| The RED Letter, Jul 2008 |
Table of Contents
1. Words from Lisa Pijuan-Nomura
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer so far. My apologies for the lack of a letter in June. It’s been a challenging few months for GirlCanCreate and we have decided to take a hiatus until September so that we can recharge to deliver you the best letter full of inspiration, art and recommendations. Here is a mini letter with a great interview and info about the Bread Cabaret that happens in one week today! I hope to see some of you there, I promise that it will be an exciting show! See you in September! Lisa P.S. Check out the Summerworks Festival, it’s sure to be filled with great theatre! P.P.S. If anyone knows about podcasts, and is interested in sharing some knowledge, please feel free to contact me! 2. Interview with Convergence Theatre Co-Artistic Directors, Julie Tepperman and Aaron Willis
(I first met Julie Tepperman a number of years ago when she did a very funny sketch as part of a RED event! A lovely person and talented artist, I heard about her work with the Gladstone Variations and wanted to find out more about the project and the process! She is the co founder of Convergence Theatre along with Aaron Willis. Get your tickets soon, this is sure to be a sell out show! ) Tell us a bit about the Gladstone Variations. The Gladstone Variations is composed of four original simultaneously performed interconnected plays that take audiences on a journey into connected worlds of dreams, memories, and lost loves through Toronto’s historic Gladstone Hotel. How it works: The four plays are divided into two “variations”… In Variation One, a Bride waits tearfully for her impending Groom in Rick Roberts’ The Tearful Bride, and a pair of Queen West scenesters have a mysterious encounter with the hotel’s unofficial Karaoke Queen in Mike McPhaden’s Requiem For A Hotel. In Variation Two, a down-and-out stranger is on the trail of a missing girl whena mysterious new leadbrings him to the steps of the Gladstone in Brendan Gall’s The Card Trick, and an old man refuses to leave the room he has rented in Julie Tepperman’s I Grow Old. A person can only see one variation in an evening (meaning 2 of the 4 plays). Each variation does stand on its own as a complete experience, and that experience is enriched if you come back and see the other. How did the Gladstone Variations come into being - was it a collective creation? Convergence Theatre was inspired by the plays Tamara (by John Krizanc, produced by Richard Rose & Necessary Angel Theatre in the 1980s) where the audience follows the characters around a gigantic mansion, and House & Garden (by Alan Acykbourn) - two plays written to be performed simultaneously by the same cast of actors for 2 separate audiences in adjoining theatres. Each play stands on its own (much like ours) but is enriched if the audience returns and sees the other another night. So, for instance, if one sees House one night, the next night they can return and see what happens when Character A exits the House to go sit in the Garden. We wanted to take it a step further by challenging 4 playwrights to write for the same environment as well as share characters between them. After a few initial brainstorming meetings and tours of the building, much of the evolution of this character sharing happened over e-mail exchanges. In some cases, text was even borrowed and repeated from one play to the next. Eventually, it was up to the directors to work out the logistics of how the same actor moves from one play to another, some times with only 30 seconds to spare. So in that sense it has been more of a collective collaboration than a true collective creation, in that each playwright was still working independently to create their own play, though much like our name suggests, we were all converging on the same idea – to create an inter-connected play that was inspired by and could only ever be performed at the Gladstone Hotel. 3. Why were you interested in telling the story of the Gladstone Hotel. I mean, there are so many interesting spots in this city. Why this one? Initially, we wanted to explore the possibility of creating a play in a hotel because hotels are places of transience where many people with many different stories exist at the same time under one roof, sometimes interacting with each other, sometimes not. As we explored possible venues it became clear very early on that we were not interested in telling The Best Western Variations, rather wanted to explore a hotel specific to Toronto. We were drawn to the Gladstone because of its age (it is Toronto’s oldest continuously operating hotel since it was built in 1889) and its rich social history, especially since the recent renovations under new ownership. In our research we began to key into the tension between the hotel as an ever-growing popular arts hub and the Parkdale community who, much like other neighbourhoods, struggles with gentrification. We began to see the hotel as a place where people from opposite worlds struggled to co-exist and wondered, as artists, how we might reflect this in our plays. The fact that all of the plays have themes of ghosts and a sense of the past in the present and that the main characters are all over the age of 50, searching for something they have lost and struggling to come to terms with that loss is a happy accident, both eerie and wonderful! That said, it’s important to stress that this is not “docu-drama” – we did not set out to write accurate portrayals of recent or past events of the hotel. But as Hank, the “Gladstone Cowboy” who has worked at the hotel since the 1960s said: “none of these stories happened here, but they could have.” 5. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced creating a play in a non-traditional theatrical environment? With this project we are interested in challenging common notions of how and where theatre can take place and at the same time push the boundaries of intimacy between actor and audience. That said, the Gladstone is a busy functioning hotel and there are many elements that we cannot control! There is sometimes an element of “street theatre” when the audience isn’t sure if the person walking through the play is a character in the play or a guest in the hotel. Like the time a real live groom from an actual wedding happening downstairs in the ballroom walked through the play The Tearful Bride – the whole audience gasped at first thinking her groom had finally come and then realizing that he wasn’t part of the play but was actually a real live groom! But by his walking through the play he became part of the play – even if only for that one audience that one time. That is one of the things we also have aimed to create this time around, that sense of “accidental encounters”. For the actors, one of the main challenges and also most exciting thing is being so vulnerable in their acting with the audience literally just a breath away. Perhaps, at times for the audience it is too close, witnessing moments too private, but that is exactly the kind of courageous, no-place-to-hide acting that makes this a unique experience and we hope at the end of the journey both actor and audience have been transformed as a result of their intimate exchange. 6. Advice for emerging artists? Learn by doing. And go beyond your circle of peers and comfort zone to build a strong ensemble of like-minded artists made up of both peers and mentors. One of the wonderful things about The Gladstone Variations is that we have such a large and diverse ensemble of artists (28 in total). The show has brought together actors, playwrights and directors (who often wear more than one hat) at various stages in their careers, from emerging artists like Athena Lamarre and David Yee to well- established artists such as Richard Greenblatt & Richard McMillan, or people slightly older like Janet Amos & Robert Nasmith who helped pioneer Toronto theatre in the 1970s. We were truly amazed that everyone said "yes" to the project, and as a result of people's generosity and willingness to risk, a wonderful kind of collaboration, exchange of ideas and mentorship amongst artists has occurred. 7. Your favourite places in Toronto. The Gladstone Hotel! Yummy, organic, free trade coffee/food, wireless internet, great music, great people. T.A.N. Coffee – The Alternative Network: a great new café we discovered at Queen & Ossington run by a wonderful young entrepreneur named Marilyn. Organic, free trade, home made coffee/food and an amazing backyard with 2 HAMMOCKS! Addis Ababa Ethiopian Restaurant at Queen just east of the Gladstone – run by these two HILARIOUS sisters who go crazy over a dirty joke! The Gladstone Variations 3. The Bread Cabaret: July 20, 2008(I am so excited to bring you the third installation of the Bread Cabaret. I, of course, have a few surprises planned and hope to see you all there. The artists that are programmed are brilliant… but then again, I am a bit biased!)
Join us on Sunday July 20, 2008 for a night of live performance!
Curated by Lisa Pijuan-Nomura Featuring with special guests Limited seating – come early! Doors open at 7:00 p.m. Tickets: Bread and Circus Theatre and Bar In Kensington Market For box office or more information please contact 4. Photography by Dave Pijuan-Nomura
Check out more of Dave's work at artistasan.etsy.com 5. Last Thought
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