Results tagged “summerworks”

Walking into Actionable, one of the first things you’ll notice is the Warner Brothers logo projected onto a screen…only the letters are reversed, spelling out the initials of performer Bob Wiseman. The backward order also represents the backward, frustrating ways of the music industry that Wiseman has experienced over the course of his career. Over the course of the stories and songs that make up Actionable, you’ll learn that lawyers from the major labels aren’t amused when you jokingly decide to pick up a name that a star is not using at the moment, claim relation to an industry executive, and drop the name of a major soft drink manufacturer when singing about 1970s Chilean politics. No wonder a former Rolling Stones manager once called the business “the industry of human happiness.” While often amusing, a melancholy tone underlies much of the material, especially during one song about personal identity.

Montparnasse is the name of an area of Paris (Left Bank, 14th arrondissement, named after Mount Parnassus) and also the name of a certain bit of Parisian mythology (early 20th-century epicentre of artistic productivity and site of correspondingly legendary bacchanalia). Montparnasse is the play at SummerWorks that explores these intersecting worlds, examining what it might take to make your way through them in both the practical and mythological senses. Co-authored and co-performed by SummerWorks veterans Maev Beaty and Erin Shields, Montparnasse tells the story of two American ex-pats, one diving headlong into the revelry and one pursuing the loftiest of artistic aspirations, both working as nude models to make ends meet all the while.

On the night of the Great Lightning Storm of '09, we were tucked away in the sweltering Theatre Centre on Queen West, watching Toronto Noir and wondering if the thunder was coming from inside or out. The dramatic weather paired perfectly with these moody tales of love, jealousy, and murder that were adapted from a collection of short fiction published last year under the same name.

In Daniel Barrow’s Every Time I See Your Picture Cry, the overhead projector is liberated from its usual role in tossing static images onto a surface. A kaleidoscopic parade of illustrations flow across the screen, as revolving overlays keep limbs and other objects in constant motion.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, so we are often told, is full of missed opportunities. So too, unfortunately, is QuipTake's production of Apricots, which takes that process and the conflict that underlies it as its subject. There is no shortage of material to work with, and the play opens quite promisingly with duelling speeches by the leaders of Israel and Palestine, punctuated with interjections by a bombastic and self-congratulatory American president. The premise of that scene—in which the politicians say what is really on their minds, what we all know is really on their minds, but what protocol will forever prevent them from saying out loud—is precisely what a play on this particular topic calls for: using the truth as a tool to skewer the pretensions and prejudices of everybody involved.

This sentence is leading off this review. This sentence is intended to mimic the speech pattern that dominates the first segment, and recurs at transitional points among the other pieces, of Red Machine: Part Two. This sentence is telling you that this production is the middle portion of a trilogy that began at this year’s Fringe. This sentence hopes not to alarm as much as the sentence in the program where one of the two directors hopes that the audience will “let yourself be as curious and confused as we are” about this work in progress. This sentence won’t deny that we experienced curiosity and confusion while watching the three short pieces taken from the point of view of different pieces of a writer’s brain. This sentence is proof of how the language games of the first piece etch themselves in the brain, though it may be up to you whether this is appealing or, as repeated at the end of the production, if “this is a sentence” of the legal kind.

"Today, we're going to go from Manila, Philippines to Toronto, Canada," began Byron Abalos as he stood before a rapt group of about twenty SummerWorks tourists, ready to embark on the inaugural run of the Lola Lita SummerWalk ("Lola" means grandmother in Tagalog). "It’s going to be a very personal tour, looking at Queen West through the eyes of my Lola Lita."

What happens during the night shift? That's the simple question which provokes Suburban Beast's new docudrama show The Art of Catching Wild Pigeons by Torchlight. An off-site performance at Rolly's Garage on Ossington (note: a real garage, not the name of a hipster bar), Wild Pigeons invites you into a sleepover blanket fort—complete with flashlights—to listen to a group of actors in plaid shirts sing Neil Young songs and tell "ghost stories." The stories in the script, created by Jordan Tannahill, are all taken from real interviews the actors conducted with various night owls: a prostitute, an insomniac, night-shifters at Tim Horton's and Wal-Mart, a Nunavut prison guard, and many others. Each story is accompanied by a slide show, and occasionally a shadow play with the aid of blankets and flashlights (note to Suburban Beast: the shadow stuff worked really well, but there wasn't enough of it; more shadow puppets, please).

