International Collaborative Art Project on disability by VSA arts
November 19th 2009Here’s some interesting arts news I received, but its timeframe doesn’t let us publish it in the magazine — it came too late for our winter issue, but will be over before our spring issue comes out.
VSA arts wants people around the world to get out their art supplies and create a visual representation of the word “disability” for its International Collaborative Art Project. Anyone can participate by downloading a postcard and creating a visual representation of impressions, experiences, and perceptions associated with disability. All languages are accepted.
“We want everyone to create a postcard that interprets the word ‘disability’ and mail it in!” remarks Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts. “Everyone has thoughts and ideas about ‘disability.’ For the cost of a stamp, anyone anywhere in the world can be included in this art project.”
The postcards will become part of an exhibit that will be displayed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during the 2010 International VSA arts Festival, June 6–12.
The deadline for receipt of postcards is February 5, 2010. Visit http://www.vsarts.org/postcardproject for entry instructions. Entry instructions are available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian online. Large print and braille formats of this call for entries are available upon request. In addition to a Washington, D.C., exhibition at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the International Collaborative Art Project will be displayed online at www.vsarts.org/postcardproject .
About VSA arts
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded 35 years ago by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with the resources and tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for all people. Each year, 7 million people participate in VSA arts’ programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in 54 countries around the world.
Seana McKenna, London’s Delmar and The Walzting Weasel, and War Vets
November 01st 2009Last weekend we saw our theatre columnist Seana McKenna in a performance about the lives and work of Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. She read the narration while Susan Platts sang German Lieder to Rena Sharon’s piano accompaniment.
Mike had invited his Aunt Mac to this, so we picked her up in London. We lunched at the Delmar, a diner that doesn’t seem to have changed since it opened in the ‘50s or ‘60s. Aunt Mac told us she used to go to it when it was just a trailer.
The Delmar was packed that Sunday. Career waitresses served us quickly and efficiently from a simple menu of good food. We pointed out our feature article by Wally Davis about his WWII experience, and because he had been born in London, the waitress took a supply of copies to give out.
After the performance in St. Mary’s, we returned to London for supper at The Waltzing Weasel where Aunt Mac’s grandson Chad is manager. When Chad saw the article by his Uncle “Bunt,” he also took a stack of magazines.
It seems that once you have a connection with London, London remains interested in you. I think Wally Bunt Davis would be pleased.
Remembrance Day is approaching and I think we’ll attend a ceremony with Wally’s article to give out. There are fewer WWII vets alive each year and their memories are important to capture and value. I think Wally Bunt Davis would agree.
What are your thoughts about small towns, Remembrance Day or war veterans?
Opera Hamilton Bats Around “Die Fledermaus”
October 26th 2009Opera Hamilton began its 30th anniversary season this weekend with a production of Johann Strauss’s fun and flighty Die Fledermaus. A rather silly tale of a stale marriage enlivened by flirtation, with a social-climbing chambermaid, a strange Russian prince and a revenge-seeking friend, it’s full of recognizable music that gets the audience swaying and tapping feet. And with Strauss, there has to be a wonderful waltz at a ball.
Performed in the beautiful, impressive Great Hall of Hamilton Place, Opera Hamilton’s work is proof that you don’t have to struggle with Toronto in order to enjoy first-rate entertainment.
Opera Hamilton was also just the recipient of a $140,000 grant from The Ontario Trillium Foundation. “Popera Plus” in late January and La Bohème in April are the next scheduled works in the Opera Hamilton season. Are you a fan of opera or Hamilton Place? Do you prefer local entertainment or do you love the excitement of Toronto?
Erin in the Morning: Erin Radio, Erin Montgomery, Erin Eye Opener
August 17th 2009Yikes! I’m just back from giving an interview at Erin Radio to Erin Montgomery on her show, Erin Eye Opener.
I think I sounded awkward, and I know that I made some mistakes. It was a real conversation as you might have with anyone, with throat clearings and mispronounced words and lost trains of thought. Very unlike writing for publication, where you try to craft each sentence so that it’s perfect. And even different from blogging, which is supposed to be like keeping a diary, but in reality is more restrained and deliberate.
Erin Montgomery is energetic, extroverted and enthusiastic, just what you need in someone on an early morning show.
