There's controversy over at the Shaw Festival:
"Toronto's Andrew Moodie, 40, electrified the country's theatrical community last week when he announced that he was starting an online initiative he calls Share the Stage to lever the festival, started 46 years ago at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., to embrace such practices as colour-blind casting. In the announcement, Moodie asks: 'Does the festival actually have a policy to exclude people based on race?'"
"Moodie thinks that the Shaw should emulate the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. "They've got it right. ... They're working with members of colour to commission new plays and commission plays that are black-themed." This year's Stratford cast an African Canadian, Nikki James, as the lead in Romeo and Juliet and hired an African American, Ron OJ Parsons, to direct Joanna Glass's Palmer Park: A Visit to Post-Riot Detroit."
You can read all the quotes and reactions in the Globe and Mail article.
J. Kelly Nestruck, in his blog for the same paper, expands on the comparison to Stratford:
"The contrast with Canada's other big repertory company is striking. Over at the Stratford Festival, there are actors of colour playing Juliet, Helen of Troy, Christopher Sly, Cleopatra (in a play by Bernard Shaw, no less) and rebellious Fuente Ovejunians, to name just a few. There isn't a big fuss made about it, either. Maybe it's because Shakespeare's characters were originally all played by male actors, but non-traditional casting is just the way Stratford roles. (Apologies.)"
Nestruck also points us to two Shaw actors, Ali Momen and Thom Allison, who have responded to the issue in their own blogs.
So . . .
What do you think?
Showing posts with label Shaw Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shaw Festival. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Stratford Looks Better Than Shaw
From Richard Ouzounian at the Toronto Star:
"Each of our two major theatre festivals – Stratford and Shaw – has by now launched 50 per cent of their seasonal programming, making it a good time to take stock of things.
"The bottom line? This year, Stratford is offering its most exciting season in recent history, while over at Niagara-on-the-Lake it's just more of the same old – maybe even a little more so than usual.
"The simple fact is that, in this era of high fuel prices, lengthy border crossings and shrinking vacation budgets, you've got to do something spectacular to draw tourists to these theatrical destinations.
"Stratford seems to have found the right stuff to do it, but things in Niagara are looking increasingly problematic.
"Last season was Jackie Maxwell's fifth at the Shaw, replacing Christopher Newton after the latter had provided 23 years of prosperity and quality programming.
"Maxwell immediately ran into trouble. Although she could try to point to the SARS crisis as the major reason for declining audiences, that's not enough to explain the multi-million-dollar deficits she incurred in her first two seasons.
"No, the trouble was – and still is – her programming of the flagship Festival Theatre, which is the money engine driving the company.
"It doesn't matter that shows on the smaller stages like Rutherford and Son and Floyd Collins were huge critical hits.
"What's more to the point is that audiences stayed away in droves from Canadian plays like The Coronation Voyage and Nothing Sacred.
"In fact, the sole year in the past five during which Maxwell achieved a modest five-figure surplus from audience attendance (rather than fundraising) was when she introduced a mainstage musical in 2005 with Gypsy.
"But the following season, even though High Society was a huge audience favourite (despite universally appalling notices) the major reason for the festival's only near-million-dollar surplus in Maxwell's tenure was a 15 per cent increase in fundraising activity.
"Last year, the musical was Mack and Mabel, which failed to draw a crowd, and the deficit was close to $1 million again.
"This year? Maxwell opened with a drably cast, poorly staged, strangely directed version of An Inspector Calls that is not going to generate any excitement at the box office.
"The musical Wonderful Town got amiable reviews from most critics, but it, too, won't light any revenue fires. And the final show of the mainstage trifecta won't bow until July 18 when Maxwell's production of Mrs. Warren's Profession has its debut.
"It could be brilliant, but without any box office stars in the cast, I'm willing to predict it will face an uphill audience climb as well.
"Any trace of real invention seems to have vanished from the current programming. Remember those years when Shaw provided us with must-see shows like Cavalcade, Cyrano de Bergerac or The Women?
"Also, some of Maxwell's best actors (Ben Carlson, Evan Buliung, Trish Lindstrom, Mike Shara, Nicole Underhay) have defected to Stratford, television or other theatres.
"Well, as the beleaguered parson shouts out to the heavens in John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk, 'Ammunition's getting mighty low, Lord!'
