Tuesday, January 6, 2009

2008: What I Saw in the Theatre

Working in theatre, I find that I often don't have time to see theatre. After a long day of reherasals the last thing I tend to want to do is go sit in some other dark theatre and watch a play. But in 2008 I saw an average of 2 shows per month and worked on eight productions of my own. Not too shabby.

I saw my first Cirque show, Corteo, and was blown away by it.

I saw student productions, community productions, & professional productions.

I saw touring Broadway shows.

I saw shows at The Arts Club but didn't make it to the Playhouse once all year.

I saw a number of shows at the 2008 PuSh Festival & a few at the 2008 Vancouver International Fringe Festival, but managed to miss the Magnetic North Festival due to a crazy work schedule(something I deeply regret).

I saw shows that experimented with technology and its use in theatre.

I saw shows with great scripts, great imaginations, great designs, great acting, & great directing.

I saw shows that failed in each of the above areas.

I saw shows that reminded me why I do theatre.

I saw shows that made me question why the hell anyone would work on something so stupid as live theatre.

I saw the Vancouver theatre community come together to protect our historic spaces.

I saw the theatre community bond together, not only in Vancouver, but across the country, to respond to the comments of our Prime Minister.

I can only imagine what I will see in 2009.

3 comments:

Kate Foy said...

Hi Lois
really enjoyed this post. Made me think the global theatre community is coming closer together through online media.

And thank you for the link love to Spinning a Learning Web. You might be interested in my theatre blog Groundling which you can find at http://actorsgreenroom.net

Cheers

SMLois said...

Checking out your theatre blog right now :)

And its true that the global community seems to be coming closer and more tightly woven together through this crazy web 2.0.

I'm pretty excited for the potential of what can happen with all of the conversations that are happening.

Unknown said...

I loved Metamorphoses. Even though it didn't do so well critically, I thought it was very original, and had some visually stunning moments. Wrecking Ball was for sure a highlight of the year for me, too.