Our 2009 Annual General Meeting will be held in the Courtroom of Arts Court – 2 Daly Avenue on Tuesday November 24th at 7pm. All are welcome! Please make an effort to attend this crucial meeting. RSVP at 613 236 1425 or james@thirdwall.com by Friday November 20th
FEATURED ARTIST
BRAD LONG
Bradley Cunningham Long is a graduate of the Humber College School of Performing Arts where he played an assortment of roles and received a Humber Faculty Award in theatre performance. Favourite roles include Tiger Brown, (The Threepenny Opera) and Blunt (The Rover). He is also a member of Kadozuke Kollektif (www.zuke.ca), a Toronto based theatre company that develops and produces large-scale experimental work rooted in classical themes. He is also an AMAZING bartender. A new member to the Shakespeare Ensemble you can catch Brad in the upcoming As You Like It. This Fall he has been busy appearing with Vision Theatre in Pillowman, and with Evolution Theatre in Arabian Night.
I love when this happens. So far the two published reviews we have received for OLD TIMES have seemingly liked the show although both disagree on what I would say is one of the crucial parts of Pinter – the pause… While Sean Moreland of the Wellington Oracle thought the pauses and silences “…become occasions for a silent speech of bodies more communicative than the words…”, Patrick Langston from the Ottawa Citizen found that the pauses were where the production fell short. I think this is remarkable and in an attempt to spark debate about theatre I am inviting you all to visit both reviews, see the show and then judge for youself. The first person to write to me – james@thirdwall.com in response to the reviews will receive a pair of free tickets to the show. Wellington Oracle – http://wellingtonoracle.ca/?p=1407#more-1407 OTTAWA CITIZEN – http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Times+good+time/2031041/story.html .
James
So rehearsals are over, the play has opened and after a wonderful opening party catered by the Muffin Factory and with the piano stylings of Jim Richardson we are launched in style and now I am done. It has been a difficult process for me. To begin with the play is a beast to figure out, secondly this is the earliest we have ever started a show and I have never directed the first show of the season. So trying to direct a show doing full time rehearsals and run the operations of the company at the same time became a bit of a challenge and a few late late nights (especially getting the Canada Council Grant done). I would have to say going forward that I will need to be better prepared administratively next time.
This production and the whole process has reaffirmed my love of Harold Pinter and there is no question that he is my favourite playwright. He writes such fantastic music on the page and has an incredible insight into the human condition that appeals to me more than anything. As is evident in the work of the three actors on stage, Pinter has an innate ability to show us real situations that are at once terrifying and comical. The balance is fine and treacherous. I have had the pleasure of having a fantastic team both onstage and off and trust me you do not want to miss this production – if only to hear the marvellous words of Harold Pinter.
Until next time
James
So the first audience has come and gone and now one more rehearsal to get things right before opening and I had to get up at 5am for a live interview on CKCU at 6am this morning. However, I have to admit I forgot how funny the play is after seeing it so many times. The debate after the show amongst the team was whether they were laughing because they were uncomfortable at the asbsurdity of what they were watching or because it was so comical. I am going to say it was a bit of both. With a playwright like Pinter there is always so much to discover and play that it is hard to cram it into a 3 week rehearsal period, however after last night I know the plays really works and I could feel the audience following every moment. Looking forward to this evening with a certain nervousness and delight. How will Ottawa receive Pinter??? It is almost out of my hands. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report on Opening.
James
So we finished the dress rehearsal and I have to say we are almost there. Like the menace in the play, this production is slowly creeping to score a point. While the last few days have been difficult for all of us in the production as we tried new approaches and ideas on how to make the play soar. The past week in fact has been hard on the actors. We had built a solid base of the show early on which allowed us to play around, what that did was to create confusion of course and we are now getting it back and including in our playing of the piece elements of the last week that make sense and add to the forward motion of the story. All in all I have to admit, as much as I love Pinter it is hard to sit in a dark theatre all day and miss the beautiful sunshine. Tomorrow we have our first paying audience and I am truly looking forward to the reaction the the fourth cast member will give us.
Until tomorrow,
James
P.s. check out a great article at http://www.getguerilla.ca/g-gallery
Gallery