We talked about the magazine and what’s coming up in the fall issue. I know my way around that topic, but what stumped me was what music I wanted to have played. I’m pretty out of touch with current music, so all I could think of on the spot was Amy Winehouse and Bruce Springsteen. I missed my opportunity to promote Canadian and local talent like The Arrogant Worms, Sarah Harmer, Bruce Cockburn and Leonard Cohen. Argh. Well, maybe some other time.
And it looks like there’ll be another time. I think I’ll be doing another segment about the fall issue in September. And while Erin Radio can only be heard over the radio in a small local area at 101.5 FM, it is streamed via the Internet at www.erinradio.ca .
We’ll also try to get these segments added to this website so anyone can hear them any time. I think these would be podcasts? New territory for me. Anyway, it looks like Erin Radio is forcing me to learn and do more. Always a good thing.
So thanks, Erin, for making the radio interview a gentle, easy experience. The rest of you, which do you prefer: radio, TV, magazines or Internet – and why?
Jay Calder and The Arrogant Worms in Orangeville
June 17th 2009Guitar music and laughter filled Theatre Orangeville last night as The Arrogant Worms added an Escarpment town to their summer tour. Chris Patterson, Trevor Strong and Mike McCormick, dubbed “Canada’s Clown Princes of Musical Comedy,” performed their humorous and satirical songs, which are winning them a cult following. From their “We Are the Beaver,” their patriotic and family-friendly compositions and emphasis on audience participation during “Rippy the Gator” and “Rocks and Trees” provide fun for all ages. Their tongue-in-cheek anthem “Canada’s Really Big” was voted onto CBC’s contest for Barack Obama’s Playlist.
Their full evening of entertainment was preceded by talent of another kind: Jay Calder performing instrumental music on guitar. Calder plays guitar like no one else I have ever heard. He plays a steel string acoustic guitar in what he calls “finger style,” which means he doesn’t use a pick. Instead, he uses his fingers and nails, thumbs and palms to produce melodies, harmonies and drum beats. He plays like a one-man band that you have to see to believe!
The evening was organized and introduced by Grant Jennings, who’s a relative of mine, but despite that, he managed an impressive job.
If you get a chance to see or hear The Arrogant Worms or Jay Calder, do it.
Jay Calder
Arrogant Worms
Seana McKenna mentions us in National Post!
January 30th 2009Seana McKenna just pointed out a feature article about her performance as Medea, in which she refers to our magazine! The article by Alison Broverman appears in today’s National Post, but in case it will get buried by future issues, here’s the text of the article:
“Vengeance and a good cup of tea”
No one would guess that in a few short hours the petite redhead sipping tea in the lobby of the King Edward Hotel will be raging around onstage at the Canon Theatre in Toronto as one of the angriest women in Greek mythology.
The redhead in question is Seana McKenna, who is currently starring in the Mirvish production of Medea.
Though far less vengeful than her onstage persona, McKenna is just as regal, presiding over afternoon tea like a benevolent monarch. It’s important to find time to relax while performing such an emotionally draining role, but since arriving from Winnipeg for the production, McKenna has been whisked around for so many media obligations that she has barely had time to sit down.
Relishing the peaceful atmosphere, the actor takes her time selecting a beverage, lingering over the humidor and inhaling the hotel’s selection of teas.
After a few moments’ consideration, she makes her choice (the hotel’s signature King Edward blend) and is ready to talk Greek tragedy.
This production, which came to Toronto by way of Winnipeg’s Manitoba Theatre Centre, is directed by McKenna’s husband Miles Potter and is a remount of the acclaimed version of the play he directed for the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1992. This is McKenna’s third turn as Medea: She’s played the role every eight years since that first production.
“It’s my own version of the seven-year itch,” she quips. “The eight-year bitch.”
McKenna loves having the opportunity to revisit a play, and feels more comfortable every time she inhabits the role. “You have the confidence of knowing you survived it already,” she says. “Experience is a great help.”
By now she is used to Medea’s emotional extremes. “I begin the show weeping,” she says. “The play is definitely a purging experience. And by now, I’ve lived with it so long that this feels like normal!”
Not only is it McKenna’s third time playing the title character, it’s the third time her husband has directed her in the role. But even with the same director, she feels her characterization has evolved. “The production has become more volatile, more vicious,” she says. “Or maybe we just get nastier as we get older.”
