Sunday Roundup January 6th

First week of 2013 nearly complete and it’s been a good one – what went on?

2012 Round-up Part Three – Client Highlights

It’s a New Year! CharPR Prizes, Next Stage Festival and more!

AWAKE

It’s an Admin Kind of Day

Next Stage Festival is going incredibly well (as always) – whoever said nobody goes to theatre in January was sorely mistaken. Prove them wrong – go see something

Everyone gets back to work in earnest on Monday, so I’ve got some work to do including a script to read, trading cards to sort (more on that later) and some press releases to prep.  And blog posts to think about. Enjoy whatever you do with your lightly snowy Sunday!

AWAKE

The Next Stage Festival opened last night to great fanfare with sold out shows, old and new friends and in true Fringe tradition, a packed beer tent. Extremely pleased and proud to be part of this organization and kudos to the Festival staff and volunteers.

Expect Theatre‘s AWAKE opens today. I worked on this show in its Fringe incarnation in 2011, and I’m so very very happy to be working on its new life at Next Stage.  Things have been re-staged, things have been re-written and it’s even better than it was before. Expect Theatre (or as I know them Chris-and-Laura) do remarkable work, and this show is no exception – great article in the Star linked here for your perusal. Final paragraph strikes me:

“The church setting is important,” insists Mullin. “The death of every young person in gang violence is a loss of life, opportunity and hope. We know that the life can’t be brought back, but we want our audiences to leave feeling that the hope and opportunity can be restored.

“That’s the message we feel that our play leaves them with.”

It really does. The cast are without a doubt some of the most talented folks I’ve worked with, and they bring me joy every time I walk into the rehearsal hall. It feels like coming home. We’ve had fun with marketing stuff again as you’ll see at the Festival, and the give and take again has been more give than take and I thank them for that.

Come watch this show. Come see these joyful people. Let them break your heart and then make it whole again.

To read a headline is one thing, to be given hope is another. We’ll see you at the tent.

 

 

 

Awake Trailer! 4.48 Psychosis! Graffiti Museum!

I like trailers for plays – I love trailers for plays that tell me the story behind it. Like video director’s notes. Here’s the one for Awake. The show’s tagline is this is real. It is. Watch the trailer to find out just how real it is.

 

and in the category of very cool…

Call for Submissions: Original Work for 4.48 Pyschosis, Necessary Angel Theatre  one of Canada’s most acclaimed independent producers of original and provocative theatre, is seeking proposals for original work in support of its upcoming production of 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. Deadline: January 11, 2013.  Necessary Angel will curate a series of original, multi-disciplinary works reflecting on the artist’s relationship with depression. We are seeking work that excavates depression from the perspectives of contemporaries, outsiders and insiders alike. We welcome and are encouraging proposal submissions from visual, literary, dance and spoken word artists. Read more

and finally today…

Remnants of an old brick-firing kiln that remains buried under the parking lot of Evergreen Brick Works will finally get the recognition it deserves, thanks to the StreetARToronto (StART) program. Artists Dan Bergeron and Paul Aloisi created the work—Underground Kiln—to highlight the site’s historic industrial role in city building. Read more

Stuff to Read, Stuff to Do, Stuff to Watch

It’s Friday! Whatever that means to you, be it the end of the week or the start of the week or a day like any other day – it’s Friday!

Next Stage Festival passes go on sale at the top of next week. Since at some drunken point between late December and New Year’s you’re going to resolve to “see more shows” in 2013, here’s the deal. Go buy a pass now while you’re still pre-holidays flush and then when it’s New Year’s Eve you can confidently say you’ve already started your resolution, and then when Next Stage hits two days after the New Year, you’ll have cured your champagne headache, already HAVE tickets and still have the cash for a beer in the tent.
I can’t help you any more than that – wait yes I can, at this point I am recommending you see Expect Theatre’s Awake and Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s Sudden Death. You’re welcome.

Speaking of the holidays and January and cold, Carly Maga has written a really good piece in the Grid about our attempts to be Broadway North – “If Toronto is Broadway North, then we might as well give in and declare Canada “America North.” That’s not to say we haven’t had wonderful commercial theatre productions travel through Toronto. But theatre tourism here just isn’t what it used to be. It simply doesn’t make sense to focus on pleasing tourists instead of locals.”

Across the ocean Danny Boyle is accusing Maria Miller of an “outrageous snub“: “Not one of those [artistic directors, including Hytner] has been even approached by this woman,” he said. “That is outrageous. This is cultural life of our country. She is the minister of fucking culture. I mean, come on.”

Found this video on Facebook courtesy Brendan Healey and the fine folks at Buddies – Sacred Geometries. “Theo designed all the artwork for Toronto Workshop Productions. He passed away earlier this year. He’s a vital player in our city’s rich theatre history and this piece shows just how stunning his work was.”

Happy Friday!