Hosts Rod Keith and Tyler Parr hosted the 2017 Brickenden Awards for Theatrical Excellence in London ceremony at the Wolf Performance Hall on Monday night. Celebrating the 2017 theatre season, the awards recognized companies and individuals in production- and performance-based categories.
The winners were:
Outstanding Comedy Production
Jenny’s House of Joy (London Community Players)
Outstanding Lighting Design
Stephen Mitchell, Red (Calithumpian Theatre Company)
Outstanding Sound Design
Graham Mennie and Peter Mennie, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens (LINK Theatre)
Outstanding Youth Musical
Chicago – The Musical (Original Kids Theatre Company)
Outstanding Youth Drama
Concord Floral (Beal Drama)
Outstanding Male Actor – Youth
Justin Eddy (Pippin, Beal Musical Theatre)
Outstanding Female Actor – Youth
Caitlin Cahill (Chicago, Original Kids Theatre Company)
Outstanding Set Design
Laura Sepulveda, Red (Calithumpian Theatre Company)
Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Charlene McNabb, “Frances”, Jenny’s House of Joy (London Community Players)
The TiLee Awards were announced at the Palace Theatre on Thursday evening, along with a host of 5- and 10-year volunteer recognitions. Award recipients took home Walter Sayers-designed baseball caps similar to the well-worn one pictured here.
Theatre in London.ca’s team of volunteer reviewers chose winners in six categories:
Outstanding Show
The Morning After the Life Before
Outstanding Solo Performance
Fool Muun Komming!
Outstanding Cast Performance
Conversations Never Had
Fringiest Show
The Merkin Sisters
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Fish Saw
Outstanding Ballyhoo
Bedwetter
The Favourite Visual Fringe artist, chosen by Fringe patrons, was presented to Vanessa Vanderidder by Associate Producer Christine Gruenbauer. Gruenbauer and board member Chris Bennett also presented the volunteer awards.
Executive Producer Kathy Navackas presented the Impresario awards, for highest ticket sales at each venue, to Irena Sendler: Rescuing the Rescuers, Forget Me Not, Bella Culpa, Jon Bennett: My Dad’s Deaths, Riding Hood, …
When the lights go down on a theatre stage, an audience knows they are going to be transported into a world for a few hours.
That’s the norm.
This weekend, however, those sitting in the McManus Theatre will be transported into 8 different worlds each night.
Eight stories per evening, eight different playwrights, two directors and a handful of actors will transfix audiences ten minutes at a time.
The annual PlayWrights Cabaret was the brainchild of former Grand Artistic Director Susan Ferley and has proven to be a gateway for fledgling playwrights into the world of theatre.
This year for example, London’s Carolyn Nesbitt-Larking makes her playwriting bow with Johannah, a play about the last ten minutes of Johannah (“Black”) Donnelly’s life.
Set in the burning farmhouse where she met her doom, Nesbitt-Larking says it’s about Johanna Donnelly confronting those people who put her down and saying her piece …
At a press conference this morning, the Grand Theatre’s new artistic director, Dennis Garnhum, and a selection of Canadian theatre artists announced the theatre’s new play development program, Compass. Described as an “opportunity for London… to be on the forefront of theatre in Canada”, it currently comprises five new works presenting “our stories on our stages”.
While four of the projects are at a very early phase of conception (two have creative teams attached, and the others are ideas formulated in the last six weeks), one—Vancouver playwright Trina Davies’ Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell—reveals the first hint of Garnhum’s programming for the 2017–2018 season. Told from Mabel’s perspective as a deaf woman, the play was developed at Theatre Calgary (where Garnhum was previously artistic director) and will be directed by Peter Hinton. The hints dropped about the innovative and modern presentation of this historical piece are …
The winners of the 2015 Brickenden Awards for Theatrical Excellence in London were announced at the Wolf Performance Hall on Monday night in a ceremony hosted by Rod Keith and Matt Loop. Celebrating the 2015 theatre season, the awards recognized productions and performances in a variety of different categories. New this year were awards for outstanding youth actors.