But there is nothing vicious about the actress offstage. McKenna is determined to be a gracious interviewee, as she now identifies with those on the other side of the pen — she recently started writing a column for the Niagara-region magazine Escarpment Views.
Hardly jaded from her decades in the business, McKenna is still passionate about theatre. She loves talking about other people’s work as well as her own, so her quarterly magazine gig suits her well. Her next column is about how various Canadian actresses are approaching the lead role in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prizewinning play Doubt, which has been making the rounds of the country’s regional theatres this year. “Everybody’s doing Doubt right now,” says McKenna. Everyone, including her: McKenna will be back in Toronto come spring, playing a stern Bronx nun at CanStage. – Medea runs until Feb. 8 at Toronto’s Canon Theatre (244 Victoria St.). For tickets, call 416- 872-1212 or visit mirvish.com. [end of article]
Seana and I have a running gag about tea: our favourite gifts to exchange have had something to do with this beverage. It certainly does convey relaxation and taking a little time for yourself, something that is in short supply for slaves of the arts! This reminds me that there’s only about one more week left to catch this performance. Mike is ready to see it again…
Seana McKenna: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Medea?
January 12th 2009Medea opened yesterday in Toronto’s Canon Theatre and as a gift to cast members, Seana McKenna had shirts made with “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Medea?” written across a bloody-looking letter “M.” This is, of course, a nod to the Mirvish production of The Sound of Music, whose lead was cast by the CBC reality show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?
Any problems about Medea have been solved by this production, the third time that Seana has performed this role with Scott Wentworth as Medea’s husband Jason and Mile Potter directing. The story is not easy to take in. Yet this 2,500-year-old tale of the hell let loose by a woman scorned by her husband, who marries a young blonde, is as contemporary as a Dr. Phil show. The lesson of the play might be: don’t mess with your ex-wife.
Despite its horrific ending, the tragedy is not all doom and gloom. There is enough irony and sarcastic humour to lighten the tone even as we gasp at what Medea is driven to.
Seana doesn’t play her as a one-note witch or madwoman. Medea does practise “dark arts” that include healing and the use of medicines, which was enough to brand women as witches only a few hundred years ago. And she does cross the line into mad revenge, but Seana plays her sympathetically. She has Medea swing between the extremes of a discarded wife abandoned in a foreign land to a supernatural force that controls thunder, lightning and fire. Even her idea to commit the ultimate unnatural act that even wild animals don’t do, is more the result of King Aegeus’s belief that to die childless is the worst thing that can happen to a man, than her own simple thirst for revenge.
This is not fare for a mindless fun night out. If you’re going through a painful divorce, are a man considering stepping outside your marriage or want to see powerful performances in a shocking production, this is a cathartic cautionary tale to see with friends. Book club groups are sure to love it.
Additonal notes: Seana is our regular theatre columnist and she has written about performing Medea in the December issue of Escarpment Views.
A pre-show talk about the myth is given for free, one hour before each performance. This is a useful introduction to the play.
Seana will give a live interview on CBC radio’s Q program at 10 a.m. on Thursday Jan. 15.
Do you agree with my critique? Did I miss the boat about this show or the myth of Medea? Share your views.
Last-Minute Gift Idea: Tickets for Seana McKenna in Medea!
December 19th 2008You can’t go wrong by giving the experience of seeing Seana McKenna in Medea at the Canon Theatre in Toronto from Jan. 7 to Feb. 8. Seana is among the finest actors in Canada today, and Medea is one of the performances of a lifetime. If you enjoy thought-provoking theatre instead of mindless fun entertainment, Seana’s performance will probably wrench your emotions so that you’ll remember it the rest of your life.
I speak from experience. When I saw the show years ago, even though I knew how the story ends, I was utterly sideswiped and shaken. Powerful!
If your friends enjoy Canadian culture or the world of theatre, give the gift of seeing a brilliant performer at the peak of her career.
Have any of you readers of this blog had the experience of seeing McKenna perform?
Do Independents Matter?
November 15th 2008Today I’m giving space for Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) to promote their new marketing program called Independents Matter. I have been writing for their association magazine for decades (yikes!) and I love books, so I’m happy to step back and let them take a posting on this blog. Here’s what they say:
Tapping into the growing localism movement, Canadian independent booksellers herald a new challenge:
Think Independent * Read Independent * Buy Independent
This season, invest in your community by running, not walking, to your local independent bricks and mortar bookstore for the ultimate shopping experience. For readers and buyers, independent bookstores are a bastion of ideas: informed staff who love and read books and know what to recommend.