How lucky are we that the "artistic funhouse" (a.k.a. the SummerWorks Performance Gallery) is on for seven more nights (August 7–9, 13–16)? Yesterday, we took in the debut soirée at the atmospheric Gladstone Hotel, not knowing what to expect, and left agape at the stunning performances that are practically being given away for free (PWYC). On any given evening, as many as seven different five- to eight-minute shows are available for patrons to peruse at their leisure, taking place in the rooms (including the restroom) and hallways on the second floor. The doors to the balcony facing Queen Street are thrown open to the summer evening, letting the sounds of the city meld with the eclectic mix of performances that make up the Gallery. Below are some we particularly enjoyed.

Hello, Toronto! Drama Club has been taking it easy ever since a certain mid-July theatre festival, but we're back in action to give you the scoop on SummerWorks, August's indie answer to the Fringe. Some of you may remember how the festival got revamped and re-branded last year thanks to then-new Artistic Producer Michael Rubenfeld, who added such elements as a Music Series and a "Performance Gallery" at the Gladstone Hotel to the theatre festival, and also limited it to the Queen West strip. All this and more continues at the fest this year, and while we're not entirely sure about this year's roadkill visual motif (or the now annual tradition of sexist and kind of indulgent promotional videos), it's exciting to see the festival grow and develop.

DRINK: Toronto’s Festival of Beer (on until August 9, but Saturday is SOLD OUT) has moved to Bandshell Park this year to more easily accommodate the expected thirty thousand beer-swilling participants. This year, 250 brands of beer will be represented at the festival, accompanied by sizzling barbeque from Napoleon Gourmet Grills and great music from headliners 54–40 (Thursday), Arrested Development (Friday), and Elliott Brood (Sunday). Women considering heading down to the festival tonight might want to consider buying a ticket for the Girl’s Guided Beer Tour—a women-only tour with plenty of extra perks for the same price as regular admission. Exhibition Place, Bandshell Park (210 Princes' Boulevard), 4–10 p.m., $50.

It's your absolute last chance to catch something at SummerWorks before the Indie Theatre and Arts Festival closes up shop for another year. Last night, two of the more interesting shows at the festival had their closing night performances. Fewer Emergencies, a collection of three potentially related short plays by British playwright Martin Crimp, is a show unconventional even for absurdist drama that's as likely to be called a masterpiece as a piece of something else entirely. A Soldier's Story/L'Histoire du Soldat, on the other hand, is an extremely accessible show that combines storytelling, dance, and a chamber orchestra to tell an old Russian fairytale.

Winter Miller's In Darfur, playing now at SummerWorks, is set in 2004, when the world knew little about the genocide in Sudan. Maryka is a reporter for The New York Times who wants to break the story and doesn't care what she risks in order to do so. Carlos is a UN doctor concerned only about the safety of the community he serves. And Hawa is an English teacher who has experienced the genocide first-hand and may be the key to telling the world about the atrocities.

FILM: Tonight at the Revue Cinema, join bands The Flatliners, The Wooden Sky, The Sinisters, Maximum RNR, and more for a tribute night to Canadian cult film Hard Core Logo. Following a screening of director Bruce McDonald's cut of the film, McDonald will be doing a Q&A. There will also be appearances from secret special guests and prize giveaways of rare vinyl, t-shirts, and CDs. The event is presented by JUICEBOXdotcom's Sam Sutherland and Ashley Carter (former and current Torontoist contributors, respectively). The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., $12; proceeds go to education initiatives at the Revue Cinema.

The Pastor Phelps Project: A Fundamentalist Cabaret is certainly one of the most talked-about shows at this year's SummerWorks Festival. Although the notorious funeral-picketing pastor's Westboro Baptist cronies didn't actually make it into the country, it certainly can't have hurt the show's ticket sales. A collective creation made up mostly from found transcript text (FOX News, The O'Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, etc.), the play explores the role Fred Phelps, Sr. has carved out for himself in popular culture.

For years, SummerWorks has been kid sister to the Fringe. Smaller, shier, not quite as well-known (if often more reliable thanks to its policy of juried play selection as opposed to Fringe's random lottery). But there comes a summer in every kid sister's life when she starts going through some "special changes" and suddenly all her older sibling's friends turn their heads when she walks by the pool in her tankini. We already started to discuss the direction in which new Artistic Producer Michael Rubenfeld has started to take the festival, which has now been re-branded as "Toronto's Indie Theatre and Arts Festival."

It's almost August, and some of us know that means it's almost SummerWorks. The juried theatre festival has taken a bit of a different turn this year, under the new artistic leadership of Michael Rubenfeld, and is branching out into music and performance art. In a shockingly tech-savvy move for the Toronto theatre community, it also has a blog. Last week, the blog started posting viral videos, including one where veteran Canadian actor/playwright Michael Healey yells for someone to "fuck his wide ass," and the video featured in this post, titled "Expression." In the video, playwrights Hannah Moscovitch, Tara Beagan, Claudia Dey, Rose Laborde, and Linda Griffiths discuss the travails of being "hot playwrights." The video, which culminates in a pillow fight, has already sparked a comments war on the fest's blog about its feminist implications.

