FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 2000. All Rights Reserved
Cover Story
by Lori Montgomery and Jeff GoffinThis week’s Betty Mitchell Awards ceremony not only celebrates the past year’s accomplishments in the local theatre community, it also signals the beginning of yet another one. Professional companies, dinner theatres, community productions, performance festivals – it’s gearing up to be another eventful year.
To help you keep tabs on what’s in store for the 2000/01 season, Fast Forward’s theatre writers have endeavoured to provide a comprehensive list of who’s out there and what they’re up to on the city’s stages.
(Please note: the list is as complete as possible in that it does not include touring companies as well some information not available before press time.)
ALBERTA THEATRE PROJECTS
Bouncing back from the edge in the comeback story of the year, Alberta Theatre Projects is mounting a big mainstage season and another exciting playRites’ Festival.
"More than special effects, more than social issues, more than being avant-garde, in choosing the season I was looking for great stories that have great characters attached to them," explains artistic director Bob White.
The "core four" are precisely that. Eugene Stickland’s quirky hit from playRites ’98, A Guide to Mourning opens the season. Dark and gritty visions appear in Problem Child by George F. Walker and Perfect Pie by Judith Thompson. The comic hit, The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey, closes the season with a funny perspective on theatre and farming. And for Christmas, ATP is staging a "family-friendly" show, Anne, adapted by Paul Ledoux from Anne of Green Gables.
Of course, added to all of this is the premiere of four new plays at the PanCanadian playRites 2001.
CALGARY OPERA
"Opera is hot right now," says Calgary Opera general director Bob McPhee. "Calgarians are much more familiar with opera and are less likely to be scared off by misconceptions about it."
Calgary Opera is staging both classics and new works in a season billed as "larger than life." Verdi’s Il Trovatore opens the season in October with the tragic story of a Gypsy’s quest for revenge. Next is a modern American classic, Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, the story of a young girl who suffers social oppression and alienation in a small Tennessee town.
The season concludes with Puccini’s famous Madame Butterfly, a tragedy about a Japanese girl’s undying love for her faithless American husband.
CHIMAERA PRODUCTIONS
"Lilith Fair tried to change how people view women musicians," explains Erin McLaughlin of Chimaera Productions, "we are trying to persuade people that stories about women are more than ‘chick’ stories."
With that in mind, Chimaera begins the season with a female version of the classic Neil Simon comedy The Odd Couple, about two mismatched roommates. In contrast, Joanna McClennand-Glass’s If We Are Women in the spring will present a poignant, poetic perspective on life as three generations of women reunite at a beach house.
Ground Zero
There’s certainly a grand plan behind the placement of Ground Zero’s November and February productions, according to artistic director Ryan Luhning.
"I’m not saying it’s a battle of the sexes," he says, "but it’s a kind of yin-yang thing."
The first is Eric Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, a series of 13 monologues delivered in ferocious performance-art style by an all-male cast. In February, a cast of 17 women will attack Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, an off-Broadway hit that Ground Zero says "will transform the question mark hovering over the female anatomy into a permanent victory sign."
The two shows bracket the January tradition of OYR’s High Performance Rodeo, where Ground Zero inaugurated the 10-Minute Play Festival last year. Companies have 24 hours to write, rehearse and stage a short play for Rodeo audiences. Last year’s event sold out the Engineered Air Theatre leaving many disappointed, so it moves to the 600-seat Martha Cohen Theatre this year. And in May, AfterShock 2001 will highlight new scripts by local playwrights. The festival is expanded to a month this year, and will be kicked off by Looking After Eden, a new play by Stephen Massicotte (The Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook).
HIDDEN INSANITY THEATRE
"Theatre should be something fun that anyone can do," says Amanda Hillman of Hidden Insanity Theatre, Calgary’s newest company dedicated to comedy and improv. "We want to have fun."