Clearly, the time to buy books is right now. “In challenging economic times, books are always the best bang for your buck” says Nancy Frater, President of CBA and owner of Orangeville’s BookLore. “For the price of a movie, a book can open the door to another world of timeless comfort, entertainment and pleasure; for the gift giver, a book holds long-lasting value.”
Independents Matter champions the “shop local” credo: shopping at creative, convenient, one-of-a-kind stores supports the local economy and enriches the community. Save money, save fuel, save time. Reclaim your community and at the same time indulge yourself and your loved ones in good books.
Why? - Books Matter! Independents Matter! Communities Matter!
About Independents Matter
Independents Matter is a national grassroots campaign with a community focus created by Canadian Booksellers Association to encourage booksellers to celebrate their independence and promote the benefits of shopping locally at independently-owned stores. Independents Matter is part of a momentum-gaining movement in support of the idea that shopping locally offers the best value, the best retail experience and the best support for vibrant, vital and prosperous communities.
About CBA Independents’ Day
On November 15, 2008 independent booksellers all across the country will celebrate CBA Independents’ Day—a day designed to promote the importance of locally owned businesses to lively communities, which serves as the official launch date for CBA’s Independents Matter campaign.
About Canadian Booksellers Association
CBA is a not-for-profit trade association representing the interests of Canadian booksellers since 1952. Our members include independent, campus, specialty booksellers from coast to coast to coast.
What do you think? Do Independents matter?
Michael Dennis: My Lawn is Available for Your Sculpture
November 14th 2008
“Royal Couple” by Michael Dennis
Co-publisher Mike Davis and I were invited to the opening reception at Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) of their Winter Earth Art exhibition. Environmental art installations by international and Canadian artists are available to explore indoors in the RBG Centre until Jan. 18. The artists were also at the opening and big TV cameras were everywhere as the creators gave interviews.
I can easily get overwhelmed in an art gallery or exhibition, so what I find myself doing is taking a quick spin around the room to see what’s on display, and then choosing one piece to focus on. I also like to play the game “If you had to take one home, which would it be?” While many of the works at Winter Earth Art are intriguing, there was one that instantly drew a powerful response from me: “Royal Couple” by Michael Dennis of B.C.
Monumental, abstract and minimalist, this piece consists of two cedar carvings perhaps 10 feet tall, looming as female and male figures. Faceless, limbless, they are blank slates on which to project the viewer’s idea of majesty. Yet their round forms are inviting as well. They call out to be touched, patted, stroked and hugged.
Ross Halloran, RBG’s Director of Marketing, hooked me up with the artist. As Michael and I shook hands, I noticed he has the great paws of a woodworker, but his grasp was gentle. He was just as warm and welcoming to talk to.
Michael explained that the only wood he works with is cedar, although his Web site shows that he also works in bronze and mixed media. He was asked to create a piece for this RBG exhibit, and he thought “A pair would be good.” He works on Denman Island off Vancouver Island, and finds huge pieces of wood that have been left after loggers have clear cut. When he discovered the piece that would become the female, he said “I could see a skirt,” as he indicated the broad base of the log.
His process of sculpting is an intuitive communication with the wood. Instead of imposing his idea on the material, and instead of “just” carving away everything that doesn’t look like the figure he sees within it, he describes it as more of an organic revelation of what the shape should be. Michael also pointed out that positioning the two figures so that they lean toward each other gives a different message than having them lean away from each other.
I asked Michael if I could touch the figures. When he said yes, and that I could smell the cedar as well, I stroked them and pressed my nose against one. They felt fuzzy, not smooth, but not splintery. They even seemed to have muscle beneath the surface.
“Royal Couple” will stay at RBG as a permanent installation. It could be indoors or out in the elements, where it can be a roost for birds and change with the effects of weather. “It’s all part of the process,” said Michael. “I don’t want it to be too precious.”
Check out the other installations at the exhibit. Perhaps you’ll have a strong response to one of the other amazing works. And Michael, if you run out of space to store your pieces, I have a big yard that could hold one or two! Winter Earth Art is on until Jan. 18. Let us know what you think of it.
