We're trying to stay abreast of all the good stuff, and falling a bit behind. This past week we did get to Drama and Desire at the AGO where hub ran into a former student, Alex Dault, who gets to "schmact" to pep up the interesting exhibit of art work based on a few centuries of theatre!
Since we had only one day in, had to pass on Luminato - except for the wonderful strangeco designed inflatable sculptures in Queen's Park.
Back home wasn't bad, however, as I had another wander through Don Maynard's Franken Forest at the Agnes Etherington, art and nature combined in the coolest of ways...then popped in to hear CR Avery as part of Skeleton Park Music Festival at the Mansion. Now HE was incredible, doing beat boxing great stuff (don't you hate, don't you hate, don't you hate it when...) as well as simple banjo pickin. Then we thought "hey, try a Blue Canoe show if you can't get out in a real canoe." So we went to Tick, Tick, Boom at the Baby Grand.
Okay, great aspirations, but theatre is already SOOOOOOOOOOO complex, I don't know why students think "all we have to do is pull some great people together with an interesting show and rent a space." Doesn't help that our local reviewer is really easily impressed (by some things.) Sorry - main quibble - the lead character is supposed to be an angst filled musical theatre writer (written by and based on the late Jonathan Larson, of RENT fame). The young man playing him was not only 10 years too young, but was not somehow directed to fill his body with the passion that the role absolutely requires. And the staging was really limited, partially by deciding to do it as corridor staging (both sides). Two lovely female stars, however - Alysa King and Brianna Roberts. As a musical, an early musical of Larson's, it is weak and dated --as a sociological document (since he died on the first preview night of RENT) it's rather interesting. Admittedly, I've never been a fan of RENT, but he was certainly a huge force in theatre.
BUT I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to any more student based shows unless someone in the family is associated with them. People from professional training schools aren't allowed to stage productions until they're finished...for good reason. You get smug, because your pals rave -- Hard work and dedication alone don't guarantee good products. And it's not "all about you!"
Now, off to the Thousand Islands Playhouse, where Blood Brothers (not my favourite show, either, but I live in hope...) apparently has a dynamite cast.
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In Theatre, we are all students.
ReplyDeleteClearly this posting is by someone who knows nothing about Theatre. Just because one has a University degree does not mean their work becomes creditable. Theatre is an art form that is in a constant state of flux. We all learn and grow with every production put on. Students of Theatre understand that the only way to learn is by doing, you can't learn how to create good theatre in a class room. You must do Productions like Tick, Tick...BOOM and the others Blue Canoe has done in order to learn and grow. From one production you will learn more then in a full year of university education in the arts.
I know for a fact not one student believes that you can just slap together a show. The work put in is to improve, learn and grow. Blue Canoe is NOT a smug group, nor is the person who runs it. They do not believe they know everything about putting on theatre, but that they can become knowledgeable and active in the theatre community.
Please, do not attend any more student productions, clearly you have no idea what they are there for. You clearly know very little about the work of Theatre so I would hope you'd stop seeing it all together.
How ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Artsnoop is taking issue with the fact there exist student productions out in the world. Nor is she disagreeing with the comment that the best way to learn is by doing. However, none of the people involved in your production have trained in the theatre nor is the director or anyone involved on the creative team in any way theatre artists. So tell me: Why am I supposed to pay 25 dollars to watch "students of the theatre" wank onstage? The fundamental problem with theatre in Kingston is that people like you think that putting on a play is just picking a script and reading out the lines in a theatre space. There is no theatre community in this town because no theatre artist can make a living in this town. The silly student "productions" have repulsed them all back to Toronto.
Call me when you have gone to theatre school, have worked for a legit PACT theatre company and grow some artistic imagination.
There endeth the lesson. Now that's worth more than a year in a university arts program.