The winners were:
Outstanding Female Actor – Youth
Nadine Cruz, “Ti Moune”, Once On This Island (Original Kids Theatre Company)
Outstanding Male Actor – Youth
Ben Kopp, “Macbeth”, Macbeth (A. B. Lucas Secondary School)
Outstanding Comedy Production
Steel Magnolias (London Community Players)
Outstanding Lighting Design
Stephen Mitchell, Of Mice and Men (By the Book Theatre)
Outstanding Sound Design
Michael James Brown, The Rocky Horror Show (Pacheco Theatre)
Having seen the Toronto production of Jersey Boys three times (touring cast, Canadian cast and once more for fun), I was a little worried that the current production at Budweiser Gardens wouldn’t live up to my memories.
No worries, this is such a strong cast that you forget you’re in an arena with a scaled down touring set. If you want to see this lively show that took the Tony award for the best musical in 2006 and you missed the Toronto production, be sure to take it in at Budweiser.
The winners of the 2014 Brickenden Awards for Theatrical Excellence in London were announced at the Wolf Performance Hall tonight in a ceremony hosted by Harry Edison and Matt Loop. Celebrating the 2014 theatre season, the awards recognized productions and performances in sixteen different categories. (The outstanding ensemble performance, introduced last year, was retired, and there was an insufficient number of solo performances to award that category.)
Wally Duffield passed away on October 25, 2014, at age 94; memorials will be held at the Palace Theatre on November 15 at 1 p.m. and at Aeolian Hall on November 23 at 2 p.m. This is the citation read upon his receipt of the very first Chris Doty Award at the 2007 Brickenden Awards ceremony.
The gentleman I’m honoured to introduce to you this evening, on behalf of the Brickenden Awards Committee, is known to everyone who attends almost any arts event in London! And I can tell you that he is loved by everyone. The accolades I’ve heard have been unanimously glowing in praise of his contributions to the arts and also of his delightful personality.
I’ve known Wally Duffield since the early ’70s. Back then Nonie Jeffery and Barbara Ivey held a meeting at Barbara’s house with plans to form a support group of volunteers for Theatre …
The 2014 Fringe Awards were announced at tonight’s Fringe Fried awards ceremony. The “TiLees” baseball caps, featuring a new logo designed by Walter Sayers, were presented in eight categories; the first five, selected by Theatre in London.ca’s team of volunteer reviewers, went to:
Outstanding Show
High Tea
Outstanding Individual Performance
Jayson McDonald (World War Three)
Outstanding Cast (tie)
Concrete Kid
Judy: Stonewalled
Most Daring Show
I Hate Bill Pats
Funniest Show (tie)
2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Private Dick
God Is A Scottish Drag Queen
The Impresario category of awards is based on the highest ticket sales (i.e. actual dollar amount) at each venue. This year’s Impresario TiLees were presented to:
Venue 1
2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Private Dick
Venue 2
Ladies Room
Venue 3
God Is A Scottish Drag Queen
Venue 5
The Deception Hour
Venue 6
High Tea
The final two TiLees were presented by the Fringe …
As we’ve done for the last several years, Theatre in London will have a team of volunteers reviewing every show in the 15th London Fringe Festival over the opening weekend. Each review will initially be posted to the Fringe website, and they’ll all be archived here after the festival ends. Keep an eye on @theatreinlondon and the #ldnfringe hashtag on social media.
June 4: Due to a glitch in the Fringe website’s comment system, I’ll post the first few here. June 6: Comments are working on the Fringe site again. Go forth and have your say!
Academia Nuts
Academia Nuts is a well-acted piece about sexuality and academia that unfortunately falters thanks to a script too weak to stand.
Elements of the show were appreciable. It was good to see programs printed in Braille and diversity among cast members. The performances were good, or as convincing as they could …
To my knowledge, Wally Duffield and I are the only people crazy enough to have seen every show in a given year’s London Fringe Festival. (I’ve only done it once, despite trying for four years; Wally did several times.) It’s not necessarily the best way to see the Fringe—it’s surprising how tiring being entertained for ten straight days can be—but for those who are foolhardy enough to try, it is possible.
