Results tagged “danielbrooks”

Rick Miller has made a name for himself through his explorations of two of our society's most important (and ever-present) icons: Jesus Christ and Homer Simpson. MacHomer, his one-man version of Shakespeare's Scottish play as performed by the cast of Matt Groening's yellow-skinned dysfunctional family, has toured the world to great acclaim. His follow-up to that show was Bigger Than Jesus, a collaboration with accomplished director Daniel Brooks, which examined everyone's favourite carpenter from several different angles. In the duo's latest co-creation, HARDSELL, familiar cultural figures are absent. Instead, they give us an entirely new face. Literally.

The Eco Show is a new Necessary Angel co-pro currently playing at Buddies. It's also the latest work written and directed by Daniel Brooks, so it would seem to go without saying that it's one of the most visually striking plays of the season, with masterful use of sound, lighting and A/V. It tells the story of a mysterious, insular family presided over by the sanctimonious and wheelchair-bound patriarch Hamm (yes, ha ha). Put-upon wife Gwen takes care of Hamm, his dying father, his sick daughter Fifi and his moody teenage son Joe. Don't be fooled by the title. Although Hamm is prone to the odd "what is the environment coming to?" tirades, the ecology being scrutinized by the piece is a very small and particular one: that of the featured family itself.

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.)

Necessary Angel has just announced a totally cool event planned to take place on March 3, 2008. Three playwrights will be given the opening lines for a new play. Each playwright will have 4 hours in which to write said play, after which three different teams will have 5 hours to rehearse the works. When those 5 hours are up, the plays have to be performed at Necessary Angel's annual gala at the Capitol...

It's true. Torontoist fave Daniel MacIvor has given up doing those kinds of plays. You know, those one-man marvels directed by Daniel Brooks and chock-full of magic realism, gorgeous minimalist design, and MacIvor's own captivating performances? He's had enough of those and has moved on to "play plays." You know, linear narratives with multiple actors, realistic locations and resolvable conflicts? And that's exactly what we get with How It Works, which is being performed...

Living Tall is basically an entirely perfect one man show, and it's only playing at the Tarragon Extra Space until Sunday, so you'd better get your act in gear. The script by Mike Geither is tight, hilarious and fascinating, Karin Randoja's direction is focused and inventive and Ker Wells' performance is astounding and completely compelling. The show, which was quite successful at this year's SummerWorks festival, is structured as a pop psychology sales seminar delivered by a man who seems slightly unhinged, if shockingly energetic. The seminar details a multi-step plan to become a more successful salesperson based on the concept of "living tall," even if you aren't tall yourself. Wells prances around the stage like an acrobat who's had a few too many Red Bulls, using hilariously unhelpful transparencies on an overhead projector as visual aids.

What's that you say? You were out of town last fall when Daniel MacIvor's Here Lies Henry got remounted at Buddies and was the best thing since sliced bread? You were clinically dead in January when Monster, the second awesome remount of the one-man shows MacIvor created with Daniel Brooks went up? Well, cancel your trip to the Sea of Tranquility, because you have exactly 14 more chances to see the final remount, House, before it closes on April 1st and MacIvor, Brooks and Da Da Kamera officially retire these shows and disband their company forever.

Another month, another Daniel Brooks show at Buddies. Technically, this remount of the Daniel Brooks/Guillermo Verdecchia-written show that last appeared in Toronto in 1998 is directed by Chris Abraham, but it has Brooks' fingerprints all over it. And what that means is a masterful use of lighting and sound that is almost worth the price of admissions alone.

Are you excited to see this fall's Hysteria Festival? Gearing up for Rhubarb! in February? Well, stop already, because they aren't happening. Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto's favourite theatre/gay dance party, has scrapped its entire usual season in favour a series of performance creations, put into groups called Wave One, Wave Two and Wave Three (reminds us a little of what Passe Muraille did last season with Stage 3). But don't worry! This is a good thing. Hysteria and Rhubarb! will return from their hiatuses next season (Torontoist is sad too, but we'll manage) and some pretty exciting things are happening in their place. Not least of which are the remounts of three of Daniel MacIvor's one-man Da Da Kamera shows, beginning with Here Lies Henry, running through this Sunday.

The Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations were announced yesterday at the top of First Canadian Place. And for once, there is little to argue with… (Well, there's always something to argue about, so feel free to go at it in the comments here.)

Judging from a workshop production Torontoist saw last year at Passe Muraille, Half Life could be Mighton's most emotionally-satisfying and well-balanced work to grace the rhombus-shaped platform we call the stage. There’s hardly any theoretical musing in it at all… Well, except for the fact that one of the main characters is a judge in a Loebner Prize-esque Turing Test competition where computer scientists try to create artificial intelligence. But, for the scientophobic, that little fact is easily forgotten.

Questions we suspect are not answered in include: “Why does every theatre artist who had a strict Catholic upbringing have to write a play about the religion he/she has left behind?” and “But is it bigger than Dick Cheney?"