Minnesota Fringe
Counting down to our departure for Minneapolis, for SPIN’s first US appearance, August 5-15. Excited to be taking part in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Mark Shyzer’s show Fishbowl (directed by yours truly) will also be there! Watch out, the Canadians are coming….
SPIN plays at At The Ritz Theatre Proscenium 345 13th Ave NE
Thursday Aug 5, 10 pm
Saturday Aug 7, 1 pm
Sunday Aug 8, 7 pm
Thursday Aug 12, 8:30 pm
Sunday Aug 15, 2:30 pm
“part theatre, part musical gig, part spoken-word poetry and part documentary…whatever it is, it is brilliant.” The Toronto Star (read the very delightful article about SPIN by Catherine Porter here)
Newfoundland wrap up
Sound Symposium = very fantastic. We had a great time in St John’s: SPIN went over super well (with thanks to our local bicycle-shop helpers Bills Bicycles, who lent us the light blue ladies Raleigh that played beautifully, and Canary Cycles, for the loan of the mechanics stand) and we have all developed buns of steal from walking the steep and unavoidable hills and stairs of downtown St John’s.
After the show, our last day in town was perhaps the most memorable: we stuck all our tourism into 12 hours, beginning with a hike up Signal Hill (what a completely magical place) on what i think must have been the hottest and windiest day of the year in Newfoundland – so windy they closed Marconi’s tower, and certainly somewhat anxiety-producing conditions for walking on the edges of high cliffs and rocks on the edge of the Atlantic . Throughly sunburned and windblown, we then went whale watching from Bay Bulls. We went out on the boat for a couple of hours, and saw whales, whales and more whales! So amazing!! So incredible! Two humpbacks were within probably 5 feet of the boat, and we traveled beside them for 10 or 15 minutes (or, I suspect, they decided to travel beside us) watching them surface and dive and blow their spray up in the air….such incredible creatures. Awe inspiring. The size of a school bus!
Whale watching was followed by the Cape Spear Sound Symposium finale concert/event, which took place as night fell in the World War II barracks at the easterly most tip of the country…a memorable, spooky and atmospheric event, where all the participating artists were given secret instructions in an envelope, which included sound-related tasks to be performed at a certain time during the hour of the event: my personal favorite was getting to scream for two minutes in an dripping, candle-lit, echoing hallway in the underground barracks.
Sound Symposium, St John’s Newfoundland
Team SPIN arrived in St John’s yesterday, and we spent much of today searching for a local bike for our show tomorrow night. We found a sweet little blue ladies Raleigh cruiser at Bill’s Cycle, and a mechanics stand kindly loaned from Canary Cycle, so we’ve got the goods, and will spend tomorrow wiring her up for show time. St John’s is so lovely. We are all still a bit lost all the time, but starting to get a hang of the colourful, winding streets (this town is NOT A GRID) and how to get where we need to go. Ate super-delicious fish cakes at The Ship tonight before the evening Sound Symposium show – which was a very fun evening. Highlight for me was Aiyun Huang, a fantastic percussionist who presented Tension Study II: Eagle Claw Wu Tsiano Chen Wins – totally inspiring percussion accompaniment / interpretation / study of women in kung fu movies. Also some great improv performances tonight.
Most hilarious moment of the night (only slightly more hilarious than the live human performance / interpretation of the harbour symphony) was going out to get a drink after the show, and we walked into a bar on Water St which was totally silent. Open, with people in it, but TOTALLY SILENT. It became hilarious after a moment of standing in the doorway, observing the 5 or 6 people all sitting at the bar texting on their cell phones…no music was playing, no one was talking, it was literally dead quiet, except for me and Brad and Anna who were hoping to, you know, talk and laugh over a pint. After what felt like a whole minute of continued silence, i cracked up and asked whether we were aloud to talk in here (we wondered whether we had found the Silent Symposium) and then some music went on and people started chatting…and we got our beers and chat and laugh in….
tomorrow we play our show at the LSPU Hall at 8:30, with Daniel Payne at 7:30.
Pride Rescinds
As of Wednesday night, Pride Toronto has rescinded their ban on Queers Against Israeli Apartheid marching in this year’s parade….that initial ban which sparked a shit storm of outrage over censorship of free speech and political expression at Pride, local and international controversy. I, along with many other performers and activists and community members, had canceled my own participation as a performer at the Proud Voices stage on July 3 because of the ban.
Here is the latest from Pride Toronto about their decision to rescind that ban.
