Results tagged “berkeley”

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and it seems intended to supplement the Bluma's playing-it-safe season with "edgier, more provocative works." The first show, Wild Dogs (a co-production with Nightwood Theatre), is a stage adaptation of Helen Humphreys' eponymous novel. Up next, Studio 180 co-produces the Canadian premiere of Blackbird, a West End and off-Broadway hit by British (and consequently not Canadian) playwright David Harrower. The final co-production (with Necessary Angel) is the Toronto premiere of HARDSELL, a new work by Bigger Than Jesus team Daniel Brooks and Rick Miller. (Although, the only reason CanStage can claim "Toronto premiere" status is that the workshop presentation Brooks and Miller were going to present at Passe Muraille a month ago was cancelled due to illness.)

Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but it's certainly disheartening to finally see the company do something really, really right while knowing what's in store for the future. The abrupt departure of new Artistic Director David Storch a few weeks ago was enough of an unpleasant surprise. But further news reported in The Toronto Star was even more alarming. A total of 10 CanStage staff members have apparently been laid off, including dramaturge Iris Turcott, who, like Storch, will henceforth bear the dubious title of "consultant."

Palace of the End, Judith Thompson's most recent play, is not only her most political work, it is also her best. As most auditioning actors in this country have discovered, Thompson's greatest strength has always been her monologues, and in this piece, she uses that strength to its full advantage. In fact, she dispenses with character interaction altogether and breaks her show into three long monologues, each spoken by someone who has been greatly affected by the political situation in Iraq from Saddam's rise to power to the present. Interestingly, while Thompson has created the text for the show, she has not created fictional characters. Though they are not credited as such in the program, the following becomes clear: Maev Beaty's "American Soldier" is none other than Abu Ghraib's favourite dishonourable dischargee, Private Lynndie England; Julian Richings' "British Microbiologist and Weapons Inspector" is WMD whistle-blower and Thom Yorke muse David Kelly; Arsinée Khanjian's "Iraqi Mother" is the less notorious Nehrjas al-Saffarh, a woman who was tortured along with her children during Saddam's reign and died in the first Gulf War.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

The ever-excellent Spacing is celebrating the launch of their latest issue––an "eco-friendly" one, pictured above––next Monday, December 3rd.

If you're not already exhausted on September 7 after trying to check out M.I.A., Stars, The Hidden Cameras, k-os, and You Say Party! We Say Die! playing for free for U of T and Ryerson's frosh, why not throw in a little free Yeah Yeah Yeahs for good measure?

Early in May, Torontoist made it out to a free Long Winters concert at the Berkley Church. The show was terrific—we scored John Roderick's kazoo!—and, as it turns out, was just one episode in a series of shows put on for an HDTV channel in the States called called Rave HD. The aim of the show is to be something like "Sessions at West 45th," with a focus on capturing up-and-coming indie bands before they "make it big."

American playwright Tony Kushner is one of the most important playwrights of contemporary theatre. He also remains conspicuously under-produced in our fair city. His landmark play Angels in America (since adapted into a popular HBO miniseries) has received only one Toronto production in CanStage's 1996 season, noticeably absent from any season at Buddies. It's unsurprising then, in a way, that Mercury Stage's production of Homebody/Kabul at the Berkeley Street Theatre, a play that caused quite a stir in New York and London about six years ago is its Canadian premiere.

As the weather starts to get lovely, a band name has never seemed more appropriate. The Long Winters are playing a free show tonight in two hours and there are still (apparently) forty tickets left that they can give away. (We originally read about it on Chromewaves but were waiting to hear if there were enough tickets left to let our readers know.) If last October's show at Lee's was any indication, tonight's performance should be absolutely spectacular.