Bryan McLennon has come up with one way to see everything this year, and still have time left over:
Wednesday/Thursday
all shows at Venue 6
Friday/Saturday
all shows at Venue 5
Sunday/Monday
Venue 2
Tuesday/Wednesday
Venue 1
Thursday/Friday
Venue 3
Saturday
Site A/B
Plus The NO Show each night. You could even fit in the two “bring-your-own-venue” sites on Saturday/Monday and have June 14 entirely free to experience the Dundas Street Festival and Nuit Blanche.
The winners of the 2013 Brickenden Awards for Theatrical Excellence in London were announced at the Wolf Performance Hall on Monday night in a ceremony hosted by Matt Loop and Jeff Werkmeister. Celebrating the 2013 theatre season, the awards recognized productions and performances in seventeen different categories. New this year were awards for outstanding ensemble performance and outstanding makeup design.
The fifth annual Dish awards were announced last night; the results, as published in the London Free Press, are below. All non-musical awards were picked solely by Donald D’Haene; musical awards were decided by a panel comprising Lynn Davis, Sue Parkinson, Dennis Johns, Iain Paterson, and Charles Martin.
Best Sound, Musical
Rob Richardson, Blood Brothers, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Best Sound, Comedy/Drama
John Fellner (Original Music), Picnic at Hanging Rock, H.B. Beal Secondary School
Two exemplars of the “Gothic” style have appeared in London theatres recently: James Reaney’s “Canadian Gothic” play The Easter Egg in May, and Tennessee Williams’ “Southern Gothic” Suddenly, Last Summer, currently in production at The ARTS Project. Both are excellent, effective reminders that the form’s full name is “Gothic horror”, making Suddenly a near-ideal play to produce at Halloween.
Gothic horror, introduced in the 18th century, pervades popular culture to this day, primarily through its monsters: vampires, Frankenstein’s creation, and Cthulhu, among others. While the more visual aspects easily translate to film, stage drama is often much better suited for the sort of creeping horror of Williams’ and Reaney’s work. The audience knows from near the beginning that something is up, and Gothic plays tease out their macabre secrets slowly until the full depravity of their situations are revealed, often with a character becoming completely swept up in a …
The 2013 Fringe Awards were announced at tonight’s Fringe Fried awards ceremony, hosted by Michael James Brown. In a change from previous years, the awards were determined by Theatre in London.ca’s team of volunteer reviewers.
Outstanding show
Myra’s Story
Outstanding individual performance
Tara Travis (Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII)
Outstanding cast
A Beautiful View
Most daring show
CIRCLE
Funniest show
Be A Man
Two awards were presented by the Fringe festival staff: Spirit of the Fringe and the Producer’s Pick.
Spirit of the Fringe
Peter Janes
Producer’s Pick, chosen by Kathy Navackas
Tara Travis (Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII) and Jeff Leard (The Show Must Go On)
All recipients were given caps, to be known as “Tillees”.
A number of achievements were also noted, ranging from “crackerjack” awards (to troupers with notable accomplishments during the festival, such as …
All tickets for each performance are available in advance, i.e. shows can be sold out. Tickets for all Impresario performances are $12 including service charges, and are available in person at the Fringe office or online; there are no telephone sales. Any unsold advance tickets for a performance will be available at its venue’s box office 45 minutes prior to the performance for $10, cash only. No passes of any kind (including comps, multi-ticket passes, trouper, Friend of Fringe, media, etc.) can be used for these special events.
Impresario performances are fundraisers for the London Fringe Festival. All proceeds are split 50-50 with the …
As has become tradition, a team of volunteers is reviewing all of the shows in the London Fringe Festival on behalf of Theatre in London over the opening weekend. Each review is initially posted to the Fringe website, and they’ll all be archived here after the festival ends. Keep an eye on @theatreinlondon on Twitter for links to each review, and watch for a 2013 edition of The Banner on Thursday.