I’m pleased to commend Pride on reversing that decision (and major kudos to all the people who worked hard to get that to happen) and I’ll be performing according to the original schedule at 4 pm on July 3. Before that, I’ll be heading up a squandron of cyclists at the Take Back the Dyke March, starting at 2 pm at Nathan Phillips Square- come ride with us!
G20 in TO
Thousands of cops on bikes swarming the city….fenced off downtown…and things are only gonna get crazier. Here’s a good little message from the inimitable Dave Meslin: some advice about ear protection and sound cannons!
Defintely Not the Opera
DNTO came over to the bicycle studio this morning to tape a little bit of SPIN for the radio! You can hear the podcast here.…you’ll hear “She Rides” played live, plus some bike-instrument samples, plus a little interview with me and DNTO guest host Mio Adilman. Turns out me and Mio both went to the same high school….once again, all roads lead back to Northern….
The road also will soon be leading to St John’s Newfoundland, for the Sound Symposium where we perform July 8th, and then to Minnesota where we perform in Minneapolis, August 5-15th. We perform the full production in March 2011, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto
Q & A about SPIN on Thursday
Q: Where can i get advance tickets for the May 20th SPIN performance?
A: You can’t. Tickets are ONLY AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR, first come, first served. Doors will open at 7:45. Sorry for any inconvenience! I suggest coming early to get in line, as it seems there are a lot of people planning to attend.
Q: Why is there only one show? The last time you did it in October is sold out…shouldn’t you do more than one night?
A: Yes, we’re planning to…next year! SPIN will return in March 2011 for a proper, two- week run at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. This presentation, put on with the very awesome Toronto Cyclists Union to celebrate Bike Month in Toronto is only our second workshop showing. Between this Thursday and next March, we’ll be taking the show on the road a bit, working on many of the design and technical elements….and presenting the finished product next year for a real run. Then, there will be advance tickets. In fact, if you want to order them now, you can, thru the box office at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
thanks for your patience,
love,
evalyn and her people
this week’s SPIN
News today is there’s a great article about SPIN in the Toronto Star! Courtesy of the very delightful Catherine Porter. We head down the 401 for a show at the London Music Club on Wednesday, and then back in TO on Thursday for our Bike Union show at the Tranzac.
We’ve been rehearsing for this workshop performance in our tiny little rehearsal space all week, jam-packed in there with our bike-instrument up on it’s stand, Anna’s array of effects pedals, harmonicas, accordian, melodica and the wired imbera, my mounting pile of costume changes (bloomers? check! boater? check! bowler? getting steamed and shaped! Inflatable puffed sleeves? Still waiting to see if they will work…).
Yesterday Catherine from the Star squeezed in on the couch (next to our marvelous director, the patient and inventive Ruth Madoc-Jones) to watch rehearsal; as we were mid-run thru, Jason from Riddle Films dropped by to pick up some video stuff, and turns out that Catherine knew Jason from high school. I swear, all roads lead back to Northern Secondary, even all these years later. She remembered seeing Jason in The Crucible – he played John Proctor – and having a crush on him (like we all did). I played Abigail in that show – but she didn’t remember me….oh well, now it’s a whole other kind of play we’re discussing: bicycling at the turn of the century, rather than witch burning in the mid 1600s.
I’m losing my mind a little bit cause this show really requires some proper technical and production management support and a lot more rehearsal time, and we don’t have either right now. But I keep reminding myself, this is a workshop. We try things out in front of an audience to find out what works. This is all part of the process! It’s about musical and script development. THEN… next year! When SPIN plays at Buddies for a proper two week run, THEN we will really do it up. THEN! we will have amazing set and video design. THEN! i won’t be running around trying to do the job of 7 people.
There’s Brad, percussing the bike:
Banff!
I’ve been out at the very amazing Banff Centre this past week, teaching at the annual Spoken Word program, with the (also very amazing) Sheri-d Wilson, Bob Holman and Regie Cabico. What a full and fantastic week. Mountains of thanks for this inspiring time with all the incredible poets who gathered here to write and learn and dig into the word. Banff is like Club Med for artists. It’s amazing that this place exists.
look here to see what i found waiting for me on my first walk around the campus
Breakfast is hot…
We’re entering our final week of Breakfast at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre…get your tickets now or never! Closes April 4th. Yes, that’s Easter Sunday. And happy Passover, too, while we’re at it.
Some Very Nice Reviews out (good enough to make an Independent Auntie proud) from the Toronto Star, Eye Magazine and The Globe & Mail..
