Author: Capital Critics Circle

This section is reserved for Arts News that comes our way via press releases from theatres in the area, or newspaper articles about arts events that are not theatre reviews.
Tick, Tick Boom! Intimate and Powerful!

Tick, Tick Boom! Intimate and Powerful!

Tick..tick…boom!
Photo Maria Vartanova

I was very intrigued to attend the Orpheus production of Tick Tick Boom. It would be my first time seeing a production in Centrepointe’s more intimate studio theatre. The play is an autobiographical tale of Jonathan Larson’s early years as a struggling artist attempting to write the great American musical while toiling as a waiter and watching his friends prosper in more conventional professions. He would succeed of course, in writing the monstrously popular Rent, but tragically dying a sudden death of aortic dissection caused by Marfan syndrome before he ever got to see a single performance. The spectacular 12 year run on Broadway, was awarded a plethora of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Larson, sadly posthumously. 

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THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE’S EXTRAORDINARY PRESIDENT AND CEO PETER HERRNDORF TO STEP DOWN IN 2018

THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE’S EXTRAORDINARY PRESIDENT AND CEO PETER HERRNDORF TO STEP DOWN IN 2018

Peter Herrndorf
CEO of the National Arts Centre, Ottawa
Photo David Kawai

 

September 18, 2017 – OTTAWA (Canada) – Peter Herrndorf, the President and CEO of the National Arts Centre, will be stepping down on June 2, 2018, after leading Canada’s largest performing arts organization for 18 years—and ushering in  a period of extraordinary growth for the institution.

Herrndorf is credited with transforming the NAC artistically through major national and international performing arts projects and physically through the $225.4M Architectural and Production Renewal project that was supported by the Governments of both former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the current Government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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Onegin: a talented cast but an adaptation that faulters.

Onegin: a talented cast but an adaptation that faulters.

Onegin. thanks to the National Arts Centre, Ottawa. Daren Herbert (Onegin), Hailey Gillis (Tatyana).
The launch of Ottawa’s new theatre season started for me on Friday night at the National Arts Centre, with a great deal of anticipation, excitement and angst. Opening night brings out the eager cheerleaders for the arts and live
performance: people like me.
This year the renovations and restoration of the N.A.C. are complete making the journey easier, now bereft of the obstructions and detours that we have had to sidestep for months. The complex is beautiful and easier to navigate.
As you enter the newly christened Babs Asper Theatre, Denyse Karn’s set design takes you to a huge Russian country house with mile high windows. Books and vodka bottles are spread about the mantles and the large limbs of grand powerful trees reach across from either side of stage evoking a feeling of nature’s Gothic arch. It sets a mood of an aristocratic country estate as a retreat and a temple.

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Le Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry annonce la mort d’Adel Hakim

Le Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry annonce la mort d’Adel Hakim

Adel Hakim

 29 AOÛT 2017 /

Nous avons la tristesse de vous annoncer le décès d’Adel Hakim, survenu le mardi 29 août 2017 à Ivry.

Adel est décédé chez lui, entouré de ses proches. Il n’a pas pu, comme il le souhaitait, mourir à Zurich , auprès de l’association Dignitas.

Il a souhaité expliquer son choix et son engagement de mourir dans la dignité dans une lettre que nous nous vous communiquons. Nous vous remercions de prêter attention à cet adieu.

Elisabeth Chailloux
et le Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry – Centre Dramatique National du Val-de-Marne

_________

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Christina Watt is performing a Cross-Canada concert.

Christina Watt is performing a Cross-Canada concert.

Hello Friends,
This Sunday, Sept 10, World Suicide Awareness Day, I am honored to be invited to perform in a cross-Canada concert in recognition of this day and its significance worldwide. Twenty-one hours of continuous concerts. Other Ottawa performers include Christiane Riel (Soprano), John Avey (bass-baritone); Yvonne Cox (harp); Leopoldo Erice (piano); Isabelle Gagnon (harp); Michelle Gott (harp) Sandra Graham (mezzo-soprano) David Jalbert (piano) Renée Lapointe (mezzo-soprano) Christiane Riel (soprano) Claire Stevens (piano) Louis Trépanier (guitar).
The event, from morn to night, NFLD to BC, will be live-streamed. Below is the link and also an article.
Sudbury’s Miriam Cusson receives 2017 John Hirsch Director’s Award

Sudbury’s Miriam Cusson receives 2017 John Hirsch Director’s Award

Toronto, September 6, 2017 – Sudbury theatre director Miriam Cusson will receive this year’s John Hirsch Director’s Award on Tuesday, September 12 during the Zones Théâtrales festival at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. The same evening, the festival will feature a workshop presentation of Miriam’s newest work, Parmi les éclats, which will premiere in 2018 at the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario.