"Up in Perth County, there is considerably more buzz going on. Despite the nightmare events of mid-March when two-thirds of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's artistic directorate resigned, things have been chugging along nicely.
"Even when the shows haven't completely succeeded (like Romeo and Juliet or Cabaret), the productions have displayed the kind of enthusiasm and new ideas that are the lifeblood of theatre. And any week that can boast three triumphs like Hamlet, The Music Man and The Trojan Women has certainly earned my admiration.
"Even though Michael Langham's Love's Labour's Lost was a boringly mistaken proof that what might have worked in 1961 was not so hot in 2008 and Peter Hinton's The Taming of the Shrew looked more like a graduate student's thesis than an actual production, the overall feeling was still high.
"So far this season, Stratford has contented itself with showcasing Canadian stars and I doubt anyone, anywhere, will get better reviews this summer than Ben Carlson, Jonathan Goad and Seana McKenna have earned so far in Hamlet, The Music Man and The Trojan Women.
"To stir up audience interest further, Brian Dennehy opens three shows in late June, while August brings Christopher Plummer back to home ice. There's also an exciting work by Lope de Vega, two new Canadian plays and Simon Callow in his one-man show about Shakespeare's sonnets.
"Think star power like that doesn't matter? The owner of one of Stratford's most prestigious restaurants told me that from the first preview of Plummer's Caesar and Cleopatra to the end of the season, he's almost fully booked.
"Let's make it clear. I'm not saying that every show being done at Shaw is bad and every one being staged at Stratford is good.
"But the new regime of Antoni Cimolino and Des McAnuff at Stratford is already looking like the start of a very promising theatre company.
"While over at Maxwell's House, the only thing stronger than the scent emanating from Niagara-on-the-Lake's fudge shoppes is the Eau de Masterpiece Theatre floating off its stages."
"Each of our two major theatre festivals – Stratford and Shaw – has by now launched 50 per cent of their seasonal programming, making it a good time to take stock of things.
"The bottom line? This year, Stratford is offering its most exciting season in recent history, while over at Niagara-on-the-Lake it's just more of the same old – maybe even a little more so than usual.
"The simple fact is that, in this era of high fuel prices, lengthy border crossings and shrinking vacation budgets, you've got to do something spectacular to draw tourists to these theatrical destinations.
"Stratford seems to have found the right stuff to do it, but things in Niagara are looking increasingly problematic.
"Last season was Jackie Maxwell's fifth at the Shaw, replacing Christopher Newton after the latter had provided 23 years of prosperity and quality programming.
"Maxwell immediately ran into trouble. Although she could try to point to the SARS crisis as the major reason for declining audiences, that's not enough to explain the multi-million-dollar deficits she incurred in her first two seasons.
"No, the trouble was – and still is – her programming of the flagship Festival Theatre, which is the money engine driving the company.
"It doesn't matter that shows on the smaller stages like Rutherford and Son and Floyd Collins were huge critical hits.
"What's more to the point is that audiences stayed away in droves from Canadian plays like The Coronation Voyage and Nothing Sacred.
"In fact, the sole year in the past five during which Maxwell achieved a modest five-figure surplus from audience attendance (rather than fundraising) was when she introduced a mainstage musical in 2005 with Gypsy.
"But the following season, even though High Society was a huge audience favourite (despite universally appalling notices) the major reason for the festival's only near-million-dollar surplus in Maxwell's tenure was a 15 per cent increase in fundraising activity.
"Last year, the musical was Mack and Mabel, which failed to draw a crowd, and the deficit was close to $1 million again.
"This year? Maxwell opened with a drably cast, poorly staged, strangely directed version of An Inspector Calls that is not going to generate any excitement at the box office.
"The musical Wonderful Town got amiable reviews from most critics, but it, too, won't light any revenue fires. And the final show of the mainstage trifecta won't bow until July 18 when Maxwell's production of Mrs. Warren's Profession has its debut.
"It could be brilliant, but without any box office stars in the cast, I'm willing to predict it will face an uphill audience climb as well.
"Any trace of real invention seems to have vanished from the current programming. Remember those years when Shaw provided us with must-see shows like Cavalcade, Cyrano de Bergerac or The Women?