Thanks to all who’ve come out to see it, and especially you who stick around to tell us your thoughts…
World Water Day
Here’s Bottle This! for your World Water Day listening pleasure. Spread it around!
“Breakfast” rises again…
I’m knee deep in rehearsals for “Breakfast”, the Independent Auntie’s (triple-Dora nominated) production which is being remounted at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in just a few weeks!
For those who saw our first production at the Theatre Centre in 2008, this time you’ll witness a whole new ending…which we’re hard at work on right now….for those who didn’t see it last time, here’s your chance to catch what critics called “one of the top 10 shows of 2008″… a fascinating, surreal trip through one woman’s psyche; an examination of our cultural obsession with self-help and personal transformation. Get your tickets now!
what’s new in the new year
Good things are coming up in 2010. Here are some highlights i’m looking forward to.
#1: a play that I wrote and act in: the remount of the Independent Auntie’s critically acclaimed show “Breakfast” runs for three weeks at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, March 17-April 4.
#2: SPIN goes to Newfoundland, for the Sound Symposium, July 2010! With some stops on the way, to be announced…
#3. I return to the Banff Centre this April, this time to teach at the 2010 Spoken Word program. While I”m out there, also performing in a couple great events as part of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival.
This month and next, i will be busy directing projects with the Young Creators Unit at Buddies, to be presented at the 2010 Rhubarb Festival. Rhubarb is an amazing three week festival of contemporary performance – my favorite theatre event of the year in Toronto, where you’ll see an array of new work unlike any your likely to see anywhere else. We’ve got a great group of Young Creators this year, and I’m very excited for their presentations. I’m also helping get Fishbowl back up on its feet: Mark is going to New York with the newly abridged version of the show which will play at New York City’s FRIGID Festival this March.
regretfully
Evalyn was bitten by a dog this weekend. Her mouth has a lot of stitches in it, and although she is recovering well, it is with great regret she has to cancel her participation in the Toronto Bike Awards this evening.
Igor Kenk gets 4 months?!
Unbelievable. Igor Kenk, the man who stole 3000 bicycles from Torontonians…gets sentanced to only 30 months, and those are reduced by the time he has already spent in pre-trial custody, so we’re talking only 4 months in jail. He pleaded guilty to stealing 10 bikes. That’s freakin hilarious. Now it’s not that i’m a big believer in jail as a good solution to anything. But it’s outrageous that his crimes don’t constitute something far more serious. If that was 10 cars he’d stolen (not to mention if it was 3000 cars)….perhaps the punishment might be a little more harsh?
As someone who has had 3 bikes stolen in the last decade in this city…i take the whole thing kind of personal-like.
read the coverage here:
20th anniversay of L’Ecole Polytechnique massacre
December 6th is a dark building that haunts me…
a number i can’t erase from my memory….
14 reasons to remember: 14 reasons to mourn:
14 reasons to be strong and proud you were born a woman
you can download a free copy of my piece “14 (for Dec 6)” from Borealis Records, available for a few days only, to mark the occasion of the 20th anniversary of this tragic event. Dec 6th is now designated in Canada as a National Day of Rememberance and Action on Violence Against Women.
from an island
I’m in the heaven of a west-coast gulf island, at the Poetry Gabriola Festival...played to a lovely, packed-house of islanders and poetry lovers last night, sharing the evening with the marvelous Sheila Norgate, and her “Timeless Tips for Girls Who Have Let Themselves Go” presentation. Hilary Peach performed her inspiring folk opera “Suitcase Local” on Friday night. Then took me and Tanya Evanson for a motorboat ride yesterday afternoon, where we communed with the seals sunning on the rocks off Gabriola. Another highlight of the weekend has to be arriving by float plane on the island on Thursday – the smallest plane i’ve ever flown in (held 3, plus pilot), taking off and landing on water on a shockingly beautiful November day, with an incredible view of the coast, the mountains and the water. i’ve never been out west in November when it rained so little.
here is me getting off the float plane!
gabriola float plane - girl almost lands in the water! pic courtesy of festival photographer Victor Anthony
Looking forward to the show with Alexis O’Hara, Christian Bok and Paul Dutton tonight. And then back to the mainland, to play in Vancouver on Sunday evening.
triumph!
The workshop presentation of Spin was a sold-out, standing-o night of excitement! The audience response was all I could have hoped for, and I am very pleased, as well as being full of ideas and thoughts, edits and improvements and more layers to add for round two…we hope to present it again in Toronto in the spring during Bike Month, and to take it on the road thereafter…more to report before long…in the meantime, check out some images from the technical rehearsal (photos by Omer Yuseker).
