May 28, 2016

On the second to last day of my Shaw experience I once again entered the Festival Theatre, this time to see the culmination of the work that director Eda Holmes and her cast have put into this season’s production of A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde.  I had yet to see the show in its entirety, and so was very interested in finally seeing all of the pieces I had witnessed in rehearsal come together in this dress rehearsal performance.  With me in the audience would be members of the Shaw Festival Guild, providing the actors with their first sizeable audience for the piece.

Arriving early to the dress rehearsal meant that I got to catch the tail end of the set changeover from the day’s matinee performance of Alice in Wonderland.  Furniture and set pieces from both sets were being slotted into place backstage — a good reminder to me that in a repertory theatre company such as the Shaw where up to three productions use the same stage space in rotation, a highly skilled crew is key to ensuring that the whole operation runs smoothly. This was still a rehearsal for the crew as well: small debates over which pieces of spike tape marked the positions for which pieces of furniture indicated that, like the actors, the crew was also taking this opportunity to perfect their roles.

Following the changeover, several of the actors appeared on stage to take part in a fight call.  Prior to every performance, any actors engaged in stage combat must run through their sequences to ensure everyone’s safety during the show.  Clearly in a state of preparation — the men were only half-costumed and the women were wearing wig caps and dressing gowns — I watched the actors run through the fights that I had seen being choreographed weeks earlier and marvelled at the fluidity they now possessed. Reminders from the fight captain about sight lines and awareness of the other actors on stage ensured that every small detail of the fight was show-ready.

Soon, the lights were being dimmed and I, sitting next to the tables where lighting and sound operators practiced their cues, sat back to enjoy the show.  Seeing all that I had observed in rehearsals in completion — with the added bonus of costume eye candy from designer Michael Gianfrancesco who also designed the set — was wonderful.  A few blunders with timing and line memorization reminded me that this was still a show in its rehearsal stage, but I left the theatre confident that Woman would soon be wowing preview audiences.  While the content of Wilde’s play may be a bit morally dated in today’s society, hearing the laughter and gasps of the guild members around me assured me that the humour and emotional moments of the play would still resonate with the Shaw’s audiences.

Good luck to the cast of A Woman of No Importance as you near the opening of a beautiful show! I feel very lucky to have been able to share in part of the process with you.

 

 

May 18, 2016

Last week brought with it the first wave of show openings at the Shaw Festival.  Alice in Wonderland, Our Town, Uncle Vanya, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession have now all had their opening nights — or opening afternoons in some cases — and I was invited to revisit Alice and Our Town to see how they have continued to grow in the time since I attended their preview performances.

Sitting in the house Thursday night at the Royal George Theatre and awaiting the beginning of Our Town — the first opening of the season — the excitement and anticipation of the audience members around me was almost palpable.  My seat for this performance was much nearer to the stage than it had been for the preview I attended, so I was better able to appreciate the intricacies of the brief tableaus and mime work that I only saw as generalized stylistic choices in my first viewing.  Not much happens in this show, but ‘not much’ happens in great detail!  From just a few feet away, I was able to observe the careful preparation of an imaginary breakfast, the carting and exchange of imaginary glass milk bottles, and the satisfying consumption of imaginary ice cream sodas.  The play also felt more active as I was forced to move my head to follow speakers in conversations, allowing me to physically experience the movement of intention throughout the stage space.  This, combined with the added energy always accompanying opening nights, amplified the liveliness of a show already filled with life.

My experience at the opening night of Alice in Wonderland was equally enjoyable, but for completely different reasons.  Though clearly some wrinkles have been smoothed out since previews, the overall show seemed much the same as I remembered it.  The difference in my viewing experience was made by the woman I was sitting beside.  She told me that she is dear friends with Jennifer Phipps (who plays the Cheshire Cat), and her delight as a first-time Alice viewer allowed me to re-experience the magic and wonder of the show.

Following the performance, a reception was held in the lobby of the Festival Theatre.  Within minutes actors I had just seen in a host of zany costumes emerged in formalwear, ready to celebrate the hard work they have put into their productions over the past months.  As the first Saturday night opening of the season, Alice has the honour of being followed by a company-wide opening party.  After the more formal reception, everyone made their way to one of the rehearsal halls — transformed for this occasion into a dance club complete with lights and a DJ.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone let loose and to get to know company members outside of their usual setting.  There is no question that I am getting to see all sides of festival life during this internship and I can’t wait to find out what will come next!

