre Centre is more than a building. It is an idea. With that in mind Boni looks to the future with his eye on a new space for the company better suited to its needs.
“We have an extraordinary opportunity to relocate to a magnificent heritage building one block from our current home. This building is a former Carnegie Library located at 1115 Queen Street West. It is owned by the City of Toronto and is currently used as offices for the City’s Public Health Department. The building is located in the heart of the West Queen West neighbourhood where intense redevelopment is disturbing the traditional artists’ habitat. Concerns raised by the City and the public about the plans for this community resulted in landmark settlements being reached between the City and two developers whereby one developer will provide new office space for Public Health and the other will contribute 1 million in cash towards the renovation of the Carnegie Library as a creative hub.”
When I try to get Boni to talk about what he thinks is wrong with the Toronto theatre scene he doesn’t quite jump at the opportunity. “ Theatre is quite a conservative form, and maybe there is too much cautiousness out there. But I don’t like to focus on what other people are doing wrong. It’s better to focus getting right what you are doing. And just keep doing things.”
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