2 for Tea
Not my bag
Tea, British humour and physical comedy: all the makings (in my opinion) for a brilliant show. Unfortunately, 2 for Tea fell short of that brilliance for me. It started weak and didn’t progress much beyond juvenile humour and utter silliness.
One part scripted, one part improv with added audience participation, 2 for Tea lives up to its “bizarre” description. A certain innocence makes the characters endearing, however I didn’t relate to them …
The London Fringe Festival, this city’s annual smorgasbord of theatre, starts on Thursday, June 6, along with the opening of the always exciting Visual Fringe.
The numbers: nine venues, 45 shows, 350 performance times.
Ack, where to start??!!?
If you’re not busy on Wednesday night (for instance, attending the ReThink London event scheduled at the EXACT SAME TIME at the Wolf Performance Hall), attend the performers’ showcase, which starts at 7 p.m. at the London Convention Centre Theatre. Each theatre company will have a few minutes to introduce their shows, giving you a taste of most of the offerings.
Here are a few of my suggestions to start you off on this year’s buffet, based solely on performers’ previous work:
Keith Brown: Exchange (Venue 2): Magic performed by a talented young man who obviously loves what he does. Suspend your disbelief for a while.
The winners of the 2012 Brickenden Awards for Theatrical Excellence in London were announced at a nearly-sold-out ceremony on Monday night at London Public Library’s Wolf Performance Hall. Hosts Sookie Mei and Lesleigh Turner presided over the celebration of the 2012 theatre season, which featured performances by the cast of Saunders Secondary School’s Annie, “Ken Turner’s Mantasy”, and the Dean Harrison Trio.
Following remarks by Dee Dee Lewis, granddaughter of the awards’ namesake Catharine Brickenden, the following people, companies and productions were recognized:
Outstanding Comedy Production
Jenny’s House of Joy (Theatre Soup)
Outstanding Lighting Design
Brian Brockenshire, Joe Recchia, Andrew Rethazi and Ceris A. Thomas, Treasure Island (London Community Players)
It’s awardsmonth in London, so a bit of cheerleading seems appropriate.
Last year I noted there were 200 theatre productions in London in 2011, and although it wasn’t stated, that was one of the busiest years in recent memory. So one might expect that this year’s total would be about the same, at least within a small margin of error.
To be fair, not all of those were performances: also included are several workshops, fundraisers, readings and other theatre events. But two hundred and fifty of them.
I can tell you the exact moment I knew I would never be a professional actor.
It was the fall of ’84. A Toronto call-back audition for a national touring production about the Riel Rebellion, a 2-hander featuring the characters of Sir John A. MacDonald and Gabriel Dumont. I was reading for MacDonald. The producer had lived above my brother and sister-in-law’s in Vancouver, so I thought I was a shoo-in.
When I did it, it wasn’t what they wanted. They explained carefully, wanting to help me. I knew what they wanted. I tried again. I couldn’t get it. Even on the third time. They sat there looking at me with thinly-disguised disappointment, friends on the other side of a narrow chasm, urging, “Come on. You just have to jump this far.”
A while later, an acting school friend who knew the company asked me, “What happened? You were considered.” …
London’s multicultural community is taking theatre to a whole new level. For the first time, foreign-born Canadians in the Forest City will create theatre that is inclusive of different voices, nationalities and languages, and provide a venue for those who have a passion for theatre.
It is an opening for people who perhaps were involved in theatre in their countries of origin and want to experience the thrill of a stage or contributing to it, while volunteering and sharing their experiences about their lives as new Canadians. That’s exactly what Johanna Medina, originally from Nicaragua—who’s employed by the Ontario Works office in London—is looking for.
As a social worker, she has seen a fair share of stories from newcomers, and what they go through while trying to adjust in their new home. The Potlatch Theatre Company along with the Palace Theatre—which welcomed the idea and offered its venue—are not focusing …
I just had dinner with a friend who suggested that—and I’m paraphrasing here—maybe one of the reasons my one-man Fringe shows have such small houses is because people don’t like to be hauled out of their seats to participate onstage. My reply—and I’m paraphrasing again (isn’t editing wonderful?)—was that I would prefer small houses of adventurous audience members to bigger houses of timid ones.