Canstage's publicity department might have you convinced that the only thing on their plate right now is the upcoming Rocky Horror production heading to the Bluma at the end of the month, but tucked away at the Berkeley is a real theatrical gem that deserves its own audience. Lucy, written by local actor/playwright Damien Atkins, is about a thirteen-year-old autistic girl who has to go live with a mother who abandoned her as a baby so that she can attend special schooling. At first, her mother has no idea how to cope with the demands of caring for an autistic child, but as the play develops, so does their relationship and the mother (played by Seana McKenna) realises she and Lucy may have more in common than she first thought.

We've admired the work done by the people at WorldChanging for a long time. The blog has opened our eyes to the hundreds if not thousands of creative solutions out there to some very pressing problems. The fact that the blog is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a green future is refreshing.

Canstage opened its new season at the Bluma Appel with a much-ballyhooed production of Of Mice and Men (scooping Stratford's 2007 season), which resulted in Torontoist's inbox becoming full of e-mails requesting that we audition our dogs for the show (we declined). Things recommenced rather more innocuously at the Berkeley Street Theatre with the world premiere of The Story of My Life, a self-labelled "small musical." The two-hander is all about friendship and death. Or something.

Bloggers, festivalgoers, volunteers and Yorkville shopkeepers can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but there's still plenty of fest left.

Ronnie Burkett has long been the patron saint of puppeteers - living proof that one can make a living by pulling strings. His marionettes are consistently beautiful, complex characters peering out of their carved faces, and his multi-faceted storytelling is always well-served by his theatrical ingenuity.

, which has its official opening tonight (we caught a preview yesterday). It's great to see Albee on Toronto's stages, and given the respect of a stellar cast. R.H. Thompson is great as Martin, a successful architect who, the week of his fiftieth birthday, admits to his best friend that he's been having an affair with a goat (the eponymous Sylvia) for the past six months. This news wreaks havoc on his relationship with his wife, Stevie but seems to bring him closer to his son, Billy, whose homosexuality Martin has been having difficulty dealing with (a fact that seems somewhat ironically hypocritical, given the circumstances).

Dear Theatre Dude,

Une oeuvre du dramaturge Michel Tremblay, Impératif Présent, est présenté du Théâtre Français de Toronto (TfT) du 5 au 15 mai.

Guy Mignault, directeur artistique du TfT affirme à l’Express de Toronto : «Le personnage du bourgeois gentilhomme, est une espèce de nouveau riche. Actuellement, c'est l'argent qui mène le monde. Ce bonhomme-là est en train de s'acheter une noblesse. Il est entrain de prendre un théâtre qui s'appelle Pantages et de l'appeler Canon. Il est en train de prendre un Skydome et de l'appeler Rogers Centre.»

Marc Favreau (SOL) a fait ses débuts il y a 46 ans au petit écran et avec le clown Gobelet. Il a cependant commencé sa carrière solo en 1972. Depuis, il nous fait connaître maintes subtilités de la langue française avec des monologues qui touchent des sujets qui nous sont proches, comme l’environnement, la pauvreté et la surconsommation. Cette fois-ci, il nous présentera « Retour au Souche, Sol », mais on peut aussi lui valoir des titres comme « Prêtez-moi une oreille à tentative», présenté en mars dernier au théâtre de la ville de Longueil, et un DVD portant sur toutes ses années de carrière.

À la suite d’un congrès d’affaire au Moyen Orient, Hélène décide d’y rester pour y retrouver son collier de perles en plastique déposé sur un fil transparent; un collier évanescent le vendeur a-t-il dit. L’importance de ce collier auquel Hélène semble tant attaché nous paraît si mince comparé à la situation de ceux qui ont vécu la guerre dans ce pays en revitalisation. La pièce de la dramaturge québécoise Carole Fréchette est actuellement présentée par le Théâtre Français de Toronto (TfT), au théâtre Berkeley. Bien que cet acte soit d'une redondance ennuiyante, cette pièce a beaucoup de potentiel qui n’a guère le temps d'être exploité en une heure. D'une part à cause de la limite de temps, et d'autre part, de la comédienne, qui présente le personnage d’Hélène sur un ton monochrome.