SPIN
This will be the first official WORKSHOP PRODUCTION of the bicycle show. OCTOBER 25th, 8 pm at the Hysteria Festival, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St, Toronto www.artsexy.ca. We are excited, to say the least. This workshop is directed by the marvelous Ruth Madoc-Jones.
Click here, or on the poster image to get to more info on the SPIN page!
Anna and Brad and I began rehearsals this week. Many exciting discoveries with the cello bow and the spokes! Also the digital delay and reverb pedal is working it’s charms. So is Anna’s Moog ring modulator. This Sunday Oct 11th, at my monthly Tranzac cocktail hour show, 5 to 7 pm, we’ll be trying out a little preview of some of the music from the show.
Big thanks are in order to the funding bodies that have made the development and upcoming presentation possible: the Ontario Arts Council (for support through both the Multi-Arts Program and the Word of Mouth program), the Toronto Arts Council (Music Composition grant), The Canada Council for the Arts (Career Development) and Buddies (where I developed the show through the Ante Chamber playwrights unit, and presenters of the Hysteria Festival) and the Banff Centre Spoken Word residency.
show images
Recording sounds at Buddies
Sound Symposium, St John's, NFLD 2010
Sound Symposium, St John's NFLD, 2010 - Miss Frances Willard!
bikes and buddies
It’s been an eventful few days. Mostly with good news, with a little bit o’ bad news in the mix. The bad is that my bike was stolen on Monday evening. I had been to see a good show, the Cave Singers, at the Horseshoe. I came out and found a busted lock (no more kryptonite ulocks garbage after this), left in two pieces along with my helmet. I’m glad they didn’t take my helmet, since i really like it a lot. A friend of mine sent me this link, which although perhaps a little extreme, does the job of expressing the feeling you get when your bike is stolen. The lowest of the low crimes.
The next day, in my slightly crazed state, i bought a new bike: a Batavus dutch commuter bike that I have been lusting after for some time. I also bought a super-industrial lock. So I am back to riding happily around town, now with super-excellent posture on my super-upright, euro-styles cycle. I have named her Stein.
Yesterday afternoon, i took Stein for her first trip across town, from Parkdale to the village, for a meeting at Buddies where, after weeks of deliberations, the Board of Directors were announcing our new artistic director.
So it is good new is that Buddies in Bad Times Theatre has a new artistic director, my esteemed colleague Brendan Healy. This is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of a pretty extraordinary theatre. It feels like a significant moment. An exciting and bold decision, which i believe is going to have important and exciting implications not only for Buddies, but for theatre in Toronto and across the country. Brendan is very articulate, passionate man with a big vision.
Other than these dramatic events….last weekend went to see one of the best lives shows i’ve seen in ages, The Ex and Getachew Mukuria. Also played the first of my monthly Sunday shows at the Tranzac, and it was great. Tried out a bunch of new material, which was nerve-wracking but pleasing. Next month will be me with special guest Kate Reid, and also Brad Hart and Anna Friz, performing some of the music from Spin with me. The workshop of Spin is coming up on October 25th at Buddies.
more summer adventures
Oh Owen Sound, SummerFolk! Sweet festival of my childhood. Pretty fun to get to be a grown up, playing the mainstage on Sunday night; even more fun to get to share a stage with Peggy Seeger (!) and Susan Werner on Saturday afternoon at the “Images of Women” workshop. Also the “Bicycles!” workshop with Coco Love Alcorn. We had some good times. Oh, and taking a yoga class on Saturday morning before the festival began with Clare at Priya Yoga- lucky Owen Sound that they have her for a teacher, that was some hell ya! yoga.
This past Monday I returned from a gig up in Port Elgin which is where the CAW (that’s right, that’s the Canadian Auto Workers) have their conference centre. I had the immense pleasure of performing for the opening night of their annual women’s conference, where female CAW leaders and members from across the country join together for a several-day intensive. Those are some incredible, powerful women. This is the second time I’ve been up to the conference, and next time I go, I am going to be taking my little recording device, and getting some of these ladies stories on tape. That is a songwriting project just begging to be undertaken. These women have some amazing stories and experiences to share about their work and lives. A highlight was getting to meet one of my political-sheros, Peggy Nash (who used to be my MP in Parkdale-Highpark).