Building off TV’s latest phenomenon, the company will open their season in late September with Survivor Improv, which will pit two teams of improvisers against each other for a fabulous prize. In October, audience and improvisers go for the gold in the Improv Olympics. The final offering will be an evening of one-act plays called Take 2, which, according to Hillman, will "delve into the interesting possibility that things are not always as they seem."
LIFFEY PLAYERS
"We tend to do fairly light-hearted plays," says Steve Shutt. "We've done plays that are more challenging too, but you can't do a steady diet of them."
A mainstay of Calgary’s community theatre scene, Liffey Players is dedicated to doing plays by and about the Irish. First is the comedy Drama At Inish by Lennox Robinson, which is about a small Irish community turned upside down by the arrival of an acting company. Next is Hugh Leonard's Madigan’s Lock that follows the antics of two Dubliners planning to sail upriver to, surprise, Madigan's Lock.
Loose Moose Theatre
The schedule at Loose Moose Theatre is always hectic, what with kids shows, improv and the occasional scripted insanity for adults. This year, that last category includes an inevitably crazy Macbeth with Eric Amber and Derek Flores, and the second annual (someday a tradition?) Christmas show, A Chrismoose Carol. The kids shows are Little Red Riding Hood, The Elves and the Shoemaker, Young King Arthur, and Rumpelstiltskin (all weekend matinees). As usual, evenings and late nights on the weekends are the province of the company’s specialty improv theatre, with Micetro Impro, Hot Nuts and Popcorn, Gorilla Theatre, and a Late Night Lab.
Loveseat Dissidents
This small band of intrepid theatre-makers sprung from the alumni of Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park, and continues to move from project to project when interesting ideas come up. Founder Sean Bowie says that his plans for this season include an outdoor Christmas show at Olympic Plaza – he points out that, being from Manitoba, he considers a Calgary winter to be perfect weather for outdoor theatre.
Lunchbox Theatre
Lunchbox Theatre is justifiably proud of the work they do during their Petro Canada Stage One new play development series, and for the upcoming season, the company will again highlight three plays from last year’s series: Inconceivable by Carl Ritchie; I Eat by Lindsay Burns, Charlotte Petti and Cory Wilson; and The Landscape Artist by Doug Curtis.
One-woman shows – a perennial favorite – are represented by Jo-Ann Waytowich (Ivanka Chews the Fat, successor to I Can Sing, Can’t I? and I Can Shop, Can’t I?) and Shannan Calcutt (Burnt Tongue, an adult clown show). Clem Martini’s 1989 play The Life History of the African Elephant will receive a nostalgic production directed by former Lunchbox artistic director Bartley Bard and featuring the original cast. Last season’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) finds its mate in this season’s The Complete History of America (Abridged), a hectic race through history with a trio of bumbling storytellers. Finally, Michael Healey, whose The Drawer Boy will be produced at ATP this season, also scores royalties from Lunchbox for Kreskinned.
Also new, Clem Martini, who has written 12 plays for Lunchbox over the years, signs on as artistic associate.
MOUNT ROYAL COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE
"I think this is one of the best seasons that we’ve planned," says Doug Rathbun of the upcoming productions by the Mount Royal College department of theatre. In conjunction with the 90th anniversary of the college, the first production will be the world premiere of a new musical by Calgarians Tom Doyle and Winn Bray. Evangeline is the epic tale of two lovers cruelly separated by the expulsion of the Acadians from 18th century Nova Scotia.
In February, the battle of the sexes will take centre stage in Lysistrata, the outrageous anti-war comedy from ancient Greece. The season concludes with John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which follows the Joad family in the Great Depression as they leave their dust bowl farm for promise of better life in California.
Old Trout Puppet Workshop
One of the most interesting new companies to display their wares at last year’s High Performance Rodeo, the Old Trouts will reconceive their rodeo show, The Unlikely Birth of Istvan, for OYR’s regular season in November. They’re also developing a new show, The Tooth Fairy, for next year’s Rodeo.
"Suffice to say that it is a puppet epic about the creepy tradition of trading baby teeth (symbol of childhood innocence) for money (symbol of adulthood corruption)," writes Old Trout’s Judd Palmer.
