At The Old Red Lion!

This isn't how I'm feeling at the moment- it's a production photo of the character Alex, from Suicide Brunette, by award-winning playwright, Gary Mitchell. We've opened Suicide Brunette, by Gary Mitchell and The Native, by Christopher Hanvey at The Old Red Lion and the run continues until Oct. 30th. Please join us if you're in the UK- they're exceptional pieces-

So, it's been an amazing month- and a wee bit busy!

Anything Goes finished fantastically well. Audiences enjoyed out production, I was delighted with how the cast did and we raised almost $2000.00 for the Red Cross as part of our pre-show improvisations.

I had to leave before the end of the run and the cast treated me to song, with special lyrics written by our Musical Director, David Hall, followed by a group hug (by 43 people!). I was a bit teary and very proud- and then dashed out the door to get on a plane to the UK.

Arriving on the Monday morning- I had the day to get into gear and meet the designer for the plays that we began rehearsing on Tues. Sept 27th. Gary Mitchell flew over from Northern Ireland- and we dove into both pieces.

Here's a photo of Christopher Hanvey playing Marshall, the young man pressured into killing a young, pregnant Sioux woman- with an unexpected outcome...


I've lots more to write about, but just wanted to get blogging after a busy few weeks... more very soon!

Tapping Teens- Day Two

That's the banner poster for Anything Goes at The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario.

Today was Day Two of rehearsals. We have 42 in the cast.

The Grand has a great tradition of mentoring, so twice a year they create productions with high school students from London and the surrounding area. In the spring it's a play, (this year I directed Macbeth, while I was here as Apprentice Artistic Director) and in the autumn it's musical on the Main Stage. This is it's the 1930's Cole Porter classic, Anything Goes.

There are students working on every area of the production, mentored by professionals at The Grand. This year we also have a student assistant director and assistant choreographer. The rehearsal process is about 3.5 weeks of rehearsal hours, spread out over 8 weeks. The students have a rigorous audition/interview process and then sign contracts to commit to the production.

I'm 'returning to my roots' on this one... I was, (believe it or not) a tapping teenager... Yes, that's right- I tapped. I was working professionally in musical theatre at tender age of 17. However, although I worked in musical theatre for a number of years, I have not directed a musical. When I started directing I focused on my passion for language and classical theatre.

So- back to the teens.

We started on Sunday with a meet and greet- then I dove into an acting workshop to introduce some vocabulary that we'll be using in rehearsal. That was followed by a session on vocal health and a vocal warm-up with Rick Kish, (our singing coach) and two hours of full company music rehearsals with our Musical Director, David Hall. The seven-hour day sped by!

This week rehearsal is mostly spent learning music, while I introduce text work on the scenes to the actors- we'll be doing basic 'table work', objectives/units/actions and I'm encouraging them to do this work at home, so that we then have a place to start the exploration in rehearsal. I'll have about 5 days to 'get the play on its feet'; it'll be speedy...

On Friday and Saturday I'm back in Toronto on The Sad and Cautionary Tale of Smackheaded Peter. I'm working on this in the evenings this week- producing, organizing, supporting. There's lots to do-

I'd still like to divide myself in half and it's still a lovely problem to have!

Here's the stage that the teens will be performing on- It's a beautiful theatre.