Friday Arts Quotes

"A play's got to be a dramatic event, not a lyrical event. It's not music, it's not poetry, it's not dance, it's not narrative - it's dramatic...it's about conflict. It's about forces coming together."
- Romulus Linney

"When the artist is truly the servant of the work, the work is better than the artist; Shakespeare knew how to listen to his work, and so he often wrote better than he could write; Bach composed more deeply, more truly than he knew, Rembrandt's brush put more of the human spirit on canvas than Rembrandt could comprehend. When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens."
- Madeleine L'Engle

"Learning to write for the theatre is learning to be a human being, because the theatre by its very nature makes you deal with other human beings."
- David Ives

Friday Arts Quotes

"The poor need beauty as much as bread becuase they live in ugliness all the time." - Martin Luther

God comes to us in theatre in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity. - Julie Harris

20-Minute Musicals at Club PuSh

If you weren't at Club PuSh last night for the first night of 20-minutes musicals you really should go tonight (or next Thursday & Friday night).

Theatre replacement has put together four 20-minute musicals airing in 2 programs.  This week the two shows are Do You Want What I Have Got?: A Craigslist Cantata & Distant Second: The Steve Fonyo Story. Both shows are directed by Ami Gladstone.

(Above: Veda Hille, creator & writer of A Craigslist Cantata)

The Craigslist musical is a hilarious musical that looks at the humorous things people are looking for or trying to get rid of via craigslist.  With lyrics taken from actual craigslist postings, the musical makes fun of dead moose, missed love connections, and a box of 14 cat-hats.  It's the best integration of a popular website with theatre that I've heard of and is extremely well done.

Distant Second is about the 2nd guy who ran across Canada on 1 leg to raise money for cancer research 5 years after Terry Fox.  It draws a line between sacrilege and being downright offensive, dangles one foot over the line, taps around a bit, but ultimately just makes fun of everyone.  It's a great look at who our Canadian heroes are.  Andrew McNee steals the show as a very drunk Douglas Coupland. 

It was one of the funnest nights of theatre that I've had in a while and I'd really encourage you to go.  Tonight's show is at 7pm. Tickets are $20 at the door and also get you in to the two music acts at 9pm & 11pm.  After 11pm it is FREE.

Friday Arts Quotes: Critics Edition

In theatre we seem to have this love/hate relationship with the critics and there is a moment in the show I'm working on that pokes a bit of fun at that. But I'm not going to go into that here. I don't need to. Simon already wrote a great post about it back in spring over at The Next Stage" entitled Critics are your friends. Meet your new friends."

This week's quotes are about critics as they apply to all forms of art: writing, fine arts, music, theatre, opera, dance, and every melding of the above.

"Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.”—John Steinbeck

"Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic of his own works."—John Keats

"The history of criticism begins with the history of art. When the first artist drew his first horse in red chalk on the walls of his cave, the first critic was at his elbow.”—Robert Morss Lovett

"A critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the war is over and shoots the wounded."—Murray Kempton

“This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.” - Carl Jung

Music to Hear

One of the things I love about my job is that I have an opportunity to work with very talented people. A lot of actors & directors, but every once and a while we do a show with live music and I have the chance to get to know some great musicians too!

(Sheree Plett & Jeremy Eisenhauer)

Currently, I have the privilege of working with two lovely & talented musicians on Pacific Theatre's production of Jesus, My Boy. Sheree Plett & Jeremy Eisenhauer are local musicians with an impressive discography, but their immersion into the world of theatre is a new thing for them.

Regular's at Pacific Theatre's "Christmas Presence" event for the past few years, this is their first foray into the world of theatre. They play live each night, interacting with the single actor as they underscore moments, play their original pieces, their re-interpretation of Christmas classics, and a couple of covers.

Their sound is a combination of folk, indie rock, & pop and it gives a great new interpretation of many of the Christmas favorites. One of my favorite songs that they play during the show is one of Sheree's original's called "Yellow Dress." It is a haunting love song that touches my heart every time I hear it...And after 20+ performances it still impacts me. I'd highly recommend buying it off of iTunes.

Unfortunately, Sheree & Jeremy's co-produced Christmas album, "Lights Used to Shine" is not available on iTunes, but you can get a free mp3 download of their version of Silent Night.

Their next show is Sunday, Dec. 21 at Christmas Presence on the North Shore.