In other news, the company has come in from the cold, moving their production headquarters from a ranch near Waterton to a workshop in Inglewood.
One Yellow Rabbit
The Rabbits have assembled a busy season of touring, fund-raising and event-oriented programming, beginning with the Fall Cabaret, which will feature a new twist this year. The cabaret will run over two weekends in October, with each weekend featuring a separate cast of performers, including the OYR ensemble and special guests (watch for Dave Bidini, of the Rheostatics). One of the highlights of the local theatre season every year, OYR’s High Performance Rodeo is a snapshot of performance across Canada and around the world. This year, the 15th annual event runs January 4 through 27. March is marked by a new OYR show, Love In the Bird House, by Denise Clarke (Radioheaded, So Low), directed by Blake Brooker. As usual, the Summer Lab Intensive will offer artists a chance to hone their skills under the watchful eye of the OYR ensemble and guest teachers like John Murrell and Chris Cran, and the company will continue to tour Daniel Danis’s Thunderstruck (at the Edinburgh Fringe right now, and the Factory Theatre in Toronto this winter).
PLEIADES THEATRE
Usually dedicated to murder and mayhem, Pleiades Theatre’s features classics and contemporary plays this year. Emily Bronte’s ever-so-romantic Wuthering Heights and Agatha Christie’s puzzling Murder at the Vicarage will offer traditional mystery fare.
For a change of pace the Pleiades includes two comedies this season, The Farndale Avenue Housing Estage Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery and the world premiere of Funeral Ladies by local playwrights Mariette Sluyter and M.J. McCann. Completing the season is a dark and twisted game of deception, Killing Time, by Richard Stockwell.
Flying high from last year’s record-breaking attendance, artistic director John Paul Fischbach assures that Pleiades is ready "to take the audience on another great ride."
SAGE THEATRE
After last year’s successes with Tough and Bent, Sage Theatre will present two equally dynamic plays: Polygraph by Robert Lepage is an innovative, cinematic production built around the narrative of a murder mystery; and Canadian Graffiti by Rob Moffatt is a recent success from the Edmonton Fringe Festival.
Moffatt describes the latter production as a musical celebrating growing up in Calgary. "Imagine American Graffiti meets Dazed and Confused in Forest Lawn."
SCORPIO PRODUCTIONS
"We’re exploring the frontiers of comedy," says Allison Roth, producer of Scorpio Productions. Another new company on the Calgary scene, Scorpio is devoted to comedy from the fringe of theatre. A season emphasizing improv and sketch comedy is scheduled for the cozy confines of Inglewood’s New Dance Theatre.
In October, superheroes and supervillains take the stage in The Death and Life of Lethargic Lad, while in December sketch comedy combines with holiday cheer in Prof. Nikolai Tesla Explains It To You. The season concludes in March with an evening of one-act’s in the Scorpio Spring Double Header.
The Shakespeare Company
Apart from Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park, most local companies shy away from the huge casts required to produce Elizabethan theatre of any sort, but there is a haven for deprived fans of the Bard. The big news for The Shakespeare Company this season is a move from the in-the-round style of the Pumphouse Theatre to The Engineered Air Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre.
Hamlet leads off the season, starring Richard Kenyon and directed by LuAnne Morrow, followed by the comic insanity of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Merchant of Venice. The increasingly prominent Inspired Shakespeare Shorts – an international festival of new plays about or inspired by the Bard – closes out the company’s fifth anniversary season.
STORYBOOK THEATRE
The most ambitious community theatre is StoryBook Theatre, which will present two series of plays for young people. The Cookie Cabaret offers four lively, interactive shows for kids three to seven years old, staged at the Crescent Heights Community Centre. This year the Cabaret will include The Colour of Rain-Filled Air, the winner of Storybook’s annual playwriting contest.
For the older kids, seven and up, The Adventure Theatre series has four mainstage plays with elaborate sets and costumes. This year will feature The Prince and the Pauper, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Pinocchio and Annie.