I’m for taking a truckload of C4 to the fourth wall and obliterating the damn thing altogether. I envision a theatre where you can’t tell the audience from the actors, where people re-read their programs on their way home to make sure that they weren’t, in fact, part of the cast. For over two and a half millennia, we’ve had this invisible barrier separating us from our fellows. Isn’t it about time we shook things up? What’s this barrier thing all about anyway? Some union thing?…
Please note that the Venue 3 Impresario performance is on Saturday evening; all of the others are on Sunday.
All tickets for each performance are available in advance, i.e. shows can be sold out. Tickets for all Impresario performances are $10 plus service charges, and are available in person at the Fringe office (no service charge for cash, $2 service charge for debit/credit) or online…
Fringe the 13th. Forty-five shows, nine venues (Yes, nine. “But aren’t there 10?” No. Unless you can find Venue 4…), 11 days. Where to start??!!?
Our team of hearty (and possibly foolhardy) TiL reviewers will have a whole mess o’ reviews for you by Monday, June 11; some keeners may post reviews earlier. But you’ll be wanting to start your Fringing before then, of course.
To help you out on opening weekend, I give you my idiosyncratic list of suggestions, based purely on performers’ previous work:
Bookworm
The Dark Fantastic (which doesn’t open until Monday—be the first to see it!)
Debris
Epic Pitch
Forty Wonderful
F***ing Stephen Harper
Hard Times
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Italian Lesson
The Purdy Boys in “Midnight at Mystery Point”
This is Not the End
Don’t miss the performer showcase tonight (Wednesday, June 6) at the convention centre. It’s an opportunity to see most …
About four years ago I wrote that “theatreinlondon, like theatre in London, is very much alive!” Today I want to breathe new life into the online incarnation with a public declaration of my until-now unstated goals and aims for Theatre in London.ca: in short, a manifesto.
Call for writers
For over a decade, Theatre in London.ca has been about and for the London theatre community. One of the goals I had when I assumed ownership of the site in 2008 was to add “by” to that list, and that’s the biggest place where I feel I’ve failed. If it weren’t for frequent contributors Kenneth Chisholm, who recently posted his 200th review, and Mary Alderson, who reviews productions at the Grand, TiL since 2008 would basically be “Peter’s theatre blog”, which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. Why’s that so? In large part, I …
I don’t usually write end-of-year articles (notwithstanding that in 2011 I haven’t written much here at all). However, today’s local theatre in review article in the Free Press omitted almost any mention of London’s independent, school and community theatre productions, and that’s a real shame.
First, though, I do want to call out the Freeps’ inclusion of the Fringe Festival alongside the Grand and Stratford. It’s no secret that I think Fringe productions and performers—both local and from away—have been among the best we see in the city, so I’m glad the paper recognizes the same thing. (One note, though: although the Fringe is indeed a “wild party”, the final highlight listed is actually A Wild Play, by New Jersey-based Odd Act Theatre Group.)
Now, on to some of the 200 productions that form the majority of the theatre presented in London this year, most of it by Londoners …
The results of the 2011 Fringe Ballot, as voted by patrons of the festival, were announced at tonight’s Fringe Fried awards ceremony:
Best VisualFringe Artist: Walter Sayers
Best Original Work: Crabcakes
Best Solo Performance: Justin Peter Quesnelle, Earshot
Outstanding Performance: Melanie Gall, The Sparrow and the Mouse
Funniest Show: Men Telling Stories
Most Daring Production: A Wild Play
Best Actor: Bremner Duthie
Best Actress: Vanessa Quesnelle
Spirit of the Fringe: Odd Act Theatre Group (A Wild Play)
Best Show: The Rocky Horror Show
Producer’s Pick, chosen by Executive Producer Kathy Navackas: 6 Guitars
Congratulations to all of the award winners, and many thanks to all of the performers, artists, writers, directors, stage managers, techs, troupers, and Fringe staff and board members. Thanks also to Theatre in London’s opening weekend review team, and to the audiences and patrons …
The official tag line for the twelfth London Fringe Theatre Festival is “It’s your play!”, but if there’s a theme to the performances it might well be “two”.