May 15, 2016

Although it has gone relatively unmentioned in recent posts, I have continued to regularly attend rehearsals for The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.  The show has come a long way and, despite being weeks away from opening, the cast has completed several full run throughs.  With each rehearsal new elements are introduced that bring fullness to the world of the play.  The actors are settling into their characters and bringing more and more specificity to their actions.  Even though I have seen each scene dozens of times at this point, performances such as Tara Rosling’s troubled missionary, Guy Bannerman’s ridiculously obnoxious Lord of Hosts, and Ben Sanders’ ‘mansplaining’ King Solomon still have me in stitches every time.

With each run the show’s many-layered message becomes clearer as well.  Similarly to Mrs. Warren’s Profession, this play encourages audiences to read fiction — Shaw’s plays included — with today’s eyes.  The intention is an important one, but the play is so filled with levity and hilarity that it easily avoids feeling preachy.

One exciting new addition in the rehearsal hall is a mock stage.  This show heavily depends on actor-interaction with the stage and set, so it has been very useful to finally have a visual for how the story’s many characters will appear and disappear from all corners of the space to practice with.  The physical restraint of the 10ft² stage has become more of a tool for this ensemble than an obstacle.  The high energy of the show is only emphasized by its material confinement and creative spatial relationships have developed out of necessity.  Having the sound designer, John Gzowski, in the room pretty consistently over the last week also adds to the completeness of the performance.  Gimmicks are made even funnier by well-timed sound effects and a sound track of original Gregorian remixes drives home the absurdity of the Black Girl’s (played by Natasha Mumba) journey.

Ravi Jain directs without stringent expectations. His willingness to take offers from his actors and to not shy away from what may be considered over-the-top has brought the script to life off the page in a way that some may be hesitant to attempt with a new play. The rehearsal atmosphere has always been made open and positive — free of intimidation.  Hard work and productive risk-taking have been the happy result.

As the play under Ravi’s direction has been progressing more and more independently of playwright Lisa and dramaturg Joanna’s observation, I am looking forward to their perspective on the show’s development next time they attend rehearsal.  I am sure they will be delighted!

 

May 12, 2016

The second play directed by Eda Holmes this season is Bernard Shaw’s own Mrs. Warren’s Profession which is now playing at the Royal George.  A mother/daughter story with conflict spurred on by the societal challenges and expectations of women, I was already familiar with the premise of Eda’s version thanks to the wonderful embedded criticism of the Brock University DARTcritics.  Based on what I had read about the production, I knew the intention is to stage it as thought the Royal George is the gentlemen’s club where Shaw’s script was originally debuted. That means that the set (designed by Patrick Clark) resembles a private club and the actors play members of the club who are, in turn, playing the roles of Shaw’s characters. When reading about it I was concerned that, while the concept should send a timely reminder of the contextualization of Shaw’s plays and the issues they address, it may be difficult to clearly stage such a layered proposal.

I realized that my fears were unnecessary when I attended a preview performance of the now open show.  The opening scene of Mrs. Warren’s easily establishes the premise — an added bonus is that the ‘club’ putting on the play, we are told, is the modern-day descendent of the original.  This adds to the play’s social commentary and makes it impossible to ignore that the issues highlighted in the production still affect us today.  Perhaps this is a particular reminder is more important than Eda could have predicted; as I sat in the audience during the preshow, four actors on stage dressed timelessly but using modern props such as cell phones, several comments could be heard from patrons around me clearly upset by the ‘unprofessionalism’ of the actors.

“What is he doing with a cell phone? There were no cell phones in 1900!” This complaint was placated with a gentle, “He’s just checking his messages before the play starts, dear. He’ll put it away when it’s time to begin”.  I shared a look with the festival’s former Executive Director Colleen Blake who was seated beside me. It seemed that this audience, and I imagine many others, would serve to benefit from a reminder that the purpose of plays is not static and that neither their means nor their messages are frozen in time.

Another interesting fact about this production is that it will be travelling across the border as soon as the festival’s season ends to be performed at the Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo as the first of what will hopefully be many ‘Shaw at Shea’s’ partnership productions aimed at drawing New York’s attention to the theatre gem in their backyard.  I learned this information at the company meeting — one of the only annual chances for the entire festival staff to come together and communicate en masse.

