Praxis Theatre

SUPERnatural in Toronto

A new workshop production written by
Michael Wheeler and the Toronto Youth Theatre senior cast.

Directed by Michael Wheeler.

Click here for tickets and more info.

Sentences 60-64

The series continues:

60) Please forgive me for my weak performance.

61) There are no lines across which good theatre is afraid to travel.

62) If one could truly do theatre by oneself, from scratch to sculpture, there would be a lot of more it.

63) There are numerous differences between going to the cinema and going to the theatre, but the most pressing difference that is endangering the life of theatre as a mass artform in North America is the respect needed/demanded by both the audience and performer(s) to exist in a room together selflessly.

64) Theatre is like throwing Christians to the lions, except the lions have to pay to get in.

The Rice Report returns

Good news
Praxis Theatre Co-Artistic Director Simon Rice has resurrected his widely beloved U.S. politics journal The Rice Report.

A Rice Report primer
The Rice Report started back in 2004 – a reaction to Simon’s growing distress with the state of American politics and its questionable foreign policies. His Rice Report newsletter series used the 2004 U.S. presidential election as a springboard to foster rigorous (and informed) discussion of an increasingly compromised democratic process.

His weekly reports became wildly popular among a small group of followers – and included a live play-by-play “performance” of the controversial Kerry-Bush showdown on election night: Tuesday, November 11, 2004.

A new blog
We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Rice to the blogosphere and announce the return of The Rice Report. Among the topics he’s promising will be in the cards:

Who’s running? From Hilary to Huckabee, the A-Z on 2008!
2004 Aftermath – Was the general election stolen?
The Hidden History of 9/11 – A weekly crash course for beginners and/or skeptics.

And if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with theatre, check Simon’s response to one of our 10 questions:

6) How has your interest in American politics influenced your ideas about theatre?
American politics have all the great elements of drama – farce, tragedy, absurdity, heroes, villains, clowns – the stakes are always high and although much focus has been put on the circus-like atmosphere of modern American politics, we all want to know what the next Act will bring. The Bush administration has felt like the usurping power in one of Shakespeare’s histories. With Donald “Rummy” Rumsfeld emerging as chief rhetorician, uttering such poetic lines as, “The absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence,” when no WMDs were found in Iraq. That’s a beautiful line!

I guess what I’m saying is that my passion for American politics deepens my understanding of theatre, and vice-versa.

Sentences 55-59

The series continues:

55) Why do I have to become a film star before people will come to see me in the theatre?

56) Theatre is better than movies because you can travel through time, space, gender and class using only the actors and the audience’s collective imagination.

57) One is transported to a different space and time with little recognition that one is simply watching a performance, instead they are experiencing and performing along with the artists.

58) The best theatre misses being terrible theatre by a hair.

59) Theatre creates dialogue and community.

Out and about

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and Catherine Hernandez
(both of Native Earth Performing Arts)
seen here leaving their offices in Toronto’s Distillery District.

The pair were seen later in the day shopping at
Toronto’s upscale MarieJosette wearable art boutique.

Sentences 50-54

The series continues:

50) Theatre is the art of bleeding in public.

51) What is most interesting about theatre is seeing/experiencing the collective mind in action – no right, no wrong, just the ‘attempt’ at working through a vision honestly.

52) The human spirit is viscerally attracted to and innately seeks out stories; theatre is just one medium to tell a story.

53) I’m tired of seeing B-list TV celebrities on Broadway who can’t act “taking a break” from their lousy careers and making me suffer.

54) To change the landscape of what is revered and what is questioned.

Sentences 45-49

The series continues:

45) Dialogue is useful but action is eternal.

46) Theatre is one of the few things in my life that is sacred and ceremonious.

47) It is theatre that stops me from having a 9-to-5 job.

48) Transgression and betrayal of the senses and the accepted reactions of society.

49) Theatre is pornography with your clothes on.

Sentences 40-44

The series continues:

40) The theatre is one of last sources of mystery left in the modern world.

41) Theatre dies when it is not played HERE, NOW, TODAY.

42) If a single sentence could contain the essence of theatre, that sentence would surely cause the universe to collapse.

43) Alive: If it weren’t then this blog wouldn’t exist.

44) How many theatre artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Out and about

Actor Cole J. Alvis seen here leaving Equity Showcase Theatre.
(Toronto, Canada)

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Spotted any hot theatre talent out and about
in your neighbourhood?
Send us your starstruck theatre photos:
celebrity@praxistheatre.com

Sentences 35-39

The series continues:

35) Theatre is a museum of the human being’s visceral state; perhaps it could compete with the ROM or AGO if patrons had to observe the piece blindfolded.

36) Theatre is awfully fun to make when you’re working with good people.

37) Theatre is a singularity.

38) Theatre is usually the most magical when its practitioners have small budgets.

39) When someone tries to undermine an actor’s job by labeling it ‘easy’, an appropriate retort would be: “Making it look ‘easy’ is one of the most difficult parts of the job.”