"We strive to create vivid images that will last a lifetime," says artistic director Paul Stanton.
Theatre Calgary
Theatre Calgary will kick off their season with Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing, but they’re already getting excited about the second show on their slate, the Tennessee Williams favourite Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Starring Kate Newby and Ryan Luhning, and helmed by Polish director Tadeusz Bradecki, the play follows a well-received staging of The Glass Menagerie last year. TC artistic director Ian Prinsloo worked as assistant director under Bradecki at the Shaw Festival, where Bradecki has staged Shaw’s Heartbreak House and Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and Luigi Pirandello’s groundbreaking Six Characters in Search of an Author.
The festive season wouldn’t be complete without TC’s annual production of A Christmas Carol, which is gradually getting a facelift with new sets, costumes, and script.
A co-production with the Manitoba Theatre Centre will allow Theatre Calgary to stage Lerner and Loewe’s epic Camelot in February, and the company will return to another of their audience’s favourite playwrights with the J.B. Priestley (An Inspector Calls) psychological thriller Dangerous Corner. The season will close out with Wendy Wasserstein’s 1992 play The Sisters Rosensweig.
THEATRE IN EXILE
Theatre in Exile specializes in presenting exciting new plays that have been translated into English and that have never been seen in Calgary.
"We like to present a different culture through its drama," says artistic director Gail Hanrahan, "and to stage works that break the boundaries of the stage."
This year’s contribution is Normand Chaurette’s The Queens , a poetic script in which a parade of Shakespeare’s queens – from Queen Margaret to Queen Elizabeth – interact in a surrealist drama of greed, ambition and destiny.
Theatre Junction
Any self-respecting theatre fan should see at least one production at Theatre Junction, a company thats mandate of producing the modern classics has expanded to include modern adaptations of older favourites and premieres of classics-to-be.
This year’s eclectic season starts out with a new take on Moliere’s The Misanthrope, set in modern-day London. One of Theatre Junction’s biggest successes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, returns to the Betty Mitchell stage after a four-year absence, and after Christmas, German playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt’s 1956 The Visit receives a rare staging. Local writer Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet, about Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, will be ready for staging in March, and the season ends with The London Cuckolds, a Restoration comedy by Edward Ravenscroft.
University of Calgary
The U of C’s department of drama has put together a collection of audience-pleasers for its 2000-01 season, beginning with Shakespeare’s rarely staged Love’s Labour’s Lost. It’s a light-hearted beginning to the season, offering a chance for students to strut their stuff in a play that’s pure fun. Vaclav Havel’s Temptation offers a mid-winter occasion for somewhat deeper thought – the 1985 version of the classic Faustian bargain with Satan was written shortly before Havel himself entered politics in his native Czechoslovakia.
Nineteenth-century farce has served the department well in the past, and February sees a production of Johann von Nestroy’s The Talisman: Or the Wigs of Fate. Closing out the season will be the now-annual collective creation, this year using the new millennium as a jumping-off point.
WAITERS ON STAGE
Waiters On Stage is a company of artists who share a background in restaurants and a love of theatre. Their season opens in January with Daniel MacIvor’s challenging family drama The Soldier Dreams. In the new year the big excitement for Waiters On Stage will be their First Annual Calgary CAN Play Festival of New Works. The festival will feature new works by local writers along with cabaret readings, workshops and ancillary events.
The company’s main contribution will be the premiere of Jason Long’s Submarine Wars, described as a "delicious and low-fat tale of friendship" set against the rivalry between two sub shops.
WORKSHOP THEATRE
Workshop Theatre is the oldest community theatre in Calgary, dating back to the days before Theatre Calgary and ATP.
"We’re not just a theatre, we’re more of a family," says executive producer Earl Singer. "We have people who have been with the company for years."
This year’s season, to be staged at the Pumphouse Theatres, features four plays: Charley’s Aunt, Funny Money, Breath of Spring and The Mousetrap. Each two-week run includes a special dinner theatre night.
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