Hosted by Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell and Executive Director Tim Jennings, the meeting was fun and light-hearted as well as informative.  Beginning with Jackie and Tim arriving on stage in the Festival Theatre dressed in housecoats and riding in the boat used in this season’s production of Alice in Wonderland, the company went on to discuss important matters such as how to ensure a victory over the Stratford Festival in their annual cricket match.  The meeting was also a time for company members to promote causes near and dear to their hearts and an opportunity to introduce next season’s Artistic Director, Tim Carroll.  Concluding with an appreciative standing ovation for Jackie’s contributions to the festival over the year’s, the whole company then moved to the break room (called the Green Room) to enjoy a hot dog lunch served up by senior staff members.

The company of the Shaw Festival functions, in part, because of the strong sense of community amongst its members.  I am grateful that, at least for now, it is a community that I get to experience and be a part of.

May 10, 2016

Sunday evening I arrived at the Festival Theatre ready for my first look at Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance outside of the rehearsal hall.  Directed by Eda Holmes — the Associate Director at the Shaw and my liaison throughout my internship — the production is still quite unfamiliar to me as I have only joined this ensemble for one rehearsal so far, having continued to regularly attend rehearsals for The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.  That night, though, I was not the only one facing the unfamiliar as many of the cast were encountering designer Michael Gianfrancesco’s opulent set for the first time.  Extravagant without being busy — and with plenty of opportunities for one to observe unseen — I think that this set is the perfect complement to the fanciful and fabricative characters that will occupy it.

During the one rehearsal for this production I had previously sat in on, I was introduced to Eda’s distinctive directorial style.  On this day Eda was working with the actors on notes from a previous run, as well as incorporating musical cues into the action.  A ballet dancer for many years, Eda’s directing is sensitive to musical coordination and I have noticed that there is a choreographic air about her blocking.  The action flows seamlessly with actors coming and going in perfect time. Eda is a very active director and it is fantastic to see the actors mirror her energy as she moves alongside them.

Attempting a different sort of choreography at the top of Sunday’s on stage rehearsal was John Stead, the fight director for the festival’s 2016 season.  He began teaching Fiona Byrne (playing the role of Mrs. Arbuthnot) how to perform a ‘stage’ slap.  He was especially focused on making sure that the slap — directed at Martin Happer (playing Lord Illingworth) — looks authentic from every seat in the theatre.  Martin is also responsible for making the sound of the slap, called the ‘knap’, and for selling the violence with his reaction.  While the first attempts were a bit shaky, within a few short minutes the moment had become very convincing.

The next section that John worked on again involved Martin, this time working with Wade Bogert-O’Brien (playing Gerald).  If you haven’t guessed, Lord Illingworth isn’t the most popular guy in this play. The altercation between the two is complicated by the involvement of a pool table.  As this was the first time the actors were running the fight on the actual set, a lot of the spacing needed to be adjusted to accommodate the large set piece.  As the rehearsal continued, jokes were passed around about the obviously gentle nature of Wade, who needed to be brought up to speed on the basics of where aggression sits in the body and the not-so-basics of hitting people with pool cues.

The rest of the rehearsal was primarily spent adjusting the positioning of set pieces and allowing the actors to become accustomed to the spacial changes.  Particular attention to coordinating the entrances and exits of the actors became necessary as they found they needed to travel farther for each now that they are in a larger space than the rehearsal hall.  Between this rehearsal and the last I attended, I have seen most of A Woman of No Importance — but in bits and pieces and all out of order.  I left the theatre late Sunday night hoping that next time I will finally have the chance to see all of the pieces come together.

May 7, 2016

After five weeks of music preparation, Sweeney Todd rehearsals are officially underway at the festival.  One of Sondheim’s blackest comedies, Sweeney is the most complex musical the Shaw has endeavoured to produce in many years.  At the read through — or in this case, the ‘sing’ through — Jackie Maxwell (director) explained that she has wanted to program Sweeney for many years but only now, in her final year as artistic director, has the company prepared to tackle it.  Set in Victorian London and centred around themes of justice, morality, and abuse of power, the horror musical neatly fits the Shaw’s mandate.

One of the largest casts I have seen in a Shaw rehearsal hall to date, the company of Sweeney seemed eager to dive in to the text and music.  The work they have been putting in over the past month seems to be paying off as, apart from a few flubbed entrances and musical stumbles, they were able to run through the entire show with relative ease.  The play’s lyrics are rapid and complex and while in some places it was clear that the cast was still warming up their tongues to the text, the team seemed deservedly comfortable with what they had to work with as a starting point.