Hey, check out the latest issue of Dandyhorse, the very fine, Toronto-based magazine dedicated to cycling culture. It’s a great publication. And this issue is all about musicians who love to ride. There’s a little interview with me about SPIN, the bike show (coming up…October 25th).
This weekend, off to Shelter Valley Folk Festival. Can’t wait.
onward summer
It’s almost a week later and i’m still recovering from a great (sleepless) weekend at Blue Skies festival in Clarendon Ont. Clarendon is a town of a few houses down a dirt road off Highway 509 sorta near Sharbot Lake, which is kinda near Perth, which is in Lanark County, sort of on the way to Ottawa if you were taking highway 7. Blue Skies is the amazing festival that has been going for over 35 years which takes place on this beautiful, rolling piece of land in the middle of nowhere: the festival sprouts up every summer over the August long weekend, a little village of tents, music and 3000 good souls and amazing musicians jamming around camp fires all night long. The weather was great, Magoo was the magical presiding MC ( and he once again blew me away with his unbelievable hosting skillz and incredible costume changes – i have a serious case of costume-closet-envy – and there were a bunch of fantastic acts on the mainstage every evening. My personal highlights being CR Avery, who just about blew my head off with his closing performance to the festival on Sunday night – lifting spoken word to whole new heights - and killer ukulele player James Hill with Anne Davison on cello. Also listening to Jaren Freeman Fox and Emilyn Stamm and Ben Whiteley, aka Goatnote…also dancing to Vancouver’s red hot Deli to Dublin. My set Saturday night on the mainstage was fun…(check out a couple nice pics here by my friend Jake Morrison) got a load of kids up on stage to play water bottle with me (and please note, no bottled water was sold or available at Blue Skies…a movement is truly happening, friends!)… even more fun than the mainstage for me was the all-acoustic, unamplified spoken word workshop session under the Meadow Tent on Sunday.
About all i’ve managed to do this week, besides sleeping and putting my things away, is get a haircut. oooo…shaved up the sides…i feel like i’ve gone back to montreal in the late ’90’s.
Oh, as per my stat about bottled water sales being down 3.3%, check out this encouraging article in the Huffington Post.
midsummer
Even if the weather isn’t exactly the best indicator, it does appear that summer is in full swing: I have returned from two weeks at a family cottage, full of swimming (sometimes in the rain) and reading, relaxing and rejuvenating…a bit of songwriting, and also i learned to knit while i was there (to date, I have completed one arm warmer, colour: eggplant. Very good looking).
Now I’m getting ready with the band for upcoming weekend music festivals: Blue Skies (in Clarendon ON), followed by Summerfolk (in Owen Sound ON) and then Shelter Valley, with a few other stops in between (see the full calendar for details). Who’s playing in the band this time around, you ask? This coming weekend at Blue Skies, we’ve got Brad Hart on percussion, Trevor Mills on bass, Dave Celia on guitar and Beth Washburn on the alto tuba. Summerfolk will be Dave and Brad with Suzie Vinnick on bass. Shelter Valley, it’ll just be me, and my lovely blue Gretsch guitar. Can’t wait: music festivals have been part of my summer’s since I was a kid, I feel lucky to get to now add my music and stories into the mix of these unique gatherings of people and music. Hope to see some of you out there…
This photo was taken in Whitehorse, Yukon at Arts in the Park – I was up there in the Yukon Territory for two glorious weeks this June (in the glory of the midnight sun). Thanks to my lovely host Cathrine Morginn for the photo.
Breakfast returns to Buddies 2010
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents The Independent Aunties in our play Breakfast, March 17 to April 4 2010. Find the Aunties below in the super-sexy Buddies Season brochure photo (Anna Chatterton, Evalyn Parry and Karin Randoja lurk among the other fabulous lady creators featured as part of the 2009 / 10 Buddies season, which has just been unveiled: more info at www.artsexy.ca
Ken McDougall Award
So on Monday night, May 25, I was duped into attending the Harold Awards in Toronto, having been told by Anna Chatterton (one third of the Aunties) that Karin Randoja (the other third of the Aunties) was getting an award, and we had to be there to help in the ceremony. Turns out, I was the one who was begin given an award – and it was a total and complete surprise to me up until the very moment it was being given. The Ken McDougall Award is given out at the Harolds every year by Theatre Passe Muraille, Buddies and Platform 9 Theatre, to a “promising emerging director”. In it’s 15th year for this award (16 for the Harolds), and I have to say, it feels like quite an honour to be in the company of the list of past recipients.