Which isn’t to say there’s less choice—with 46 companies participating, including eleven international productions, this is the biggest festival yet.
The festival features: two performance poets, jem rolls (IS PISSED OFF) and Matt. Miller (Skydiving in Suburbia); two dance shows, Love Is… and A Piece of: My Heart (Breaking); two stringed-instrument shows, 6 Guitars and Banjovial.
Two shows from previous Fringe outings are returning this year, archy and mehitabel (2010) and Chaotica (2008). Souled Out, performed as half of Channel Surfing’s Double Play series last year, is also on the boards again.
Two generations of Holowitzes are taking part in 2011: son Adam Corrigan Holowitz wrote and is performing Manor Park, and father Stephen …
The awards for the 2011 London One Act Festival were awarded this afternoon at the Black Shire Pub. Thanks to all of the participants, the organizing committee and adjudicator Annette Procunier, and congratulations to the winners!
Andrea Bennett, Anne Humberstone, Becky Lenko, Ceris Thomas, Dawn Davis, Debra Chantler, Joan Bolam, Mary Jane Walzak, and Whitney Bolam-Wilson, The Three Musketeers
One of the newer companies in town, Arcana Theatre, has just launched a fundraiser for its next production: a calendar featuring a dozen of London’s female actors in Shakespearean roles from Juliet to Lady Macbeth. (I’ve purchased two extra copies, which I’ll give away at random to two people who comment on this post. See below for details.)
It’s surprising that having show- or company-related merchandise is a relatively rare occurrence in the city. LCP had a clever idea to sell Three Musketeers chocolate bars at performances of The Three Musketeers earlier this year, but I’m hard-pressed to think of anything else from local companies along those lines in 2010.
On the flip side, it’s more often than not that visitors will have something available to complement their performances. T-shirts and buttons are common, and there’s an occasional CD or DVD. I’ve even seen merchandise worked into a …
It is with great sadness and we are sorry to confirm that Bruce Johnson passed away last night.
We ask that you give the family and The ARTS Project some time. There will be a time to honour Bruce. We thank you for your condolences.
Bruce became the president of the TAP board in 2008, and has been one of the most visible and gregarious members of the staff. His friendliness, knowledge and candour will be missed.
Listen to the candidates for the upcoming municipal election, read their flyers and handouts, and look around their websites, and in most cases you’ll notice something’s missing:
London’s arts community.
In late September seven individuals from arts-related festivals, companies, publications and websites met to discuss the lack of recognition for the city’s artists, in the current campaign and in general. (Disclosure: I’m one of those individuals.) Recognizing that there’s a large population of artists and arts supporters in London—if you’re reading this then odds are you’re one of them—the group decided to form ArtsVote London with the goal of raising the profile of artists’ concerns among the city’s politicians and support staff at all levels. Funding is a key issue, naturally, but so are topics such as limited public performance and exhibition space, showcasing London’s arts through the tourism office, and providing affordable living and working space for artists and …
The Brickenden Awards recently announced several changes to this year’s presentations and the registration procedures.
A new category, Outstanding Drama, has been added to the list of awards voted on by the core panel and members of the public. The previous Outstanding Youth Production has been split into two new awards, Outstanding Youth Drama and Outstanding Youth Musical, with both voted on by the youth panel and the public.
As previously announced, the touring category has been retired; in addition, the award for outstanding ballyhoo will no longer be presented.
The awards for outstanding original script (determined by a new script-reading panel last year), bravest production (previously publicly voted), and the Chris Doty Award (chosen by the adjudication panels and the Brickenden board) are now “discretionary”: they will not necessarily be given each year, and there will be no public nominations or voting.
Every year since 1981, UWO’s English Department has mounted one of Shakespeare’s plays during the summer. The first UWO Summer Shakespeare production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was overseen by accomplished theatre director Kenneth Livingstone.