Miriam Cusson. winner of the John Hirsch Award for directing.

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Évènement au Quat’Sous: À te regarder, ils s’habitueront.

Évènement au Quat’Sous: À te regarder, ils s’habitueront.

Un évènement inédit

Fébriles, la vingtaine d’artistes et d’artisans d’À te regarder, ils s’habitueront se préparent à prendre d’assaut la petite scène du Quat’Sous! Du 5 au 30 septembre, ils vous convient à un grand happening théâtral aux horizons multiples.

Quelle parole nous distingue, nous rassemble? Qui sommes-nous, qui sont les autres? Face à ces interrogations, les instiguateurs du projet Olivier Kemeid et Mani Soleymanlou ont ressenti un sentiment d’urgence, une envie de bousculer les idées reçues et d’interroger notre histoire. Ils vous partagent leur questionnement dans cet article de La Presse.

Pour ce vaste projet inclusif et rassembleur, ils ont donc convié six metteurs en scène à explorer, avec leurs acteurs, la question dite «de la diversité». Ces six inspirants créateurs vous parlent plus de leur inspiration et leur démarche dans cet article du Devoir.

Vous pouvez voir toute la troupe en plein travail dans de magnifiques photos signées Jérémie Battaglia, juste ici.

→ Plusieurs soirs affichent déjà complet, il reste de bons billets pour les représentations du 5 et 6 septembre, au tarif prévente de 26$.

 

A Comedyof Errors: a new adaptation of Shakespeare in Gananoque

A Comedyof Errors: a new adaptation of Shakespeare in Gananoque

The Comedy of Errors. Photo Stephen Wilde

 

Thousand Islands Playhouse opens a Shakespearean farce with a vaudeville twist.


The Comedy of Errors is a madcap adventure of mistaken identity and the chaos that ensues. “The Comedy of Errors was produced in the Playhouse’s first season in 1982, so we’re looking forward to reviving it for our 35th anniversary,” says Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran. “Five of the Playhouse’s favourite performers are back to take on one of history’s funniest plays full of magic, slapstick, and many quick changes!”

Thousand Islands Playhouse
185 South Street, Gananoque
www.1000islandsplayhouse.com 

THE NAC NAMES KEVIN LORING AS FIRST EVER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF INDIGENOUS THEATRE

THE NAC NAMES KEVIN LORING AS FIRST EVER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF INDIGENOUS THEATRE

Kevin Loring. Photo: Canadian Press.

June 15, 2015 – OTTAWA (Canada) –The National Arts Centre’s President and CEO, Peter Herrndorf announced today that Kevin Loring will be the first ever Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the NAC, taking up his post on October 16, 2017.

 The first season of the Indigenous Theatre Department will co-incide with the NAC’s 50th Anniversary in the 2019-2020 season.

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Patrick Langston reviews the Fringe on Arts File

Patrick Langston reviews the Fringe on Arts File

 

Theatre review: Four more from the Ottawa Fringe Festival

In Rough Magic, Lindsay Bellaire as Ariel and Phillip Psutka as Caliban embody the limits and possibilities of humanity. Photo: Larry Carroll

The 2oth anniversary of the Ottawa Fringe Festival is now underway. Covering a massive undertaking like the Fringe requires some agility. ARTSFILE’s theatre writer Patrick Langston has covered as many bases as he could over the past few days offering his takes on up to a dozen shows in this year’s lineup. As Langston knows, you never know what you are going to find at the Fringe. Here is his take on four shows currently on view. They were seen on Sunday. For more information on all Fringe shows, times and places of performances and tickets, please see: ottawafringe.com

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