A SummerWalk on the Existential Side
If actor Lindy Zucker wasn’t nervous in the run-up to her first public SummerWalk (part of the SummerWorks theatre festival) she surely was after checking the comp list and discovering that Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck would be among the attendees. I hope Zucker’s not holding her breath for a great review; I kept my eye on Nestruck throughout the performance, observing his crossed arms and blasé demeanour. Then again, maybe he just likes to keep his cards close to his chest.
The audience certainly enjoyed the show, laughing loudly and frequently, even when “Uncle Lindy” was “digressing” into existential conundrums. A philosophical walking tour? Actually, yes. Lindy’s one hour “Quit Your Snivelin’ Tour of Life” was inspired by a sticker that suggested, “We do little to improve our situation.”
And so, with false mustache and a vaguely British accent firmly in place, Zucker proceeded to show us around the darkened neighbourhood surrounding the Factory Theatre, pontificating thoughtfully and humourously about what makes us humans tick.
Box Office Attraction
When I asked TO Tix attendant Ken MacAlpine, below, whether he considers himself a culture worker he pressed me to define “culture worker”.
“Someone who works in the cultural realm,” I responded. “Someone who facilitates the cultural life of the city.”
“Then I guess I am,” he affirmed.
Ken has been punching the clock at TO Tix for the past four months. He works six and a half hours per day, five days per week, selling tickets on behalf of Mirvish Productions, Ticketmaster and the Toronto Blue Jays. Unlike New York City’s famous TKTS booth in Times Square, which sells half-price passes to same day shows, TO Tix sells full price advance tickets in addition to a small selection of reduced price same day events. This morning, for instance, the Yonge-Dundas Square booth was selling cut-rate tickets to Jersey Boys, Yuk Yuk’s and Second City.
The question of whether or not manning a box office qualifies one as a culture worker is sort of moot in MacAlpine’s case since he’s a ticket seller by day and an actor by night: he moved to Toronto last summer from Halifax to further his career. So far, he’s landed parts with Alumnae Theatre and dinner theatre company, Big Time Murder, where he performs regularly.
Big Plans for New Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre threw open the doors of its stately new home Sunday, inviting media to tour what was originally a Carnegie Library and is currently a Toronto Public Health building (since 1964). With condo developments cutting a swath across this section of West Queen West, the Theatre Centre — with the support of local community groups like Active 18 — has rallied to establish deeper roots in this changing neighbourhood, which includes the soon-to-be-completed Artscape Triangle Lofts just down the block.
Theatre Centre Chair Gail Packwood (left with Artistic Director Franco Boni) gave me a tour of what promises to be a very impressive new facility when it’s completed in three to four years. Renowned heritage architect Phil Goldsmith has re-imagined the building at 1115 Queen Street West and proposed moving the main entrance and box office around the corner onto Lisgar Street, where an accessibility ramp can be installed; a glassed-in café will be added to the existing structure.
Best of all is the main theatre space, a double height room with a beautifully coffered ceiling. Goldsmith’s plans provide for four different seating configurations accommodating up to 229 seats: “We want the space to be as useable and multi-purpose as possible,” says Packwood. A lobby/gallery and public event space is also part of the plan.
“Adam Giambrone is the Councillor in this ward and he’s been really instrumental in helping us work with the City,” says Packwood.” The Metcalf Foundation funded the initial development work with Phil Goldsmith and the feasibility study. We’ve also received money from the Trillium Foundation and from Canadian Heritage. We need to raise about $5.2 million of which we’ve already secured $1.3 million. We have a ways to go but there are other government agencies we’re in talks with so we’re hopeful.”
Photos by Christopher Jones
The Fifteen Faces of Courtenay Stevens
It goes without saying that a one-man show succeeds or fails on the back of the actor: the writing’s important, the direction’s important but if the star flubs it, the show’s in the dustbin, simple as that. Fortunately for Factcheck writer Michael Posner and director Briane Nasimok, they found Courtenay Stevens (left), an actor who appears to be up to the challenge of playing 15 characters in the rapid-fire comedy opening tomorrow at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Factcheck presents the audience with one hour in the life of magazine fact checker Drew Williams, a young man whose back is against the wall on several fronts. Throughout the show Drew juggles calls from writers, sources, his managing editor, an absent colleague, even his bank manager and his mother. Relying on just his voice, physical gestures and facial expressions, Stevens somehow manages to inhabit each of the characters, often to hilarious effect.
“One of the things Brian has done really well is to get Courtenay out from behind the desk,” says Posner, “to make the show more theatrical and less of a staged radio play.”
“I do a lot of physical theatre,” remarks Stevens, “so sitting in a chair isn’t necessarily up my alley. Obviously, if I’m doing Chekhov or something I’m not flipping around, but my preference is to be active and we’ve found a way to do that with this piece so that you’re not watching a radio play.”
HarbourKIDS CIRCUS Promises Serious Fun
Toronto isn’t known as a circus town, at least not compared to Montreal, which is home to the National Circus School and the internationally renowned Cirque du Soleil. But T.O. is carving out a niche on the circus map as this weekend’s 8th annual International Circus Festival at Harbourfront will make crystal clear. The three-day HarbourKIDS: CIRCUS is co-produced by Toronto’s own Zero Gravity Circus, a company that’s been operating in an old Vaudeville house on Gerrard Street East for the past five years. When it’s not in use by circus professionals, the Centre of Gravity Theatre (1300 Gerrard Street) operates after-school circus classes for youngsters from 4 – 6 pm; tweens and teens take over the space after that. Proteges of the school, dubbed the Canadian National Youth Circus (ages 9 – 13), perform on the Harbourfront mainstage each day at noon. There are also all-day sessions called You Can Try It Circus where curious kids can have a go at juggling, stilt walking, even aerial hoop and silk tricks.
“After they discover for themselves how hard it is, the kids will be even more impressed when they see the Youth Circus,” states Centre of Gravity coach Jen Georgopoulos, above, herself an accomplished aerial acrobat and alumnus of Cirque du Soleil. Her companion in the photo is professional clown Foo (Helen Donnelly), who co-hosts the mainstage shows with her diva sidekick Chandeleirva (Suzette Araujo).