The thirty Summer Shakespeare shows, which have been nominated for ten Brickenden Awards since 2001, have included All’s Well That Ends Well, Henry V, Macbeth, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale (twice each); Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night (three times); As You Like It (four times); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream a whopping five times.
The results of the 2010 Fringe Ballot, as voted by patrons of the festival, were announced at tonight’s Fringe Fried awards ceremony. In order of presentation, they are:
Best Film-on-the-Fringe: Rev Gone Rogue (Tommy Nugent)
Best VisualFringe Artist: Walter Sayers
Spirit of the Fringe: Jayson McDonald for The NO Show
Most Daring Production: unADULTeRATED me
Funniest Production: The Screw You Revue
Best Solo Performance: Justin Peter Quesnelle, Monster
Best Performance: Mikaela Dyke, Dying Hard
Best Original Production: Gunpowder
Best Show: Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens
Producer’s Pick, chosen by Executive Producer Kathy Navackas: The Screw You Revue
Congratulations to all of the award winners, and thanks to every single performer, artist, producer, director, stage manager, tech, trouper, staff member, board member, and patron who made this year’s festival such a success.
The London Fringe Festival has announced the shows for this year’s Impresario Series, as well as a special end-of-festival fundraiser featuring two of this year’s performers.
Monster, 8:00pm, McManus Studio Theatre (Venue #5)
Gunpowder, 8:30pm, Fanshawe College Theatre (Venue #6)
The Big Word, a fundraising spoken-word performance featuring One Man Riot‘s jem rolls and Fruitcake‘s Rob Gee, has been added at 9:45pm at The Lounge (Venue #7), which also serves as the venue for the Fringe Fried end-of-festival party.
All tickets for each performance are $10 and will be available at Fringe Headquarters (515 Richmond Street) and online beginning Friday, June 25, at noon. Unsold advance tickets will be available at each venue …
In 2006 Rachelle Fordyce brought her one-person show netherwhere:etherwhen, in which she played Charon, ferryman of Hades, to the Fringe festival. This year she’s back with unADULTeRATED me, a completely different show.
Theatre in London.ca: You’ve done some interesting training since netherwhere:etherwhen, including a long “Clown through Mask” program. How have those affected your work in general, and unADULTeRATED me in particular?
Rachelle Fordyce: I loved the “Clown through Mask” workshop and would recommend it to anyone. The process one goes through in the workshop can be applied to more contemporary styles of acting as well as to more theatrical forms, yet the workshop is specifically designed for participants to discover/uncover the 6 masks and 12 facets of their own unique and individual clown. unADULTeRATED me is done in clown, and applying even some of the most basic principles from the workshop has helped
Jayson McDonald’s name and work are well-known to Londoners, and increasingly to audiences and performers across North America. At the same time he’s performing his solo show Gunpowder in London and touring several other solo plays to festivals across Canada, his play The Last Goddamned Performance Piece is in production at the Ottawa Fringe Festival and his most recent directorial effort, Jeff Culbert’s one-man show archy and mehitabel, is also touring the country.
Theatre in London.ca: As well as being one of the most prolific (pervasive?) people on London’s theatre scene, you’ve also become Mr. Fringe in the last few years. What convinced you to take your shows on the road? Have your travels affected your approach to writing, performing, directing, etc.?
Jayson McDonald: I had been doing theatre in London for about fifteen years before getting serious about taking it on the road. After such a
If you had to come up with a recipe for a Fringe production, fluorspar miners, standup comedy, Rachel Corrie and a masters degree probably wouldn’t be your first thoughts for ingredients.
Yet all of them contribute to Mikaela Dyke‘s one-woman show Dying Hard, which debuts at this year’s festival.
The Newfoundland native moved to Toronto a few years ago to do a masters degree in drama. A long-time improv theatre performer, she had to promise her parents that she’d give it up because “if you start doing that [in Toronto] you won’t finish your masters. They were probably right.” After successfully finishing her program she “stuck around” to take part in the SummerWorks festival, and has found consistent reason to “stick around” ever since, working in theatre, film, social art projects, and even standup comedy.