As David Oiye was introducing the awardee, before he said who it was for, he gave a list of descriptors and then of accomplishments and projects, and it literally took me several moments of thinking, “now that’s a kind of strange thing to say about Karin…” until it dawned on me that it wasn’t Karn… it was me. Seems the whole night of the Harolds is all about duping: the challenge being to get the people being “Harolded” to the party without them knowing that’s why they have to be there. The prizes (with the exception of the McDougall award) are handed down peer to peer: basically if you get Harolded one year, you pass it on the next, to a colleague who you want to acknowledge. It’s a really personal and really generous and really beautiful (and quite druken) event / tradition that only the theatre community could pull off. I loved being part of it.
As a super-grass-roots affair, doesn’t seem the Harolds or the Ken McDougall Award have any official website, but you can get the gist by looking at the Facebook page, or Praxis Theatre also has some entertaining stuff to describe.
Next up directing projects, you ask? Well…the 5th Annual PrideCab youth project at Buddies gets on stage June 17th at Buddies in Bad Times, and myself and Chy Ryan Spain are in the midst of putting that on it’s feet. Then I’m off to the Yukon, to work with Sour Brides on a new project. Also, the Emergency Monologues, by Morgan Phillips (which i “directed” last year at SummerWorks..I say “directed” because mostly I just laughed and said “do it again!”) plays again several times in the coming weeks as fundraisers, and then again at the Toronto Fringe. That show is really excellent and hilarious- which has little to do with me, and everything to do with Morgan’s genius as a storyteller (and paramedic). There’s a nice article in the EYE about it, check it out.
biking weather is back
and biking weather means that I am a happy camper. Because i don’t stop biking when it’s not really biking weather, but oh, is it ever so much more blissful to cycle when the breeze is warm and sun is shining and there are leaves on the branches.
I returned at the end of April from the Calgary International Spoken Word festival, followed by two amazing weeks at the Banff Centre spoken word program where it was all you can eat poetry for two weeks, plus also that crazy buffet and ridiculous desserts and incredible inspiration from the mountains and from the proliferation of amazing artists of all flavours. Lots of new writing bubbling.
Now I am back home in Toronto for the month. A couple weeks ago, i stumbled upon the most amazing music store, which is located in the marvelous 401 Richmond Building. Musideum is truly a unique and fabulous discovery…check it out, all you lovers of unusual and curious musical instruments. For my birthday i bought myself a shruti box: it is so awesome sounding and so good looking – another stylish free-reed for the collection.
There is a major commuter train project which is of great concern to people in my Parkdale Toronto neighbourhood. A new commuter train is ostensibly a very good thing…however, if we don’t act to stop the bizarely old-fashioned and backward thinking plan of Metrolinx to put some 300 additional DIESEL trains a day on the tracks (up from the 50 a day currently running) that run from Union station all the way up to the airport and Georgetown, things are going to get noisy and polluted pretty quick and it’s not going to be a good scene. Metrolinx need to act like they are living in the 21st century, and spend the money needed to invest in electric trains. The current plan is unthinkable. If you agree, then make your voice heard before June. Write a letter. The Clean Train coalition website is very useful and well-researched and thorough site, with lots of info.
In June I head up to the Yukon to do some work with Sour Brides theatre company, under that amazing midsummer, midnight sun. Then back to Ontario for some fantastic music festivals. xo
Fishbowl: a concise, expansive theory of everything
I directed Fishbowl, a one man show currently playing at Buddies, written and performed by Mark Shyzer. Opens April 1, plays until April 12 2009. Extremely hilarious. Check it out.
Some fun images from the show can be viewed here.
www.shyzer.ca has a couple hilarious little trailers for your viewing pleasure.
And there’s a nice review from Toronto Sun …”Fishbowl succeeds swimmingly…an impressive bit of character writing, packaged up and beautifully performed in a delightful little show” (John Colbourne, Toronto Sun). Read the whole review here
Leni Riefenstahl vs the 20th Century
Some images from Ecce Homo’s show “Leni Riefenstahl vs the 20th Century” at Rhubarb, in which i played Susan Sontag. Do you recognize me? I love my wig.
-
- Sontag and Riefenstahl play all-white chess
-
- Opera singing Valkyrie busts out of the chess board!
-
- Der Struwwelsusan gets mocked
-
- Sontag… wearing the “essay jacket” (designed by the marvelous Matt Jackson)
Check out the new Notes on “Camp” song. More stories of what’s up… coming soon.