"Also, some of Maxwell's best actors (Ben Carlson, Evan Buliung, Trish Lindstrom, Mike Shara, Nicole Underhay) have defected to Stratford, television or other theatres.
"Well, as the beleaguered parson shouts out to the heavens in John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk, 'Ammunition's getting mighty low, Lord!'
"Up in Perth County, there is considerably more buzz going on. Despite the nightmare events of mid-March when two-thirds of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's artistic directorate resigned, things have been chugging along nicely.
"Even when the shows haven't completely succeeded (like Romeo and Juliet or Cabaret), the productions have displayed the kind of enthusiasm and new ideas that are the lifeblood of theatre. And any week that can boast three triumphs like Hamlet, The Music Man and The Trojan Women has certainly earned my admiration.
"Even though Michael Langham's Love's Labour's Lost was a boringly mistaken proof that what might have worked in 1961 was not so hot in 2008 and Peter Hinton's The Taming of the Shrew looked more like a graduate student's thesis than an actual production, the overall feeling was still high.
"So far this season, Stratford has contented itself with showcasing Canadian stars and I doubt anyone, anywhere, will get better reviews this summer than Ben Carlson, Jonathan Goad and Seana McKenna have earned so far in Hamlet, The Music Man and The Trojan Women.
"To stir up audience interest further, Brian Dennehy opens three shows in late June, while August brings Christopher Plummer back to home ice. There's also an exciting work by Lope de Vega, two new Canadian plays and Simon Callow in his one-man show about Shakespeare's sonnets.
"Think star power like that doesn't matter? The owner of one of Stratford's most prestigious restaurants told me that from the first preview of Plummer's Caesar and Cleopatra to the end of the season, he's almost fully booked.
"Let's make it clear. I'm not saying that every show being done at Shaw is bad and every one being staged at Stratford is good.
"But the new regime of Antoni Cimolino and Des McAnuff at Stratford is already looking like the start of a very promising theatre company.
"While over at Maxwell's House, the only thing stronger than the scent emanating from Niagara-on-the-Lake's fudge shoppes is the Eau de Masterpiece Theatre floating off its stages."
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Behind the Scenes: Millinery
Judy Gerstel, reporting for the Toronto Star, brings us behind the scenes of the millinery department at the Shaw Festival (I know).
"Margie Berggren is the head milliner, working with assistant Christine Grosskurth in what is charmingly referred to as the 'hats, spats and cravats' area of Shaw's wardrobe department.
"The milliners are responsible for 'any decoration on the head' of Shaw actors, including flowers, tiaras and military caps, explains Berggren. Helmets, however, are considered props and fall within the purview of the props department. 'I don't do metal work,' quips Berggren.
"What she does do is translate the designer's sketches into fabric. 'My job is to create their vision,' she explains. The process begins with selecting swatches and compiling a loose-leaf book for each show ('my bible') with a page for each costume with a hat.
"For musicals, says Berggren, there may be as many as 180 hats to fashion. This year, Wonderful Town, set in 1935, required 77 hats, including a handsome brown felt fedora worn by the character Ruth, the older sister.
"'The women's hats are mostly felts, hand blocked with creases,' she says, 'and we've tried to make them so they're not shading their faces or interfering with the sound, because the girls are all miked.'
"'Seasons can be very different in volume depending how much the characters are indoors or outdoors,' Berggren says.
"During Shaw's era (the Irish playwright lived 1856-1950), anyone who was getting ready to go outside would put on a hat but generally wouldn't wear one indoors, she says. [Hats were also essential to Shakespeare's era, and are often quite prevalent even in displaced productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.]
"The theatrical millinery process finishes with the fittings on the actors: 'Is there a wig? Is there a quick change? Any special action the hat has to do?'"
Leah Oster (Marion Paroo), who spent two seasons at the Shaw Festival, addresses the functionality of wardrobe in Wednesday Webcast #7: Rehearsing The Music Man. It will be posted to the archives and the Festival's YouTube channel later today.
In the meantime, you can continue reading about millinery at the Shaw Festival.
"Margie Berggren is the head milliner, working with assistant Christine Grosskurth in what is charmingly referred to as the 'hats, spats and cravats' area of Shaw's wardrobe department.