It’s the latter aspect that brought her to London in April to perform …
A one-person piece written and performed by Briana Brown, Cassandra appeared at the 2006 London Fringe Festival during a cross-Canada tour. The play returns this year, but with a major change.
Theatre in London.ca: I was surprised to see how much Cassandra evolved over the 10 days of the 2006 Fringe, and in the two months afterwards, so I’m curious to learn how it’s changed in the four years since.
Briana Brown: I did another significant rewrite after the fringe tour in 2006 before performing it at FemFest (Winnipeg 2007). The major change being that there are no longer three sections to the play. All the breaks — which were extremely helpful from an acting perspective — are gone. The pace is better now. It’s a harder piece to perform.
Since then, I haven’t made many changes apart from updating a few references for this production.
Christel Bartelse has been to London several times since debuting CHAOTICA here in 2008, most recently as a performer in The Big Comedy Go-To.
Theatre in London.ca: It’s your second time at the London Fringe Festival and fourth time performing in London. What brings you back to the city?
Christel Bartelse: I had such a great time the first time I came to London. This is where I first performed CHAOTICA, my very first solo show, so it’s special to me, I was overwhelmed with the response. I love the people and the way the festival is run. It’s well organized and everyone’s so nice, supportive and generous. I wanted to come back last year, but I was still touring CHAOTICA, so wanted to wait until I had a new show to bring to this city. Very excited to be back.
When I saw the lineup for this year’s Fringe festival, the first thought that came to mind was “look how many performers are back!” Of the 45 companies, fully half are returning for a second, third or even fourth time around; what’s more, half of those are from outside London. I’m always curious to learn more of the ideas and thought processes that go into making theatre, so I asked a few of the folks from away to talk about coming back to London.
Appropriately first up is Detroit’s Tommy Nugent, whose posters for Burning Man & the Reverend Nuge started appearing way back in April.
Theatre in London.ca: It’s your third London Fringe Festival in a row; why this one, and why so often?
Tommy Nugent: London Fringe feels like my “hometown” fringe (foreign country and all — ha). I’ve made really close friends here over the
Earlier today it was announced that the 2010 Maggie Bassett Award will be presented to actor, director and educator Don Fleckser during this month’s Theatre Ontario Festival. More information about the award, including a list of his accomplishments in over 60 years of theatre, is in the full press release.
The awards for the 2010 London One Act Festival were awarded this afternoon at the Black Shire Pub. Thanks to all of the participants, the organizing committee and adjudicator Bernard Hopkins, and congratulations to the winners!
For many years local historian and filmmaker Chris Doty was also a prominent figure in London theatre. He was the first regular reviewer for Theatre in London, wrote plays including The Donnelly Trial and Citizen Marc: The Adventures of Marc Emery (with Jason Rip), and chose half of the first set of Brickenden Award winners himself (the other half were selected by public vote). Occasionally caustic, unrelentingly direct and always opinionated, his reviews chronicle the turn-of-the(-21st)-century boom in local independent theatre productions. His documentary film Let’s Go to the Grand! (released at the same time as Sheila Johnston’s book of the same name) also shows up from time to time on Bravo!
A little less than three years ago, though, the registration on Chris’ dotydocs.com website expired, which meant that much of the writing he did about historical people and places around London, including his “snapshot” articles on theatre, …
World Theatre Day is an annual global event celebrating theatre in all its forms. Since 1962 the International Theatre Institute has circulated an International Message written by practitioners ranging from Michel Tremblay to Laurence Olivier to Václav Havel; this year’s message was provided by Dame Judi Dench.
I’ve asked around on Twitter—an admittedly small subset of the community, but one I’ve found to be a representative sample—if anyone in London has planned to mark the occasion this Saturday and didn’t get much response. (If you know of any events, though, please comment below!) I’m pleased to announce, though, that the proprietors of City Lights Bookshop and Attic Books have both arranged to provide discounts on theatre books on March 27. I approached them as I know both stores have a good selection of items in their theatre sections, ranging from a play featuring works of art as characters to …