Another ‘first day’ followed soon after.  The Dance of Death may be the first of August Strindberg’s morbidly pessimistic plays to be produced at the festival but, if the audience response at the read through was any indication, it will be well received.  Despite its depressing title, the play is actually quite funny and even charming at some points.  The delicateness with which Strindberg dissects the unhappy marriage of Edgar, an over-the-hill captain, and Alice, his former-actress wife, appears to be safe in the hands of Jim Mezon and Fiona Reid — two of the festival’s most seasoned actors.  The nuance with which they read promises that they will uncover all of the minute subtleties within their characters.  In fact, I have already had the pleasure of seeing them begin their excavations in rehearsal where close reads of the script often lead to detailed discussions filled with ‘what ifs’ and research.

The Dance of Death is directed by Martha Henry who has returned to Shaw this season from Stratford in order to participate in Jackie’s last season.  Being able to observe such an accomplished woman in action is an honour.  Martha’s style is thorough and deliberate; she makes sure to engage directly with everyone in her rehearsal hall and is not afraid to allow space and time for discoveries to be made or for realizations to sink in.

Tomorrow I get to observe an equally gifted director with a very different energy and style as I sit in on Eda Holmes’ on stage rehearsal with the company of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance.  

May 3, 2016

Things are really rolling at the Shaw Festival.  With more and more of the 2016 season underway, there has been a greater variety in the rehearsals and activities I have been able to participate in as well.

Alice in Wonderland (opening May 14) has been in previews for a little over a week now.  Previews are public performances that take place prior to the opening of a show so that the company gets a chance to gauge audience response to their work and rehearsals are interspersed between full runs to allow for any issues that arise to be addressed. The preview performances for Alice are especially interesting because this is a brand new adaptation, written by Peter Hinton — who is also the director — specifically for the company at the Shaw Festival.  The preview audiences are the first to witness this new work and there was a nervous energy around the festival as everyone awaited the public’s initial response to the first performance.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the show ran smoothly.  Sitting in the Green Room — a backstage hangout spot for the entire company — I was able to watch some of Thursday’s run on a monitor. Hearing the audience laugh and respond with eager applause to the musical numbers had me excited to sit in on a clean-up rehearsal the following day and get a sense of the cast and crew’s views on the runs so far.

When I arrived in rehearsal the next day, I joined the ensemble in a meeting during which Peter made some performance-altering announcements.  One of the benefits of observing the preview performances is the opportunity to see the full arc of the sense of a show, something sometimes missed from a more internal perspective.  Peter felt that after seeing the show run, there were several cuts to be made that would be dramaturgically advantageous to the production.  A song and even an entire scene were lost in an effort to make Alice’s journey clearer and streamline the entire performance.  Peter was sure to point out that although it saddened him to say goodbye to some really great performance moments from the actors, it was the best decision for the show from his position as the playwright.

The rest of the rehearsal was focused and intense as cast and crew came together to work through the changes.  Although extra effort was required from all — every element of the production was affected by this change — the professionalism of the company was evident and the atmosphere was cheerful and determined.  Teams worked on editing the projection, sound, and lighting designs as stage management adjusted their call lists — all while the cast rehearsed new choreography and transitions on stage.  There was even an additional speech for the actress playing Alice (Tara Rosling) to learn, which she had memorized by the end of the day. Leaving the rehearsal, I could hardly wait to attend the preview performance on Sunday and see all the pieces I had observed come together.

At the performance, I was amazed at how seamless the changes had become in only two short days.  Had I not been in Friday’s rehearsal, I never would have guessed that the cast was performing brand new material or that major technical changes had been made.  Tara performed her new speech with confidence and I was thrilled to finally see the entirety of Alice after hearing all the chatter around the festival about it.  The play is visually stunning and captures all of the magic and wonder of Lewis Carroll’s “Wonderland”.  It was such a joy to see so many of the actors I have come to know through rehearsals for Black Girl (Tara Rosling, Ben Sanders, Jonathan Tan, Graeme Somerville, Kiera Sangster, Natasha Mumba, and Guy Bannerman) on stage and completely transformed.  Their versatility is impressive and I look forward to seeing them back in the rehearsal hall so that I can congratulate them.