"The milliners are responsible for 'any decoration on the head' of Shaw actors, including flowers, tiaras and military caps, explains Berggren. Helmets, however, are considered props and fall within the purview of the props department. 'I don't do metal work,' quips Berggren.
"What she does do is translate the designer's sketches into fabric. 'My job is to create their vision,' she explains. The process begins with selecting swatches and compiling a loose-leaf book for each show ('my bible') with a page for each costume with a hat.
"For musicals, says Berggren, there may be as many as 180 hats to fashion. This year, Wonderful Town, set in 1935, required 77 hats, including a handsome brown felt fedora worn by the character Ruth, the older sister.
"'The women's hats are mostly felts, hand blocked with creases,' she says, 'and we've tried to make them so they're not shading their faces or interfering with the sound, because the girls are all miked.'
"'Seasons can be very different in volume depending how much the characters are indoors or outdoors,' Berggren says.
"During Shaw's era (the Irish playwright lived 1856-1950), anyone who was getting ready to go outside would put on a hat but generally wouldn't wear one indoors, she says. [Hats were also essential to Shakespeare's era, and are often quite prevalent even in displaced productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.]
"The theatrical millinery process finishes with the fittings on the actors: 'Is there a wig? Is there a quick change? Any special action the hat has to do?'"
Leah Oster (Marion Paroo), who spent two seasons at the Shaw Festival, addresses the functionality of wardrobe in Wednesday Webcast #7: Rehearsing The Music Man. It will be posted to the archives and the Festival's YouTube channel later today.
In the meantime, you can continue reading about millinery at the Shaw Festival.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Shaw Festival Slipping
Richard Ouzounian reports online at the Toronto Star:
"For the third time in the five seasons that Jackie Maxwell has been the artistic director of the Shaw Festival, the organization has posted a major deficit.
"At Friday’s annual general meeting, a shortfall of $927,000 was announced for the 2007 season on a budget of just over $25 million.
"Whereas this is nowhere near as disastrous as the $3 million and $2.57 million deficits incurred in 2003 and 2004, it does signal an end to the seeming upturn the organization had enjoyed in 2005, when it ended $52,000 in the black and 2006, where the profit margin reached $714,000.
"Just in terms of sheer dollars and cents, this would mean that Shaw has incurred an overall deficit of $5.73 million over the past five years.
"The board of directors has reduced this figure to $1.9 million, citing their use of a 'rainy day fund' and their own system – unique among Canadian arts groups – of claiming the Festival’s existing assets to help write down the amount of its operating deficit.
"On the positive side, the Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation now manages investments of $16.4 million.
"Treasurer Keith Mosley cited 'a volatile environment for theatre and tourism' as the reason for the 5% decline in box office revenues that led to this year’s deficit.
"However, faced with the identical economic realities, the Stratford Festival’s paid attendance rose 6% during the same period and yielded a $221,000 surplus – its 14th consecutive year of black ink.
"The Shaw Festival begins its next season on April 1st with a preview of the musical Wonderful Town."
"For the third time in the five seasons that Jackie Maxwell has been the artistic director of the Shaw Festival, the organization has posted a major deficit.
"At Friday’s annual general meeting, a shortfall of $927,000 was announced for the 2007 season on a budget of just over $25 million.
"Whereas this is nowhere near as disastrous as the $3 million and $2.57 million deficits incurred in 2003 and 2004, it does signal an end to the seeming upturn the organization had enjoyed in 2005, when it ended $52,000 in the black and 2006, where the profit margin reached $714,000.
"Just in terms of sheer dollars and cents, this would mean that Shaw has incurred an overall deficit of $5.73 million over the past five years.
"The board of directors has reduced this figure to $1.9 million, citing their use of a 'rainy day fund' and their own system – unique among Canadian arts groups – of claiming the Festival’s existing assets to help write down the amount of its operating deficit.
"On the positive side, the Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation now manages investments of $16.4 million.
"Treasurer Keith Mosley cited 'a volatile environment for theatre and tourism' as the reason for the 5% decline in box office revenues that led to this year’s deficit.
"However, faced with the identical economic realities, the Stratford Festival’s paid attendance rose 6% during the same period and yielded a $221,000 surplus – its 14th consecutive year of black ink.
"The Shaw Festival begins its next season on April 1st with a preview of the musical Wonderful Town."
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