Here's something to clear away your post-NYE doldrums: the Fringe, everyone's favourite early-summer theatre festival (don't worry, SummerWorks, you're our favourite late-summer theatre festival) has had a baby. Aw! Last Wednesday, something called The Next Stage Theatre Festival began at Factory Theatre. Next Stage really is like a baby Fringe: a smaller festival of only 8 shows running in rep at a single theatre, complete with a heated beer tent.

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.

For those readers who do not happen to be massive Shakespeare geeks, it is worth noting that his high comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream finishes with a brief monologue delivered by the mischievous fairy Puck, which begins, "If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear." It is from this quotation that the SummerWorks play Offensive Shadows derives its titled. The play is a sort of sequel to Shakespeare's comedy, set five years after the events of Dream, though the setting, the dialogue, and the references are uniformly modern.

With gravel paths and ivy exterior all in shadows, Factory Mainspace at night is the intimate ideal home for Corrina Hodgson’s Simply Told. By turns both bold and fragile, this father-daughter dialogue explores the nature of truth (or truths) in family dynamics. Tense from the outset, the blunt emotional honesty on display builds until audience members are shifting in discomfort.

Somewhere along the journey from being the achingly beautiful lead in John Greyson's Lilies, to guest spots on Train 48 and Relic Hunter, to his current stage work, Jason Cadieux has become a very talented actor. In Hard Ways, his new one-man show currently being performed at SummerWorks, he proves that he isn't a bad playwright either.

Remember Thumbelina, the thumb-sized girl from folklore who suffered harassment from various garden creatures before flying away with a fairy prince? Ever wondered what followed "happily ever after"? Well, according to The Trial of Thumbelina—Gord Rand's postmodern, post-apocalyptic take on the fairy tale—our little nymph heroine would go on to suffer all kinds of slings and arrows over the centuries, only to end up at the Hague awaiting her trial for crimes against humanity.

Nelly Boy is the story of of Nelson/Nelly, a genderqueer teen being interrogated by a mysterious man after a series of events that occurred at a shopping mall. The play is written by the talented Dave Deveau (pictured) who h-core fans will remember from his days on the sweet 90s spooky anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Jasmine is the kind of show that's a perfect fit at SummerWorks. It tells the story of a working-class family that immigrated to Canada from Communist China and the strain that emerges between the son, who was raised in Canada and does not speak Cantonese, and his parents, who have never entirely left the old country behind. And what's more Canadian than a story like that? Jasmine is actually a sequel to Pu-Erh, a popular SummerWorks show from a few years ago.

If one thing can be learned from the seedy-yet-tragic life of John C. Holmes, it's that bigger is not always better. So don't dismiss the SummerWorks Theatre Festival (which opens today) as a month-late, poor cousin of the Toronto Fringe simply because its complete playbill boasts only 40 shows, rather than Fringe's 140. There are a few reasons why SummerWorks is a grower and not a shower. For one thing, while successful Fringe applicants are chosen through random lottery, SummerWorks is entirely juried, which means that each and every script and proposal is read by a committee who decides which shows will be a part of the festival. And no, that doesn't necessarily mean any SummerWorks show you see will be better than any Fringe show you see, but the smaller festival (which is housed at Factory, Passe Muraille and Tarragon) is often a safer bet in the theatre festival crapshoot. To help you out a bit, Torontoist has enlisted three of its most theatre-savvy dudes to give you their picks for the fest.

On Wednesday night, One Reed Theatre remounted last year's SummerWorks hit Nor the Cavaliers Who Come With Us. (Side salad: this year's SummerWorks line-up gets posted on their website this Sunday - who's excited?) Their run last summer was sold-out, and if opening night's full house was an indication, this looks to be another well-attended run. And with good reason.

Starting today, the three-week long New Ideas Festival 2007 takes over the Alumnae Theatre. Week one and two feature six plays each while week three has five. Each night of the festival, you get to see them all. But they're short! So it's OK!

After a whirlwhind, SummerWorks-filled weekend (we saw nine shows in three days for Eye - whew!), Torontoist needed a couple of days to recover from the theatre marathon. But it was all worth the risk of brain implosion, for there are some really stellar pieces playing this at this year's festival, and you still have a whole weekend left to catch them. Here are our top three:

Cirque du Soleil's much-anticipated new show, , opens tonight in that signature blue and yellow tent next to Ontario Place. If Torontoist's trusty informant (we're in with one of the ushers) is to be believed, Cirque's latest offering once again promises the usual suspension of the laws of physics, this time for a story involving a clown's funeral procession.