The next time I see Alice will be on opening night.  I am curious — just like Alice! — to see what steps and small changes will be introduced to the production before then.

April 28, 2016

Life moves fast at the festival.  It’s only been a few days since my last post but in that time previews for some of the season’s highlights have started, rehearsals for the Shaw’s production of “Master Harold”…and the Boys have begun, and The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God is up on its feet — newly revised scripts in hand.

Monday is a day off for everyone at the Shaw, so Tuesday I returned to catch the first read through of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold” with the rest of Shaw’s interested company members.  If I hadn’t known this was the first rehearsal for the three-man ensemble, I never would have been able to guess.  Actors Andre Sills, Allan Louis, and James Daly responded to director Philip Akin’s invitation to “attempt the South African accents” if they felt comfortable with impressive ease.  They appeared deeply familiar with the text, even able to perform their lines off book in several sections, and the result was a reading that felt more like a rehearsed presentation than one just beginning.

The innocuous 1950s family diner setting of “Master Harold” acts as a container for the underlying pain and anger bubbling just below the surface during the South African social apartheid.  Beginning with a lighthearted discussion about the frustrations of ballroom dancing, the play reveals messy truths and insecurities hidden beneath the armour of social convention.  At the end of the read through, there were few dry eyes amongst the observers.  “Master Harold” promises, I think, to be truly stirring and, if the actors initial performances are any indication, a high-quality production filled with subtlety and strength.

Jumping back into the Black Girl rehearsal hall the next day, I was happy to join the cast and production team as we continued working through a close read of the text.  Yesterday, to everyone’s excitement, director Ravi Jain suggested the cast get up on their feet for the first time and explore one of the scenes they were reading through.  As the set is going to pose some very particular challenges in terms of blocking, it was easy to see what Ravi was thinking and why he wanted everyone to get a feel for the constraints of the space early on.  Seeing the cast loaded up with hilarious props and following some creative rules for spacing set by Ravi, the eccentric aesthetics of the Black Girl universe began to take shape before us.  This first visual of the show whet my appetite and I can’t wait to watch the play develop.

One of my new responsibilities at the Shaw is to research and write short playwright biographies to be included in the programs. Currently I am working on one for Athol Fugard (“Master Harold”…and the Boys) and W. S. Gilbert — of Gilbert & Sullivan — who wrote this season’s Engaged.  Keep an eye out for them when you check out shows at the festival this summer!

April 25, 2016

I’d like to start off by offering a big ‘hello’ to Brock University’s Dramatic Arts community — and anyone else who may have wandered across this little blog.  Its purpose is to give DART students an internal perspective on the process and productions of the Shaw Festival’s 2016 season as well as a look at my experiences as an intern at the Shaw.  Being that the Shaw is one of North America’s largest repertory theatre companies, the opportunity Brock students have to intern at the festival and live inside all of the action is pretty spectacular.

Three days into this experience, I am already feeling spoiled by the wealth of knowledge and level of talent I am able to witness and engage with on a daily basis.  For the past few days I have been assigned to shadow dramaturg Joanna Falck through the beginning of rehearsals for The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God.  Based on the short story by George Bernard Shaw, the festival’s namesake, Black Girl is a new adaptation of the story by Lisa Codrington — so new, in fact, that the playwright is still in the room with us and additional pages and rewrites are arriving daily!

The actors are not coming into this project completely fresh; they were all involved in the workshops which helped this play through its development stages.  The read through of the play — and my first time in the room with the cast and production team — was, therefore, thrilling and fast paced as the actors continued to play and explore the zany world they had previously been a part of with absolute commitment and enthusiasm.  Accompanied by a design presentation by Camellia Koo — the set promises to be wildly imaginative and definitely provides inspiration as well as some unique challenges for the direction of the show — the read through was just as energetic and joyful as the play itself.

While Black Girl certainly addresses serious and complicated social issues such as racism, sexism, and the impacts of colonialism as well as offering an on-the-nose critique of the way religious institutions provide justification for social inequities, it does so with an unexpected humour and wit that neither coddles nor accuses.  I can’t wait to see this play up on its feet under the direction of Ravi Jain, and feel very fortunate to be able to follow the progress of a show I am so excited by.

Today I’m off to observe the read through of, “Master Harold”…and the Boys, another one of this season’s productions.  Check back in for more updates soon!